Covid LIVE: TN schools to re-open on Feb 1; Kerala logs 51,739 new cases

Tamil Nadu govt announces reopening of physical classes for students of standard 1 to 12 from Feb 1, decides to lift night curfew from Jan 28

Live news updates: India's Tata Group took control of state-run carrier Air India on Thursday, finalising a $2.4 billion deal to regain ownership of the airline after nearly 70 years.

The auto-to-steel conglomerate in October won the bid to take over Air India, seen as a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that for years struggled to privatise the financially troubled airline.

Chandrasekaran called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday ahead of the official handover of Air India to the Tata Group.

India recorded 286,384 new cases of Covid-19 and 573 deaths from the disease in the last 24 hours, said the health ministry on Thursday. Total Covid-19 cases increased to 40.37 million and death toll in the pandemic is at 491,700

Prime Minister Modi will host the first India-Central Asia Summit in a virtual format during which leaders are expected to discuss  relations and the regional security situation. 

10:39 PM

India, central Asian countries pitch for boosting trade, connectivity

Leaders of five central Asian countries on Thursday welcomed India's proposal to establish a joint working group to boost connectivity to the region through the Chabahar port in Iran.

 

During the India-Central Asia Summit hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, the leaders emphasised that connectivity projects could be a force multiplier for trade and economic cooperation and contacts between countries and people.

 

The leaders also stressed on making concerted efforts to boost trade and investment in sectors such as medicine, healthcare, education, information technology, business process outsourcing, infrastructure, agriculture and agri-processing, energy, space industry, textiles, leather and footwear industry, gems and jewellery.

9:33 PM

EU regulator recommends Pfizer's Covid pill be authorised

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that Pfizer's coronavirus antiviral drug be authorised for use in the 27-nation European Union, the first time the agency has recommended a pill for treating COVID-19.

 

In a statement on Thursday, the EU drug regulator said giving the green light to Pfizer's Paxlovoid could help people infected with COVID-19 avoid more serious disease and being hospitalised. EMA's expert committee recommended the pill be given to adults who don't require oxygen and who are at higher risk of severe disease.

 

The drug was cleared by regulators in the US and Britain in late December, although authorities noted that supplies would be extremely limited.

9:12 PM

Nashik records 4,696 new Covid cases in 48 hrs; seven casualties

With the addition of 4,696 new COVID-19 cases over the last two days, the tally of infections in Maharashtra Nashik district has reached 4,59,328, an official said on Thursday.

 

At least seven patients died of the infection in the last 48 hours, raising the toll to 8792, he said.

 

As many as 5,385 patients have been discharged from hospitals since Wednesday, taking the count of recoveries to 4,33,215, leaving the district with 17,321 active cases, the official said.

 

Of the total number of cases reported so far, 2,63,554 were from Nashik city, 1,70,357 from other parts of the district, 13,685 from Malegaon and 7,816 from outside the district, the administration said.

8:40 PM

Karnataka reports 38,083 fresh Covid cases

8:39 PM

Maharashtra reports 25,425 fresh Covid cases

8:27 PM

TN schools to re-open on Feb 1

7:15 PM

Delhi reports 4,291 Covid cases

7:02 PM

Will ask Congress workers to decide Punjab CM candidate: Rahul

6:42 PM

'There is no fight between us': Punjab CM on Sidhu

6:37 PM

Kerala logs 51,739 fresh Covid cases

Kerala logged 51,739 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday taking the caseload to 58,26,596, while the death toll rose to 52,343 with 68 COVID-19-related deaths being registered.

 

On Wednesday, the state had recorded 49,771. The state on Tuesday had registered 55,475 cases, the highest ever single day spike in the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.

 

The previous highest ever in a single day was recorded on January 20- 46,387.

 

The state Health department said 116,003 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

6:30 PM

Jaishankar tests Covid positive

4:59 PM

PM Modi at the first meeting of the India-Central Asia Summit

4:57 PM

'Early indication of plateauing Covid cases reported in some places'

4:34 PM

Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is more prevalent in India now: Govt

4:31 PM

Fully vaccinated people are 75% now: Ministry of Health