Coronavirus LIVE: Stage set for world's biggest vaccination drive today

Coronavirus live updates: In the last 24 hours, India registered 15,515 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the tally to 10,528,346. Globally, more than 93.5 million people have been infected by the virus

8:58 PM

Rajasthan records 310 new coronavirus cases

Rajasthan on Friday reported 310 new cases of COVID-19 taking the infection tally to 3,14,682, a health department bulletin said. No coronavirus-related death was recorded in the state, it said.

 

The new cases included 56 in Jaipur, 42 in Jodhpur, 41 in Kota, 27 in Bhilwara, 21 in Nagaur, besides cases reported from other districts of the state.

 

The total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the state stands at 2,744 while 5,608 patients are under treatment. So far, 509 people have died in Jaipur, 299 in Jodhpur, 221 in Ajmer, 168 in Kota, 167 in Bikaner, 120 in Bharatpur, 112 in Udaipur, 109 in Pali and 100 in Sikar. According to the bulletin, 3,06,330 people have been discharged after treatment till now.

8:42 PM

Health ministry takes stock of vaccine preparation, assures jabs are safe

A dedicated covid control room at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the health ministry, which has been analysing the spread of coronavirus in the country, will be monitoring the smooth roll-out of the covid vaccines through the Co-WIN digital platform.

 

Health minister Harsh Vardhan visited the control room on Friday to take stock of the preparations for the nationwide launch of the vaccination drive on January 16.

 

The Co-WIN platform is meant to enable real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries of the vaccine. The digital platform will be used to assist programme managers across the states by tracking beneficiary coverage, dropouts, sessions held and total vaccine utilisation. READ ON...

8:22 PM

Maharashtra reports 3,145 new Covid-19 cases, 3,500 recoveries and 45 deaths today

8:03 PM

Nepal approves AstraZeneca's India-made Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use

Nepal has granted emergency approval for AstraZeneca's India-made Covishield vaccine against the novel coronavirus that has claimed nearly nearly 1,950 lives in the country. The decision to grant the approval for the vaccine was taken on Friday, Nepal's Department of Drug Administration (DDA) said in a statement.

 

"Conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorisation of Covishield vaccine against COVID-19 in Nepal," the statement said.

 

Drug major AstraZeneca has partnered with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, for the supply of the vaccine to the Indian government and also to a large number of low and middle-income countries.

7:43 PM

Just one new Covid-19 case in Noida since March

Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded just one new case of COVID-19 on Friday, the lowest single-day count since the outbreak of the pandemic in March, even as the district's infection tally reached 25,260. The active cases in the district also came down to 217 from 238 the previous day, while its recovery rate reached 98.78 per cent, according to data released by the Uttar Pradesh Health Department for a 24-hour period.

 

On the brighter side, 21 more patients got discharged during the period with the overall recoveries reaching 24,952, the fifth highest in the state. Gautam Buddh Nagar has a death toll of 91 with a mortality rate of 0.36 per cent. The recovery rate of patients stood at 98.78 per cent, the statistics showed.

 

Gautam Buddh Nagar stands ninth among districts in the state in terms of active caseload and 28thin mortality due to the pandemic, it showed. Meanwhile, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state came down to 9,581 from 10,080 on Thursday, while the overall recoveries reached 5,77,475 and the death toll climbed to 8,553 on Friday, data showed.

7:20 PM

Ground report: Covid vaccine dilemma for healthcare workers

7:08 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: 114 people in India test positive for UK variant of Covid

The number of people who have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country has climbed to 114, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday. The ministry said the situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to states.

 

"The total number of persons found infected with the newUKvariant genome is 114," the ministry said.

 

Earlier, the ministry had said all these people have been kept in single room isolation at designated Health Care facilities by respective state governments. The close contacts of these people have also been put under quarantine and comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others, it said, adding that genome sequencing on other specimens is going on.

6:40 PM

Beginning of end of Covid-19, says Harsh Vardhan ahead of vaccination drive

A day before a massive countrywide vaccination drive against coronavirus is set to commence, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the step is "probably the beginning of the end" of COVID-19.

 

Speaking at the 146th India Meteorological Department (IMD) foundation day, he, however, cautioned that even if the vaccination drive is on, there should not be lowering of guard and people must follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour.

 

"Tomorrow is an important day...it is the last phase of the battle against coronavirus. I say, this is probably the beginning of the end of COVID now which is going to start tomorrow," Vardhan, who is also Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Minister, said.

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India's COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 via video conferencing.

6:14 PM

Delhi records 295 fresh Covid-19 cases, positivity rate dips to 0.44%

Delhi on Friday recorded 295 fresh COVID-19 infections, the lowest in more than eight months, which pushed the caseload to 6,31,884 while the positivity rate slipped to 0.44 per cent. The national capital had recorded 293 cases on April 26, according to official data.

 

The death toll mounted to 10,732 with 10 new fatalities.

 

The number of active cases in the national capital came down to 2,795 from 2,937 the previous day. The positivity rate dropped to 0.44 per cent. The 295 fresh cases came out of 66,921 tests conducted the previous day, including 38,990 RT-PCR tests and 27,931 rapid antigen tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department.

5:27 PM

482 new coronavirus cases take Uttar Pradesh's tally to 595,614

The COVID-19 death toll in Uttar Pradesh rose to 8,558 on Friday with 15 more fatalities, while 482 new cases pushed the infection tally to 5,95,614.

 

"The number of active cases in the state stands at 9,581, of which 3,572 are under home isolation. So far, 5,77,475 people have recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals," Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters here.

 

He said in the past 24 hours, 482 new cases have been reported and 956 people have been discharged after recovery. The death toll stands at 8,558, Prasad said. Over 2.59 crore tests have been done in the state so far, with over 1.21 lakh conducted on Thursday, he said.

4:43 PM

BMC dispatches Covishied to vaccination centres in Mumbai

4:31 PM

Germany passes 2 million mark for coronavirus cases

Germany has passed the mark of 2 million confirmed COVID infections since the start of the pandemic. The country's disease control agency said Friday that there were 22,368 newly confirmed cases over the past 24-hour period, taking the total to 2,000,958. The Robert Koch Institute said there have been 44,994 deaths linked to the coronavirus, an increase of 1,113 in a day.

 

German news agency dpa reported that newspapers carried significantly more death notices during the period until October 2020 than in the previous year. The Saechsische Zeitung daily, which covers the eastern state of Saxony now badly affected by the outbreak, had three instead of the usual two obituary pages.

4:17 PM

Man tests positive for new coronavirus strain in Uttarakhand; first case in state

A man here has tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus and this the first such case in Uttarakhand, a health official said on Friday. He had come in contact with five of his relatives who had recently returned to Dehradun from the UK, District Nodal Officer for COVID Rajeev Dikshit said. Strangely, his relatives have all tested negative for the new strain, but they are COVID-19 positive, he said, adding that the man, in his forties, has never been to Britain.

 

Their primary and secondary contacts are being traced and their samples are being taken, Dikshit said.

 

In total seven samples were sent for genome sequencing to the National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi and only the man's sample has tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus. The result came on Thursday, he said.

4:05 PM

India took 'very decisive' steps to deal with coronavirus pandemic: IMF chief

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has praised India for taking "very decisive" steps to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences and asked the country to do more this year to support an accelerated transformation of the economy.

 

Participating in a global media roundtable on Thursday, the chief of the International Monetary Fund predicted a less bad outlook for India in the upcoming World Economic Update due to the steps taken by it.

 

When I called on everybody to stay tuned for January 26, that applies very much to India. You would see a picture in our update that is less bad. Why? Because the country actually has taken very decisive action, very decisive steps to deal with the pandemic and to deal with the economic consequences of it, Georgieva said.

3:42 PM

Chinese mainland reports 144 new Covid-19 cases

The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 144 new Covid-19 cases, of which 135 were locally transmitted and the rest nine arrived from outside, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

 

Of the locally transmitted cases, 90 were reported in Hebei, 43 in Heilongjiang, and one each in Guangxi and Shaanxi, the commission said in its daily report. No new deaths due to the disease were registered, and one suspected case arriving from outside the mainland was reported in Shanghai. 

 

By the end of Thursday, a total of 4,474 imported cases had been reported on the mainland. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland has so far reached 87,988.