Coronavirus News Highlights: Karnataka reports 9,808 new Covid-19 cases and 179 deaths

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday claimed the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have not taken the Covid-19 vaccine as they do not have confidence in Indian vaccines.

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. Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it will begin testing its Covid-19 vaccine in a bigger group of children under age 12 after selecting a lower dose of the shot in an earlier stage of the trial.

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. For the first time after March 28 this year, the Covid-19 fatalities in Mumbai fell to a single digit at seven on Tuesday.

Mumbai reported 673 new coronavirus positive cases during the day, the lowest after February 23, taking the tally to 7,13,002, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

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. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced a price cap on service charges for Covid-19 vaccines at private hospitals,prices of jabs across manufacturers have seen a revision.

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. After nearly two months of spreading death and despair, the second wave of Covid-19 in India finally seems to be registering a downward trend. Several states are gradually easing lockdown restrictions, while vaccination drives are also picking pace.

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. Moolchand Medcity, Agra, started vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group four days ago. Of the 450 people inoculated so far, 40 per cent of the beneficiaries came from places like Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Meerut, Etawah and Mathura.

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. Indian officials and health experts welcomed a federal government plan to give free Covid-19 shots to all adults as a step in the right direction on Tuesday, but cautioned that vaccinations must be accelerated to prevent new surges in infections.

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. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday urged Members of Parliament to share details of the relief work done by them in their constituencies amid the Covid-19 pandemic to develop best practices at the national level to deal with similar situations in future.

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. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday announced a package for roadside vendors who suffered losses to their livelihoods due to the lockdown imposed in the state amid the rising Covid-19 cases.

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. Amid debate whether the Centre's decision to provided free Covid-19 vaccine to all above 18 years was triggered by the Supreme Court's recent remarks on the jab policy, a class Vth student of Kerala, Lidwina Joseph, has written to Chief Justice N V Ramana lauding the top court for its effective intervention and saving lives in the fight against the pandemic.

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. A top World Health Organisation official estimated Monday that Covid-19 vaccination coverage of at least 80% is needed to significantly lower the risk that “imported” coronavirus cases like those linked to new variants could spawn a cluster or a wider outbreak.

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. Many more men in India have received Covid-19 vaccines than women, government data showed on Tuesday, highlighting gender disparity in the country's immunisation drive that has also disadvantaged the rural population.

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. Vaccines' price to private sectors (hospitals) will be decided by vaccine manufacturers; States will aggregate demand of the private sector, which means they will oversee how much network of facilities it has, and how many doses does it require: Dr VK Paul, Niti Aayog. (ANI)

. Govt has placed an order to purchase 25 croredoses of Covishield and 19 crore doses of Covaxin. Govt has also placed an order to purchase 30 crore doses of Biological E's vaccine, which will be available by September: Dr VK Paul, Member-Health, Niti Aayog. (ANI)

. No data, global or Indian, has had any observations of children being affected more. Even in the secondwave kids who were infected had mild illness or co-morbidities. I don't think we will have a serious infection in children in the future: Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS Director. (ANI)

. Vietnam, once a model for its successful handling of the pandemic, has started asking for public donations to buy vaccines as it struggles to contain a new coronavirus wave.

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. Personalities including actors Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Olivia Colman, Liam Neeson and singer Katy Perry have signed an open letter by the UNICEF, asking G7 countries to donate 20 per cent of their vaccines to countries that need it urgently.

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. Governments are falling short in most areas where they could tackle mental health difficulties that sharply increased in the Covid-19 pandemic and already place a huge burden on economies around the world, the OECD said.

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. Goa Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar on Tuesday said tourism activities should resume only after the entire population of the coastal state is completely vaccinated against Covid-19.

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. The Supreme Court has directed all the states to continue identifying children orphaned during the Covid-19 pandemic, and ensure their basic needs, including continuance of education in government or private schools.

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. India will need to spend an additional Rs 80,000 crore ($11 billion) to provide free vaccines and food to millions of people devastated by the deadly coronavirus wave, people with knowledge of the matter said.

