NEWS

Kerala recorded 30,000-plus fresh Covid-19 cases for the second day running, taking India's daily count to over 44,500 on Thursday.

India reported 44,510 fresh cases of the virus, with Kerala alone accounting for 30,007 new infections. The state had recorded 31,445 cases on Wednesday, making it the first state in nearly three months (since May 29) to register more than 30,000 fresh infections in a day. India's daily count of Covid cases had crossed 46,000 on Wednesday.

With the number of cases exploding after the Onam week, Kerala reported a test positivity rate (TPR) of over 18% on Thursday. The TPR in the state has been steadily rising, indicating that infections may still be on the rise.

The Congress  is once again battling to contain rebellions threatening its governments in both Punjab and Chhattisgarh, despite the high command stepping in.

In Punjab, ministers and MLAs seeking Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's removal reiterated their demand Wednesday, despite the Congress asserting that there was no question of doing so. In Chhattisgarh, fresh from a peacemaking meeting with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, CM Bhupesh Baghel again took potshots at rival T S Singh Deo

Four Punjab Congress ministers and three MLAs met the party's state in-charge Harish Rawat in Dehradun Wednesday to seek Amarinder's removal. Rawat, who said before the meeting that the 2022 Assembly elections would be fought under Amarinder, is learnt to have told them the CM would remain unchanged.

The Taliban have claimed that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, was not involved in the attacks and it was used as an excuse by the Americans to wage war on Afghanistan.

Speaking to an international news channel, Taliban spokesman Zabibullah Mujahid said in an interview, "Even after 20 years of war, there is no evidence of his (Osama bin Laden) involvement (in the September 11, 2001 attacks)."

"There was no justification of this war, it was used as an excuse by the Americans for war," said Mujahid.

We need to invest in research for antivirals or drugs that can be used in treatment against Covid-19, said AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria on Wednesday. He was speaking as part of a panel on emerging Covid-19 treatment therapies along with other leading doctors from the country.

“Over 18 months, our treatment strategy has evolved because we started off with a novel virus about which we really didn’t know much. And therefore a lot of empirical therapy and repurposed drugs were used. We are still using a lot of repurposed drugs rather than any specific antiviral for Covid-19. And unfortunately, a lot of investment went into vaccine development but we didn’t really invest that much into research for antivirals or a drug which could have been effective against the virus...I really think that we need to push more in research in developing good antiviral drug; along with the vaccine, we need to have good drugs which are effective, which can be given easily to patients and are useful in the long run. We don’t have such a drug as of now,” said Dr Guleria.