LIVE: Kerala logs 4,557 new cases; 10 mn Covid doses administered today

52 more deaths took the state's Covid-induced toll to 41,439

7:32 AM

Covid-19 pandemic: Russia registers record for virus-linked deaths in Oct

Russia's state statistics agency says that 74,893 people with COVID-19 died in October the highest monthly tally in the pandemic that comes as the country grappling with a major surge of coronavirus infections and deaths.

A report by Rosstat on Friday brought the overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to over 537,000 almost twice the widely-cited toll reported by Russia's state coronavirus task force to date. Rosstat uses broader criteria in its tallying system than the task force.

7:32 AM

Farmers' union to meet on Saturday to decide on future course of agitation

A crucial meeting of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) will be held at the Singhu border on Saturday to decide on the future course of the agitation.

 

Farmer leaders said any decision on whether to send five names to the Centre for a panel on MSP will be taken in the meeting as they have not yet received any formal communication from the government.

 

The meeting will also ponder over pending demands of the protesting farmers which include legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) of crops, withdrawal of cases against farmers, compensation to kin of farmers who lost their lives during the agitation.

 

7:30 AM

Par panel recommends evaluation of vaccines in view of new Covid strain

Amid growing concerns over the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, a parliamentary committee has recommended that the efficacy of Covid vaccines must be evaluated and concerns with regards to the new strain developing immunoescape mechanism critically addressed.

 

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, which presented its report on Friday, also recommended that the government should conduct more research and examine the need of administering booster doses of vaccines to contain the new strain of the virus.

 

In its report, the committee said it apprehends that a rise in mutations in the virus may lead to reporting of more virulent and transmissible strain of the Covid virus in the country and strongly recommended the Union Health Ministry to adopt a zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy and closely track Covid cases across the country.