Coronavirus live updates: 204 railway coaches deployed in 4 states to boost Covid-19 capacity

For the past seven months, doctors across the world have said diabetic patients are at a higher risk of Covid-related complications, and now there is a growing school of thought that the novel coronavirus could be affecting the pancreas and causing hyperglycemia or high levels of sugar among patients.

India has revised the protocol for clinical management of Covid-19 to include “loss of smell and taste” to the list of nine other symptoms and has also allowed use of investigational therapies like Remdesivir and off-label use of Tocilizumab and convalescent plasma therapy on specific groups of patients.

In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 42,980 cases including 1,484 deaths, the ministry said in a statement, reports Reuters.

The Centre will work with states to further ramp up medical infrastructure to deal with Covid cases over the next two months, when the monsoon is expected to hit the country with full vigour, with a particular focus on cities and states that have a high burden of infection and a large number of hotspots.

Sunday’s meeting to be convened by Union home minister Amit Shah aims at bringing all relevant authorities together and work out measures keeping all scenarios in light of the projections for next two months. It comes after lieutenant governor Anil Baijal set up an expert committee to guide the city authorities and following sharply critical comments of the Supreme Court and the Delhi high court over the situation in the capital.

PM Narendra Modi on Saturday flagged concerns over the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the capital. At a high-level review meeting called to discuss the national coronavirus situation and attended by senior ministers and top officials, Modi noted it was important to get the capital back on track and devise a plan to contain the spike.

The contract is for up to 400 million doses of the vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, the company said on Saturday, adding that it was looking to expand manufacturing of the vaccine, which it said it would provide for no profit during the pandemic, reports Reuters.

India’s Covid-19 death toll crossed 9,000 on Saturday with fatalities showing a steady rise in the past few days, even as new infections reported from across the country touched another new high. As many as 12,368 fresh cases were reported, the first time that the single-day count has crossed 12,000.

The Delhi government on Saturday declared small and medium multispeciality nursing homes having 10 to 49 beds as "Covid nursing homes" to increase the bed capacity for coronavirus patients, according to an official order.Only standalone exclusive eye centres, ENT centres, dialysis centres, maternity homes and IVF centres are presently exempted, the order said.