Coronavirus LIVE: Over 10,000 cases in Maharashtra for second straight day

Coronavirus live updates: Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu cumulatively account for 82% of the new cases reported in the past 24 hours. Stay tuned for corona-related news

11:59 PM

Ireland reaches half million vaccinations

Ireland has given out half a million coronavirus vaccinations about two months after the first inoculation.

 

Prime Minister Micheal Martin says the health department announced the figure on Saturday. It includes both first and second doses and comes 63 days after the first shot was given to a Dublin senior citizen.

 

Good news, Martin tweeted. The vaccines are having a significant impact on mortality and serious illness.

11:24 PM

Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue plan clears crucial Senate hurdle

An exhausted Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill Saturday as President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums.

 

After laboring through the night on a mountain of amendments nearly all from Republicans and rejected bleary-eyed senators approved the sprawling package on a 50-49 party-line vote. That sets up final congressional approval by the House next week so lawmakers can send it to Biden for his signature.

 

We tell the American people, help is on the way," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Citing the country's desire to resume normalcy, he added, Our job right now is to help our country get from this stormy present to that hopeful future.

11:11 PM

Nagaland reports 1 new Covid-19 case, tally rises to 12,211

Nagaland's Covid-19 tally rose to 12,211 on Saturday as one more person tested positive for the infection, a health official said.

 

The new case was reported in Kohima, Health Department Director Dr Denis Hangsing said.

 

One more person has been cured of the disease, taking the recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state to 97.88 per cent, he said.

10:42 PM

Over 33,000 people vaccinated in Delhi on Sat; highest daily count so far

Over 33,000 beneficiaries received shots of Covid-19 vaccine in the national capital on Saturday, the highest number of people vaccinated in a single day since the starting of the inoculation exercise on January 16, officials said.

 

In the age bracket of 60 and above, 17,288 people were vaccinated while in the 45-59 years age group, 2,824 beneficiaries received the jabs, a senior official said.

 

"Today, Delhi witnessed the highest number of vaccinations done so far since the start of the exercise on January 16," he said.

10:29 PM

Vaccination centre to be set up in Parliament House for inoculating MPs and family members

10:15 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: No vaccination sessions will be held tomorrow, says BMC

Coronavirus LIVE: No vaccination sessions will be held tomorrow, says BMC

10:14 PM

Sri Lanka to receive 264,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine under Covax facility

Sri Lanka says it will receive 264,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on Sunday as its first batch of Covid-19 vaccines under the Covax Facility.

 

The vaccines, which are being delivered through UNICEF, mark the first allocation of 1.44 million doses of vaccines from the Covax Facility the Indian Ocean island nation will receive, said the ministry of health. The doses will be procured in stages until May.

 

Sri Lanka has so far received 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in neighbouring India, which donated half of the doses. Sri Lanka purchased the balance from India's Serum Institute.

10:12 PM

Maharashtra's Covid surge due to lack of fear, pandemic fatigue: Centre

The surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra could be due to lack of fear of the disease among people and pandemic fatigue, the Centre said on Saturday while asking the state to not let its guard down.

 

The observations were shared by the central government after a team of experts comprising Joint Secretary of Health Ministry Nipun Vinayak, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Deputy Director Sanket Kulkarni and National Institute of TB and Respiratory Diseases Professor Ashish Ranjan visited the state on March 1 and 2.

9:41 PM

Nashik sees 645 new Covid-19 cases

Nashik district in Maharashtra on Saturday reported 645 new coronavirus positive cases, taking the count of infections to 1,25,332, Health officials said.

 

With six more persons succumbing to the viral infection, the total death toll in the district rose to 2,133, they said.

9:40 PM

104-year-old man born months before Spanish Flu outbreak gets first dose of Covid vaccine

A man born a few months before the outbreak of the Spanish Flu in 1918 received his first shot of Covid-19 vaccine at a private facility here, hospital authorities said on Saturday.

 

Tulsi Das Chawla, 104, was given a dose of Covieshield at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Friday and has not exhibited any adverse effects, they said.

