New research found that certain factors, such as a history of severe pain episodes and coexisting organ conditions, increase the risk of severe COVID-19 illness, including hospitalization, in individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD).

The study published in the journal Blood Advances underscores the need for COVID-19 risk reduction strategies and vaccination for this medically vulnerable population.

The Centre on Friday deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the high number of COVID-19 cases being reported by these states.

Teams will be supporting the states in their efforts to carry out a targeted Covid response and management, and effectively tackling the pandemic, a Union Health Ministry statement said.

India saw a single-day rise of 46,617 new coronavirus infections, taking the tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,04,58,251, while the national recovery rate has crossed 97 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 4,00,312 with 853 daily fatalities.

The Karnataka government on Thursday said that passengers from Kerala with at least one dose of COVID 19 vaccine certificates will be exempted from producing negative RT-PCR reports, as the state has taken special surveillance measures for people coming from Kerala.

According to the order regarding special surveillance measures for persons arriving from Kerala, vaccination certificate of having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be exempted form producing RT-PCR certificate.

The coronavirus has killed six fully vaccinated people in the Seychelles, which is suffering heightened Covid-19 infections despite inoculating a greater proportion of its people than any other nation.

Of those, five had taken Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine made in India, and one had been given Sinopharm, Jude Gedeon, the island nation’s public health commissioner said at a press conference on Thursday. Covishield has mainly been reserved for people over 60 in the Seychelles.

The price of 22-carat gold on Friday inched up to Rs 46,190 for 10 gm from Rs 45,740 on Thursday. Silver was at Rs 68,700 per kg, according to the Good Returns website.

Gold jewellery price varies across India, the second-largest consumer of the metal, due to excise duty, state taxes, and making changes.

Shares of Aurobindo Pharma gained 4 per cent to Rs 1,003.75 on the BSE in the intra-day deal on Friday after the drug firm announced transfer of business undertaking comprised in Unit·4, on a going concern basis, to Eugia Pharma Specialities, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. The transfer of the business undertaking will be done for a lumpsum consideration of Rs 876 crore.

Shares of Nucleus Software Exports hit an all-time high of Rs 765.35 after rallying 9 per cent on the BSE in intra-day deal on Friday in an otherwise range-bound market on the back of heavy volumes. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 765.35, touched on October 7, 2020. The trading volumes on the counter jumped nearly three-fold with a combined 933,000 shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.07 per cent at 52,284 points, at 10:04 am.

State-run NTPC has plans to list its arm NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd in 2022-23, to raise funds for achieving its ambitious target of 60 GW installed renewable energy capacity by 2032, which entails a total investment of Rs 2.5 lakh crore, a source said.

The source, however, did not disclose the quantum of money to be raised through the initial public offering (IPO) of the NTPC Renewable Energy but said that the equity component of the firm would be around Rs 50,000 crore and rest of the requirement would be met through long-term loans, debentures, bonds and other such modes.

The trial run of the coronavirus vaccine for children is underway in India. If the results are in favour, then vaccination of children might start from September-October, AIIMS Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria has said.

In an interview with news agency ANI, Dr Guleria said that Bharat Biotech and other companies are doing trials at a very fast pace and hoped that data will lead to approvals so that there is a vaccine for children in the country by September-October.

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