Coronavirus live updates: Serum Institute to resume Covid vaccine trials after DCGI nod

The Centre on Friday urged the north eastern states to focus on early identification of Covid-19 cases by ramping up testing along with effective monitoring of patients under home isolation and early hospitalization in case of disease progression to keep the mortality rate to one per cent or less.

The first European pandemic "travel bubble", created in May by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, was burst on Friday, as Latvia said it is mandating a 14-day quarantine on everyone arriving from Estonia.Estonia has had 21 novel coronavirus infections per 100,000 population over the previous two weeks, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, passing the 16 threshold set by Latvia for mandatory quarantine.

Uttarakhand's COVID-19 tally climbed to 29,221 on Friday with 995 fresh cases, while the death toll mounted to 388 as 11 more patients succumbed to the disease, a state health department bulletin said.

The Maharashtra government on Friday released a standard operating procedure and guidelines for hotels, lodges and resorts, which have been permitted to resume operations at 100 per cent capacity amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Russia's sovereign wealth fund said on Friday that more than one billion people would receive its COVID-19 vaccine "Sputnik-V" in 2020-21, the Interfax news agency reported.The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has already signed two deals to export the vaccine abroad and on the Brazilian state of Bahia on Friday agreed to conduct Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine.

A team of Indo-French scientists has found that the neurons located in the nose that help us sense smell and hypothalamus, the small region located at the base of the brain, could provide the port of entry for the SARS-CoV-2 — the virus causing Covid-19 — into the brain.Their new study, according to the department of science and technology (DST), could provide a new understanding to tackle Covid-19 patients and control the pandemic.

The Union health ministry has initiated an exercise to document data on post-Covid 19 complications as part of which the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is likely to carry out a telephonic survey among recovered patients in the country using existing database.

Himachal Pradesh reported 22 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 8,512, informed the State's Health Department on Friday. Out of the total number, 2,706 are active cases, 5,726 patients have recovered and 66 people have succumbed to the virus.

The Supreme Court on Friday gave its go ahead to National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, to hold its separate entrance examination NLAT-2020 to be held on Saturday but restrained it from announcing the results and admitting any student till the pendency of the plea.

he Delhi Metro will start its operations on all sections from at 6 am on September 13 for a week, informed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Friday."This Sunday, 13th September, Metro operations will start at 6:00 AM on all sections. Starting next Sunday, 20th September, regular timings as per earlier time table with services starting at 8:00 AM on Phase 3 sections (on Sundays) will continue," DMRC said in a statement.DMRC resumed services on the Magenta and Grey lines today under Stage-II of restarting its operations with all COVID-19 protocols in place.

"Without a vaccine, the only prevention is taking precautions. Most COVID related deaths here are attributable to comorbidities & other lifestyle diseases," says Balbir Singh Sidhu, Health Minister, Punjab

Singapore and Japan on Friday announced to launch a green lane on September 18 for essential business and official travel for residents from both the countries in compliance with health guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic.