LIVE: Night curfew in Maharashtra's municipal corporation areas till Jan 5

Coronavirus live updates: At 1,899,352, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 909,469, Andhra Pradesh 878,723, Tamil Nadu 806,000, and Kerala 705,869

3:01 AM

UK supermarkets warn of gaps on shelves if transport links to Europe not restored

Gaps will start to appear on British supermarket shelves within days if transport ties with mainland Europe are not quickly restored, the UK's two biggest grocers warned on Monday.
 

Freight from France is being disrupted as part of a wider suspension of travel links with Britain to try to curb a new faster spreading strain of COVID-19.

The French government has closed its border to arrivals from Britain for 48 hours, which means no lorries can leave the English port of Dover, the main gateway to Europe.
 

Market leader Tesco and No. 2 player Sainsbury's both said if the disruption continued food supplies would be impacted.
 

"If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit," said Sainsbury's.

Tesco highlighted the same products, apart from broccoli.
 

British supermarkets are facing record Christmas demand due to COVID-19 restrictions on the hospitality industry and on travel and there were fears the transport crisis could trigger panic buying.
 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Britons to shop normally and said French President Emmanuel Macron was keen to resolve the crisis within hours.

Though large queues snaked around supermarkets across the UK on Monday, food retailers said they had not seen any major changes in customer buying behaviour on Monday.
 

They said it was in line with what they expected for Christmas week, pointing out that Dec. 21 is always one of the busiest days on the retail calendar.
 

2:56 AM

Congress to vote on $900 billion coronavirus package as funding deadline looms

The U.S. Congress on Monday was scrambling to pass a $900 billion coronavirus aid package meant to stimulate a pandemic-hit economy, following seven months of partisan bickering over the measure's contents.
 

The White House-backed bill includes $600 payments to most Americans as well as additional payments to the millions of people thrown out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, just as a larger round of benefits is due to expire on Saturday.
 

"We're going to stay here till we finish tonight," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters at the Capitol.
 

At 5,593 pages, the wide-ranging bill, likely the final major piece of legislation for the 116th Congress that expires on Jan. 3, has a net cost of roughly $350 billion, McConnell said. He said more than $500 billion in funding comes from unspent money Congress already had authorized.
 

The House of Representatives and Senate were aiming to pass the measure by the end of Monday.
 

An outspoken opponent of deficit spending, Republican Senator Rand Paul, told reporters that he would not attempt to stop or delay passage of the bill as lawmakers rush to get home for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
 

The legislation also expands a small-business lending program and steers money to schools, airlines, transit systems, and vaccine distribution.
 

Parents working at home during the pandemic would be allowed to carry over unused flexible spending account money for children's day care and other expenses for the next two years.
 

The stimulus package, the first Congress-approved aid since April, comes as the pandemic is accelerating in the United States, infecting more than 214,000 people every day and slowing the economic recovery.
 

2:54 AM

Biden to receive coronavirus vaccine as US inoculation effort mounts

US President-elect Joe Biden plans to publicly receive an injection of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday in an effort to boost confidence in its safety ahead of its wide distribution next year.
 

Biden has said he would make the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 315,000 Americans and infected more than 17.5 million, his top priority when he takes office on Jan. 20. At age 78, he is in the high-risk group for the highly contagious respiratory disease.
 

A Biden transition official said he would receive the first dose of a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc, while Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would likely get the vaccine next week. Biden's vaccine will be administered by Tabe Masa, Nurse Practitioner and Head of Employee Health Services at ChristianaCare Hospital in Newark, Delaware, the transition team said.
 

Democrat Biden will inherit the logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans, as well as the task of persuading people who worry its development was rushed for political reasons to take it.
 

Republican President Donald Trump frequently has played down the severity of the pandemic and overseen a response health experts say was disorganized, cavalier and sometimes ignored the science behind disease transmission.
 

Efforts to limit the economic fallout on Americans from the pandemic were boosted on Sunday when congressional leaders agreed on a $900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months, with votes likely on Monday.
 

11:44 PM

Punjab reports 338 new Covid-19 cases, 535 discharges

11:43 PM

Odisha fixes rapid antigen test by private labs at Rs 100

Odisha Government fixes the maximum cost for Rapid Antigen Test conducted by private laboratories at Rs 100 (inclusive GST) within the State.

11:00 PM

BMC issues guidelines for passengers arriving from UK

10:37 PM

Centre should make it clear that it would provide Covid vaccine free of cost to all in country: Rajasthan CM

Centre should make it clear that it would provide Covid-19 vaccine free of cost to everyone in country: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot

10:35 PM

Over 39,500 had cough, fever among 17.2 mn residents surveyed in Delhi for Covid-19

Authorities in Delhi have surveyed over 17.2 million residents so far for coronavirus-like symptoms to assess the spread of infection and found that just over 39,500 had cough, fever and other indicators of the viral disease: Officials

9:59 PM

No flights from UK to land post 2:30 am in Mumbai, says BMC Commissioner

No flights to land from UK post 2:30 am tomorrow. Passengers who've boarded flights will undergo institutional quarantine. Asymptomatic ppl will be quarantined at hotels while symptomatic passengers will be admitted at GT Hospital: Iqbal Singh Chahal, Commissioner, BMC

9:26 PM

West Bengal reports 1,515 new Covid-19 cases, 2,342 discharges

9:20 PM

Russian envoy says Moscow to jointly produce Sputnik V with New Delhi

Russian envoy to India Nikolay Kudashev says Moscow will jointly produce Sputnik V vaccine for Covid-19 with New Delhi and it will be manufactured by Indian pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories

9:05 PM

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation aims to train its staff for vaccination by January 7, 2021

8:53 PM

European medicines regulator approves Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine

The European Medicines Agency recommended conditional approval for a coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer to be used across the European Union, weeks after the shot was first granted permission under emergency provisions in Britain and the United States.

 

Following a closed-doors expert meeting Monday, the EU drug regulator said it was recommending the shot be licensed for use in people over 16 years of age, with some exceptions. The pharmaceutical companies will need to submit follow-up data on their vaccine for the next year.

 

This is really a historic scientific achievement," said Emer Cooke, the head of the agency. It is a significant step forward in our fight against the pandemic. READ MORE...

8:50 PM

Tamil Nadu reports 1,071 new Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths in the last 24 hours

Tamil Nadu on Monday logged 1,071 new COVID-19 cases and 12 more fatalities, taking the caseload to 8,07,962 and the death toll to 11,995. With 1,157 patients getting discharged, 7,86,472 people have got cured and active cases dipped to 9,495, a health department bulletin said. All the 12 deceased had co-morbidities and the death toll of 11,995 covers 3,960.

 

The fresh cases include 306 reported by Chennai, Coimbatore 109 and neighbouring Chengelpet and Kancheepuram 65 and 35 respectively. The count of over eight lakh total cases include 2,22,580 from the state capital.

 

As many as 63,016 samples were tested and cumulatively 1,35,23,032 specimens have been examined till date under the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction method in 235 COVID labs of the state.

8:40 PM

Covid-19 vaccine will be offered on priority to nearly 30 crore people: Health Minister