Covid India LIVE updates: Over 80 lakh people register for 3rd phase of vaccination on CoWin, Aarogya Setu app

As many as 395 fatalities have been recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest bulletin issued by Delhi health dept.

Read full story here: Delhi reports 395 COVID deaths, 24,235 new cases in 24 hours

A record single-day rise of 298 COVID-19 fatalities in Uttar Pradesh pushed the death toll to 12,241 on Thursday, while the infection tally mounted to 12,17,955 with 35,156 fresh cases.

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Ayush Ministry has said that scientists have found that ayurvedic medicine AYUSH 64 is also proving useful in the treatment of asymptomatic, mild and moderate COVID-19 infection as an adjunct to standard care.

Read the full story here: Govt says AYUSH 64 effective in treating mild to moderate COVID-19 infection. Deets inside

Apollo Diagnostics, the diagnostic vertical of Apollo Health & Lifestyle Pvt Ltd, on Thursday launched a novel and patient convenient 'Drive through' testing of Covid-19 in Hyderabad. The kiosk for RT-PCR tests has been set at the Jubilee Hills Public School in Jubilee Hills. The complete process of registration and payment for testing is totally touchless and contact free.

Fully equipped for testing and with capacity to manage up to 250 patients per day, the centre will cater to the residents living in areas of Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Shaikpet, Film Nagar, and Attapur.

--- IANS

wo days after US President Joe Biden's pledge to help, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Covid-19 emergency aid materials shall start landing in New Delhi from Thursday onwards, an official spokesperson said here on Thursday. This would include 10,00,000 Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs), the same used by the White House, to provide reliable results in less than 15 minutes to identity the virus and prevent community spread.

The first consignment on the world's largest military aircraft would bring 440 oxygen cylinders and regulators donated by the State of California, plus 9,60,000 Rapid Diagnostic Tests and 100,000 N95 masks for the India's frontline healthcare teams.

-- IANS

A past COVID-19 infection does not completely protect young people from reinfection, and vaccination is still necessary to boost immune response and reduce disease transmission, according to an observational study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. The research was conducted on more than 3,000 healthy members of the US Marines Corps most of whom were aged 18-20 years.

The researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the US emphasised that young people should take up the vaccine wherever possible. They noted that despite previous infection and the presence of antibodies, vaccination is still necessary to boost immune responses, prevent reinfection, reduce transmission.

-PTI

India on Thursday recorded a new high with 3,79,257 new Covid-19 cases and 3645 deaths in last 24 hours. With this India's Covid-19 caseload now stands at 1,83,76,524. As many as 2,69,507 discharges have been made in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry. A total of 1,50,86,878 recoveries have been reported so far. The total death toll stands at 2,04,832 with 30,84,814 active cases. A total of 15,00,20,648 people have been vaccinated so far.

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Uttar Pradesh has received its biggest consignment of oxygen -- 600 tonne of lifesaving gas, up from an average of 100-150 tonne -- ending the oxygen emergency for the time being. Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi said, "This includes 321 tons of medical oxygen supplied by the Food and Drug Administration. We also have an allocation of 850 tons of oxygen from the Centre, which is the highest allotment among all states.

"However, to pick up our quota from other states like Bihar, we need more tankers. Earlier, we had only 30-35 tankers, but there are 84 in the fleet now."

The state has also activated its oxygen monitoring system, which is a first-of-its-kind 24x7 oxygen-tracking module which enables real-time monitoring of GPS-fitted tankers by district magistrates.

-- IANS

Up till April 27, B1617 variant had been detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded on the open-access database GISAID (the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data) "from at least 17 countries", the global health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic. 

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Pediatricians across the globe are getting millions of queries from parents about the routine vaccinations for toddlers and children during the coronavirus pandemic. Though the second wave of the infection has brought our country to a standstill, doctors should urge parents to get their child's vaccination done routinely because it protects them from other serious infectious diseases.

Even the World Health Organisation has listed immunisation as an essential health service. However, the sudden rise in Covid-19 cases with hospitals is overflowing with Covid patients, makes parents skeptical about getting their child vaccinated, there is a tendency to delay it further. But by delaying, it could unnecessarily be harmful and in some cases even fatal for your children. Without the protection of vaccines, diseases can spread quickly which can lead to harmful consequences.

-IANS

Read the full story here: Pfizer's oral drug against Covid could be ready by 2022, says pharma giant's CEO

US to deliver medical supplies worth over $100 million to India to combat COVID-19 crisis.

"The capacity of the servers and other parameters have been ramped up to match the unprecedented scale of immunisation so that the Co-WIN system can provide citizen-centric services. Inclusivity, speed and scalability have been kept in mind while designing the unique digital platform with all components being portable and synchronous without excessive and unnecessary dependencies," the ministry said.

The Ministry also denied reports suggesting that the Co-WIN platform was unresponsive/overshooting the server capacity and was not able to respond to the unprecedented number of registrations taking place.

"It is clarified that the media reports that the server has crashed are incorrect and are without any basis. The server supporting the Co-WIN digital portal continues to work smoothly at its highest efficiency," it said.

More than 80 lakh people registered themselves on the first day of registration for the third phase of Covid vaccination starting May 1. In the third phase of vaccination drive, everyone above the age of 18 will be eligible to get inoculated against Covid-19. "A liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination will be implemented from May 1. Registration for the new eligible population groups commenced today from 4 pm. Potential beneficiaries can register directly on the Co-WIN portal (cowin.gov.in) or through the Aarogya Setu app," the ministry said.