Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra government allows to reopen gyms and fitness centres from Dussehra

The market for Corona-Kavach policies has grown 10-fold in a month to 1.1 crore from 15 lakh. A record sales figure that makes it the hottest selling insurance product in decades. Irdai chairman S C Khuntia announced the figure while addressing a CII meeting on Thursday. “Growth in corona-specific policies are driven by rising Covid-19 cases, with continuous uncertainty and a surge in related medical expenses,” said Subrata Mondal, EVP and head underwriting, IFFCO Tokio General Insurance.

The multi-country solidarity trial led by the World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that none of the four repurposed drugs that it examined — Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), Lopinavir and Interferon — have any benefits on the patients of Covid-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay. At present, the clinical management protocol for Covid-19 in India recommends use of Remdesivir as an investigational therapy and HCQ as an off-label repurposed therapy for treatment.

Fresh restrictions loomed for millions of Europeans at the weekend after the highest-ever worldwide number of coronavirus infections in a single day, while pharma giant Pfizer said Friday it could apply for emergency US authorisation for its vaccine next month. An AFP tally based on official data showed that more than 400,000 new cases were reported across the world on Thursday, a figure only partly explained by increased testing since the first wave of the pandemic in March-April.

An expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday recommended granting permission to Dr Reddy's Laboratories for conducting phase 2 clinical trials of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, in India, sources said. The Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm had on October 13 reapplied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) seeking permission to conduct combined phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the vaccine in the country.

The World Health Organization said on Friday it would assess monoclonal antibodies and other antiviral drugs in its trial of medicines that could potentially treat COVID-19, after the trial found Gilead's remdesivir had no impact on survival rates. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference the so-called Solidarity Trial would continue after it was launched in March in 500 hospitals in 30 countries to assess the efficacy of remdesivir and several other drugs in patients with COVID-19.

Vardhan, who is also Science and Technology Minister, said three vaccine candidates are progressing well in India with one of them in the advanced stage-III clinical trial and two others in stage-II trial.He expressed hope that India will soon have indigenous production of vaccine against coronavirus.“The next two-and-a-half months are going to be very crucial for us in our fight against corona because of the winter season and the festival season. It becomes the responsibility of every citizen to not let our guard down and follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour to curb the spread of the infection,” Vardhan said.

The US National Institutes of Health says the study will enroll 2,100 hospitalised adults with moderate to severe COVID-19 in the United States and Latin America. All will get the antiviral drug remdesivir plus one of the three “immune-modulating drugs” or a placebo. The drugs are Bristol Myers Squibb's Orencia and Johnson & Johnson's Remicade, which are sold now for rheumatoid arthritis and an experimental drug from AbbVie called cenicriviroc. The drugs work in different ways to inhibit “cytokine storm,” an overproduction of chemicals the body makes to fight infections that can damage lungs, kidneys, the heart and other organs.

The total positive cases in the UT rises to 86,754 including 8,909 active cases, 76,479 recoveries and 1,366 deaths

Toll rises to 6,382 with 25 more deaths