The Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee, in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, has updated the home quarantine guidelines for arriving travellers and those in contact with a positive case, to protect the health and safety of all.

Those vaccinated must quarantine for seven days and take a PCR test on day 6. If the PCR test result is negative, they can remove the wristband on day 7. Those in quarantine in the emirate are provided with a medically approved wristband for the duration of quarantine, after clearing immigration at airport.

Those who are not vaccinated must quarantine for 12 days and take a PCR test on day 11. If the PCR test result is negative, they can remove the wristband on day 12.

Vaccinated as well as unvaccinated passengers coming from green countries do not need to quarantine themselves. However, the former will need to do an RT-PCR test on arrival and on Day 6, and the latter on days 6 and 12 from arrival. Vaccinated people coming from other countries must quarantine themselves for 5 days. Additionally, they will need to do an RT-PCR test on arrival and on day 4 from arrival. This will be 10 days quarantine and test on arrival and day 8 for the unvaccinated.

The above rules apply to those who received their second dose of the vaccine at least 28 days prior to the day of travel. Information about the vaccine must be documented on the Al Hosn app.

Green countries presently are Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Brunei, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greenland, Hong Kong (SAR), Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mauritius, Moldova, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United States of America and Uzbekistan. This is the updated list from June 24 onwards.

There are travel corridors with Bahrain, Greece, Serbia and Seychelles for fully vaccinated UAE passengers.

Those in contact and registered in the home quarantine programme can conduct a free walk-in PCR test and remove the wristband at COVID-19 Prime Assessment Centres at Zayed Port, Mafraq Hospital and ADNEC (Abu Dhabi City), Al Ain Convention Centre, Al Khubiaisi, and Madinat Zayed in Al Dhafra, as well as all SEHA hospitals in Al Dhafra.

Those violating home quarantine will be slapped a fine of AED 50,000.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has suspended flights from UAE owing to the detection of virus variant in the latter country. Etihad and Emirates, the national carriers, suspended flights as a result with effect from July 4.

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The post Kerala reports 1,825 cases of COVID-19 on Friday appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

A total of 16,488 novel coronavirus cases were reported in a day, while the death count rose to 1,56,938 with 113 new fatalities, showed the data updated at 8 am on Saturday.

The active case count has further increased to 1,59,590, which comprises 1.44 per cent of the total infections, the data stated.

The number of recoveries reached 1,07,63,451, which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.14 per cent and the case fatality rate stands at 1.42 per cent.

Meanwhile, with 2,84,297 vaccine doses administered to healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) on the 42nd day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination, the total number of vaccination crossed 1.37 crores in the country, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on February 27.

According to the Union Health Ministry, 1,37,56,940 vaccine doses were given through 2,89,320 sessions.

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Moreover, with 117 deaths related to the novel coronavirus infection, total fatality in the country has surged to 1,53,587.

India currently has 1,77,266 active cases and 1,03,45,985 people have been recovered and discharged so far.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 19,30,62,694 samples have been tested for Covid-19 detection up to January 25 with 7,25,577 of them being tested on Monday.

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As many as 152 coronavirus positive patients succumbed to the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll due to coronavirus in India to 1,53,184. India also registered 17,130 discharges on Friday.

With the fresh number of coronavirus cases and discharges, the active Covid-19 cases in the country now stand at 1,85,662. So far, 10,300,838 people have recovered from the disease taking the national recovery rate to 96.81 percent.

The Covid-19 case fatality rate stood at 1.44 percent.

According to the ICMR, a total of 19,09,85,119 samples have so far been tested for the viral disease in the country, including 8,37,095 on Friday.

Maharashtra has so far reported the highest number of 50,684 deaths caused by the viral disease in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu (12,307), Karnataka (12,190), Delhi (10,789), West Bengal (10,097), Uttar Pradesh (8,605), Andhra Pradesh (7,146), Punjab (5,543) and Gujarat(4,374).

Since the vaccination drive was launched last Saturday, 13,90,592 have been vaccinated.

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A person from the UK has been confirmed to have a genetically modified virus. The genetic variant of the virus was confirmed on a native of Kannur (34). The virus was detected in a sample sent to IGIB. With this, the genetically modified virus was detected in a total of 10 people.

COVID-19 was confirmed within the last 24 hours on two people from the UK. With this, COVID-19 has so far been confirmed by 68 people who recently came from the UK. Of these, 41 tested negative.

During the last 24 hours, 58,057 samples were tested. The test positivity rate is 11.63. A total of 91,48,957 samples have so far been sent for testing, including LAMP and antigen testing.

It has been confirmed that 19 deaths in the last few days were due to COVID-19. This brings the total death toll to 3564. Further deaths will be confirmed after NIV testing in Alappuzha.

Seventy-two of those diagnosed with the disease are from Kerala and 6,109 people were infected through contact. Contact source for 510 is not clear. Ernakulam 952, Kozhikode 704, Pathanamthitta 564, Malappuram 568, Kottayam 542, Kollam 566, Thrissur 535, Thiruvananthapuram 359, Alappuzha 398, Kannur 228, Palakkad 160, Wayanad 236, Idukki 233 and Kasaragod 64 were affected by the disease.

Sixty-two health workers were affected. Kannur 12, Ernakulam, Kozhikode 10, Pathanamthitta 8, Wayanad 7, Kollam 5, Thrissur 4, Thiruvananthapuram 2, Alappuzha, Idukki, Palakkad and Kasaragod 1 each were affected by the disease today.

The test results of 6,108 people who were diagnosed and treated were negative. Thiruvananthapuram 272, Kollam 290, Pathanamthitta 595, Alappuzha 387, Kottayam 900, Idukki 452, Ernakulam 1005, Thrissur 463, Palakkad 141, Malappuram 602, Kozhikode 611, Wayanad 163, Kannur 166 and Kasaragod 61 were found to be negative today. With this, 70,395 people have been diagnosed with the disease and are still undergoing treatment. 8,03,094 people have so far been freed from COVID-19.

There are currently 2,11,277 people under surveillance in various districts of the State. Of these, 1,99,404 are under home / institutional quarantine and 11,873 in hospitals. A total of 1,544 people were admitted to hospitals.

There are for new hotspots. The new hotspots are Elamad (Continent Sub-wards 6, 7, 8) in Kollam district, Mynagappally (sub-ward 3), Valappad (11) in Thrissur district and Puthur (sub-ward 19).

Three areas were excluded from the hotspot list. With this, there are currently a total of 407 hotspots.

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According to Fox News, the 68-year-old star’s movie ‘Honest Thief’ shot to the top of the box office in October amid a slew of theatre closures that prompted several movie studios to postpone their major blockbuster releases until at least 2021, and now, the action thriller ‘The Marksman,’ has also reached the top of the charts.

According to Variety, the film debuted at No. 1 with USD 3.2 million in ticket sales and is expected to close out the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with USD 3.7 million across 1,975 locations. That means it’s a likely contender to finally unseat ‘Wonder Woman: 1984’ in its third week in theatres.

As reported by Fox News, the Gal Gadot-led superhero movie surprised everyone by performing well at the box office in December despite also releasing for free to HBO Max subscribers in a bid to cultivate viewership at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has made going to the theatre a difficult prospect for most Americans.

However, as Variety notes, alongside films like ‘Wonder Woman: 1984,’ ‘Honest Thief’ and Robert De Niro’s ‘The War With Grandpa,’ ‘The Marksman’ joins the club of lowest-grossing box office toppers in modern history thanks to only 65 percent of theatres in the U.S. being open for business.

Currently, ‘Wonder Woman: 1984’ is in a bit of a race for a second during the holiday weekend with ‘The Croods: A New Age’ edging close to its expected total of USD 2.6 million. Meanwhile, ‘News of the World’ with Tom Hanks is likely to finish fourth.

Fox News reports that ‘The Marksman’ sees Neeson playing an Arizona rancher who becomes the unlikely protector of a young Mexican boy who is being pursued by a cartel to assasinate him.

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52,310 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate was at 9.57 percent. So far 88,68,737 samples have been tested in the state.

4,408 recoveries were also recorded on this day. 4,506 people contracted the virus through contact.The source of 388 contact cases could not be traced. Sixty-eight of the coronavirus patients came from outside the state.

Twenty one deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours taking the COVID death toll to 3,463.

With this, the number of active cases in the state reached 68,991.

The state has reported 8,47,848 COVID-19 infections so far. Of this, 7,75,176 were
cured.

The district-wise statistics of positive cases: Ernakulam – 767, Kozhikode – 677, Malappuram – 479, Kollam – 439, Pathanamthitta – 427, Kottayam – 399, Alappuzha – 302, Thiruvananthapuram – 296, Thrissur – 262, Kannur – 239, Idukki – 237, Wayanad – 226, Palakkad – 176 and Kasaragod – 79.

None of the UK returnees tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. So far, 56 UK returnees have tested positive for coronavirus. Among them 9 have been identified as mutant virus strain.

The district-wise statistics of contact cases: Ernakulam – 723, Kozhikode – 659, Malappuram – 457,Kollam – 430, Pathanamthitta – 377, Kottayam – 369, Alappuzha – 287, Thiruvananthapuram – 189,Thrissur – 249, Kannur – 185, Idukki – 227, Wayanad – 209, Palakkad – 76 and Kasaragod – 69.

Forty three health workers also tested positive. Among them, 10 were from Wayanad, 8 from Kannur, 5 each Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, 4 each from Pathanamthitta and Thrissur, 3 from Kasaragod and 1 each from Palakkad, Kottayam, Malappuram and Idukki.

The district-wise statistics of recoveries: Thiruvananthapuram – 431, Kollam – 176, Pathanamthitta –437, Alappuzha – 512, Kottayam – 367, Idukki – 83, Ernakulam – 427, Thrissur – 433, Palakkad –221, Malappuram – 515, Kozhikode – 457, Wayanad – 179, Kannur – 118 and Kasaragod – 52.

There are 2,09,679 people under observation in the state. Out of this, 1,98,502 are under home/institutional quarantine and 11,177 people are in hospitals. 1,217 people were taken to hospitals on January 17.

Eight areas were declared hotspots on Sunday. Meanwhile, one area was removed from the hotspot list.With this, there are a total of 420 hotspots in the state.

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He said he believes trials will show his firm has achieved a vaccine efficacy similar to Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

Earlier, several reports suggested that AstraZeneca vaccine may not be as good as the one made by Pfizer, already being distributed in the UK and other countries. Partial results suggest that the AstraZeneca shot is about 70 percent effective for preventing illness from coronavirus infection, compares to the 95% efficacy reported by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

“We think we have figured out the winning formula and how to get efficacy that, after two doses, is up there with everybody else,” the chief executive said, while saying only that data would be published at “some point”.

The United Kingdom government announced on December 23 that the developers of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had submitted their data to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Approval is expected to be granted to roll out the jab on January 4.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first coronavirus shot to be authorised for use by the UK’s independent medicines regulator and has been given to 600,000 of the country’s most vulnerable people since last month.

Earlier trials had shown different outcomes in the AstraZeneca shot’s efficacy. The vaccine initially showed an average 70 per cent effectiveness but that level jumped to 90 per cent depending on the dosage.

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Up to 338 more deaths were reported in this time, taking total fatality to 1,44,789 till now. Over 31,087 recovered since December 17, taking the overall figure to 95,20,827. India remains the second worst-hit country in the world after the US.

There are 3,13,831 active cases in the country, with a fall of 8,535 cases in a day.

The national recovery rate is at 95.40 percent and the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 percent.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 15,89,18,646 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to December 17 with 11,13,406 samples being tested on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Indian government will be spending about Rs 10,000 crore to inoculate the priority group of 30 crore Indians in the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, according to reports.

Phase 1 of vast inoculation exercise will be funded by the central government. While some states such as Bihar and Kerala have coronavirus vaccine will be given free of cost. More states are likely to make similar move soon.

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Among the 99.3 lakh coronavirus cases, India now has a total of 3,32,002 active Covid-19 cases while 94,56,449 have been discharged so far. In the past 24 hours, the country also recorded 33,813 new discharges.

With 387 new Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, India’s death toll has gone up to 1,44,096.

The national recovery rate is at 95.21 percent while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 2.46 percent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the 10th consecutive day.

In India’s worst hit state, Maharashtra, the seven day average of daily cases has dropped nearly 82 percent from the peak of 22,149 seen on September 17.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 15,66,46,280 samples have been tested for COVID-19 upto December 15 with 10,85,625 samples being tested on December 15.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said preparations are underway to prepare local officials to receive and administer vaccines, a process that is likely to cover close to 300 million people by the middle of next year.

He also said that India is showing a sustained improvement in containing the Covid-19 outbreak. But at the same time , they warned that trends in other countries are also a strong reminder of how the situation can quickly go out of control even if one peak is contained.

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But the top court also said Ayush doctors cannot advertise anything as a cure, it added.

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The move, announced on Wednesday, came after Russia said on October that its domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective at preventing coronavirus.

Teachers and medics will be the first to receive shots. President Putin said that the country will produce two million doses of the vaccine within the next few days.

“Let’s agree on this – you will not report to me next week, but you will start mass vaccination … let’s get to work already,” he told Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova.

The Kremlin earlier gave assurances that Russians were first in line to be vaccinated, with Moscow also discussing supply deals with other countries.

With 2,347,401 confirmed infections as of Wednesday, Russia has the fourth-largest number of COVID-19 cases in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

It has recorded 41,053 deaths related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

On December 2 authorities recorded 589 new daily deaths tied to the virus and 25,345 new infections.

The country’s overall rise in cases has slowed after witnessing a high on November 27. Instead of imposing mass lockdown during the second wave of infections, the officials opted for targeted regional curbs.

Museums, theatres and concert halls would be closed to the public in St Petersburg of over 5million people for the duration of Russia’s New Year holidays from December 30 to January 10.

Putin statement comes hours after the United Kingdom approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use that will be rolled out from early next week.

Sputnik V- named after the Soviet-era satellite is in third and final stage of clinical trials involving around 40,000 volunteers.

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The total confirmed cases stands so far at 6,02,982. Twenty one deaths were reported in the last 24 hours which takes the overall death toll to 2,244.

There has been a steady decline in the number of active cases for the last few weeks. Active cases have decreased from 97,000 to about 62,000 now.

Out of the total number of positive cases, 64 people came from outside the state. 2,880 people contracted the virus through contact. The virus source of 405 cases has not been identified. Thirty three health workers tested covid positive on this day

In the last 24 hours, only 34,689 samples were tested. The test positivity rate in the state now stands at 9.75.

A total of 3,11,770 people are under observation in various districts. Of these, 2,96,094 are under home or institutional quarantine and 15,676 are in hospitals. 1,481 people were admitted in hospitals on Monday.

Six more regions have been converted into hotspots and 26 have been excluded from the list taking the total number of hotspots to 504 in the state.

The post Kerala reports 3,382 new COVID-19 cases on Nov 30 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Kozhikode, Malappuram and Thrissur reported the most cases – 851, 721 and 525 respectively. The test positivity rate in Kerala has risen slightly to 11.34. According to this data, for every 100 people tested in the state, 11 are likely to test positive for the virus.

The district wise distribution of positive cases are: Kozhikode – 851, Malappuram – 721, Thrissur – 525, Ernakulam – 512, Kollam – 426, Kottayam – 399, Palakkad – 349, Alappuzha – 381, Thiruvananthapuram – 370, Kannur – 277, Idukki – 274, Pathanamthitta – 244, Wayanad – 147 and Kasaragod – 122.

