Highlighting the role that teleconsultation has played to serve the people in far-off places as well as COVID-19 patients in home isolation, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday asked the States and the Union Territories to focus more on such services for better public health management.Explained | NeoCoV — what it is and what it is notRead | Good vaccination coverage must for breaking transmission, say expertsYou can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here. A list of State Helpline numbers is available as well.Here are the updates:West Bengal
Covid patient killed in Bengal hospital
An elderly COVID-19 patient was killed after fire broke out at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital in West Bengal on Saturday, January 29 morning, officials said.The deceased, Sandhya Mondal (60), was admitted to a Covid ward of the hospital, where the blaze erupted around 4 am, they said.Other patients in the ward were safe as they were moved to another wing in time, hospital sources said.Hospital authorities doused the blaze before fire brigade personnel arrived, the sources said.A five-member team has been constituted to investigate the cause of the fire, Hospital Superintendent Tapas Kumar Ghosh said. —PTINational
India reports over 2.35 lakh Covid cases, 871 fatalities
With 2,35,532 people testing positive for the coronavirus infection in a day, India’s total tally of cases increased to over 4.08 crore, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.The death toll has climbed to 4,93,198 with 871 fatalities reported during the 24-hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.The active cases decreased by 1,01,278 to reach 20,04,333 — 4.91% of the total infections — while the country’s recovery rate stands at 93.89%, the ministry said.The daily positivity rate was recorded at 13.39%, while the weekly positivity rate was 16.89%, according to the health ministry.The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,83,60,710, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.21%, the ministry said. -PTIKarnataka
How widespread is Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Karnataka now?
While the second wave of COVID-19 was largely driven by the more virulent Delta variant and its sub-lineages with 90.7% of the total 5,659 samples sequenced testing positive for it, 26% of the total 1,853 samples sequenced in the third wave in January were found to have Delta, according to data released from the State Government.
International
Merck says Covid pill ‘active’ against Omicron
Merck’s anti-Covid pill remains “active” against the Omicron variant, the US drugmaker said Friday, citing results from six laboratory studies.The oral treatment, called molnupiravir, is taken within five days of symptom onset and was shown in a pre-Omicron trial of 1,400 participants to reduce Covid hospitalizations and deaths by 30 percent among at-risk people. -AFPInternational
U.S. sends 7.4 million Covid vaccine doses to Bangladesh
The United States began shipping another 7.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh on Friday, a US official told AFP.”Thanks to the US commitment to playing a leading role in ending the pandemic everywhere, the United States is shipping 7,434,180 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Bangladesh,” a White House official said, asking not to be identified. -AFPRajasthan
Rajasthan schools to begin opening from Feb 1
Schools will open for class 10-12 from February 1 in Rajasthan and for classes 6-9 from February 10, the government said on Friday in its new COVID guidelines.Students will continue to have the option of online education, it said.Markets, other business establishments in the state, will now be able to stay open till 10 pm, while Sunday’s public discipline curfew has been abolished. -PTINew Delhi
Delhi Metro services to resume as per regular timetable on weekends from Saturday
Delhi Metro services on weekends will be resumed as per regular timetable from Saturday in view of the ease in restrictions due to improvement in Covid situation in the city, officials said.Weekend curfew was imposed in Delhi from January 8 onwards, following which services had been curtailed.The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Thursday had decided to lift weekend curfew and the odd-even system of opening non-essential shops in the city besides allowing restaurants, bars, cinema halls and theatres to reopen with 50% capacity, given the improving Covid situation. -PTIHaryana
Haryana allows opening of cinema halls, theatres, multiplexes with 50% seating capacity
The Haryana government on Friday eased some Covid-related restrictions in the state, allowing the opening of all cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes with 50 percent seating capacity, a government order said.”All cinema halls, theatres, multiplexes are allowed to open with 50 percent seating capacity while adopting requisite social distancing norms, regular sanitisation and Covid-19 appropriate behavioural norms,” as per the order issued by the Haryana State Disaster Management Authority (HSDMA). -PTIGujarat
Night curfew extended in 27 Gujarat cities till February 4
Night curfew imposed in 27 cities in Gujarat to curb the coronavirus pandemic has been extended till February 4, an official said on Friday.The decision to extend the date of the night curfew was taken by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel during a core committee meeting in Gandhinagar, a release said, adding that though number of new coronavirus cases were declining in Gujarat, 12,131 persons were found infected during the last 24 hours. -PTI