Hyderabad: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said India’s active COVID-19 caseload has dropped below 3.6 lakh, as the sustained decline continued.
The ministry also said that the rolling average for the past week showed a sustained decline in daily coronavirus cases for the six most affected states.
Daily new recoveries recorded in the country have been more than the daily cases registered since the last 15 days, the ministry added.
India's first indigenous mRNA vaccine candidate developed by Gennova has received approval to initiate human trials, the Department of Biotechnology said Friday. The mRNA vaccines are different from the conventional models of the vaccine in the way in which they produce an immune response. These vaccines are "scientifically the ideal choice" and they are considered safe as they are “non-infectious, non-integrating in nature," DBT said.
"They are expected to be highly efficacious because of their inherent capability of being translatable into the protein structure inside the cell cytoplasm. Additionally, mRNA vaccines are fully synthetic and do not require a host for growth, for example, eggs or bacteria. "Therefore, they can be quickly manufactured in an inexpensive manner under cGMP conditions to ensure their availability and accessibility for mass vaccination on a sustainable basis," the DBT added.
Delhi
New Delhi: Delhi recorded 1,935 fresh COVID-19 cases on Saturday with over 73,000 tests being conducted, even as the positivity rate dropped to 2.64 percent, authorities said. The positivity rate from December 3 to December 7 had successively dipped to 4.96 percent, 4.78 percent, 4.2 percent, 3.68 percent and 3.15 percent respectively.
However, on December 8 it had risen again to 4.23 percent, falling again to 3.42 percent on December 9 and 2.46 percent on December 10. It had risen to 3.33 percent again on December 11. The fresh cases came out of 73,413 tests conducted the previous day, including 32,578 RT-PCR tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.
Maharashtra
Mumbai: Schools in Pune city will remain closed till the 3rd of January, 2021. The Pune Municipal Corporation has postponed the reopening of schools in its jurisdiction.
Punjab
Chandigarh: In the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Punjab, state Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has extended the state-wide night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am till 1 January next year. Announcing the development, the Punjab Chief Minister's Office said the state police will ensure strict compliance, especially at marriage places.