. The Government of India on Tuesday issued revised guidelines for the national Covid-19 vaccination programme, to be implemented from June 21.

. Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Tuesday said nine doctors have lost their lives to Covid-19 during the second wave of the pandemic, which is one of the lowest among medical practitioners in the country.

. Amid talks that Karnataka may start the unlock process by lifting restrictions after June 14, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is likely to hold a meeting in a day or two, to discuss the matter and take a call.

. As India’s devastating second Covid-19 wave recedes, health and policy experts have called for heightened preparation to prevent a possible third wave that could be even more lethal. Much will depend on how India vaccinates its large population, but some vulnerable groups might be especially at risk.

. Uttar Pradesh lifts Covid-imposed curfew from all districts. Night curfew (7pm to 7am) will continue. Active caseload in the state stands at 14,000 with less than 600 active cases in each district: Chief Minister's Office (CMO) (ANI)

. Amid difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic when ambulance drivers are charging hefty amounts to ferry patients infected with the virus, Munmun Sarkar, a 49-year-old woman and resident of Siliguri's Saktigarh, has extended a helping hand to the sufferers.

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. A remote hamlet in Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir has become the first village in India to vaccinate all its adult population againstCovid-19, officials said on Tuesday.

The credit goes to the healthcare workers whose strenuous efforts shot Weyan hamlet, with an adult population of 362, to national fame, they said.

. Late one night last week, Mumbai’s municipal corporation (BMC), which controls the public vaccination programme for the city, tweeted that the next day all its vaccination centres would remain closed, as vaccines had run out.

. A top World Health Organisation official estimated Monday thatCovid-19 vaccination coverage of at least 80 per centis needed to significantly lower the risk that “imported” coronavirus cases like those linked to new variants could spawn a cluster or a wider outbreak.

DrMichael Ryan, WHO's emergencies chief, told a news conference that ultimately, “high levels of vaccination coverage are the way out of this pandemic.” (AP/PTI)

. After two particularly gruelling months, India finally saw its daily infections fall below the 1-lakh mark on Tuesday.

The country recorded 86,498 new infections as 2,123 individuals passed away due to the coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

. A report on the origins of Covid-19 by a US government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the classified document.

. As India scales up the Covid immunisation, many of us have been wondering which vaccine to take (Covishield or Covaxin) and which onehas better protection against the coronavirus. While there's been noproper head-to-head comparison of the two vaccines so far, a preprint publication (not a peer-reviewed paper) released on Sunday showed that Covishield produces more antibodies than Covaxin but clearly mentionedthat the research didn't "necessarily predict the efficacy of the vaccine". Here's more on that study:

. India may raise spending on Covid-19 shots by over a quarter this fiscal year to up to Rs45,000 crore ($6.18 billion) from its budgeted amount, two government sources told Reuters after the prime minister offered free doses to all adults.

. Calling for universal free vaccination against Covid-19, Congress Monday said this goal has not been achieved as people would still have to pay for jabs at private hospitals despite the Centre changing its immunisation policy on Monday.

. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday termed as a "delayed decision" the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to states for inoculation of all adults from June 21.

. Bengaluru's Covid test positivity rate fell below 5 per cent for the first time in months, which could possibly trigger the initiation of graded district unlock protocol.

. The United States had administered 302,851,917 doses of Covid-19 vaccines and distributed 371,520,735 doses in the country as of Monday morning, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The number of administered doses was up from the 301,638,578 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Sunday. ( Reuters )

. A report on the origins of Covid-19 by a USgovernment national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the classified document.

The study was prepared in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and was referred by the State Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic's origins during the final months of the Trump administration, the report said.

. Canada PM Justin Trudeau is preparing to ease Canada's border restrictions for travelers who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. ( Reuters )

Coronavirus News Highlights: Karnataka reports 9,808 new Covid-19 cases and 179 deaths

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Pfizer to test Covid-19 vaccine in larger group of children below 12

At 7, Mumbai sees single-digit Covid-19 deaths after March 28

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