Covid LIVE: Maharashtra reports 58,993 cases in a day; over 8,500 in Delhi

Coronavirus live updates: Pune has recorded 12,090 cases, Delhi 7,437 Covid cases in the last 24 hours. PM Modi said Covid situation is very grim in some states. Stay tuned for corona-related news

1:18 PM

Open up Covid-19 vaccination to everyone who needs it: Rahul Gandhi to PM Modi

Open up Covid-19 vaccination to everyone who needs it: Rahul Gandhi to PM Modi

1:15 PM

Odisha and Uttarakhand propose mandatory Covid-19 negative test of Railway passengers coming into their states

Odisha and Uttarakhand propose mandatory Covid-19 negative test of Railway passengers coming into their states.

12:59 PM

Vaccine shortage serious concern, not 'festival': Rahul Gandhi's dig at PM Modi's Utsav call

12:33 PM

India records highest single-day coronavirus cases spike of over 131,968

India registered a record single-day spike of 1,31,968 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, pushing its infection tally to 1,30,60,542, while the death toll increased to1,67,642with 780 more fatalities in a day, highest since October 18, the Union Health Ministry data showed.

 

Registering a steady increase for the 30th day in a row, the number of active Covid-19 cases increased to 9,79,608, which is 7.5 per cent of the total infections, according to the data updated at 8 am.

 

The recovery rate in the country has further dropped to 91.22 per cent, it added. Read on...

12:16 PM

Coronavirus update: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel takes his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel takes his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College in Raipur.

12:01 PM

Media reports about migrant workers going home due to Covid-19 not correct: Northern Railways

Media reports about migrant workers going home due to Covid-19 are not correct. We had done a walk-through at New Delhi Railway station to check if there is any kind of rush or not. I request media to visit all our stations& show the truth: Deepak Kumar, CPRO, Northern Railway

11:48 AM

75 vaccination centres in Mumbai suspend inoculations, reports PTI

Scores of places vaccinating people against Covid-19 are running out of doses in Mumbai, reported news agency PTI. At least 75 centres, mostly at private hospitals, suspended vaccination Friday morning. The remaining centres are likely to suspend vaccinations later today as their stocks are depleting, PTI said quoting unnamed sources. A large centre in the business district of Bandra Kurla Complex has suspended inoculations, PTI said.

 

11:15 AM

Covid-19 patient in Japan receives lung transplant from living donors

Doctors in Japan say they have successfully performed the world's first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from Covid-19. The recipient, identified only as a woman from Japan's western region of Kansai, is recovering after the nearly 11-hour operation on Wednesday, Kyoto University Hospital said in a statement. It said her husband and son, who donated parts of their lungs, are also in stable condition, reported the Associated Press.

11:01 AM

Minister fires back at centre, says Maharashtra hasn't wasted vaccines

Maharashtra’s Health Minister on Friday rejected the central government’s claim that more than five lakh vaccine doses were wasted in the state. "Wastage quoted is actually national average wastage percentage. State wastage is lesser than half of the national average wastage percentage," said Rajesh Tope on Twitter.

10:46 AM

Coronavirus update: Odisha reported 1,282 new Covid-19, 228 recoveries and one death on April 8

Total positive cases: 3,46,808

Total recoveries: 3,38,890

Active cases: 5,941

Death toll: 1,924

10:45 AM

UP HC junks plea to defer UP Panchayat polls amid Covid-19 surge

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea to defer the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat polls amid a surge in the coronavirus cases saying the state government has already declared an anti-Covid protocol for the elections.

 

While notifying elections for the Panchayat Raj Institutions, the state government has already declared a protocol to adhere during the poll campaign and polling, a division bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery said, dismissing the plea made by advocate Amit Upadhyay.

 

This court has also issued certain directions in a Public Interest Litigation relating to the corona pandemic for the state government to follow during the entire process of elections, the bench pointed out.

10:26 AM

Church services under Archdiocese of Bangalore to be suspended from April 7-20

All the public religious services in Churches, Chapels & institutions of Bengaluru Urban & Bengaluru Rural districts of our Archdiocese will be suspended from 7th to 20th April. However, Churches/Chapels maybe kept open for private visits and adoration: Archdiocese of Bangalore

10:25 AM

Pune: Case registered against at least 50 traders at Vishrambaug Police station for violating Covid guidelines

Pune: Case registered against at least 50 traders at Vishrambaug Police station for violating Covid guidelines during their yesterday's protest against restrictions imposed by state government, in view of rising Covid cases.

10:22 AM

'India's Covid-19 case fatality is not lower than of other countries'

The biggest value of the Covid-19 vaccine is reducing severe disease and mortality," says Ramanan Laxminarayan, founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, a health think-tank. "Why waste the vaccine on 20-year-olds?"

 

As the global Covid-19 ground zero shifts to India, as The Wall Street Journal put it, with nearly 100,000 cases per day, we spoke to Laxminarayan, also a senior research scholar at Princeton University and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington, on what the second wave means for India and what India should do to control it. Read on...

9:49 AM

Ujjain: Five Covid-19 patients die, kin allege lack of oxygen supply

Some people, along with members of the Congress, protested at the district hospital in Ujjain city of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, alleging that five members of their families, who were undergoing treatment for coronavirus, died due to lack of oxygen supply there.

 

These deaths were reported at the hospital located in Madhav Nagar on Wednesday night.

 

However, talking to PTI, district collector Ashish Singh said there was no problem of oxygen supply at the facility. Read on...