Coronavirus LIVE updates: India to resume UK flights from January 8

Coronavirus LIVE updates: Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine 'Covishield' has been cleared by the expert panel for India. Stay tuned for Covid-19 LIVE updates

Coronavirus live updates: India reported 20,036 fresh Covid-19 cases on Friday pushing the overall tally to 10,290,248, according to Health Ministry. The death toll from the deadly infection jumped to 149,065. 

The 10-member Subject Expert Committee of India's Central Drug Standard Control Organisation on Friday approved emergency use authorisation of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine 'Covishield'.

The expert panel had convened a meeting to take a call on the emergency use authorisation sought by the Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covishield, and Bharat Biotech for its Covaxin. Once the vaccines are cleared by the committee, the application will be sent to Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) V.G. Somani for final approval.

Indian and British carriers will operate 30 weekly flights to and from London starting January 8.

The World Health Organization cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, meaning poorer countries may soon get access to the shot already available in Europe and North America. Every country that has a drug regulatory agency will have to issue its own approval for any Covid-19 vaccine, but countries with weak systems usually rely on WHO to vet the shots.

World coronavirus update: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 83,965,549. While 59,457,996 have recovered, 1,828,684 have lost their lives. Meanwhile, the US continues to be the worst-hit country with 20,462,501 cases.

Follow LIVE Updates Here: 

12:03 AM

Maharashtra reports 3,524 new Covid-19 cases

Maharashtra reported 3,524 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 19,35,636.According to the state health department, 4,279 people were discharged after recovering from the disease, while 59 patients succumbed to the virus.

The death toll has climbed to 49,580 and the case fatality rate is at 2.56 per cent.Total recoveries in the state stood at 18,32,825 and the recovery rate is at 94.69 per cent. There are 52,084 active cases in the state. Meanwhile, the state's capital Mumbai reported 631 new cases, 628 recoveries/discharges and nine deaths today.The total caseload in the city has surged to 2,94,067, including 2,74,072 recoveries/discharges and 11,125 deaths. Mumbai has 8,005 active cases.

12:02 AM

Maharashtra reports 3,524 new COVID-19 cases

Maharashtra reported 3,524 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 19,35,636.According to the state health department, 4,279 people were discharged after recovering from the disease, while 59 patients succumbed to the virus.

The death toll has climbed to 49,580 and the case fatality rate is at 2.56 per cent.Total recoveries in the state stood at 18,32,825 and the recovery rate is at 94.69 per cent. There are 52,084 active cases in the state. Meanwhile, the state's capital Mumbai reported 631 new cases, 628 recoveries/discharges and nine deaths today.The total caseload in the city has surged to 2,94,067, including 2,74,072 recoveries/discharges and 11,125 deaths. Mumbai has 8,005 active cases.

12:00 AM

Former Goa CM Pratapsingh Rane, wife test positive for coronavirus

Goa Congress MLA and former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane and his wife Vijayadevi Rane tested positive for coronavirus infection on Friday, their son and state health minister Vishwajit Rane said.

In a tweet, Rane said, "I would like to inform the people of Goa that my father Shri Pratapsingh Rane (Former CM of Goa and MLA Poriem constituency) and my mother Smt. Vijayadevi Rane have both tested positive for COVID-19. They are under the supervision of our team of doctors headed by Dr Bandekar at GMC.

10:21 PM

Kerala reports 4,991 fresh Covid infections, 23 deaths

Kerala on Friday reported 4,991 fresh Covid-19 infections and 23 deaths due to the disease, taking the caseload to 65,054 and the number of fatalities to 3,095, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. The state's test positivity rate stands at 9.45 per cent. Of the positive cases on Friday, 94 people had come from outside the state and 4,413 were infected through contact, said the Chief Minister.

Ernakulam has the maximum of 553 infections, while Kasaargod has the least number of 68 cases. 59 health workers tested Covid positive on Friday with 12 cases in Kannur, Pathanamthitta 9, Ernakulam and Kozhikode 6 each, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur ,Malappuram 5 each, Wayand 4 , Kollam 3, Alappuzha, Idukki, Palakkad and Kasargod has 1 each. As many as 2,43,828 people are under observation in various parts of the state, 2,31,831 under home/institutional quarantine and 11,997 admitted to hospitals, said Vijayan.

9:41 PM

585 fresh Covid cases, 21 deaths in Delhi; positivity rate 0.73%

Delhi recorded 585 fresh COVID-19 cases and 21 new fatalities on Friday, even as the positivity rate stood at 0.73 per cent, authorities said. The infection tally in the city stands at over 6.25 lakh and the death toll rose to 10,557, they said, adding that over 80,000 tests were conducted on the previous day. From December 21-23, the daily cases count had been below the 1000-mark.

On December 21, 803 cases were reported; 939 on December 22 and 871 on December 23. However, on December 24, 1,063 cases were recorded, dropping again to 758 on December 25 and 655 on December 26. On December 27, 757 cases were recorded while on December 28, the daily case count was 564, the lowest in the last five months.

