Health

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) India saw a record single-day jump of 40,425 COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally past the 11-lakh mark on Monday, while the total number of recoveries crossed 7 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.

19 July 2020; MEMO: Iranian health officials sought on Sunday to play down the president’s estimate that some 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, saying it was based on serological blood tests that measure exposure to the illness and that cannot be relied on to show the current state of disease, reports Reuters.

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) The AIIMS Ethics Committee on Saturday gave its nod for a human clinical trial of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin following which the premier hospital is likely to begin the exercise by enrolling healthy volunteers from Monday.

AIIMS-Delhi is among the 12 sites selected by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting phase I and II human trials of Covaxin. In phase I, the vaccine would be tested on 375 volunteers and the maximum of 100 of them would be from AIIMS.

MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/: The Koronavir drug for the treatment of the novel coronavirus, has been released in Russia, the R-Pharm statement made public on Wednesday said.

The company noted that the drug was produced and labeled at its factory in the city of Yaroslavl.

"To date 7,373 drug packages have been put in civil circulation," the statement said.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he won't issue an order at the national level mandating the use of masks, even as the United States continued to break its single-day coronavirus case record amid a pandemic far from being contained, and whether to wear masks has become a source of heated debate.

Mexico City, Jul 18 (AP/PTI) Mexico has registered 736 more COVID-19 deaths and 7,257 more confirmed cases of coronavirus infections.

Mexico now has 7,257 deaths from the pandemic, the fourth highest total in the world. It also has recorded over 324,000 cases, somewhere around the seventh-highest level.

Mumbai, Jul 18 (PTI) Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, son Abhishek Bachchan, daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan are responding well to the treatment to COVID-19, hospital sources said on Saturday.

Amitabh, 77, and Abhishek, 44, are in the isolation ward of Nanavati hospital since July 11 after they were diagnosed with COVID-19, while Aishwarya, 46 and eight-year-old Aaradhya were shifted to the facility on Friday night, almost a week after they tested positive for the virus.

New Delhi, July 18 (PTI) With 34,884 people testing positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 caseload surged to 10,38,716 while 6,53,750 patients have recovered from the disease so far, according to data by the Union Health Ministry.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 26,273 with 671 fatalities reported in a day, the data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed.

Tirupati, July 16 (PTI) As many as 140 staff members of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that governs Lord Venkateswara's shrine at Tirumala, near here, have tested positive for COVID-19 since June 11.

The temple was re-opened on that date due to the coronavirus lockdown, a top functionary of TTD said.

Speaking to reporters, TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy said 14 'archakas' (assistant priests), 16 workers in laddu-making kitchens and 56 security personnel were among the infected.

MOSCOW, July 16./TASS/: The final, phase 3, trials of a Russian vaccine against coronavirus developed by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology may be completed quicker than in other countries, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, told the Vesti news program on Rossiya-1television on Thursday.

"This is the final phase that is necessary to put the vaccine into active use. And we believe that Russia will possibly go through this phase quicker than other countries," Dmitriev said.