Coronavirus LIVE: India administers 2 million vaccine doses on Wednesday

Coronavirus live updates: Around 400 million people remain vulnerable to Covid-19 though two-thirds of India has antibodies. More than story and other updates.

11:34 PM

Andhra registers 2,527 more Covid cases, 19 deaths in a day

Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday logged 2,527 new Covid cases, taking the state's overall tally beyond 19.4 lakh, while its active caseload rose up to 23,939. As many as 2,527 more persons recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, raising the state's total number of recoveries over 19 lakh.

 

East Godavari district reported the highest number of cases at 515, Chittoor 318, Prakasam 303, West Godavari 288, Krishna 249, Nellore 206, Guntur 182, Visakhapatnam 133, Kadapa 111, Anantapur 69, Kurnool 61, Srikakulam 49, and Vizianagaram 43.

 

Except for Vizianagaram, all the other districts of Andhra Pradesh have now reported more than 1 lakh Covid cases. East Godavari tops the chart with more than 2.7 lakh cases, followed by Chittoor with 2.2 lakh cases.

11:28 PM

West Bengal reports 869 new coronavirus cases, six more fatalities

West Bengal's COVID-19 tally rose to 15,20,468 on Wednesday as 869 more people tested positive for the disease, while six fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 18,027, a health bulletin said.

 

The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state improved to 98 per cent as 981 more people were cured of the disease, it said.

 

The state now has 12,391 active cases, while 14,90,050 people have recovered from the disease to date, it said. West Bengal has thus far tested over 1.52 crore samples for COVID-19, including 54,433 in the last 24 hours. Only 87,601 people were vaccinated during the day, a health official said.

11:20 PM

Worm-infected food served to Covid patients in Palghar: BJP MLC

Maharashtra BJP legislator Niranjan Davkhare on Wednesday claimed worm-infected food is being served to patients at a COVID-19 care centre in Palghar district.

 

The MLC demanded action against the contractor supplying food to the state government-run COVID-19 care centre at Vikramgad. In an official release, Davkhare claimed food items containing worms were served to the patients at the centre in the last two days. The legislator said he has taken up the matter with district collector Manik Gursal. District administration officials were not available for comment on the issue.

11:11 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: India administers 2 million vaccine doses on Wednesday

India’s cumulative Covid Vaccination Coverage has exceeded 41.76 crore (41,76,56,752), as per the 7 pm provisional report today. The new phase of universalization of Covid-19 vaccination commenced from 21st June. More than 20.83 lakh (20,83,892) Vaccine Doses have been administered today, as per the 7 pm provisional report.

 

10,04,581 vaccine doses were administered as first dose and 95,964 vaccine doses given as second dose in the age group 18-44 years today. Cumulatively, 13,04,46,413 persons in the age group 18-44 years across 37 States/UTs have received their first dose and total 53,17,567 have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive. READ MORE...

10:55 PM

Assam records 1,547 new Covid-19 cases, 25 fresh fatalities

Assam's COVID-19 tally rose to 5,52,425 on Wednesday as 1,547 more people tested positive for the infection, while 25 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 5,053, a health bulletin said.

 

Kamrup Metropolitan district registered the highest number of new cases at 193, followed by Golaghat (147) and Dibrugarh (107). Three fresh fatalities each were reported in Dibrugarh, Golaghat and Sonitpur, while Jorhat, Kamrup Rural, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur and Sivasagar registered two deaths each.

 

The state now has 15,346 active cases, while 5,30,678 people have recovered from the disease to date, including 2,426 during the day. The recovery rate among the coronavirus patients in the state has improved to 96.06 per cent.

10:52 PM

There is no Covid case in team India: Tokyo Olympic Games official

10:41 PM

Meghalaya reports 558 new Covid cases, six more fatalities

Meghalaya's COVID-19 tally rose to 53,833 on Wednesday as 558 more people tested positive for the infection, while six fresh fatalities pushed the northeastern state's coronavirus death toll to 974, a senior health official said.

 

The state now has 4,221 active cases, while 53,638 people have recovered from the infection, Health Services director Aman War said.

 

Four fresh fatalities were reported in East Khasi Hills district and one each in Ri Bhoi and West Khasi Hills. The state has tested 7.80 lakh samples for COVID-19 to date. Till Tuesday, a total of 9.14 lakh people have been inoculated in the state, of whom over 1,26,516 have received both doses.

10:36 PM

'No deaths due to oxygen shortage': Oppn slams govt; BJP defends statement

Opposition parties on Wednesday stepped up attack on the Centre over its statement that no deaths due to oxygen shortage were reported by states and UTs during the second COVID-19 wave, alleging it was trying to hide its mistakes by "lying", but the BJP accused them of doing politics on the issue and pointed out their own governments in states did not report such fatalities.

 

Amid the row, Maharashtra, where the Congress, Shiv Sena and the NCP are in power, and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat maintained that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortage in these states, while Delhi's Health Minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain said there have been many such fatalities in the national capital and other places across the country. READ MORE...

10:25 PM

Tax data shows how Covid-19 crushed small companies while big ones made hay

The pandemic and the lockdowns lopped off three per cent of India’s economy in nominal terms in 2020-21, affecting the government’s tax collection. Personal income tax revenue fell commensurately by two per cent, but revenue from corporation tax, levied on company profits, fell much more, by 18 per cent.

 

This would generally give the impression that companies like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank, which are among the biggest corporate taxpayers, bore the brunt of the slowdown and paid less tax in FY21 as their profits were badly impacted.

 

But the reality is otherwise. READ MORE...

 

10:14 PM

50 lakh Indians died during second Covid wave due to Centre's wrong decisions: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that around 50 lakh Indians died during the second wave of COVID-19 infection due to "wrong decisions" of the Union government.

 

India has officially reported around 4.18 lakh Covid deaths in the country so far. Gandhi shared on his Twitter handle a new study by the Centre for Global Development which reported excess mortality estimates from three different data sources from the start of the pandemic through June 2021.

 

"The truth. GOI's wrong decisions during Covid second wave killed 50 lakh of our sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers," he tweeted while sharing the study.