Senior Congress leader and former Defence Minister AK Antony has tested positive for Covid-19, his son Anil K Antony informed on Facebook. He will be admitted to a hospital for treatment later in the day. Earlier, Antony\u2019s wife Elizabeth had tested positive for coronavirus. Antony was in quarantine following his wife\u2019s positive test for the infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking to social media site Facebook, Anil K Antony said both his parents had tested positive and will be admitted to the hospital. The 79-year-old is currently serving fifth term as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Kerala. Kerala is witnessing a rapid increase in the number of cases. Earlier, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, state Minister for Finance Dr Thomas Isaac and Industries Minister EP Jayarajan had tested positive as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barring a few states like Kerala and Delhi, India is recording lower number of cases with each passing day. In the past 24 hours, 29,163 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported. The countrywide tally now stands at 88,74,290. The number of active cases is below five lakh. 1,30,519 people have lost their lives to the disease according to health ministry data. The silver lining is that India has one of the highest recovery rates and lowest mortality rates in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the vaccine front, \u00a0US-based biotechnology firm Moderna Inc has said that its vaccine candidate has been found to be 94.5 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19. It made the announcement following the results of phase 3 trials. Earlier,\u00a0Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE had announced that their vaccine candidate \u00a0was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing the coronavirus disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n