Covid LIVE: India at forefront of global response to fight virus, says Prez

Coronavirus live update: Vaccination drive will kick off from January 16 across the country, the government in a statement issued on Saturday said. The statement added that around 30 million healthcare workers and frontline workers will be given priority during the drive followed by 270 million people above and under the age of 50 with co-morbidities. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi and other senior officials of the government. Setting the pace for vaccine rollout next week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with all chief ministers on Monday.

With 18,106 fresh Covid-19 cases, India's caseload now stands at 10,432,526. The country's death toll has mounted to 150,835. With 1,954,553 cases, Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus cases, followed by Karnataka 924,137, Andhra Pradesh  883,876, Tamil Nadu 823,181, and Kerala 790,882. 

World coronavirus update: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 89,324,792. While 63,990,133 have recovered, 1,920,754 have died so far. The US, the worst-hit country, has 22,446,955 cases, and 378,085 have died from the disease there. It is followed by India, which has 10,432,526 cases, Brazil (8,015,920), Russia (3,355,794), UK (2,957,472). The White House coronavirus task force in its latest report said that the United States may have its own version of a more transmissible variant of Covid-19 that might be helping fuel the already aggressive spread of the virus.

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