Coronavirus Highlights: India Records 43,733 New Cases In Last 24 Hours

US Covid Cases Rising Rapidly As Delta Variant Dominates

Delta Covid Variant Already Dominant In US, CDC Estimates Show

World Passes 4 Million Covid Deaths As Delta Variant Fuels Fresh Outbreaks
More than four million people have now died of Covid-19 infections, the WHO said on Wednesday, as many richer nations prepared to loosen restrictions even as countries in Asia battle surging infections.

Indonesia has become a global hotspot, with hospitals having to turn away patients, authorities forced to import oxygen supplies and a record 1,040 deaths reported on Wednesday.

"The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, calling the four-million figure an underestimate of the true toll.

Two Arthritis Drugs Reduce Risk Of Covid Death, Shows Study
Arthritis drugs tocilizumab and sarilumab reduce the risk of death and the need for ventilators among hospitalized Covid-19 patients, according to an analysis of nearly 11,000 patients published Tuesday.

The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association and prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to recommend the use of the medicines, known as IL-6 inhibitors, in addition to corticosteroids among patients with severe or critical Covid.

Manu Shankar-Hari, a professor at King's College London and lead author of the paper, told AFP that the research represented a "definitive piece of evidence" in favor of the drugs after earlier studies produced mixed results.

Central Team Visits Kerala Amid Surge In Covid Cases
With a surge in COVID-19 cases in Kerala, a team deputed by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday visited Kollam to evaluate the prevention activities and health measures taken for COVID management in the district.

The central team met District Collector B. Abdul Nasar at the Collectorate and assessed the COVID management plan. The Collector informed the members of the activities being carried out in the district.

The visit comes at a time when other states are showing a declining trend in the number of COVID-19, but in Kerala, cases remained high with the state recording 14,373 new cases on Tuesday, the highest in 26 days.

Fiji Police Deliver Groceries, Urge People To Stay Home As Delta Cases Rise
Fiji Police Deliver Groceries, Urge People To Stay Home As Delta Cases Rise

COVID-19: The grocery deliveries in Fiji were mostly being made in poorer neighbourhoods.

Fiji on Wednesday began distributing groceries to some households as it urges people to stay at home amid rising infections of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the novel coronavirus.

Authorities posted pictures on social media of bags of supermarket supplies - including packaged food and toilet paper - being delivered to homes around the capital, Suva, as they reinforced calls for people to obey social distancing rules and get vaccinated.

COVID-19 India News: Arvind Kejriwal Inaugurates Genome Sequencing Lab At Lok Nayak Hospital

COVID-19 India News: Central Team In Kerala To Assess Covid Prevention Activities
With a surge in COVID-19 cases in Kerala, a team deputed by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday visited Kollam to evaluate the COVID prevention activities and health measures taken for COVID management in the district. The central team met District Collector B. Abdul Nasar at the Collectorate and assessed the COVID management plan. The visit comes at a time when other states are showing a declining trend in the number of COVID-19, but in Kerala, cases remained high with the state recording 14,373 new cases on Tuesday, the highest in 26 days. The active cases crossed one lakh mark with 1,04,105 people under treatment, while the state recorded 142 deaths taking the total death count to 13,960.

COVID-19 India News: Odisha Reports Its Highest Single-Day Deaths
Odisha on Wednesday reported the highest single-day COVID-19 fatality as 59 people died, taking the death count to 4,358, a Health Department official said, according to news agency PTI. The state also registered 2,602 new cases, pushing the tally to 9,29,788, he said. There are 28,015 active cases in the state at present. In the last 24 hours, 3,258 patients recovered. So far, 8,97,362 have been cured of COVID-19 in the state.Around 0.13 per cent of the people who are either fully vaccinated or received one dose have been found to be COVID-positive in the state, officials said. "While 9,154 persons (0.09%) of 1,00,43,077 people getting the first dose tested positive, 7,806 (0.31%) people got infection even after taking both the doses," an official said.

COVID-19 India News: Local Self Government Institutions in Kerala Recategorized
The Disaster Management Department (COVID-19) of the Government of Kerala has issued an order for the re-categorization of the state's Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs) on the basis of average weekly Test Positivity rates (TPR). "As part of the COVID-19 containment activities, the LSGIs in the state were categorized based on the Test Positivity Rate (TPR) and certain relaxations on lockdown were extended to the areas where the Test Positivity Rate is less and special intensified stringent restrictions were implemented in areas where TPR is high," states the order.

COVID-19 News Update: Chinese City On Myanmar Border Hit By Fourth Wave
Parts of a small city in southwest China that shares a border with Myanmar went into a full lockdown on Wednesday as local authorities wrestled with the city's fourth outbreak of the new coronavirus since the pandemic began, reported news agency Reuters. Residents in the main areas of Ruili, a city in Yunnan province with a population of about 270,000, were told to quarantine themselves at home as schools and businesses shut Some markets, hospitals and pharmacies remained open. Yunnan reported 15 new confirmed locally transmitted coronavirus cases for July 6, with all cases in Ruili. That compares with three cases per day in the city reported for July 4 and July 5.