Coronavirus LIVE Updates: As per the new rules, weddings can be held in marriage halls with 25 people for 2 hours and those seen to be flaunting the restraints or not following these may be fined Rs 50,000
LATEST Updates: The government of Maharashtra has announced further restrictions for the state that will come into force at 8 pm on 22 April and will be imposed till 7 am on 1 May.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to forthwith provide oxygen by whatever means to the hospitals in the national capital which are treating serious patients and is facing scarcity of oxygen.
With 67,468 new cases and 568 deaths, Maharashtra's cases tally 4,027,827 and the toll climbed to 61,911.
Congress leader and West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury took to Twitter to announce that he has tested positive for COVID19 and said that he will continue campaigning for West Bengal Assembly Elections "virtually".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday ruled out the possibility of lockdown in the state in the wake of the second wave of and said universal vaccination for those who are above 18 will start from 5 May.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday announce night curfew in the coastal state between 10 pm to 6 am, starting tonight till 30 April.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the state government will vaccinate everyone above 18 years of age free of cost.
Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said its vaccine Covaxin has shown efficacy of 78 percent against mild, moderate and severe cases of , as per Phase III interim analysis results.
ICMR DG Balram Bhargava said 2-4 per 10,000 breakthrough infections have been reported after vaccination and added that this is a very small number.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that 146 districts have positivity rate of over 15percent and these are facing the strain in terms of hospital care
The Tripura government has decided to impose a seven-hour night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am in Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) area from Thursday onwards for an indefinite period to contain the spread of , a notification said.
The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb.
Zakir Hussain Hospital in Nashik is a COVID-dedicated facility. Around 150 patients were either oxygen-dependent or on ventilators, said news reports.
The hospital in Nashik has over 170 patients and at least 150 critical patients were on oxygen support, according to news reports.
The ICMR study showed that Covaxin neutralised the UK and Brazil variants of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the Indian double mutant variant.
The new variant has a major mutation called E484K — found in several of the internationally identified variants that help it evade the immune system, according to reports.
The single-day rise in new infections inched closer to 3 lakh, pushing India's tally to 1,56,16,130, while the toll increased to 1,82,553 with a record 2,023 daily fatalities.
The total number of active cases in India climbed to 21,57,538 on Wednesday, said the Union health ministry in its latest report. With this, the active caseload in the country comprise 13.8 percent of total infections.
With the death of 2,023 more patients in the past 24 hours, the toll in the country increased to 1,82,553 on Wednesday, said the health ministry in its latest data.
On Tuesday, the issue of a stricter lockdown in Maharashtra was discussed in the Cabinet where the majority was in favour of a long lockdown in the state, extending for a week or two.
Slamming the Narendra Modi government for its "monumental incompetence" in COVID management, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday said the Centre allowed open market sale of vaccines only after shipments to foreign countries led to depletion of stocks in India.
Mamata also alleged the schedule for West Bengal Assembly election was decided to assist the BJP, and voiced displeasure at the rejection of her proposal to club the
polling for the remaining three phases.
Addressing an election meeting at Bhagwangola in Murshidabad district, the Trinamool Congress supremo claimed the prime minister allowed export of vaccines to other countries to "boost his image" while states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal struggled to get the doses they required to combat the pandemic.
"Yesterday the prime minister said the medicine (vaccine) will be available in open market. Where is the open market, where is the availability? You have already shipped out the majority of stock to foreign destinations," she alleged.
India, as part of vaccine diplomacy decided to export life-saver jabs to several countries including Pakistan, notwithstanding persistent tensions between the two countries.
"We are facing a huge deficit of vaccines due to faulty planning," she said, calling the Centre "a government of monumental incompetence".
The TMC supremo said more and more cases are being reported from Kolkata, North 24 Parganas and Asansol belt and the state government is trying to manage the crisis with limited stock.
"For six months the central leadership did not bother to plan, they were busy plotting electoral battles in Bengal," the TMC chief alleged.
Training her guns on the BJP, she claimed the party brought in "lakhs of people" from outside the state to help in the campaign and many of these people were infected with
COVID.
These people will leave but they have already spread the virus and the onus to manage the new crisis will be on us, she said.
"Bengal's COVID situation was firmly under control but now the rate of infection is rising again," she said and advised people not to panic. "We will again put it (pandemic) under a tight leash."
