Covid India Updates: White Fungus hits India: Know its symptoms, cause and precautions

Over one lakh people were administered anti-coronavirus vaccines in Maharashtra in one day, taking the state's cumulative vaccination figure to 2,03,35,999, the health department said on Thursday. A total of 1,01,098 people were inoculated on Wednesday, it said in a statement.

AAP MLA Atishi on Thursday said nearly half of the vaccination sites for the 18-44 age group in Delhi are likely to be shut from Friday as the city has less than a day's stock of Covishield left. The vaccination centres administering Covaxin to the people in the city have been shut for nearly a week, she said.

"We have less than a day's stock of Covishield left for the 18-44 age group. There are 99 schools where 368 vaccination sites are there. Nearly 150 of these sites will have to close down from tomorrow owing to vaccine shortage," Atishi said while issuing the vaccination bulletin.

​The Indian Medical Association on Thursday released fresh figures on Covid-related fatalities among doctors, saying 329 of them succumbed to the disease during the ongoing second wave of the pandemic.  

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- Amid the rising cases of coronavirus pandemic, Maharashtra recorded as many as 29,911 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 54,97,448. As many as 738 deaths were reported in the state today, taking the total tally of fatalities to 85,355 in state.

- 47,371 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the number of recovered patients to 50,26,308. The number of active cases stands at 3,83,253.

Medical experts say that 'white fungus' is more deadly than mucormycosis as it affects other organs of the body besides the lungs. Four patients have been diagnosed with 'white fungus' in Patna, the capital of Bihar. Know more about symptoms, causes and who are at risk from White Fungus here:

Scientists have shown that an antigen-based test for quantifying SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19, in saliva samples is simple, accurate, rapid, and more conducive for mass-screening. A team of scientists from Hokkaido University in Japan used a novel antigen-based kit, Lumipulse SARS-CoV-2 Ag kit (Lumipulse), developed by a Japanese company Fujirebio in June 2020 to assess the efficiency and accuracy of the test compared to RT-PCR.

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Amidst the catastrophe of the second wave of the Coronavirus, the challenge of black fungus is constantly increasing. Many cases of this rare fungal infection have been reported in different parts of the country. Here are the guidelines released by AIIMS which can help in the early detection and treatment of black fungus.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 164.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.41 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 164,600,910 and 3,412,920, respectively.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 33,025,606 and 587,843, respectively, according to the CSSE.

In terms of infections, India follows in the second place with 25,496,330 cases.

The other worst countries with over 3 million cases are Brazil (15,812,055), France (5,978,650), Turkey (5,151,038), Russia (4,908,794), the UK (4,468,355), Italy (4,172,525), Germany (3,627,777), Spain (3,625,928), Argentina (3,411,160) and Colombia (3,161,126), the CSSE figures showed.

In terms of deaths, Brazil comes second with 441,691 fatalities.

Nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are India (283,248), Mexico (220,493), the UK (127,956), Italy (124,646), Russia (115,003) and France (108,342).

-- IANS

India on Thursday recorded 2,76,110 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The total tally of the viral infection now stands at 25,772,440. The country also recorded 3,874 deaths, pushing the overall toll to 2,87,122. On Wednesday, India had recorded its highest single-day death toll with 4,529 fatalities. According to the Health Ministry, a total of 3,69,077 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours, with 2,23,55,440 being cured from Covid till date.

According to Health Ministry data on Thursday morning, India continues to maintain a downward trend in daily Covid-19 cases after reporting above 3,00,000 cases in the deadly second wave of the infection.

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Detecting the presence of the virus requires amplifying the numbers of the biomarker, such as the copies of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the common polymerase chain reaction technique for Covid-19 detection, or amplifying the binding signal for a target biomarker.  

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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday released an advisory for COVID-19 home testing using Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT). According to the medical body, home testing by RAT should be conducted only in symptomatic individuals and immediate contacts of laboratory confirmed positive cases.

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