Covid LIVE: US to ease travel curbs for passengers from EU, UK, says report

Coronavirus LIVE updates: India's active Covid-19 cases are at 318,181. Delhi reported 29 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Stay tuned for corona updates

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Coronavirus updates: India recorded a spike of 30,256 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The country also witnessed 295 deaths, taking the death toll to 445,133. So far, India has recorded 33,478,419 corona cases in total. Delhi reported 28 Covid-19 cases and no fatality. Kerala recorded 19,653 new Covid-19 cases and Maharashtra 3,413 cases.

While Uttar Pradesh government has relaxed Covid-19 lockdown norms by allowing maximum of 100 people to gather at place outside Covid containment zones, Kerala has intensified lockdown restrictions in areas where the spread of the virus is at critical levels.

World coronavirus update: Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, with 229,260,563 confirmed cases and 4,704,927 deaths across nearly 200 countries recorded since China reported its first cases in December 2019. The US remains the worst-hit country with 42,900,813 cases, followed by India, Brazil, UK and Russia.

To read updates from our yesterday's blog, click here

11:36 PM

New York City to conduct weekly COVID-19 tests in schools

New York City will begin conducting weekly, random COVID-19 tests of unvaccinated students in the nation's largest school district in an attempt to more quickly spot outbreaks in classrooms.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement Monday, a day after the city's teachers' union sent de Blasio a letter calling for weekly testing instead of biweekly testing in the district with about a million students.

The mayor also announced also a change in quarantine rules for schools, no longer requiring unvaccinated students to quarantine at home if they were masked and at least 3 feet away from someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.

De Blasio said the changes followed US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and would keep students from missing vital classroom time.

11:05 PM

West Bengal logs 524 new COVID-19 cases, 12 more deaths

West Bengal on Monday witnessed a slight dip in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases with the state logging 524 new cases, pushing the tally to 15,62,173, a health bulletin said.

The toll in West Bengal rose to 18,664 with 12 more deaths due to the disease.

The state had reported 635 new cases and 11 COVID-19 deaths on Sunday.

Of the fresh fatalities, North 24 Parganas district recorded the highest at three followed by two each in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, and Nadia districts.

As many as 608 people recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the discharge rate to 93.10 per cent.

10:27 PM

Cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India crossed 81.73 cr

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 81.73 crore with over 94 lakh doses being given on Monday so far, according to data on the CoWIN portal. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night. Out of 81,73,95,763 doses administered so far, 64.8 per cent eligible population received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination and 22.2 per cent received the second dose.

India on Friday administered a record number of over 2.50 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses on the occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 71st birthday.

The daily COVID-19 vaccination in the country was over 1 crore on September 6, August 31 and August 27.

India took 85 days to touch the 10-crore vaccination mark, 45 more days to cross the 20-crore mark and 29 more days to reach the 30-crore mark, according to the ministry. The country took 24 days to reach 40 crore from 30 crore doses and then 20 more days to cross the 50-crore vaccination mark on August 6, it said. It took 19 more days to go past the 60-crore mark and took only 13 days to reach 70 crore from 60 crore on September 7. It then took just 11 days to reach 80 crore from 70 crore.

9:12 PM

District administration warns of harsh steps if Covid norms flouted in Srinagar

In view of Srinagar reporting more than half of the COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir, the district administration on Monday warned of imposing harsh measures if protocols are not followed to mitigate the spread of the virus.

"Around 50 per cent of the Covid cases are coming from Srinagar. If Covid SOPs are not followed, the administration will be forced to take strict measures again," District Magistrate Muhammad Aijaz Asad said during an inspection of the markets here.

He asserted that any laxity or negligence in following Covid-appropriate behaviour will prompt the administration to go for harsh measures to break the chain of the virus.

Asad inspected various city markets to check the implementation of Covid SOPs to combat a third wave of the pandemic, as predicted by medical experts.

