News18 Evening Digest: Tamil Nadu to Go Under Lockdown from May 10-24, DCGI's Nod to DRDO's Covid Drug & Other Stories

Regulator Gives Nod To Emergency Use Of DRDO’s Anti-Covid Drug That Will Come In Powder Form

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the emergency use of an anti-Covid drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to treat moderate to severe Covid-19 patients. The therapeutic use of the drug, 2-DG (2-deoxy-D-glucose), helps Covid-19 patients recover faster, and also reduces their dependence on medical oxygen (MO). It accumulates in the infected cells and stop the virus from multiplying. Read more.

Kejriwal Claims Entire Delhi Can be Vaccinated in 3 Months if Centre Agrees With His Math

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that Delhi government can vaccinate the entire national capital in three months if he gets nearly 85 lakh doses a month. About 1 lakh vaccine doses are being administered in the city every day presently, the Chief Minister said, and the daily figure needs to be increased to 3 lakh. Read more.

Maharashtra, K’taka, Kerala Among 12 States Accounting for Over 80% of Active Covid-19 Cases

Twelve states accounted for 80.68 per cent of India’s over 37.23 lakh active coronavirus cases, according to official data. Maharashtra has the maximum number of active cases at 6.57 lakh, followed by Karnataka 5,36,661, Kerala 4,02,997, Uttar Pradesh 2,54,118, and Rajasthan 1,99,147 cases. The other states having large active cases are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana and Bihar. Ten states accounted for 70.77 per cent of the new cases in the last 24 hours, out of which Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 54,022, followed by Karnataka 48,781 and Kerala 38,460 new cases. Read more.

Tamil Nadu Announces Complete Lockdown from May 10-24. Here’s All You Need to Know

Aday after Tamil Nadu recorded its biggest spike of coronavirus cases, the state government announced a two-week lockdown from May 10-24 on Saturday. The 26,465 new cases on Friday pushed the caseload in the southern state to 13,23,965. Up to 197 virus-related deaths were also witnessed in the state during the period, taking the total number of fatalities to 15,171. Tamil Nadu is among the 12 states that have over one lakh active COVID-19 cases each at present, according to the central government. Read more.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Records Sound of Ingenuity Helicopter Flying on Mars

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion team (JPL) shared the humming sound of its Mars Ingenuity helicopter that took its flight on the Red Planet last month. On Friday, JPL shared the audio recorded by NASA’s Perseverance Rover as Ingenuity took its fourth flight on Mars. Being one of the fastest moving flights, Ingenuity helicopter’s carbon-fibre blades measured about four feet from tip to tip spin at 2,537 rotor per minute. Read more.

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