Latest update covid 19 india

Coronavirus: India Reports 591 Cases, 20 Deaths in Past 24 Hours, Total Tally at 5865 | 10 Points

New Delhi: Despite taking strict measures, the coronavirus cases in the country continued to rise as the officials of the Union Ministry of Health on Thursday said that the death toll due to the novel coronavirus rose to 169 and the number of cases climbed to 5,865 in the country. Also Read - Operation SHIELD: Delhi Govt’s New Plan to Combat Coronavirus Pandemic | All You Need to Know

1) The country on Thursday recorded an increase of 591 cases and 20 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said in an update. Also Read - ‘Fantastic Usage of Technology to Combat Coronavirus’: PM Modi Urges All to Use Aarogya Setu App

2) The Ministry further added that the number of active COVID-19 cases is 5,218, as many as 477 people have been cured and discharged and one has migrated. Also Read - Coronavirus in Maharashtra: Mumbai's Dharavi Reports Third Death in Less Than 24 Hours; Area Sealed

3) Out of the 20 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Ministry said that eight were from Maharashtra, three each from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, two from Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

4) In the whole country, Maharashtra reported highest number of COVID-19 deaths at 72, followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh with each recording 16 deaths and Delhi at nine. Punjab and Tamil Nadu have reported eight fatalities each while Telangana has recorded seven deaths.

5) As per updates, the number of cases has gone up to 442 in Telangana, while Uttar Pradesh has 410 cases and Rajasthan 383. Andhra Pradesh has reported 348 cases, while Kerala has 345 COVID-19 patients.

6) Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said that people humiliating medical professionals, who are on the frontline of the battle against novel coronavirus, should be named and shamed.

7) Vardhan said that that social distancing and lockdown are the most potent social vaccine at the moment to combat coronavirus.

“We are part of the World Health Organisation solidarity trial where we are working on vaccine. All the scientific work that is related to management of COVID-19 pandemic is going on. I strongly feel that social distancing and lockdown are the most potent social vaccine at the moment. As long as we do not have a vaccine, social distancing right now and lockdown remains the most potent social vaccine. This is a point that needs to be underlined right now,” he said.

8) Meanwhile, the Central government has granted Rs 15,000 crores for ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’.

9) Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has instructed senior government officers to seal COVID-19 hotspots in 15 districts of the state.

10) On the other hand, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel has also instructed Principal Secretary and Collector of Health Department to seal the areas in ​​Korba’s Katghora where seven cases of COVID-19 have been reported.

Govt discontinues Corona Kavach, Aarogya Setu is now India’s go-to COVID-19 tracking app

© Provided by The Financial Express Govt discontinues Corona Kavach, Aarogya Setu is now India’s go-to COVID-19 tracking app© Provided by The Financial Express aarogya setu

Not that it's a surprise or anything but the Government of India has officially discontinued Corona Kavach, just a few days after launching an even more comprehensive COVID-19 tracking app called Aarogya Setu. The Government of India is notifying all citizens that "the Corona Kavach app has been discontinued, (and) it has been further developed and a new app Aarogya Setu has been launched by GOI. Please uninstall the Corona Kavach app and install the Aarogya Setu app from (Google) Play Store and (Apple) App Store."

In simple terms, Aarogya Setu is India's go-to COVID-19 tracking app now replacing Corona Kavach for all intents and purposes. Having two different apps, serving more or less the same purpose, didn't make any sense in the first place. To be fair, Corona Kavach was only available in beta for Android devices, still, it was one of the first few 'verified' apps put out by the Government of India to help users track COVID-19 cases in their vicinity, so they could stay away from the proverbial hot zones. Corona Kavach was developed by the National e-Governance Division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in association with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW).

Also Read Aarogya Setu is Government of India's first 'comprehensive' COVID-19 tracking app, here are all the details

The Government of India never disclosed the number of people that signed up or registered for Corona Kavach beta testing, but chances are, the number may not be very high — especially when compared to Aarogya Setu. A simple search on the Google Play Store, where the app is still available for some reason, suggests it has been installed by over 10 lakh people. Aarogya Setu, in contrast, has been installed by over 50 lakh people — it is the top free app in India on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store as of filing this report.

There are many reasons why Aarogya Setu has become 'viral' in India. The biggest reason, of course, being that it is the first 'comprehensive' COVID-19 tracking app from the Government of India. Unlike Corona Kavach, Aarogya Setu is fully stable and rolling out for all users on both Android and iOS. And the Government of India is being very vocal in promoting it across platforms. For instance, Aarogya Setu is being recommended by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE board) across schools and other educational institutions, spreading awareness about the app.

Unlike Corona Kavach, which was a bare-bones COVID-19 location tracking app relying on people manually sharing their coronavirus stats to let others know as and when they come in contact with someone 'positive,' Aarogya Setu uses Bluetooth and GPS to inform you when you might possibly be at risk of exposure. While GPS tracks your location in real time, Bluetooth tracks if and when you come in close proximity with someone with novel coronavirus - up to a distance of 6 feet. The most important aspect of Aarogya Setu is that it has access to the Government of India's database of known cases.

Also Read Government of India's Corona Kavach COVID-19 tracking app explained in 10 simple points

Donald Trump tweets thank you to PM Modi, Indians for allowing export of Covid-19 cure drug......

Coronavirus updates: Trump criticizes WHO as U.S. death toll nears 13,000

This live blog has finished. Follow the latest coronavirus updates here.

President Trump harshly criticized the World Health Organization during his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefing Tuesday. He accused the organization of being "very China-centric" and "wrong about a lot of things" and said he would look into putting a "very powerful hold on" U.S. funding. 

Meanwhile, New York reported its deadliest day yet with 731 fatalities, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his daily briefing. By Tuesday, 5,489 New Yorkers had lost their lives to COVID-19. Almost 13,000 people have died across the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.  The number of confirmed U.S. cases was on the brink of crossing the 400,000 mark.

Hospitals are at breaking point even as many parts of the U.S. are still seeing an alarming rise in infections.

Worldwide, more than 82,000 people have succumbed to COVID-19. Japan is bracing for a major increase in cases. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care due to the new coronavirus.

Detailed information from the CDC on coronavirus treatment and prevention.

Will not be forgotten’: Donald Trump tweets thank you to PM Modi, Indians for allowing export of Covid-19 cure drug

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian people on Twitter, his response to the Indian government easing restrictions on export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine that he has said would be a game-changer in the battle against Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump’s tweet, which effusively thanked India for lifting the export restrictions on the drug, was the second occasion in 24 hours that he had applauded PM Modi for his decision. It was a sharp contrast to his interaction with reporters this week when Trump threatened “retaliation” if the restrictions weren’t lifted.

“Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!,” President Trump tweeted.

Trump’s tweet reflected the sentiment that he had expressed in an interview with Fox News a few hours earlier. In this one, he had spoken about buying more than 29 million tablets of the drug, his conversation with PM Modi on Saturday and India’s success in handling the pandemic.

“I asked him (PM Modi) if he would release it? He was great. He was really good. You know they put a stop because they wanted it for India. But there is a lot of good things coming from that. Lot of people looking at it and saying, you know I don’t hear bad stories, I hear good stories. And I don’t hear anything where it was causing death,” he told the TV news channel in the interview.

Covid-19 | Trump thanks Modi; India seeks US help on tech; tax refund: 10 updates

India is the world’s largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine, producing nearly 70 percent of the world’s supply. The demand for the drug, which is also used by patients of rheumatoid arthritis, was boosted after a small placebo-controlled clinical trial in China demonstrated that the anti-malarial drug shortened the duration and reduced the severity of cough, fever and pneumonia in patients with mild and moderate disease.

India banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and any formulation containing it on March 25. Last week the ban was expanded to cover exports from special economic zones, blocking pending orders, including from the US.

Also Read: In PM Modi’s hydroxychloroquine export order, a Covid-19 message to the world

Donald Trump spoke to PM Modi to lift the restrictions on Saturday. The same day, PM Modi received phone calls from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as well. In all, requests were received from 20 countries to lift this restriction.

On Monday, a committee of bureaucrats which looked into the issue decided to rescind the restriction placed on Saturday by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade and let the department of pharmaceuticals decide.

India’s National Taskforce for Covid-19 only recommends the use of hydroxychloroquine for infections among “asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19” and “asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory confirmed cases”.

The Indian Council of Medical Research says hydroxychloroquine has been found to be effective against coronavirus in laboratory studies and in-vivo studies. “Its use in prophylaxis is derived from available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported by pre-clinical data.”

After Trump, Brazil's Bolsonaro thanks Modi for supply of hydroxychloroquine

NEW DELHI: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro thanked India for the “timely assistance" in releasing ingredi NEW ents for anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), seen as useful in the treatment of covid-19.

"As a result of my direct conversation with the Prime Minister of India, we will receive, until Saturday, raw material to continue producing hydroxychloroquine, so that we can treat covid-19 patients, as well as malaria, lupus and arthritis," Bolsonaro said an his address to the nation on Wednesday.

"I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian people for this very timely assistance to the Brazilian people."

Brazil has the highest number of covid-19 cases in South America with more than 14,000 infections and almost 700 deaths.

Bolsonaro was one of the leaders Prime Minister Modi spoke to over the weekend in his continuing interaction with world leaders since the outbreak of the pandemic. During his conversation, Bolsonaro had put forth his request to Modi to release the ingredients for HCQ that India had placed a ban on.

In a letter following his phone conversation with Modi, Bolsonaro invoked the Ramayan, comparing HCQ to the Sanjeevani booti (herb) in the epic.

“Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Laksmana, and Jesus healed those who were sick and restored the sight of Bartimeu, India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis," President Bolronaro had said in his letter to Prime Minister Modi.

India is the largest manufacturer and exporter of hydroxychloroquine in the world. But on Saturday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had banned exports of HCQ and its ingredients, given the rapid rise in cases of covid-19 in India.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump thanked PM Modi and the people of India for lifting curbs on the export of hydroxychloroquine.

"Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and the Indian people for the decision on HCQ. Will not be forgotten! Thank you Prime Minister @NarendraModi for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!" Trump had said in a post on Twitter on Wednesday.

Is malaria medicine is work for covid 19,is hydroxychloroquine save lifes of covid 19 positive patient

Hydroxychloroquine: The unproven 'corona drug' Trump is threatening India for

hydroxychloroquine

US President Donald Trump has said the US could "retaliate" if India does not release stocks of a drug he has called a "game-changer" in the fight against Covid-19.

Mr Trump had called India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, a day after the country banned the export of hydroxychloroquine, which it manufactures in large quantities.

Local media said the government was "considering" Mr Trump's request and a decision is expected on Tuesday.

The US President's comments, made at the White House press briefing on Monday, haven't gone down well with many in India, with critics pointing out that there was no need for him to be so abrasive when Mr Modi has already agreed to help.

The two leaders are on friendly terms and Mr Trump had made a high-profile trip to India recently.

But is India really in a position to help the US? And does hydroxychloroquine even work against the coronavirus?

What is hydroxychloroquine?

Hydroxychloroquine is very similar to Chloroquine, one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs.

But the drug - which can also treat auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus - has also attracted attention over the past few decades as a potential antiviral agent.

President Trump said that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved it for treating coronavirus, something the organization has denied. Mr Trump later said that it had been approved for "compassionate use" - which means a doctor can give a drug that is yet to be cleared by the government to a patient in a life-threatening condition.

Doctors are able to prescribe chloroquine in these circumstances as it's a registered drug.

So, can India really help President Trump?

Hydroxychloroquine could be bought over the counter and is fairly inexpensive. However, its purchase and use has been severely restricted ever since it was named as a possible treatment for Covid-19.

On Saturday, India banned the export of the drug "without any exception". The order came even as the number of positive cases of Covid-19 spiked in the country. India has now recorded 3,666 active cases of the virus with more than 100 deaths, according to the latest data released by the ministry of health.

Story continues

But now it seems the government could be reconsidering this stance, possibly following Mr Trump's call to Mr Modi. Local media quoted government sources as saying that a decision on this could be taken as early as Tuesday after considering what domestic requirements could look like in the near future.

The two leaders have a warm personal relationship

But does India - one of the world's largest manufacturers of the drug - have the capacity to actually supply other countries as well?

Yes, according to Ashok Kumar Madan, of the Indian Drug Manufacturer's association.

"India definitely has capacity to cater to both global and local markets. Of course, domestic considerations must come first, but we have the capacity," he told the BBC.

Mr Madan also denied reports that China had severely limited the export of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) that is used to manufacture hydroxychloroquine. He acknowledged that 70% of all the APIs needed by India to manufacture drugs come from China, but said that supplies from China had steadily continued "by both sea and air".

But does it work?

Many virologists and infectious disease experts have cautioned that the excitement over hydroxychloroquine is premature.

"Chloroquine seems to block the coronavirus in lab studies. There's some anecdotal evidence from doctors saying it has appeared to help," James Gallagher, BBC health correspondent, explained.

But crucially there have been no complete clinical trials which are important to show how the drug behaves in actual patients, although they are under way in China, the US, UK and Spain.

Even so, some are sceptical about how successful they will prove to be.

"If it truly has a dramatic effect on the clinical course of Covid-19 we would already have evidence for that. We don't, which tells us that hydroxychloroquine, if it even works at all, will likely be shown to have modest effects at best," Dr Joyeeta Basu, a senior consultant physician, told the BBC.

American scientists have begun a trial to see if chloroquine will help treat coronavirus

Raman R Gangakhedkar, a senior scientist with the Indian Council of Medical Research, said the policy at the moment is that the drug is not to be used by everyone.

"It is being given to doctors and contacts of lab confirmed cases. When their data will be complied only then a call can be taken whether it should be recommended to everyone," he told reporters last week.

Despite the fact trials are yet to conclude, people have begun to self-medicate - with sometimes disastrous consequences.

There have been multiple reports in Nigeria of people being poisoned from overdoses after people were reportedly inspired by Mr Trump's enthusiastic endorsement of the drug.

An article in the Lancet medical journal also warns hydroxychloroquine can have dangerous side-effects if the dose is not carefully controlled.

This lack of certainty has prompted social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to delete posts that tout it as a cure - even when they are made by world leaders.

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Opinion: Looks like Rudy Giuliani is now advising Trump on COVID-19 and hydroxychloroquine. Yikes

With the COVID-19 pandemic intensifying and the economy cratering, can the United States survive another injection of Rudy Giuliani?

It looks like we’re about to find out. The Washington Post reports that the former mayor of New York City is taking time off from his relentless pursuit of Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian hiding spot of the Democratic National Committee’s email server to become a medical researcher for President Trump.

That’s going to end well, I can just feel it.

According to the Post, Giuliani has been lobbying Trump in favor of treating COVID-19 with a cocktail of the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and antibiotics that has been reported to be effective in a small number of patients — but ineffective in more rigorously designed studies. A lawyer by training, Giuliani told the Post that “he now spends his days on the phone with doctors, coronavirus patients and hospital executives promoting the treatment, which Trump has also publicly lauded.”

Granted, Giuliani is hardly the only Trump whisperer who is pushing drugs of dubious efficacy as a potential magic bullet. Seemingly every Fox News Channel personality has touted them. The president’s other favorite source of Trump-friendly journalism, One America News, has also given the drugs a full-throated endorsement, as has Elon Musk.

Trump has always been unusually welcoming to inexpert advice from perceived loyalists; witness the outsize role that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, plays in ... everything, including the pandemic response. But Trump is particularly susceptible now, because the positions advocated by mainstream medical experts and embraced by a growing number of governors are sending the United States over an economic cliff.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that eight out of 10 U.S. counties accounting for nearly 96% of U.S. GDP have ordered residents to shutter all nonessential activities, cutting the country’s daily output by almost 30% in one month. Last week, economic forecaster IHS Markit predicted that the U.S. economy would shrink by 26.5% in the April-June quarter — a reduction three times larger than the worst seen during the last recession.

So Trump is caught in a really tough position of having to battle a killer disease with weapons that are wrecking the livelihoods of millions of Americans. It’s a challenge that would test even a deft executive, and Trump is under a lot of pressure to find an approach to the coronavirus that’s less toxic to commerce than the stay-at-home orders have been.

That’s where Giuliani and the other hydroxychloroquine advocates come in. Unlike some early critics of the state and local lockdowns, they’re not claiming that medical experts (and the media) are making a mountain out of a virus molehill. (That sort of argument isn’t very potent after the daily death toll crosses 1,000. ) Instead, Team Hydroxychloroquine is suggesting that medical experts (and the media) are playing down what a “game changer” this drug could be, to borrow the president’s coinage.

And you know what? If there was an effective treatment for COVID-19 in plentiful supply, we could all go back to work, school, church and everything else we’ve been assiduously avoiding.

It’s certainly possible that hydroxychloroquine will prove to be the cure that Giuliani suggests that it is. Well, it will probably never be 100% effective, as Giuliani once claimed in a tweet that quoted another Trump supporter with no medical credentials, Charlie Kirk (Twitter forced the deletion of that one). But even if it’s effective in only 50% of the cases, that’s a heck of a lot better than where we are now.

The problem is that we don’t know anything about these drugs’ effectiveness against our current pandemic, at least not in a way the healthcare industry trusts. The skepticism from medical experts and the mainstream media stems from the fact that hydroxychloroquine hasn’t received any rigorous and scientifically testing yet as a treatment for COVID-19, although such tests are under way. The evidence in its favor comes either from anecdotes or from small trials using dubious methodologies; other small but better designed trials suggest the drug is ineffective.

One thing we do know is that the drugs aren’t plentiful enough to make them available to everyone who may need them. Already, the demand for hydroxychloroquine has caused shortages among the people who use it as directed to treat lupus (a potentially lethal autoimmune disease) and arthritis.

