Coronavirus LIVE: 5,739 fresh Covid-19 cases, 27 deaths in Delhi today

Coronavirus Live update: Maharashtra has 16,66,668 coronavirus cases, Andhra Pradesh 814,774, Karnataka 812,784, Tamil Nadu 716,751 and UP 476,034 . Stay tuned for coronavirus India LIVE updates

Coronavirus update: India has reported a daily jump of 49,881 Covid-19 cases, even as the tally has soared past the 8-million mark. The country's death toll has mounted to 120,699. Out of the total Covid-19 cases, 603,687 are currently active, 7,315,989 have been discharged, while 1,20,527 lost the battle against the pandemic.

The Union Health Ministry on Thursday informed that the country has conducted about 10 million tests to diagnose coronavirus in the last nine days. The government mentioned that on average, nearly 1.1 million Covid-19 tests were being performed every day for the past six weeks.

Amid the festive season and rising pollution level, Delhi on Wednesday recorded over 5,600 fresh cases for the first time, with the city witnessing a sudden surge in daily incidences in the past few days. According to the latest health department bulletin, the positivity rate has also jumped to 9.37 per cent, as the infection tally in the city has mounted to over 370,000.

Coronavirus vaccine update: Hyderabad-based pharma company Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) said it had engaged with partners in India to make the Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik V and was also open to partnering with other global and Indian firms to distribute vaccines or Covid-19 therapies.

World coronavirus update: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 44,948,089. While 32,820,697 have recovered, 1,181,538 have died so far. The US, the worst-hit country, has 9,118,547 cases. It is followed by India, which has 8,040,203 cases, Brazil (5,469,755) and Russia (1,563,976).

Stay tuned for the latest news of the day.

1:56 AM

Odisha reports 1,617 new Covid-19 cases, 13 fresh fatalities

Odisha's Covid-19 tally mounted to 2,87,099 on Thursday as 1,617 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said.

 

Thirteen fresh fatalities pushed the coastal state's coronavirus death toll to 1,297, he said.

 

As many as 941 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 676 infections were detected during contact tracing, the official said.

1:45 AM

Europe now has more than 10 million coronavirus cases

The World Health Organization's Europe director said Thursday that the 54-country region has again reached a new weekly record for confirmed cases, with more than 1.5 confirmed last week and more than 10 million since the start of the pandemic.

 

During a meeting with European health ministers, WHO European regional director Dr. Hans Kluge said, hospitalisations have risen to levels unseen since the spring and that deaths have risen by more than 30% in the last week.

 

Europe is at the epicenter of this pandemic once again, Kluge said. At the risk of sounding alarmist, I must express our very real concern

11:43 PM

Ladakh records 61 new Covid-19 cases, one death

The Union Territory of Ladakh has reported 61 new Covid-19 cases and one more virus-related death, taking the infection case load to 6,085 and the fatalities to 74, officials said on Thursday.

 

A total of 107 patients also recovered from the disease, bringing down the active cases to 643, they said.

 

One patient, who had recently tested positive for coronavirus, died at a hospital in Leh, the officials said, adding that his death took the number of fatalities in the district to 36. The rest of the 38 deaths had taken place in Kargil.

11:38 PM

Covid-19: 2,005 new cases, 53 deaths in Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh's Covid-19 count rose to 1,83,588 on Thursday after 2,005 people tested positive, while the number of people who have recovered reached 159,268, an official said.

 

53 new deaths were recorded in the state, taking the toll to 1,989, he said.

11:16 PM

Meghalaya's urban affairs minister tests positive for Covid-19

Meghalaya's Urban Affairs Minister Sniwbhalang Dhar has tested positive for Covid-19 and is undergoing home isolation, an official said on Thursday.

 

Dhar is the third minister in the state to have contracted the disease. Earlier, health minister AL Hek and power minister James P K Sangma were diagnosed with the infection.

 

Sangma had recovered from the disease, while Hek is still under home isolation, Health Services director Aman War said.

11:14 PM

Haryana health department reduces prices of RT-PCR and rapid antigen Covid-19 tests

10:22 PM

Rajasthan records 11 more deaths due to Covid-19, toll rises to 1,888; infection count jumps to 193,419 with 1,790 new cases

9:30 PM

Sri Lanka cancels Parliament sessions due to spike in Covid-19 cases

9:18 PM

Karnataka reports 4,025 Covid-19 cases, 45 deaths

With 4,025 fresh cases and 45 deaths on Thursday, Karnataka's Covid-19 tally and cumulative fatalities reached 816,809 and 11,091 respectively, the health department said.

 

A total of 7,661 people were discharged, taking the aggregate recoveries to 741,219 and the active cases stood at 64,480, including 935 in Intensive Care Units of various hospitals.

9:16 PM

Russia wants to keep fans in stadiums despite pandemic

As the coronavirus infection rate climbs in Russia, the country's sports minister said Thursday he would try to ensure fans can still attend sporting events.

 

Russia has allowed some of the biggest crowds at sports events in Europe, even as some other countries revert back to empty stadiums.

 

Nearly 16,700 people watched a Champions League game last week between Zenit St. Petersburg and Brugge, the highest so far in the competition's group stage, and 10,500 were at Krasnodar's game against Chelsea on Wednesday.

9:13 PM

India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting pandemic, and it will also help countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities: MEA

8:56 PM

Covid-19 LIVE: Bihar's coronavirus recovery rate increases to 95.55%

As many as 1,068 people were cured of COVID-19 in Bihar on Thursday, totalling 2,05,385 recoveries as of date, the health department said. With this, the recovery rate among coronavirus patients in the state has improved to 95.55 per cent, slightly up from 95.40 per cent on Wednesday, the department said in a bulletin.

 

The state has so far tested 1.06 crore samples, including 1,31,357 samples in the past 24 hours, it said.

 

However, a health department official expressed his inability to provide the number of rapid antigen, RTPCR and TrueNat tests. Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 1,076 in the state after seven more people succumbed to the infection, it said. Of the seven fatalities, two were reported from Patna and one each from Siwan, Sheikhpura, Samastipur, Darbhanga and Jehanabad, the bulletin said.

8:41 PM

Coronavirus pandemic LIVE: Nepal reports 2,364 new Covid-19 cases

Nepal reported 2,364 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the country's coronavirus caseload to 164,718, according to official data.

 

Of the new cases, 1,615 infections were from Kathmandu Valley. Nepal's COVID-19 death toll rose to 904 after 17 virus-related deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said.

 

Of the 9,769 real-time polymerase chain reaction tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 1,380 males and 984 females were diagnosed with the disease, the ministry said.

8:29 PM

5,739 fresh positive Covid-19 cases and 27 deaths in Delhi today

8:22 PM

West Bengal reports record 3,945 coronavirus recoveries, 61 deaths

West Bengal on Thursday recorded the highest single-day recovery of 3,945 COVID-19 patients, taking the total number of cured people to 3,21,873, the health department said in a bulletin. The discharge rate currently is 88.02 per cent.

 

The state's coronavirus death toll mounted to 6,725 with 61 more patients succumbing to the disease. The bulletin said that the tally also rose to 3,65,692 after 3,989 people tested positive for the virus. West Bengal has 37,094 active cases at present, it said. Altogether 43,265 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.