Corona Updates You Must Track: A Vaccine May Hit India By Year-End, 23 Per Cent Delhi Residents Affected By COVID-19

India cases and toll: India’s COVID-19 count rose to 11,92,915 on Wednesday morning with 4,11,133 active cases. In the last 24 hours, 37,724 fresh cases of coronavirus were reported across the country. During the same time, 648 people succumbed to the disease. The number of recoveries has gone up to 7,53,049—the recovery rate being nearly 63 per cent. A total of 3,43,243 COVID-19 tests were conducted across the country on Tuesday.

A vaccine against COVID-19 soon? Pune-based Serum Institute of India will start the India trials for the experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca by the end of August. The vaccine has shown promising results in the phase one of human trials.  

In an exclusive interview to India Today TV, the CEO of Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla, said that if the trials and their results go as planned, the Serum Institute of India can produce a few million doses by end of this year and 300-400 million doses by the first quarter of 2021. “We are planning to put the price at around ₹1,000 or less than that per dose,” Poonawalla said.

Delhi sero-survey findings: A sero-survey conducted in the national capital between 27 June and 10 July found that nearly 23 per cent of the people surveyed may have been exposed to the virus. The sero-survey—21,387 samples were collected—detects the presence of antibodies against the infection. The other key finding of the survey is that a significant percentage of infected people remained asymptomatic. The sero-survey was conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control in collaboration with the Delhi government.

Of Delhi’s coronavirus tally of 1,25,096 cases, 15,288 are active. More than a lakh have recovered from the illness while 3,690 people have succumbed to it. Delhi recorded 1,349 fresh cases of coronavirus on Tuesday.

Is plasma therapy effective? Even as the results of the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) trials on plasma therapy are awaited, many institutions that took part in the trials have found plasma therapy effective in moderately ill patients, according to a report by The Indian Express. Doctors, however, cautioned against using it on critical or severely ill patients. A total of 52 institutions and 452 patients are participating in the ICMR PLACID (plasma therapy) trial.

COVID-19 Tracker. Source: Twitter/@COVIDNewsByMIB

Southern states continue to witness spike: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu continue to add daily cases in bulk to their coronavirus tally. In the last 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh recorded 4,944 fresh cases of coronavirus while Karnataka and Tamil Nadu reported 3,649 and 4,965 cases respectively. Tamil Nadu’s COVID-19 tally has surged to 1,80,643 cases while Karnataka has recorded over 70,000 cases even as Andhra Pradesh has crossed the 50,000-mark.

A week-long lockdown in Bengaluru ended on Wednesday with the state government deciding against extending it further. However, a night curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. will remain in place across Karnataka and so will the Sunday curfew.

Bengal issues lockdown notice: The West Bengal government has declared a statewide lockdown on 23, 25 and 29 July from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Further, lockdown in containment zones will be effective till 31 July. Bengal has recorded a steady surge in daily cases over the last few days.

With 47,030 total confirmed cases, the state’s tally is inching close to the 50,000 mark. Of these, 17,813 are active cases, while there have been 28,035 recoveries and 1,182 fatalities. The state recorded 2,261 fresh cases of coronavirus and 35 deaths in the last 24 hours. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the state would increase COVID-19 testing to 25,000 samples per day by 15 August from the current 11,000-13,000 tests per day.

Global corona update: The global coronavirus tally climbed to 1,50,98,721 cases with 91,16,242 recoveries and 6,19,593 deaths, according to Worldometer, a website that tracks COVID-19 data across countries. While the US, with over 40 lakh cases of coronavirus, and Brazil, with more than 21 lakh cases, top the table, Mexico continues to post an alarming increase in COVID-19 fatalities. The country has so far recorded 3,56,255 cases of coronavirus including 40,400 deaths. Mexico has the fourth-highest COVID-19 death toll after the US, Brazil and the UK.