 

Born on November 1917, the Patel Nagar resident, retired from the Indian Foreign Service in 1975, a hospital spokesperson said.

 

Wearing a full-sleeved V-neck red shirt, the centenarian flashed a V-sign and obliged some of the photographers.

 

"I urge everyone, who is eligible, to come forward and take the Covid vaccine. It is totally safe," Chawla was quoted as saying in the statement issued by the hospital.

9:16 PM

Night curfew imposed in four Punjab districts amid rising cases

A night curfew was imposed in Punjab's four districts from Saturday to tackle a recent surge in coronavirus cases.

 

The orders came after Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan and Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta held a meeting to review the coronavirus situation with all DCs, district police chiefs and civil surgeons through a video conferencing.

 

The districts where the night curfew has been imposed are Jalandhar, SBS Nagar, Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala.

 

The night curfew will remain in place in the districts from 11 pm to 5 am.

9:16 PM

People from four states need to produce negative Covid reports to enter Rajasthan

People from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will need to produce negative RT-PCR test certificates to enter Rajasthan, according to the state home department

9:05 PM

Punjab: District police chiefs told to implement Covid norms strictly

Punjab Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Saturday directed all deputy commissioners and district police chiefs to implement coronavirus guidelines strictly in the wake of a recent surge in infections in the state.

 

Mahajan issued the directions during a meeting over the state's preparedness for the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an official statement.

 

The second wave of the disease has already started and all the DCs and police chiefs must ensure that large gatherings like marriages, religious events and social functions be restricted as per the guidelines of the government and Covid monitors should be deputed at marriage palaces and other places of gatherings, she said.

8:40 PM

TN reports 562 new Covid-19 cases, 4 deaths

Tamil Nadu logged 562 fresh Covid-19 cases and four more fatalities on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 8,54,554 and the toll to 12,517.

 

Recoveries were marginally less than new cases with 560 people getting discharged, taking the cumulative to 8,38,085, leaving 3,952 active cases.

 

Chennai accounted for most number of cases at 243, taking the total in the city to 2,36,728.

8:24 PM

Maharashtra reports over 10,000 cases for second straight day

8:21 PM

Goa sees 70 Covid-19 cases, 45 recoveries, no death

Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 70 and reached 55,361 on Saturday, while the toll remained unchanged at 799 and the recovery count rose by 45 to touch 53,862, an official said.

 

The active caseload in the state is 700, he added.

7:55 PM

Punjab reports 1,179 new coronavirus cases

7:28 PM

Andhra Pradesh logs 115 new Covid-19 cases

Andhra Pradesh reported 115 Covid-19 cases, 93 recoveries and one death in the last 24 hours, as per the State Health Department on Saturday.

 

With this, the total number of cases in the state has escalated to 8,90,556 including 921 active cases and 8,82,462 total recoveries.

 

However, the total number of deaths has mounted up to 7,173 including the new death. One death was reported from the Chittoor district.

6:48 PM

Gujarat man infected with Covid days after taking second dose of vaccine

A health official in Gujarat has tested positive for coronavirus days after taking the second dose of the vaccine against the infection, officials said Saturday.

 

The man, a health officer in Gandhinagar's Dehgam taluka, had taken the first dose on January 16 and the second one on February 15. He had fever and and his samples were examined, which detected the COVID-19 infection on February 20 said Gandhinagar's Chief Health Officer Dr MH Solanki.

6:37 PM

Russia reports over 11,000 fresh coronavirus cases

Russia's coronavirus tally has increased by 11,022 cases over the past 24 hours, slightly down from the 11,024 cases recorded the day before, the government's coronavirus response center said in an update on Saturday.

 

"Over the past day, 11,022 coronavirus cases were confirmed across 85 Russian regions, including 1,290 cases (11.7 per cent) without clinical symptoms," the center said.

6:22 PM

2,791 new Covid-19 cases in Kerala, 16 deaths

Kerala reported 2,791 new Covid-19 cases, including 15 health workers, and 16 related deaths on Saturday, taking the caseload to 10,75,576 and the toll to 4,287.

 

As many as 3,517 people were cured of the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 10,27,826, health minister K K Shailaja said.