Of the new cases, 4,951 had contracted the virus through contact. The infection sources of 571 contact cases remain unclear. Local transmission was severe in Kozhikode, Malappuram and Thrissur district.

The district wise statistics of contact cases are: Kozhikode – 801, Malappuram – 688, Thrissur – 513, Ernakulam – 374, Kollam – 424, Kottayam – 392, Palakkad – 229, Alappuzha – 376, Thiruvananthapuram – 244, Kannur – 247, Idukki – 244, Pathanamthitta – 173, Wayanad – 134 and Kasaragod – 112.

Twenty-seven new COVID deaths were confirmed. COVID death toll in the state now stands at 2,223.

Thirty-four more healthworkers tested positive for the virus. They include eight from Thiruvananthapuram, five from Kannur, four each from Ernakulam and Thrissur, three from Kozhikode, two each from Palakkad and Wayanad, and one each from Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki, Malappuram and Kasaragod.

In the last 24 hours, 49,775 samples have been tested. In total, 62,27,787 samples were sent for testing.

A total of 3,15,497 people are under observation across the state. Of them, 2,99,601 are under home or institutional quarantine while 15,896 are in hospital. A total of 1,840 people were admitted in hospitals on Sunday.

Two regions were designated as hotspots while eight were removed from the list. The total number of hotspots in the state is at 524.

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Now, the total cases in the country stands at 93,92,920.

With 496 deaths in a day, the toll has mounted to 1,36,696. The country has 4,53,956 active cases of coronavirus, the Union health ministry said on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, 42,298 patients were discharged across the country, taking the total recovered patients to 88,02,267.

The total number of samples tested up to Saturday stood at 13,95,03,803, including 12,83,449 samples tested yesterday itself, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Sunday.

The ICMR has also approved a “simple and fast method for Covid-19 testing, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said on Saturday. This method can not only increase the number of RT-PCR tests, but can also bring down costs, the CSIR said.

Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla said that the Pune-based pharma company is in the process of applying for emergency use authorisation of ‘Covishield’ in the next two weeks.

‘Covishield’ is the experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca in affiliation with the SII.

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Jude Law says while shooting Contagion, scientific experts working with the production warned that a similar pandemic to that in the film was coming.

The ace actor revealed this while talking to GQ magazine. The actor discussed the 2011 thriller and what he was foretold would happen years before the novel coronavirus pandemics hit the world.

“There was absolutely the sense that this was going to happen,” Law said. “The great scientists on set with us who had worked with Scott [Z. Burns] the writer and [director] Steven [Soderbergh] were very learned and experienced individuals who knew what to expect. And they all said to us that this was going to happen — and it was a case of when rather than if.”

He said, “The way they described it, which is exactly as it has happened, just made sense. What’s scary is you learn in a set like that because you’re being advised by experts, but it doesn’t necessarily sit.”

Law played Alan Krumwiede in the star-studded pandemic thriller.

The actor explained that he was terrified after making the film, but after a while, his fear subsided. “When 2020 started, and we heard about what was initially happening in China, what fast became apparent around the world, it rang alarm bells,” he said. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t hugely surprised.”

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Now the total cases in the country stands at 92,66,706.

The death toll has mounted to 1,35,223. The active cases now stands at 4,25,344 and with new discharged cases at 36,367, the total recoveries in the countries is 86,79,138.

With 44,489 new #COVID19 infections, India's total cases rise to 92,66,706

With 524 new deaths, toll mounts to 1,35,223 . Total active cases at 4,52,344

Total discharged cases at 86,79,138 with 36,367 new discharges in last 24 hrs pic.twitter.com/234QqoZyPk

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2020

According to Indian Council of Medical Research, the total number of samples tested up to November 25 is 13,59,31,545 including 10,90,238 samples tested on Nov 25.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a fresh Covid-19 guidelines on November 26, after several states witnessed a fresh surge in the number of coronavirus cases. The order came with strict guidelines for surveillance and containment. The measures suggested in the order will be effective from December 1, and last till December 31.