9:01 PM

Tamil Nadu's active Covid-19 cases on the rise

Tamil Nadu's daily new covid cases showed a marginal dip on Monday compared to the previous day's additions, but the number of active cases continued to inch upwards and stood at 16,984.

The state clocked 1,661 new infections today, 36 lesser than on Sunday.

8:50 PM

Aaditya Thackeray seeks QR code to identify buildings with fully vaccinated people

Maharashtra Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Monday called for designing a quick response or QR code to identify buildings in Mumbai where all eligible residents have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Thackeray was speaking at a review meeting called to seek inputs for drawing up a strategy to tackle COVID-19, increase vaccination and control vector-borne diseases in Mumbai.

8:38 PM

Maharashtra sees lowest 2,583 Covid cases after seven months; 3,836 recover

Maharashtra on Monday reported 2,583 new coronavirus positive cases, the lowest after February 9 this year, and 28 fatalities while 3,836 patients recovered, a state health department official said.

The tally of COVID-19 infections in Maharashtra now stands at 65,24,498 and the death toll reached 1,38,546. The number of recoveries rose to 63,40,723, leaving the state with 41,672 active cases, the official said.

8:20 PM

MP records 8 new Covid-19 cases, zero death; active tally at 96

The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 7,92,402 on Monday with the addition of eight new cases, while no fresh death due to the infection was reported in the state, a health department official said. The death toll remained unchanged at 10,517, the official added

8:08 PM

Nagaland registers marginal rise in fresh Covid-19 cases

Nagaland on Monday witnessed a marginal rise in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases with 19 infections added during the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 30, 907.

The state also recorded more COVID-19 recoveries than fresh infections as 55 patients recovered during the day, a health bulletin said.

7:56 PM

US will relax entry rules for travelers from the UK, EU who are vaccinated against Covid-19

The US will relax entry rules for travelers from the UK and European Union who are vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a report in the Financial Times, a measure that will spur a rebound in trans-Atlantic travel.

The move is a significant easing of pandemic travel restrictions that President Joe Biden held in place as infections spread throughout the country this summer, driven by the delta variant of the virus, even as US vaccination levels continued to inch higher.

7:36 PM

Himachal Pradesh reports 234 new Covid-19 cases

7:34 PM

Lt Governor visits houses, asks residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19

Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan met the residents here at their houses on Monday to urge them to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Handing over bouquets to the residents who had received the vaccine already she said, "It is the duty of everyone to get vaccinated so that Puducherry can emerge at the earliest as a coronavirus-free Union Territory..."

7:19 PM

Covid may be heading towards endemicity in India, local flare-ups may form 3rd wave: Vaccinologist

Noting that COVID-19 may be heading towards endemicity in India, vaccinologist Dr Gangandeep Kang on Monday said local flare-ups that will be smaller and spread wider across the country may add up to form a third wave of the pandemic, but the scale will not be like before.

The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus. It is very different from the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.

7:02 PM

UK begins Covid vaccine rollout for schoolchildren

The UK's health service started to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to schoolchildren aged 12-15 on Monday as part of the latest expansion of the country's vaccination programme, PTI reported.

Almost 3 million children in this age group are eligible for one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine following the government's acceptance of the UK Chief Medical Officers' recommendation last week.

England and Scotland begin their school vaccines rollout this week, while Wales and Northern Ireland are scheduled to begin by next week.

7:01 PM

India has capacity to scale up pace of Covid-19 vaccination: WHO

India has the systems in place to administer a large number of vaccine doses and achieve the mammoth feat of vaccinating all the country's people by December 2021, says WHO Southeast Asia Regional Director, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, IANS reported.

In an interview with IANS, Singh said that India can prevent another surge together with vaccination and adhering to Covid norms, while stressing the need for global vaccine equality to defeat Covid-19 worldwide.

She also spoke on reopening schools, and how the country has picked up on routine vaccination that was delayed due to the pandemic last year.

6:12 PM