Covid LIVE: Kerala sees below 10,000 new cases after 4 days

Coronavirus live updates: Indians asked to watch their 'October, November, December' and put on facemasks on trains.

7:40 PM

Kerala sees 9,470 new cases

After a four day gap, Kerala logged below 10,000 cases on Saturday -- 9,470--, and 101 deaths, taking the caseload to 47,84,109 and the toll to 26,173. The state had on October 5 logged 9,735 cases, which shot up to 12,616 the following day, touched 12,288 on October 7 and came down to 10,944 on October 8. Kerala has been showing a declining trend in daily fresh cases after crossing the 30,000 mark post Onam festival in August.

 

6:38 PM

Maharashtra: Incentive of Rs 1.21 lakh for resident doctors treating patients

3:58 PM

Delhi sees 30 new cases

3:52 PM

Centre exhorts states to achieve the goal of 1 bn doses

Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, on Saturday interacted with Principal Secretaries and Mission Directors (National Health Mission) of all major states and reviewed the progress of Covid vaccination in these states. He underlined that the immediate milestone in India’s Covid vaccination journey is the completion of administration of 1 billion doses. India has so far administered 940 million vaccine doses.

1:30 PM

Singapore opens quarantine-free entry from US, UK, others

Singapore is pressing ahead with plans to reopen its borders despite battling a record Covid-19 outbreak, saying it will allow vaccinated travelers from nine more countries including the U.S. and U.K. to enter without having to quarantine. 

 

The other places to qualify are Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain with travel to Singapore to start from Oct. 19 and South Korea from Nov. 15, the government said Saturday. The number of Covid tests will be cut from four to two, helping to reduce cost and inconvenience, according to authorities.

1:24 PM

PM Lee says Singapore to take 3-6 months for new normal', rules out lockdown

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday said that Singapore will take from three to six months to get to a new normal once the COVID-19 cases are stabilised and assured that the city-state cannot be closed off indefinitely.

 

While the country has to be prepared to see many coronavirus cases for some time to come, Singapore cannot be locked down and closed off indefinitely, Lee said in his televised address to the nation on the pandemic.

 

1:14 PM

Quantitative restriction on export in place for certain syringe types for 3 months: Health ministry

The Union health ministry on Saturday said the government has put in place a "quantitative restriction" on export of certain categories of syringes for three months to boost their domestic availability and uptake.

The restriction applies to just three categories of syringes, it said and added that syringes are vital to sustain the momentum of the programme to vaccinate all eligible citizens against COVID-19 in the shortest possible time.

The ministry clarified it is not an export ban on any kind/type of syringes, but is only a "quantitative restriction" on the export of certain type of specified syringes, for limited duration of three months.

With a view to ensure adequate availability of syringes, used to administer COVID-19 vaccine, the government of India has enacted this quantitative restriction on the export of three category denominations of syringes only for three months, it said.

1:05 PM

Singapore PM pushes for living with Covid, without the fear

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wants to push on with the strategy of living with Covid-19 without being paralyzed by fear, weighing in on a divisive issue about the pace of opening up a trade-reliant economy with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. 

 

Lee said in a televised address that Singapore can’t stay “locked down and closed off indefinitely,” but at the same time there will “quite many Covid-19-cases for some time to come.” 

 

12:50 PM

Recoveries top fresh Covid-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh, tally at 54,865

Single-day recoveries surpassed fresh COVID-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh, where the coronavirus tally rose to 54,865, a senior health department official said on Saturday.

 

Fifty more patients were discharged since Friday, while 21 new infections were registered during the period, he said.

 

As many as 54,196 people have recovered from the disease so far, State Surveillance Officer Lobsang Jampa said.

 

The death toll in the frontier state increased to 280, after a 75-year-old man succumbed to the virus on Friday.

 

Arunachal Pradesh now has 389 active cases.

12:40 PM

Ladakh reports 5 new Covid cases

Five fresh COVID-19 cases have been reported from Ladakh, taking the virus tally to 20,848 while the active cases in the union territory stands at 60, officials said on Saturday.

 

Ladakh has registered 208 Covid-related deaths -- 150 in Leh and 58 in Kargil -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

 

Two patients of coronavirus were cured and discharged from a hospital in Leh, thereby taking the number of recoveries to 20,580, the officials said.

12:30 PM

Russians flock to Serbia for Western-made Covid-19 vaccines

When Russian regulators approved the country's own coronavirus vaccine, it was a moment of national pride, and the Pavlov family was among those who rushed to take the injection. But international health authorities have not yet given their blessing to the Sputnik V shot.

 

So when the family from Rostov-on-Don wanted to visit the West, they looked for a vaccine that would allow them to travel freely a quest that brought them to Serbia, where hundreds of Russian citizens have flocked in recent weeks to receive Western-approved COVID-19 shots.

 

Serbia, which is not a member of the European Union, is a convenient choice for vaccine-seeking Russians because they can enter the allied Balkan nation without visas and because it offers a wide choice of Western-made shots. Organized tours for Russians have soared, and they can be spotted in the capital, Belgrade, at hotels, restaurants, bars and vaccination clinics.

12:21 PM

India to be at forefront to ensure those supporting terror don't hamper collective path to recovery from Covid

India will be at the forefront to ensure that those supporting terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation do not waylay us on our collective path to resilience and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's envoy at the United Nations has said.

 

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti, speaking at the UN General Assembly General Debate of the Second Committee on Crisis, Resilience and Recovery Accelerating Progress towards the 2030 Agenda' on Friday, said that forces inimical to us are posing challenges as the world grapples with the challenges of the pandemic and climate change.

 

We meet at a time when the Covid crisis is nowhere near the end. However, with the introduction of vaccines, there is hope that we will finally be able to turn the corner The message to the world is for the international community to come together to combat the pandemic and build a resilient system that will drive our recovery, he said.

11:33 AM

Brazil's Covid-19 death toll tops 600,000

Brazil, which has the world's second-highest death toll from Covid-19 behind the United States, saw its death toll exceed 600,000 on Friday.

 

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, the South American nation logged 600,425 deaths and 21,550,730 cases, after registering 615 deaths and 18,172 cases in the last 24 hours.

11:27 AM

Covid-19: Thane district's caseload up by 270, fatality count by one

The coronavirus infection tally in Thane district of Maharashtra increased to 5,61,401 with the addition of 270 cases, while the death toll rose by one to 11,428, an official said on Saturday.

 

These cases and fatality were reported on Friday, he said.

 

The district's mortality rate currently stands at 2.03 per cent, the official added.

 

In neighbouring Palghar district, the case count has gone up to 1,37,106, while the death toll is 3,278, another official said.

11:27 AM

South Korea reports 1,953 more Covid-19 cases, 329,925 in total

South Korea reported 1,953 more cases of Covid-19 as of midnight Friday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 329,925.

 

The daily caseload was down from 2,175 in the prior day, but it hovered above 1,000 for 95 straight days since July 7. The daily average tally for the past week was 1,987.

 

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

 

Of the new cases, 707 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people residing in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 629 and 131.