LIVE: CBSE waives off exam fees for students who lost parents due to Covid

Coronavirus LIVE updates: India's active Covid-19 cases drop to 309,575. Delhi reported 28 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Stay tuned for corona updates

8:42 AM

India to resume export of Covid vaccines from October: Mansukh Mandaviya

India will resume export of Covid vaccines from next month after ensuring domestic demand is met, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday.

 

Mandaviya said India will ramp up production in the fourth quarter (October-December) of the calendar year to help the world and fulfill the country’s commitment towards COVAX - the global alliance for Covid vaccines - under its Vaccine Maitri programme.

 

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.

 

India has exported 66.3 million Covid vaccine doses till April, of which 10.7 million doses have been given as grant by the Indian government, 35.7 million doses as commercial exports by vaccine makers, and 19.8 million doses sent to COVAX. Read on...

8:23 AM

Non-stop flights to Canada resume

Air India and Air Canada are resuming their flights from Delhi to Toronto and Vancouver with easing of entry restrictions by the North American country. While Air Canada's first departure from Delhi will be on Wednesday, Air India is yet to announce its schedule but has informed Delhi airport about its plan to start flights from Sunday.
 

Canada earlier required travellers from India to do a RT-PCR in a third country before giving them access.

 

Air Canada will only accept RT-PCR or a rapid PCR test taken no more than 18 hours before departure from a testing centre at Delhi airport. Read on...

8:22 AM

Mumbai sees 419 Covid-19 cases, 5 deaths; tests near 10 million mark

Mumbai on Monday reported 419 COVID-19 cases and five deaths, taking the tally to 7,38,524 and the toll to 16,058, a civic official said.

 

The discharge of 447 people took the recovery count to 7,15,394, which is 97 per cent of the overall tally, leaving the metropolis with 447 active cases, he said.

 

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation data showed the number of tests in Mumbai went up to 99,93,863 after 31,860 samples were examined in the last 24 hours.

 

The city's caseload doubling time stands at 1,194 days and the average growth rate of cases between September 13 and 19 was 0.06 per cent, the civic data revealed. Read on...

8:10 AM

Criticism shouldn't be at cost of national dignity: Adani on Covid handling

Billionaire Gautam Adani on Monday defended handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, saying criticism should not be at the cost of national dignity and destroying the confidence of a nation.

 

The fact that India fought back the pandemic should in itself be a lesson for all, that there can be no better defence than aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) to mitigate future black swan events, he said at Priyadarshini Academy's global awards event.

 

Over the next two decades, the Adani Group chairman said, India will have the biggest and the youngest middle class that ever existed and the country will be the market that every global company will target. READ ON...

8:01 AM

Janet Yellen renews call to raise debt limit to avoid 'catastrophe'

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen renewed her call for Congress to raise or suspend the US debt ceiling, saying the government will otherwise run out of money to pay its bills sometime in October.

 

Writing in a WSJ op-ed, Yellen said “the overwhelming consensus among economists and Treasury officials of both parties is that failing to raise the debt limit would produce widespread economic catastrophe.” Read on...

7:57 AM

Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine safely bolsters antibodies in younger kids

Pfizer and partner BioNTech SE said their Covid-19 vaccine was safe and produced strong antibody responses in children ages 5 to 11 in a large-scale trial, findings that could pave the way to begin vaccinating grade-school kids within months.

 

The long-awaited results offer one of the first looks at how well a Covid vaccine could work for younger children.

 

Pressure to immunise kids has been on the climb in the US, where a new school year has started just as the delta variant is fueling a surge in cases.

7:41 AM

UK records another 36,100 coronavirus cases

Another 36,100 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 7,465,448, according to official figures released on Monday.

 

The country also recorded another 49 coronavirus-related deaths, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the UK now stands at 135,252. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.

 

The latest data came as a trial of what has been described as the world's first multi-variant vaccine booster against Covid-19 kicked off in the British city of Manchester on Monday.