Meanwhile, the government has launched ‘Mission Covid Suraksha’ to help accelerate the development of approximately five to six vaccine candidates, and ensure that these are brought closer to licensure and introduction in the market, the Department of Biotechnology said.

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A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee is set to meet on December 10 to discuss Pfizer Inc.’s request for an emergency use authorisation for its developing Covid-19 vaccine.

US drug maker Pfizer Inc, has claimed that they developed a 95% effective vaccine against coronavirus. They are now seeking the emergency use tag from US government for its dosage. Pfizer has said the emergency use tag could start the process early and the coronavirus vaccine doses could be available as early as next month.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the coronvirus vaccine program said that their plan is able to ship vaccines to the immunisation sites within 24 hours from the approval.

Meanwhile leaders of the 20 biggest economies vowed to spare no effort to supply Covid-19drugs, tests and vaccines affordably and fairly to ‘all people”, reflecting worries that the pandemic could deepen divisions between the world’s rich and poor.

Meanwhile Niti Ayog member and National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19, Vinod Paul said that Pune-based Serum Institute (SII) may be granted emergency use authorisation of the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine if AstraZeneca get approval from the UK government. He also said that if the clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine in India go as per the script, phase III trials should be over by January-February 2021.

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It became one of the few positive impacts of strict restrictions imposed on billions across the world.

This compelled scientists at NASA to further study the extend of this reduced pollution levels in atmosphere. The scientists developed a computer-generated model to study how the atmosphere would have been if there was no COVID-19 pandemic and how it turned out in these months.

NASA experts created a model projection of a COVID-free Earth atmosphere in 2020 keeping in account natural variations as well.

The model simulation and machine learning analysis showed an alternate reality version of 2020- one that did not experience any unexpected changes in human behaviour brought on by the pandemic.

The researchers received data from 46 countries with a total of 5,756 observation sites on the ground. The experts observed that in a city-level, 50 of the 61 cities show nitrogen dioxide reductions between 20-50%.

Wuhan in China, which was the first in the world to impose a strict lockdown after the COVID-19 outbreak originated there, showed the first reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions. The emission in Wuhan was 60% less than expected. Milan in Italy’s Lombardy, the worst-hit regions in Europe, also saw a 60% reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions.

New York, another worst hit city saw a 45% reduction in the pollution levels.

Meanwhile in India, a report released by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the pollution levels in India were reduced by 24% in the pre-lockdown days of early March. During the nationwide lockdown, it further went down by almost 50%.

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A total of 585 people succumbed to the deadly virus, taking the overall fatalities to 1,31,578. However the country’s new deaths per million due to coronavirus disease in the past seven days has continued to remain the lowest in the world.

The total active cases stand at 4,43,303 after a decrease of 3,502 in the last 24 hours.
The total discharged cases are at 83,83,603 with 48,493 new recoveries in the last 24 hours.

For the 12th day today, India has reported less than 50,000 daily coronavirus cases. According to Health ministry, the recovery rate now stands at 93.58%.

The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a total of 12,85,08,389 samples have been tested for Covid-19 up to 18 November. Of these, 10,28,203 samples were tested yesterday, the ICMR added.

As covid-19 cases and death continues to rise in Delhi , Tata group in collaboration with Apollo group of hospitals launched an indigenous testing kit based on the gene-editing technology CRISPR called Feluda.

The test is likely to be cheaper than the current gold standard RT-PCR and equally accurate, helping in scaling up Covid-19 testing as it would need a machine that is widely available with laboratories and science institutions.

The global infection tally has gone up to 56,187,563 with the United States continuing to report the maximum number of Covid-19 cases at 11,525,540. The virus has claimed 1,348,600 lives across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.

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