9:40 PM

Karnataka reports 877 new Covid-19 cases, 6 deaths

Karnataka on Friday reported 877 new cases of Covid-19 and six related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 9,20,373 and the death toll to 12,096. A total of over 1,41,96,065 samples have been tested so far, out of which 1,17,907 were tested today alone, and 8,951 among them were rapid antigen tests. The day also saw 1,084 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Out of the 877 fresh cases reported on Friday, 464 cases were from Bengaluru Urban alone. As of December Jan 1 evening, cumulatively 9,20,373 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 12,096 deaths and 8,97,200 discharges, the Health department said in its bulletin. It said, out of 11,058 active cases, 10,869 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and stable, while 189 are in ICU. Out of the six deaths reported today, four are from Bengaluru Urban and Chikkaballapura and Ramanagara (1).

9:35 PM

Himachal Pradesh reports 193 new Covid-19 cases

8:45 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Indian, UK airlines to share 30 weekly flights to London from Jan 8

Indian and British carriers will operate 30 weekly flights to and from London starting January 8.

 

While currently there are over 60 weekly flights between India and UK, the Centre has decided to begin with limited resumption of flights till January 23. Currently there are flights to London from ten cities but services will resume from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in the intial phase.

 

"It has been decided that flights between India & UK will resume from 8 Jan 2021. Operations till 23 Jan will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of the two countries to & from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru & Hyderabad only," civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet. READ ON...

8:22 PM

Health Minister reviews preparedness for Covid-19 vaccination dry run tomorrow

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at various session sites in the country for coronavirus vaccination trial run on January 2. The senior officials of the health ministry apprised the minister on various improvements that have been made to make the pan India dry run glitch free, such as number of telephone operators has been increased to answer every possible query from the teams on the ground conducting the dry run.

 

Block-level task forces have been constituted for physical inspection of the sites and all workers have been oriented for the purpose with the dissemination of FAQs on the process, among other issues, the ministry said in a statement.

 

Vardhan asked officials concerned to ensure that the vaccination sites and official in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and SOP for vaccination that has been prepared by the health ministry and shared with the states/UTs to guide them in the dry run.

8:14 PM

3,524 new coronavirus cases in Maharashtra, 59 deaths, 4,279 recover

Maharashtra's COVID-19 case tally rose to 19,35,636 with 3,524 new cases being reported on Friday. As many as 59 patients died during the day, taking the death toll of the pandemic in the state to 49,580. But recoveries outnumbered new infections as 4,279 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day.

 

So far, 18,32,825 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the state while there are 52,084 active cases. With 76,201 samples tested on Friday, the tally of tests carried out in the state rose to 1,28,23,834. The recovery rate of the state is 94.69 percent while case fatality rate is 2.56%. Mumbai recorded 631 new cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the city to 2,94,067, while nine fatalities pushed the death toll in the state capital to 11,125.

8:02 PM

India-UK flights to resume from January 8: Union Civil Aviation Minister

7:41 PM

Covid-19: Ayurveda formulations to be tested by CCMB for checking anti-viral efficacy

Ayurveda formulations would be tested on lab-grown strains of coronavirus by the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) here to ascertain their anti-viral efficacy in the fight against the pathogen, under a pact with Kerala-based Arya Vaidya Sala (AVS). Standardised Ayurveda formulations provided by AVS in Kottakkal would be tested on the lab-grown coronavirus in the cell culture system, the premier research institute here said on Friday.

 

"If it yields tangible results, the project will lead to a major progress in pharmaceutical industry in India," CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra said.

 

While the country possessed a lot of ancient wisdom, it has lacked defined regulatory protocols for testing the efficacy of formulations that were based on classical texts, he said. In the ongoing fight against the coronavirus, it has become imperative to rigorously test the different treatment possibilities before they were used by the public, he said.

7:24 PM

New Covid-19 strain: Total 29 people in India test positive

A total of 29 people have tested positive for thenew UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. These include the 25cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.

 

Of the 29, the mutated UK strain was detected in the samples of eight persons at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in New Delhi, twoin the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi,one inthe National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), five in the National Institute of Virology in Pune, three in Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB)in Hyderabad and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences Hospital (NIMHANS)Bengaluru.

 

Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others, the ministry said.

7:05 PM

India drug regulator approves AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, country's first

India's drug regulator on Friday approved a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for emergency use, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

 

The decision clears the vaccine's rollout in the world's second-most populous country which, after the United States, has the highest number of COVID-19 infections.

 

India wants to start administering the vaccine soon, most likely by Wednesday, said one of the sources, both of whom declined to be named ahead of an official announcement expected later in the day. Britain and Argentina have already authorised the AstraZeneca vaccine for urgent public use.

 

6:49 PM

Serum Institute gets SEC thumbs up; Bharat Biotech proposal being discussed

The expert panel that is advising the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Covid-19 vaccines has given an in-principle nod today to the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine candidate, which Pune's Serum Institute of India will make and market here, say sources in the know.

 

"Serum Institute's Covishield vaccine candidate has been given an in-principle nod from the expert panel and now the drug regulator needs to approve it. This would be a restricted emergency use authorisation with some conditions," said the source.

 

While US giant Pfizer did not come to present its case on Friday before the Subject Expert Committee (SEC), Hyderabad-based vaccine major Bharat Biotech has presented its case. The meeting is still on and an official update is expected soon. READ ON...