We may eventually be confident enough about a drug or drugs — be they hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir or another of the therapies now being tested — to be able to go back to the office and start rebuilding the economy. But we’re not there yet, and if Giuliani is telling Trump otherwise, heaven help us all

Is Hydroxychloroquine The Cure For Covid19? Global Scramble For Tablets Suggests so

 Provided by News18 Is Hydroxychloroquine The Cure For Coronavirus? Global Scramble For Tablets Suggests so

In the past 24 hours, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been making news again. US President Donald Trump has once again promoted the use of this drug as a cure for the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. The US has also reached out to India to lift the ban on hydroxychloroquine exports, which India had imposed on March 26. It is not just Trump and the US who want India to lift restrictions on exports of what is believed to be the miracle drug to cure Coronavirus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, among other state leaders, is also believed to have reached out to the Indian authorities in an attempt to have the ban overturned. In fact, the Government of India has already placed an order of 10 crore tablets with Ipca laboratories and Zydus Cadila.

What is Chloroquine? Chloroquine phosphate is a class of drugs called antimalarials and amebicides and is used to prevent and treat malaria, according to the US National Library of Medicine. They add that Chloroquine phosphate is used occasionally to decrease the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and to treat systemic and discoid lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, pemphigus, lichen planus, polymyositis, sarcoidosis, and porphyria cutanea tarda. Governments believe that hydroxychloroquine tablets can work as a prophylactic, a medicine that prevents disease, for the health workers working on the frontlines in hospitals and as first responders to possible Coronavirus infection cases.

But is it really the cure? While all this is happening, there is still no scientific evidence that proves hydroxychloroquine is indeed the answer to the Coronavirus. It may very well be, but there is still no medical evidence to show that it indeed works. And without potentially dangerous side effects. The White House top Coronavirus advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS’s Face of The Nation that, “In terms of science, I don’t think we can definitively say it works. The data are really just at best suggestive. There have been cases that show there may be an effect and there are others to show there’s no effect.”We just don’t know yet Earlier, the US Food & Drug Administration had said they are working closely with the government and researchers to investigate the use of chloroquine. “The FDA has been working closely with other government agencies and academic centers that are investigating the use of the drug chloroquine, which is already approved for treating malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, to determine whether it can be used to treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 to potentially reduce the duration of symptoms, as well as viral shedding, which can help prevent the spread of disease. Studies are underway to determine the efficacy in using chloroquine to treat COVID-19,” said the FDA in a statement. This came after repeated insistence by Trump that hydroxychloroquine was indeed the answer to fighting the spread of the Coronavirus, without much medical research to base the argument on.

There could be some merit in Trump’s insistence, though it has often been seen as trying to force through a drug that has still not been cleared for treatment. A research published in Bioscience Trends on March 16 said, “The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus is spreading rapidly, and scientists are endeavouring to discover drugs for its efficacious treatment in China. Chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for treatment of malaria, is shown to have apparent efficacy and acceptable safety against COVID-19 associated pneumonia in multi-center clinical trials conducted in China.” It also said that the drug is recommended to be included in the next version of the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Pneumonia Caused by COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China for treatment of COVID-19 infection in larger populations in the future.

The University of Minnesota is conducting a study in which hydroxychloroquine is being given to people who live with a coronavirus patient to understand if it can help in prevention of the infection, according to the New York Times.

Pharma companies are pitching in for health workers Earlier, pharma giant Bayer said that it will donate 3 million doses of its chloroquine phosphate drug, called Resochin, to the US government. “New data from initial preclinical and evolving clinical research conducted in China, while limited, shows potential for the use of Resochin in treating patients with COVID-19 infection,” the company had said in a statement shared with the media.

Novartis has pledged it will donate as many as 130 million hydroxychloroquine tablets globally, pending regulatory approvals.

According to Drugs.com the Chloroquine sells for around $6.63 per tablet at medical stores in the US. That would be around Rs 500 per tablet, direct conversion, before factoring in taxes and local levies. Chloroquine is an ingredient in multiple drugs sold around the world—for instance, Emquin-DS sold my Merck in India, Resochin sold by Bayer in multiple countries including US, India, Austria, Spain and Bulgaria, Avloclor made by AstraZeneca and Nivaquine made by Sanofi-Aventis, to name a few. Drug companies Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Torrent Pharmaceuticals and IPCA Laboratories also make hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets.

Chloroquine isn’t new. It has been around since the second World War and is derived from the bark of the chinchona tree. However, Chloroquine is not safe for everyone. It is usually not recommended to anyone who suffers from heart arrhythmia, or those with kidney or liver issues.