Corona Updates You Must Track: India Again Reports Nearly 90,000 Cases In A Day, AstraZeneca Halts Vaccine Trials

India cases and toll: After a slight dip in daily coronavirus cases on Monday, the numbers bounced back to the near-90,000-mark. On Tuesday, India recorded 89,706 cases of coronavirus, taking the overall tally to 43,70,128. A total of 1,115 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Of the total COVID-19 caseload, there are 8,97,394 active cases while 33,98,844 people have recovered from the disease, as per the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. On Tuesday, 11,54,549 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country.

Don’t need a prescription for COVID-19 test in Delhi: The Delhi government on Tuesday said that a doctor’s prescription is not needed to get tested for COVID-19. Delhi residents, however, will have to carry their Aadhaar card to the testing centre. This comes after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently recommended on-demand testing. The national capital has been witnessing a fresh wave of infections and the new guidelines can help ramp up the daily testing numbers.

Delhi’s active caseload has reached 22,377 while 1,70,140 people have recovered from the illness. The capital recorded 19 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday; with this, the overall toll has climbed to 4,618.  Delhi has, so far, recorded 1,97,135 cases of coronavirus.

COVID-19 tracker for 9 September. Source: Twitter/@COVIDNewsByMIB

Health Ministry’s SoP for schools: As part of unlock 4.0, partial resumption of activities have been allowed in schools from 21 September, for students of classes 9-12. The Health Ministry on Tuesday issued a set of guidelines, which includes physical distancing of at least 6 feet, sanitization of school premises, alternate arrangement for biometric attendance and regular counselling of students and teachers reporting mental health issues, among other things.

“Students of class 9th to 12th shall be permitted to visit their school on voluntary basis for taking guidance from their teachers. This will be subject to written consent of their parents/guardians. Such visits and teacher-student interaction must be organized in a staggered manner,” the notification states.

Tracking COVID-19 vaccine progress: British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has halted the late-stage global trials of its experimental vaccine for COVID-19 after a serious suspected adverse reaction was reported in a participant, reported The New York Times. The firm will conduct a safety review to determine the exact cause of illness.

Global corona update: The global COVID-19 tally has reached 2,77,38,845 with 70,04,531 active cases, 1,98,32,446 recoveries and 9,01,868 fatalities, as per Worldometer. Of the active cases, 60,387 are serious or critical.

Meanwhile, in the neighbourhood, China recently displayed its homegrown experimental coronavirus vaccines, including those developed by Chinese firms Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm, reported AFP. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday awarded gold medals to four medical professionals at a glittering ceremony. “We quickly achieved initial success in the people’s war against the coronavirus. We are leading the world in economic recovery and in the fight against Covid-19,” Jinping said as per an AFP report.