Coronavirus India News Live Updates:

Coronavirus India News Live Updates:

 While several states are now reporting large number of new novel Coronavirus cases every day, the share of the top four states in the total caseload of the country has remained almost unchanged in more than a month.

 For more than two months now, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat have been the four states with the maximum number of cases.  Together their contribution in the national caseload has remained between 64 and 68 per cent, even though there are significant fluctuations in the number of cases they are detecting every day.

 In the last one month, there has been a significant slowdown in the growth of cases in Maharashtra and Gujarat, resulting in a decline in their share of national caseload.  Maharashtra, not very long ago, accounted for almost 37 per cent of all cases in the country.  That share has gone down to 31 per cent now.  The share of Gujarat, which is in the midst of a much more extended slowdown, has gone down from 12 per cent to less than 7 per cent.

 But this decline in share has been compensated Tamil Nadu and Delhi, which are the fastest growing among the top ten states right now.  That has meant that the combined share of the top four states has remained almost constant.

 Meanwhile, as countries are continuously trying to develop a vaccine to fight the pandemic, the World Health Organization's chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, has said that the agency is optimistic and hopeful that the COVID-19 vaccines could be available before the end of this  year.  On Thursday, the WHO had said that clinical trials have now definitively shown that the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine does not have an impact on preventing deaths from COVID-19.

 Chief of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Friday said the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating" and that more than 150,000 cases were reported yesterday - the highest single-day number so far, as per news agency AP.  In a media briefing, he said nearly half of the newly reported cases were from the Americas, with significant numbers from South Asia and the Middle East.

 "We are in a new and dangerous phase," he said, warning that restrictive measures are still needed to stop the pandemic.  Tedros warned that the virus is still "spreading fast" and that measures like social distancing, mask wearing and hand-washing are still critical.