India will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday. The announcement came soon after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Centre's handling of COVID-19 and predicted "multiple waves" in the country if vaccinations continued at the current pace.
"India's vaccination will be completed before 2021. The Health Ministry has given a blueprint for how 108 people - with 216 crore doses - will be vaccinated by December. Rahulji... if you're concerned about vaccination then pay attention to Congress ruled states... there is a mess. They are not taking the quota given to them for 18-44 year old beneficiaries from May 1," Mr Javadekar said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Delhi the government will now start the process of lifting the lockdown gradually, starting with resumption of construction activities and reopening of factories for one week from Monday.
In the last 24 hours, Delhi reported a positivity rate of around 1.5 percent and around 1,100 new cases, the Chief Minister said.
"It is time to start the unlock process. It should not be the case that people escape coronavirus but die of hunger... We have to maintain a balance between controlling the spread of coronavirus and allowing economic activities," Mr Kejriwal said during an online press briefing.
India's COVID-19 infection tally climbed to 2.75 crore as 1.86 lakh new COVID-19 cases - lowest in 44 days - were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Friday.
The death count due to the disease climbed to 3,18,895 with 3,660 fresh fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Here are the Live Updates on India Coronavirus (Covid-19 Cases) Cases:
India achieved a significant landmark in its ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive as the cumulative number of coronavirus vaccines administered reached the 20.86 crore mark on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
As of Day-133 of the vaccination drive (28th May 2021), a total of 28,07,411 vaccine doses was given out of which 25,99,754 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 2,07,657 beneficiaries received a second dose of vaccine as per the provisional report till 7 pm.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday attended the first COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Committee meeting and said that the state needs to fine-tune the processes to defeat the coronavirus with the advice of the health experts.
According to a press release, Mr Patnaik sought the advice of top health experts of the country on the strategy to tackle the future waves of the pandemic and on ways to strengthen the healthcare system.
West Bengal registered a total of 12,193 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the state government informed.
With this, the cumulative count of cases of the infection in the state reached 13,43,442.
The state also saw 19,396 recoveries and 145 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tallies to 12,18,516 and 15,120 respectively.
Airlines can operate only 50 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights from June 1 instead of 80 per cent permitted currently, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Friday.
The 1,241-bedded Indira Gandhi Hospital, which will be a COVID-19 dedicated hospital, is under construction in Delhi.
The European Medicines Agency on Friday approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus jab for 12- to 15-year-olds, the first vaccine to get the green light for children in the EU.
The Goa government on Friday defended before the Bombay High Court its controversial decision to distribute Ivermectin tablets as preventive medicine against COVID-19.
Mumbai's daily coronavirus cases today dropped below the 1,000-mark after over 11 weeks. The capital city of Maharashtra, fighting the deadly second wave of Covid infections, on Friday reported 929 cases, its lowest since March 2.
A PIL on Friday urged the Delhi High Court to issue directions for immediate vaccination of 12-17 year old children on the ground that there was an apprehension that a likely third wave of COVID-19 could affect them more.
Facing intensifying pressure for a new, more in-depth investigation of the Covid-19 pandemic origins, the World Health Organization said Friday that it was still awaiting expert guidance.
With Meghalaya witnessing a nearly five-fold spike in active Covid cases this month, the state government has decided to seek "God's intervention" and appealed to the citizens to participate in a special prayer this Sunday at their homes.
Two COVID-19 patients died due to to Mucormycosis, commonly known as Black Fungus, at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Shimla, on Friday, reported news agency ANI.
"Two patients have died of Black Fungus while undergoing treatment at IGMC. Both the patients were male. One was from Hamirpur district, while the other was from the Kasauli area of Solan district. Both patients had diabetes ketoacidosis, and the black fungus had reached their brain". Dr Janak Raj, Senior Medical Superintendent of IGMC told the news agency.
At loggerheads with the Centre over vaccine wastage data, the Jharkhand government has shot off a letter to the union government seeking rectification of wastage figures, saying CoWIN portal till May 27 erroneously showed state's wastage data at "38".
Britain on Friday approved the use of a the single shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced Friday.
The Gauhati High Court has directed the Assam government to submit a report regarding a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging that COVID-19 patients are being denied admission to private hospitals in the state despite having medical insurance.
Citing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Election Commission Friday decided to defer a proposed Rajya Sabha bypoll for a seat from Kerala.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Uttarakhand's Dehradun district has reduced significantly. The district has also reported a recovery rate of ninety percent, the District Magistrate Ashish Srivastav said, reported news agency ANI.
"There were many COVID cases in Dehradun, and around 3900 cases were recorded in a single day on May 7. This has now come down to 300 cases in 20 days. The recovery rate of Dehradun is ninety per cent, which is higher than other districts of the state," said Mr Srivastav.
The price of a drug for COVID-19 patients developed by India's top defence research body has been fixed at Rs 990 per sachet, news agency ANI reported today quoting unnamed officials.
The basic needs of children orphaned since the Covid lockdown of March 2020 must be taken care of by state government, the Supreme Court said today. This includes food, shelter, and clothing, it said.
A 118-year-old resident of Jammu and Kashmir, said he feels "confident and protected" after taking the COVID-19 vaccine. He appealed to people to get vaccinated at the earliest.
A city in Telangana, which is enforcing the statewide COVID-19 lockdown, has been stepping up the pressure on those violating the restrictions by sending them to non-Covid isolation centres.
A city in Telangana, which is enforcing the statewide COVID-19 lockdown, has been stepping up the pressure on those violating the restrictions by sending them to non-Covid isolation centres.
India on Friday supported renewed global calls for a comprehensive investigation by the WHO into the origins of COVID-19, days after US President Joe Biden asked American intelligence agencies to find out how coronavirus emerged in China.
There were growing demands by a sizeable number of countries including the US and Australia to investigate whether the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 from an animal source or from a laboratory accident in December 2019
In March, the World Health Organisation (WHO) came out with a report on the origins of the virus but it had failed to meet the expectations of the US and several other leading countries.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the follow up of the WHO report and further studies deserve the understanding and cooperation of all.
"The WHO convened global study on the origin of COVID-19 is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions," he said.
India will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar declared Friday afternoon, as the centre lashed out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for pointing out that less than three per cent of the country's 130 crore had received both shots so far.
Apollo Group of Hospitals has announced that it will start administering the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, across its hospitals in India from the second week of June, at an estimated price of Rs 1,195 per dose.
On Thursday, Apollo Hospitals said they will start administering Sputnik V from the second week of June.
Delhi will begin unlocking gradually from Monday, thanks to the efforts of the two crore people of the city which helped bring under control the second COVID-19 wave, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today.
"Today there was meeting with the disaster management authority. To avoid losing the advantage gained in the past month, everyone is of the opinion that the opening up must be slow. There has to be some balance," he said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met influential American lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties on Thursday and discussed developments pertaining to Quad and the cooperation on vaccines with them.
Vaccines from China's Sinopharm successfully contained Covid-19, according to a study published in a prestigious U.S. medical journal, the first time detailed findings from a late-stage trial of a Chinese shot have appeared in the scientific literature.
India's Covid case count rose to over 2.75 crore as 1.86 lakh more tested positive in a day. This is the lowest daily rise in 44 days. The steady dip comes as scientists are studying if the B.1.617 strain is behind the surge in the last two months."
20,70,508 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 33,90,39,861.
The daily positivity has declined to 9 per cent. It has been less than 10 per cent for four consecutive days, the ministry said, adding the weekly positivity rate has further declined to 10.42 per cent.
The active cases have further reduced to 23,43,152 comprising 8.50 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 90.34 per cent.
Amid speculations of innoculation with different doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan on Thursday assured that no mixing of vaccines is taking place in the state.
While addressing reporters, Karnataka Deputy CM said, "No mixing of vaccines is taking place in the State. The people are being given the same dose of vaccines."
"There are speculations that the healthcare workers are being given two different shots of vaccines. However, it is not true and there is no proof of it", the Deputy Chief Miniter said.
More than 100 cases of multi-organ inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) have been reported in northern India in the last five days as post-Covid reaction, Indian Academy of Pediatric Intensive Care said citing its data.
In India, 26 per cent population is under 14 years of age and around half of this percentage is aged under five years, according to the Indian Academy of Pediatric Intensive Care.
Germany will start offering coronavirus jabs to children over the age of 12 from June 7, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.
The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab for 12- to 15-year-olds on Friday. It is already authorised in the EU for those over 16.
"Children and young people aged 12 and over will have the chance to book a vaccine appointment from June 7," Merkel said after talks with Germany's regional leaders.
The Delhi government will give compensation amount of up to Rs 5 lakh to families of those COVID-19 patients who died due to lack of oxygen.
This amount will be an add-on to the already-announced Rs 50,000 compensation to families of those who died due to COVID-19 infection.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has formed a committee of six doctors to prepare the framework of the compensation.
West Bengal continued to record a declining trend of fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday as it recorded 13,046 new infections, raising the tally to 13,31,249, a health department bulletin said.
The death count mounted to 14,975 after 148 more fatalities were reported from different parts of the state, it said.
West Bengal now has 1,17,154 active cases, while 11,99,120 patients have recovered from the disease, including 19,121 since Wednesday.