 

A total of 61,764 samples were examined on Saturday, taking the overall number to 1,18,40,927, she said in a release.

 

The test positivity rate stood at 4. 52 per cent.

6:05 PM

Delhi reports 321 new cases and one death in last 24 hours

5:54 PM

Senate works through night with virus aid on path to passage

The Senate worked through the night and past sunrise Saturday on Democrats' showpiece $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill after a deal between leaders and moderate Sen. Joe Manchin on emergency jobless benefits broke a logjam that had stalled the package.

 

The compromise, announced by Manchin, D-W.Va., and a Democratic aide late Friday and backed by President Joe Biden, cleared the way for the Senate to begin a marathon series of votes on amendments before eventual approval of the sweeping legislation.

 

The bill then would return to the House, which was expected to give it final congressional approval and send it to Biden to sign.

5:03 PM

Centres asks states witnessing spike in Covid cases to accelerate vaccination

The Centre has asked states and union territories witnessing surge in new COVID-19 cases and high active caseload to continue with the strategy of "test, track and treat" that had yielded rich dividends at the height of the pandemic and accelerate vaccination for priority population groups in districts reporting higher infections on mission mode.

 

In a meeting held on Saturday, they have been asked to collaborate with private hospitals to open up vaccination time-table for a minimum of 15 days and maximum of 28 days at a time.

 

They have been asked to increase the share of RT-PCR tests in districts dependent on high levels of antigen testing, refocus on surveillance and stringent containment of those areas in selected districts which are seeing cluster of cases and carry out an average close contact tracing of minimum of 20 persons per positive case.

4:39 PM

10 mn doses from India won't impact poor nations' vaccine access, says UK

UK Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi has defended a shipment of 10 million doses of Covishield en route from India amid some concerns that it would impact supplies of COVID-19 vaccines for poorer nations, according to PTI. The minister in charge of overseeing the UK's vaccination programme said the vaccine doses developed by the Serum Institute of India, in collaboration with Oxford/AstraZeneca, were always intended for Britain and that assurances have been sought that the delivery would not impact other supplies.

We, of course, sought assurances from AstraZeneca and from Serum that our doses will not impact their commitment to the low-income and middle-income countries of the world, Zahawi told the Associated Press in an interview on Friday. And they are making about 300 million doses available to low- and middle-income countries. You've seen those arrive in Accra in Ghana, last week and the Philippines this week and Ivory Coast as well. And you're going to see much more of that volume also going out, he said, as per PTI.

4:30 PM

Army gets approval to vaccinate veterans, dependants of personnel

4:08 PM

Narendra Singh Tomar receives first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Delhi

Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was administered the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital here on Saturday, according to ANI. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi and appealed to all those who are eligible to get inoculated.

 

3:39 PM

Punjab: Jalandhar admin imposes night curfew to tackle coronavirus

Punjab's Jalandhar administration imposed a night curfew from Saturday to tackle the recent surge in coronavirus cases in the district, according to PTI. The night curfew will remain in place in the district from 11 pm to 5 am, said Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori. He said the order will be effective from Saturday till further directions.

Jalandhar on Friday had reported the maximum 134 fresh cases in the state. There are a total of 856 active cases in Jalandhar as of now, according to a medical bulletin. Punjab has been witnessing a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases for nearly four weeks. Last month, the Punjab government had authorised deputy commissioners (DCs) to impose night curfew in coronavirus hotspots in their districts if needed.

3:25 PM

Hema Malini receives Covid-19 vaccine shot in Mumbai

Veteran Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Hema Malini on Saturday became the latest Indian celebrity to take a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to ANI. The 72-year-old star took to her Twitter handle and shared pictures of her taking the vaccination at Cooper Hospital in Mumbai. Along with the photos, she tweeted, "I have taken the Covid vaccine along with the public at Cooper Hospital."

 

3:01 PM

Centre rushes teams to Maharashtra, Punjab amid surge in Covid cases

Centre rushes high level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra & Punjab in view of increase in daily COVID cases being reported by these States. They're being deployed to assist State Health Depts in Covid surveillance, control & containment measures: Govt of India, according to ANI