11.31 am: The Dominican Republic, in urgent need of vaccines, requests India to provide it 70,000 doses, Hindustan Times reports.

“As we enter 2021 and persevere in our fight against Covid-19, Dominica’s population of 72,100 is in urgent need of enough doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine,” the country’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit writes in his letter to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. “I, therefore, request, with great humility and respect, that you assist us by donating the doses we need to make our population safe (optimally 70,000 first and second doses).”

10.58 am: As many as 1,597 health workers got inoculated in Mumbai on Tuesday as the vaccination drive resumed after certain technical glitches, Hindustan Times reports.

10.56 am: Germany extends lockdown till February 14 amid concerns over mutant coronavirus strains, Reuters reports.

10.51 am: Around 1,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine have been found to be damaged or frozen at a cold storage at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital in Assam’s Cachar district, India Today reports. The health department asks the hospital for a report.

10.48 am: Britain on Tuesday registered a record 1,610 coronavirus deaths, though the number of new cases declined, AFP reports.

10.44 am: Delhi health officials on Tuesday said that 1,000 vaccine doses had been wasted so far, Hindustan Times reports.

“As per the guidelines, vials of both Covishield or Covaxin have to be used and discarded within four hours of being opened,” an unidentified official told the newspaper. “Each Covishield vial has 10 doses, and the low turnout is only adding to the wastage.”

10.39 am: The Indian Council of Medical Research says vaccine recipients will be followed up with for three months after they get the second dose, ANI reports.

9.53 am: The health ministry allows on-spot registration of beneficiaries for vaccination, Hindustan Times reports. This has been done to address the problem of low turnout for vaccination.

9.38 am: India registers 13,823 new cases on Wednesday, taking the overall count to 1,05,95,660. The new cases are 37.3% higher than Tuesday’s count. The country’s toll rises by 162 to 1,52,718. India’s active cases stand at 1,97,201, while the number of recoveries reach 1,02,45,741.

9.23 am: Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar says healthcare workers in the state will not be allowed to choose between coronavirus vaccines, NDTV reports. Resident doctors had expressed doubts about the safety and efficacy of Covaxin and demanded that they be allowed a choice between it and Serum Institute’s Covishield.

9.19 am: The Serum Institute of India on Tuesday responded to a lawsuit filed against it by a pharmaceutical company over the vaccine brand name Covishield, PTI reports. Serum Institute said that both the companies dealt with different categories of products and there was no scope for confusion over the trademark.

9.15 am: India begins exporting coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday. Apart from Bhutan, Maldives and Bangladesh will be among the first neighbouring countries to receive the inoculations, according to Hindustan Times. The vaccines will also be sent to Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles.

9.05 am: United States’ coronavirus toll crosses 4 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the top updates from Tuesday: