Coronavirus: Maharashtra sees 6,479 new Covid cases, over 20k in Kerala

An internal CDC document said the Delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu. While vaccinated people were less likely to become infected, once they contracted such "breakthrough infections" from Delta - unlike the case with earlier variants - they might now be just as likely as the unvaccinated to pass the disease on to others.

Party sources informed ANI on Friday evening, "Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had taken his COVID-19 vaccination on July 28. Hence, he did not attend the House on July 29 and July 30." Rahul Gandhi had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20 following which his vaccination got delayed.

On an experimental basis, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday began door-to-door vaccination of bedridden people against coronavirus. The vaccination has begun for those who are bedridden due to various physical or medical reasons. On Friday, several bedridden inmates at Dr Niranjan Wagh’s home for the aged in Jogeshwari were administered their vaccine doses.

Kerala reported a slight drop in fresh Covid-19 cases on Friday but numbers rose for the second straight day in Tamil Nadu even as India’s daily case count dipped marginally but remained above 41,000 for the fourth day running. India reported 41,454 fresh cases of the virus on Friday, down from 44,681 on the previous day, breaking a three-day streak of rising infections in the country. However, Friday’s count was higher than the number of cases reported last Friday, indicating the growing trend in infections.

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is a warning to the world to suppress the virus quickly before it mutates again into something even worse, the WHO said Friday. The highly-transmissible variant, first detected in India, has now surfaced in 132 countries and territories, the World Health Organization said.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the state has the capacity to administer COVID-19 vaccine to one crore people every month and will urge the Centre to provide more vaccines. As many as 25 lakh doses of the COVID-19 vaccine can be given per week, he added.

The war against Covid-19 has changed because of the highly contagious Delta variant, the US Centers for Disease Control said, proposing a clearer message, mandatory vaccines for health workers and a return to universal masking.An internal CDC document said the variant, first detected in India and now dominant across the globe, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu. It can be passed on even by vaccinated people, and may cause more serious disease than earlier coronavirus strains.