UK could be moving too slowly to tackle Covid-19, says govt advisor

Britain could be moving too slowly to tackle the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases because of a lag between case numbers and deaths which means fatalities have remained relatively low, a government adviser said on Saturday.

"My concern is the lag, is the fact that we end up in a position that we didn't intend to, either government or the population ..., because the numbers of deaths at the moment look very low, even though, as scientists, we say look infections are increasing," said Graham Medley.

As many as 1,457 new Covid-19 cases were registered in the past 24 hours in Bihar, the state health department said on Saturday.

Equine Biotech, a startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has developed an indigenous RT-PCR diagnostic kit called 'GlobalTM diagnostic kit' for accurate and affordable diagnosis of Covid-19, the Indian Institute of Science said in a statement.

The test has been approved for use in authorised Covid-19 diagnostic labs by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The test takes about 1.5 hours to confirm the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in patient samples, the institute said.

Of the 85,362 new coronavirus cases reported in India in a day, 75 per cent are found concentrated in 10 states and Union Territories, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The 10 states and Union Territories from are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

Singapore reported 20 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including five imported cases and a foreign work pass holder from the community area, taking the conronavirus tally to 57,685 cases, according to official data.

Odisha reported ts highest single-day spike of 4,356 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, which took the tally to 2,05,452. With 16 fresh deaths, the toll reached 783.

The health minister of the state at the center of Australia’s coronavirus outbreak resigned amid a furor over the bungling of quarantine procedures at hotels.

Jenny Mikakos released a statement on Saturday saying she could not continue to serve in Victoria’s state Cabinet following comments by Premier Daniel Andrews to an inquiry into the government’s quarantine program, bloomberg reported.

The coronavirus tally in Thane district of Maharashtra has reached 1,67,013 with the addition of 1,670 cases, an official said on Saturday, according to a report in PTI.

Six more people, including an 89-year old woman, succumbed to Covid-19 in Puducherry on Saturday taking the toll to 500, according to a report in PTI.

Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a release that 555 fresh cases were reported after examination of 5,032 samples during last 24 hours.

Arunachal Pradesh's Covid-19 tally rose to 8,671 as 253 more people, including 45 security personnel and five health care workers have tested positive for the virus, a senior health department official said on Saturday.