Highlights: Covid-19 caseload in Nepal nears 250,000

The World Health Organization expects to make decisions on whether to give emergency use approval to Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca in coming weeks, its chief scientist said on Friday.

Soumya Swaminathan said the global health body could decide on Pfizer's vaccine candidate in the next "couple of weeks", and later said it could also review Moderna's and AstraZeneca's in a few weeks. WHO approval could allow a vaccine to be deployed in some countries where national medical regulators have not yet been able to evaluate it.

The Food and Drug Administration is scrutinizing recent reports of allergic reactions to Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine as it readies an emergency-use authorization -- a step that could come as soon as this weekend, according to top US health officials.

Italy reported 761 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday against 887 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections increased to 18,727 from 16,999.

There were 190,416 swabs carried out in the past day, up from a previous 171,586, the ministry said.

The self-isolation period stipulated for close contacts of people tested positive for coronavirus will be shortened from 14 to 10 days across the UK from Monday, the country’s chief medical officers announced on Friday.

The change will also apply to people instructed to quarantine after returning from high-risk countries.

Nepal's Covid-19 tally on Friday neared 250,000 after 1,044 new infections were reported, the health ministry said.

The new 1,044 cases were detected after conducting 7,414 PCR tests across the country, taking total number of infections to 246,694.

Kerala on Friday reported 4,642 new cases of Covid-19 cases, 4,748 recoveries. Twenty nine others succumbed to the disease.

The total numbers of active cases and recovered cases are 59,380 and 5,96, 593 respectively. Death toll till date is at 2,562.

A Covid-19 serosurvey conducted in Punjab's 12 districts, involving a sample 4,678 people have found 24.19 per cent of them has been infected by the coronavirus. Urban areas logged in a higher percentage of seroprevalence at 30.5 per cent as compared to the rural areas which stood at 21 per cent. Nearly 96 per cent of the people were found to be asymptomatic

The Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced on Friday that Russia will start mass inoculation drives by the end of the week. Over 6000 residents of Moscow have already been vaccinated, with doctors, teachers, and social service workers being the first in line to receive the vaccine.

Pakistan's National Command and Operations' Centre on Friday reported 50 fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll in Pakistan to 8,653. Over 3000 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the accumulated tally to 432,327.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma has tested positive for Covid-19, and will remain under home isolation, Sangma announced on Twitter.

I have tested positive for #Covid_19. I am under home isolation and experiencing mild symptoms. I request all those who came in contact with me in the past 5 days to kindly keep a watch on their health and if necessary get tested. Stay safe.

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) December 11, 2020

Puducherry reported 43 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours pushing the total tally to 37,406. Two new fatalities were also reported taking the number of total fatalities to 619. Of the 37,406 cases reported so far only 367 are currently active.

French and British pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said on Friday that their respective Covid-19 vaccines will not be ready before the end of 2021. The protein-based Covid-19 vaccines showed low immune response in older adults prompting both pharma giants to push back their release dates, reported AFP.

Jharkhand's added 173 new coronavirus cases on Friday bringing the tally to 1,11,003. Two patients succumbed to the diseases bringing the total number of fatalities to 993. The state currently has 1690 active cases and has tested a total of 19,504 samples for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

India recorded 29,398 coronavirus cases on Friday taking the total number of cases recorded so far to 9.8 million, according to data published by the health ministry. India has the world's second highest number of infections, right after the United States.

Singapore has approved of a test that uses saliva from deep within the throat to detect coronavirus. This test has been developed by Advanced MedTech Holdings' and requires patients to draw saliva from deep within their throats and spit in a specimen cup for testing.