Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra reports over 10,000 new cases and 53 deaths

Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has reported 9,000 new cases. Stay tuned for corona-related news

6:07 PM

Lifestyle, open air may have kept coronavirus at bay in villages: Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said rural parts of the country may have remained largely unaffected by coronavirus because the people there follow a healthy lifestyle and live in open, airy places.

 

The vice president was speaking after laying the foundation stone of a multi-specialty hospital here.

 

"It should be studied why people living in rural areas of the country largely remain unaffected by coronavirus. I believe that the hard work they do and open places they live in has a lot to do with it," he said.

 

"We live in urban areas and avoid the sun. Now we have everything closed, our cars are closed, houses are closed, our restaurants are closed, offices are closed and now our minds are also getting closed," he said.

5:47 PM

New Tokyo Olympic president tries to assure Japan on safety

The new president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has begun holding weekly news conferences hoping to win over a doubting Japanese public with the postponed games opening in just under five months.

 

Seiko Hashimoto is trying to assure everyone that the Olympics will be safe and secure, a phrase she repeated a dozen times Friday in her inaugural news conference.

 

Polls show about 80% of Japanese think the games should be postponed again or canceled amid the pandemic.

 

The situation around coronavirus doesn't go easy on us, Hashimoto said.

5:19 PM

Odisha reports 91 new Covid-19 cases, tally at 337,620

Odisha's Covid-19 tally mounted to 337,620 on Friday as 91 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said.

 

Of the fresh cases, 53 were reported from quarantine centres and 38 detected during contact tracing.

 

Sambalpur district recorded the maximum number of new cases at 14, followed by Sundargarh (13) and Balasore (12).

5:05 PM

Africa welcomes vaccines from WHO's Covax facility, but warns against 'selfishness'

Urgent calls for Covid-19 vaccine fairness rang through African countries on Friday as more welcomed or rolled out doses from the global Covax initiative, with officials acutely aware their continent needs much more.

 

Rich countries should not be so selfish, Pontiano Kaleebu, head of the Uganda Virus Research Institute, said as his country prepared to receive its first doses. It's a concern, and everyone is talking about it. The East African nation of 45 million people was seeing the arrival of under 1 million vaccine doses 864,000. It's the first batch of a total of 18 million Covax doses for Uganda, but when all will arrive is not known.

 

That number is not going to do much, said Monica Musenero, an epidemiologist and presidential adviser, though she added that we can advocate for more vaccines, but we should also appreciate what we've got.

5:01 PM

Pandemic eats up Rs 13 trillion of household income: Report

Households have lost a whopping Rs 13 trillion of their incomes from the pandemic-induced job losses, according to a report that also warns of the economy losing momentum by mid-2021 on a likely slowdown in consumption demand that has propped the economy in recent months.

 

Describing the growth momentum seen in second and third quarters of FY21 as a positive surprise, economists at UBS Securities India led by Tanvee Gupta Jain said the economy could slow by mid-2021 as households that lost incomes during the pandemic to the tune of Rs 13 lakh crore could drag consumption with a lag.

4:34 PM

Mumbai: 10 restaurant workers test positive, quarantined

Ten out of 35 employees of a restaurant in Andheri area of Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus and were shifted to the mega COVID care centre in Bandra Kurla Complex, a civic official said on Friday.

 

He said the restaurant management has been given strict instructions to depute new staff and follow all sanitisation processes and outbreak protocols before restarting operations.

4:06 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh gets Covid vaccine at a civil hospital in Mohali

3:58 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: We have provided 'Made in India' vaccines to around 50 countries so far, says Modi

3:52 PM

LIVE: India provided medicines, other essentials to over 150 nations: Modi at virtual summit with Swedish PM

3:43 PM

Coronavirus-hit Maharashtra's economy to contract by 8% in FY21: Survey

Maharashtra's economy is expected to see an eight per cent negative growth during 2020-21 with industry and services sectors bearing the maximum brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, the Economic Survey 2021 tabled in the state Legislature on Friday said.

 

Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar tabled the survey in the state Assembly, while Minister of State for Finance Shambhuraj Desai presented it in the Council.

 

The state's economy is expected to witness an eight per cent negative growth and it is estimated to be Rs 19,62,539 crore, the survey said.

3:28 PM

Australia asks EU to stop blocking vaccine exports

Australia is seeking assurances from the European Union's executive arm that future shipments of vaccines will not be blocked, after Italy banned a large export of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shots.

 

The shipment to Australia of more than a quarter-million doses was blocked from leaving the 27-nation bloc the first use of an export control system instituted by the EU to make sure big pharma companies respect their EU contracts.

 

The ban was requested by Italian authorities and approved by the EU in a move that frustrated the Australian government.

 

The world is in uncharted territory at present, it's unsurprising that some countries would tear up the rule book," finance minister Simon Birmingham told Sky News Australia on Friday.

3:06 PM

Puducherry adds 30 fresh Covid-19 cases, tally rises to 39,824

Puducherry logged 30 new coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours taking the overall tally in the union territory to 39,824, a top Health department official said on Friday.

 

No fresh fatality was reported from any of the four regions-Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam-, the Director of Health and Family Welfare Services S Mohan Kumar said in a release.

3:04 PM

Maharashtra Governor gets first dose of Covid-19 vaccine

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was administered the first shot of a Covid-19 vaccine at the state-run JJ Hospital here on Friday.

 

According to an official statement, Koshyari (78) took the dose of Covaxin, the homegrown vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the ICMR and the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

 

Director of Medical Education and Research Dr T P Lahane, Dean of Sir J J Group of Hospitals Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar and Medical Superintendent Dr Sanjay Surase were present on the occasion.

2:52 PM

WHO planning to scrap interim Wuhan report on virus origins probe

The World Health Organization is planning to scrap the interim report on its recent probe into the virus origins in Wuhan, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

 

The report comes after calls for fresh probe that is independent of WHO team into virus origins from a group of international scientists.

2:09 PM

Pak not planning to buy vaccines; to rely on herd immunity: Official

Pakistan is not planning to buy vaccines anytime soon as it aims to tackle the COVID-19 challenge through herd immunity and donated vaccines from friendly countries like China, authorities have said.

 

So far, four vaccines Sinophram (China), Oxford-AstraZeneca (UK), Sputnik-V (Russia) and Cansino Bio (China) have been registered in the country.

 

National Health Service (NHS) Secretary Amir Ashraf Khawaja while briefing the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday said that the Pakistan government has no plan to buy vaccines anytime soon and aims to tackle the COVID-19 health challenge through herd immunity and donated vaccines, Dawn newspaper reported.

 

Herd immunity occurs when a large number of people, usually 70 to 90 per cent, become immune to a contagious disease after being infected to it.