Coronavirus Updates: Mumbai Reports 846 Covid-19 Cases, Seven Deaths

Maharashtra on Friday recorded 13,840 fresh coronavirus cases, a drop of 1,412 from a day ago, and 81 fresh fatalities, while 27,891 more patients recovered from the infection, the health department said. With these fresh additions, the state’s COVID-19 tally reached 77,82,640, while the death toll increased to 1,42,940, the department said in a bulletin. On Thursday, the state had recorded 15,252 cases and 75 fatalities.No fresh infection of the Omicron variant was reported in the state, the health department added.

Delhi on Friday reported 2,272 Covid-19 cases and 20 deaths, the health bulletin said. The positivity rate was registered at 3.85 percent while 4,166 people were dischrged or recovered.

Karnataka on Friday registered a further decline in daily coronavirus infections, as the state reported 14,950 new cases and 53 fatalities, taking the tally to 38,75,724 and toll to 39,250. The state on Thursday had reported 16,436 fresh infections. There were 40,599 discharges today, taking the total number of recoveries to 37,13,343, a health bulletin said. Of the new cases, 6,039 were from Bengaluru Urban that saw 25,904 people being discharged and 15 virus-related deaths.

The declining trend in daily Covid cases continued in Jammu and Kashmir with 1,429 being reported on Friday, officials said. They said the union territory also reported three deaths related to the pandemic that pushed the toll to 4,702. Of the fresh cases, 607 were recorded from the Jammu division and 822 from the Kashmir division, the officials said. Srinagar district recorded the highest of 266 cases, followed by 228 cases in Jammu district, they added.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Friday said the number of COVID-19 cases had begun declining statewide and predicted that the third wave of the pandemic might get over by the second or third week of March. He said the state, which was reporting 48,000 cases per day during the third wave which started some weeks ago, was now seeing the tally increase by 15,000 daily, adding that the infection curve was flattening in major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Raigad.

Tripura recorded 62 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, six less than the previous day, pushing the tally to 1,00,584, an official said. One more patient succumbed to COVID-19 on Friday, taking the state’s death toll to 912, he said. The state now has 1,726 active COVID-19 cases while 97,878 people have recovered from the disease, the official said. Tripura on Thursday had reported 68 new COVID-19 cases and one death. Around 80 per cent of the eligible people have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine, said Director of Family Welfare and Preventive Medicine, Dr Radha Debbarma on Friday.

Further relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, the Rajasthan government on Friday decided to lift night curfew and allow up to 250 people at private and public gatherings. The revised rules will come into effect from February 5, the government stated in its fresh guidelines. Further, religious places have been permitted to function as per their regular schedule and offerings by devotees will be allowed, it said. Currently, night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am is in place and a maximum of 100 people are allowed at events such as weddings.

The Spanish government will lift the requirement for people to wear masks outdoors as an anti-coronavirus measure from next Thursday, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Friday. The measure was reinstated in late December to curb the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The cabinet plans to approve the change at its weekly meeting scheduled for Tuesday and make it effective two days later, Darias told La SER radio station.

Schools in Delhi will reopen for all classes from nursery onwards as will gyms with certain restrictions and drivers travelling alone in cars will be exempted from wearing masks, the city government announced on Friday while relaxing Covid restrictions in view of the dip in cases. Night curfew will continue but from 11 pm instead of 10 pm, it said. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided to reopen higher education institutions and coaching centres along with schools for classes 9-12 from February 7, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. At an online briefing, he said the panel has also decided to resume classes from nursery to 8 from February 14. Sisodia said teachers, who are not vaccinated, will not be allowed to come to schools. The DDMA also allowed restaurants to remain open till 11 pm.

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The DDMA has exempted drivers who are alone in their vehicles from wearing masks and gave its nod to resumption of offices with 100 percent attendance, they said. The decisions were taken based on experts’ advise amid consistent decrease in Covid positivity rate and number of cases, they said.

“All gyms in Delhi assure that we will be following all the SOP’S and everyone in the gym will follow the covid appropriate behaviour. This decision will help Delhiites to get back on the track of fitness. ” Chirag Sethi, Vice President , Delhi Gym Association says we welcome the DDMA decision to let us re-open the gyms. This is now a fight for survival for the gym owners. We request that we should be kept out of yellow zone, as this decision impacts over 5 lakh people in the national capital. We request the authorities to also waive off the fixed charges for electricity and water , to help gym owners survive these tough times,” a press release said.

All restaurants can now open till 11 pm. All government and private offices have been permitted to function at 100% capacity. Gyms and swimming pools to also reopen. Schools will reopen from 7th Feb for std 9-12. Classes for Nursery to std 8 will reopen from 14th Feb. Hybrid classes will continue. Colleges will reopen from Monday, 7th Feb & they’ll be asked to discourage online classes & have offline classes, said Deputy CM Sisodiya.

DDMA meeting decides to reopen schools, colleges, coaching institutes, and gyms in Delhi. Duration of night curfew reduced by one hour. Institutions of higher education to open subject to SoPs & strict adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour. Schools to open in a phased manner. Schools for classes 9th-12th to reopen from Feb 7. Teachers who aren’t vaccinated will not be permitted. DDMA allows offices to function with 100% attendance. Single drivers in cars to be exempted from mask mandate. Gyms to open with restrictions, ANI reported quoting sources.

Vitamin D levels prior to Covid infection, may increase severity of the disease as well risk of mortality, finds a study. The study led by researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Safed, Israel, found that patients with vitamin D deficiency (less than 20 ng/mL) were 14 times more likely to have severe or critical case of Covid than those with more than 40 ng/mL. Strikingly, mortality among patients with sufficient vitamin D levels was 2.3 per cent, in contrast to 25.6 perA cent in the vitamin D deficient group. The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Australia could use its defence forces to help manage a COVID-19 outbreak in the aged-care sector that has stretched staffing and forced many homes into lockdowns, the prime minister said on Friday as national infection numbers remained on a downtrend. The government has come under pressure over the spread of the Omicron variant in aged-care homes, with Richard Colbeck, minister for senior Australians and aged care services, drawing criticism after he attended a cricket match instead of appearing before a parliamentary committee looking into the outbreaks.

India’s death toll from COVID-19 crossed 500,000 on Friday, a level many health experts say was breached last year but obscured by inaccurate surveys and unaccounted dead in the hinterlands, where millions remain vulnerable to the disease. The country, which has the fourth-highest tally of deaths globally, recorded 400,000 deaths by July last year after the devastating outbreak from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, according to official data. Some experts believe the figures were much higher.

Thane district in Maharashtra has reported 620 new coronavirus positive cases, which took its infection count to 7,04,629, while the death of two patients pushed the toll to 11,807, an official said on Friday. These cases and fatalities were reported on Thursday, he said.

Jharkhand on Friday reported 523 fresh COVID-19 cases, 78 less than the previous day, as the tally mounted to 4,30,296, a health department bulletin said. The death toll rose to 5,308 as two more persons, one each from Ramgarh and Chatra districts, succumbed to the virus, it said.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said 65 per cent of the adolescents in the 15-18 age group nationwide have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. “Young India’s historic effort continues…In just 1 month, 65% of children aged 15-18 received the first dose of the vaccine. World’s largest vaccination campaign is creating new records under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he tweeted.