Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra reports 8,744 new cases in last 24 hours

The total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 20 million, the Union Health Ministry said

10:25 PM

Over 22 mn vaccine doses given till 9 pm today: Govt

10:12 PM

239 new Covid cases in Delhi, positivity rate 0.50%

Delhi recorded 239 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths on Monday, as the positivity rate rose to 0.50 per cent, the Health Department said, according to PTI. The new cases came from 47,689 tests, including 35,968 RT-PCR tests and 11,721 rapid antigen tests conducted the previous day, the bulletin issued by the department said.

The number of active cases stood at 1,730 on Monday. Three new deaths took the toll to 10,924, according to the data. The positivity rate rose to 0.50 per cent from 0.31 per cent a day before. On Sunday, 286 new cases and two deaths were recorded. The city had registered 321 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily count in nearly one-and-a-half months, and a death on Saturday, and 312 cases and a fatality on Friday.

9:02 PM

Maharashtra reports 8744 new Covid-19 cases, 9068 discharges

8:51 PM

LIVE: Karnataka reports 436 new cases

Karnataka reports 436 new Covid-19 cases, 478 recoveries and five deaths in the last 24 hours

 

8:33 PM

CBI begins vaccinating its officials against COVID-19

The CBI on Monday started anti-Covid-19 vaccination of its officials with its acting director Praveen Sinha taking the first shot, officials said.

 

The agency continued its investigations and prosecution process during the pandemic even though over 680 officials, about nine per cent of the total staff, contracted the virus while working on various cases and four officials succumbed to the deadly disease.

 

After getting nod from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, several senior officers led by Sinha took the jab on the first day of the process.

8:21 PM

555 new coronavirus cases in Gujarat, one death, 482 recoveries

With 555 new Covid-19 cases coming to light on Monday, Gujarat's caseload rose to 2,73,941, the state health department said.

 

The number of recovered cases went up to 2,66,313 with 482 patients getting discharged from hospitals.

 

The death of a Covid-19 patient in Ahmedabad pushed up the toll to 4,416, said the department in a release.

 

The state's recovery rate stands at 97.22 per cent.

8:17 PM

Goa sees 54 Covid-19 cases, 110 recoveries, no death

Goa's coronavirus caseload went up by 54 and reached 55,463 on Monday, while the day saw 110 people getting discharged, an official said.

 

The death toll remained unchanged at 799 for the third consecutive day, he added.

 

The state has a recovery count of 54,032, leaving it with 632 active cases, the official said.

7:59 PM

LIVE: Tamil Nadu reports 556 new coronavirus cases

Tamil Nadu reports 556 new coronavirus cases, 532 recoveries and three deaths today, according to the state health department

7:47 PM

No major report of discordant results reported by Covid-19 testing labs: Govt

Till now no "major report of discordant test results" has been reported by Covid-19 testing laboratories, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey told Rajya Sabha on Monday.

 

He was responding to a question on whether capping the price of Covid-19 tests has forced several labs to use relatively inexpensive kits raising the risk of false negative and compromising data.

 

Keeping in view fast tracking of approval of test kits, increasing indigenous manufacturing, inclusion of alternative platforms like CBNAAT and GeneXperts, improved market availability at competitive prices, the Union health ministry has advised state governments and union territory (UT) administrations to negotiate with private labs and fix mutually agreeable prices for Covid-19 testing, Choubey said.

7:46 PM

Serum seeks govt's intervention over import of Covid vaccine raw material from US

Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has sought the central government's intervention so as to enable the firm import essential raw materials from the US for uninterrupted manufacturing and supply of Covid-19 vaccines.

 

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla,Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Pune-based SII, Prakash Kumar Singh said the US government has invoked the Defence Production Act because of which the firm is facing difficulties in importing necessary products like cell culture medias, raw material, single-use tubing assemblies and some specialty chemicals from the US.

 

He said in the letter that Covishield vaccine manufactured by the SII is being widely used in India and across the globe and millions of people have been vaccinated with it.