(TibetanReview.net, Apr23’20) – There are as many as 115 novel coronavirus vaccines in development, though just 78 are officially confirmed as active candidates, said a Refinery29 news report Apr 21, citing the journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. Of them, three of were being tested on humans. Meanwhile scmp.com Apr 23 cited the World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying that Covid-19 will stalk the planet for a long time to come, warning that most countries were still in the early stages of tackling the pandemic.
While most of the epidemics in western Europe appeared to be stable or declining, “we see worrying upward trends in Africa, Central and South America, and eastern Europe” although their numbers are low, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Over the past 24 hours or so, the number of people with Covid-19 infections across the world increased by 64,171 and the number of those who died increased by 5,957 to reach 2,637,314 and 183,559 respectively as of Apr 23 at 1:01:24PM (GMT-4), according to the Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
The countries with the most number of infections thus far were US (842,624), Spain (208,389), Italy (187,327), France (157,135), Germany (150,648), UK (134,639), Turkey (98,674), Iran (85,996) and China (83,876).
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India, the 17th most infected country, reported 1,409 more cases and 41 deaths over the past 24 hours to take the cumulative totals to 21,393 infections and 681 deaths as of Apr 23 at 8AM (GMT+5:30), according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data.
Maharashtra, the worst hit state by a wide margin, had a total of 5652 (+434) cases, followed by Gujarat with 2407 (+229) cases, Delhi with 2248 (+92) cases, Rajasthan with 1890 (+231) cases, Tamil Nadu with 1629 (+33) infections, Madhya Pradesh with 1592 (+40) infections, Uttar Pradesh with 1449 (+155) cases, Telangana with 945 (+17) cases, Andhra Pradesh with 813 (+56) cases, West Bengal with 456 (+33) cases, Kerala with 438 (+11) cases, Karnataka with 429 (+9) cases, Jammu & Kashmir with 407 (+27) cases, Haryana with 262 (+8) cases, Punjab with 251 (+6) cases, and Bihar with 143 (+17) cases.
Other badly hit states/Union Territories were Odisha, 83 (+4); Jharkhand, 49 (+4),Uttarakhand, 46 (+0); Himachal Pradesh, 40 (+1); Chattisgarh, 36 (+0), Assam, 35 (+0); Chandigarh, 27 (+0); Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 18 (+2); Ladakh, 18 (+0); and Meghalaya 12 (+1).
Besides, Puducherry (7), Goa (7), Manipur (2), Tripura (2), Mizoram (1), and Arunachal Pradesh (1) and had reported cases. One case in Nagaland was transferred to Assam.
Maharashtra also had the most number of deaths at 269 (+18), followed by Madhya Pradesh, 80 (+4); Gujarat, 103 (+13); Delhi, 48 (+1); Telangana, 23 (+0); Tamil Nadu 18 (+0); Andhra Pradesh, 24 (+2); Punjab, 16 (+0); Karnataka, 17 (+0); Uttar Pradesh, 21 (+1); West Bengal, 15 (+0); Rajasthan, 27 (+2); Jammu & Kashmir, 5 (+0); Haryana, 3 (+0), Kerala, 3 (+0); Jharkhand, 3 (+0); and Bihar 2 (+0). Besides Odisha, HP, Meghalaya, and Assam had 1 death each. (Source: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/)
About 80 per cent were reported from just five states — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
On Apr 22, Delhi added two more areas, both in South District, to its Covid-19 containment zones. Both are in the Lado Sarai area and they took the total number of containment zones in the national capital to 89. No movement is allowed in the containment zone, with essential supplies being provided at doorstep.
All the 11 districts in the city have containment, also called red, zones.
