Coronavirus LIVE: Over 10.8 mn Covid vaccine doses given so far, says govt

Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra recorded over 6,000 cases in a single day. India's active Covid-19 cases are on the rise again

10:56 AM

Africa's Covid-19 cases near 3.8 million

African countries have reported 3,799,029 Covid-19 cases as of Friday evening, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

 

Meanwhile, the death toll from Covid-19 on the continent has risen to 100,359, it added.South Africa has reported 48,708 deaths from Covid-19, the highest death toll in Africa, followed by

 

Egypt and Morocco with 10,201 and 8,524, respectively.

 

A total of 3,349,323 Covid-19 patients have recovered across the continent so far.

10:17 AM

Brazil registers 51,050 new Covid-19 cases, 1,308 more deaths

Brazil registered 51,050 new Covid-19 infections and 1,308 deaths from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the national counts to 10,081,676 and 244,765 respectively, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

 

Brazil, which has the world's second-largest Covid-19 death toll after the US, has seen a daily average of more than 1,000 deaths in the past month, the Xinhua news agency reported.

 

Sao Paulo state, a nationwide epicenter of the pandemic, has seen 1,960,564 cases and 57,499 deaths since the country's first case was detected in the state on February 26, 2020. The state government on Friday modified part of its contingency plan against Covid-19, expanding restrictions in interior cities, such as Barretos and Presidente Prudente, due to resurging cases.

10:05 AM

Coronavirus testing: 786,618 samples tested on Friday

9:55 AM

EU doubles contribution to global vaccine programme with $600 mn funding

The European Union (EU) has announced to double its contribution to COVAX, an international programme devised to help low and middle-income countries to have more access to Covid-19 vaccines.

 

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the G7 leaders' virtual summit on Friday that the bloc was pledging an additional 500 million euros (about $606 million), bringing its contribution to the global initiative to one billion euros, Xinhua news agency reported. Read on...

9:52 AM

Novavax, Serum Institute plans to supply 1.1 billion doses to COVAX

US-based vaccine major Novavax on Friday said along with its Indian partner Serum Institute of India (SII) it would supply 1.1 billion doses of Covid vaccine to Gavi-led COVAX.

 

The vaccine candidate NVX-CoV2373 has demonstrated clinical efficacy against the original Covid-19 strain and both of the rapidly emerging variants in the UK and South Africa. Read on...

9:47 AM

Coronavirus in India: Latest update by MoHFW

Active cases: 143,127 (Net increase: 3,585)

Deaths: 156,212 (Net increase: 101)

Cured: 10,678,048 (Net increase: 10,307)

Total cases: 10,977,387 (Net increase: 13,993)

Total vaccination: 10,715,204 (Increase over previous day: 527,197)

9:37 AM

US, Canada, Mexico extend non-essential travel restrictions till March 21

The United States, Mexico and Canada extended nonessential travel restrictions till March 21 to contain the pandemic, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement.

 

"To protect our citizens and prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the United States, Canada, and Mexico are extending the restrictions on non-essential travel at our land borders through March 21," DHS said on Friday.

8:40 AM

Singapore monitors patients vaccinated against coronavirus

Singapore will continue to observe COVID-19 vaccinated patients to look out for side effects, collect this data and refine the criteria for the inoculation programme following the death of an elderly man after receiving his first dose of Pfizer vaccine recently, The Straits Times reported on Saturday.

 

Commenting on the death, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Saturday, "I want to assure Singaporeans that we will continue to monitor data not only locally, but also internationally, so that it is a continuous process that will refine our processes and criteria to ensure that it is safe."