6.32 pm: Pharmaceutical firm Cipla has been allowed to import Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine to India, say reports.

6.26 pm: Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda claims that the lowest number of vaccinations in the country are taking place in West Bengal, PTI reports.

“This is the only state where you would see fake vaccination camps are being run,” Nadda claims. “We have never heard about fake vaccination.”

4.53 pm: Hong Kong will ban all flights from the United Kingdom from July 1 to curb the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, reports BBC. The UK has been classified as an “extremely high-risk” country, the highest rating Hong Kong has for travel during the pandemic.

4.51 pm: Russia records 652 new coronavirus deaths in a day, its highest single-day fatality count since the pandemic began in January last year, reports AP. With this, the toll rises to 1,34,545. There are 55 lakh cases in the country.

4.49 pm: Paul adds that the Union government will soon close the deal with Pfizer to use its vaccine in the country, reports ANI.

4.48 pm: VK Paul says that the four vaccines in India – Covaxin, Covishield, SputnikV and Moderna – are safe for lactating mothers.

4.46 pm: VK Paul says currently Moderna will not be produced in India but adds that it can be happen in future.

4.44 pm: VK Paul says that the Moderna vaccine can be stored for seven weeks at -20 degree Celsius.

4.43 pm: VK Paul says there will be no need for abridging trial for the Moderna vaccine as the Centre had fast-tracked approval of foreign-manufactured jabs earlier.

4.41 pm: VK Paul says there are 51 cases of Delta plus variant found in 12 states. He adds that there is no scientific data available to show that the variant is more transmissible or if vaccines work on it.

4.35 pm: Watch the Union health ministry briefing on Covid-19 situation.

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4.28 pm: Niti Aayog member Dr VK Paul says that the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine has been granted restricted use permission in India, reports ANI.

4.06 pm: Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital reports five cases of cytomegalovirus-related rectal bleeding among Covid-19 patients, reports ANI.

Cytomegalovirus is an infection caused due to contraction of Covid-19 and medicines used to treat it which lead to suppress immunity of patients, the hospital says in a release.

4 pm: Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank gets discharged from All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital, reports ANI. He was admitted due to post-Covid complications.

3.57 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh announces extension of Covid-19 restrictions in the state till July 10 due to concerns over the Delta Plus variant, reports ANI.

However, bars and pubs will be allowed to operate at 50% occupancy from July 1.

1.55 pm: US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson says it will not be undertaking local trials for its single-shot coronavirus vaccine in India as the government had scrapped that requirement, a spokesperson tells The Economic Times.

In April, the company had sought approval from India’s drug regulator to begin a clinical trial of the vaccine. But, a month later the Indian government scrapped local trails for “well-established” foreign coronavirus vaccines.

“Thus, the requirement for Johnson & Johnson to conduct a bridging clinical study of our single-dose Janssen Covid-19 vaccine candidate no longer exists,” the spokesperson tells the newspaper. The company adds that it is exploring ways to accelerate the availability of its vaccine in India.

1.32 pm: A sero survey conducted on a paediatric population of 2,176 in Mumbai has found that 51.18% of children have been exposed to Covid-19, with most remaining asymptomatic, reports The Indian Express. This indicates that the severity of the infection continues to remain low among children.

1.31 pm: The Delhi government asks private hospitals with 100 or more beds to scale down the number of oxygen beds reserved for Covid-19 patients to 30% of their total capacity after daily cases saw a declining trend in the national Capital, reports PTI.

1.29 pm: A study by Oxford University shows that delayed second and third doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine boost immunity against Covid-19, reports AFP.

1.25 pm: A report released by computer security company McAfee says that India and Chile were the top two countries targeted by fake apps, which lure people with promises of vaccinations, reports The Indian Express. It says that McAfee detected malware reaching 43 million residents at the end of December in the two countries.

1.23 pm: Rajasthan on Monday halted the Covid-19 vaccination drive in various districts, including Jaipur, Barmer, Bharatpur, Pali, Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunu, Pali and Pratapgarh, because of a shortage of shots, reports The Indian Express.

1.20 pm: Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma asks 25 hospitals, including 24 private health institutions, to install their own Oxygen Pressure Swing Adsorption plants to combat any oxygen shortage during the possible third of the coronavirus, reports The Indian Express.

1.19 pm: The New Zealand government says it will resume quarantine-free travel with parts of Australia next week after it lifts Covid-19 curbs in Wellington, reports Reuters.

1.12 pm: The Telangana government orders opening of schools, junior colleges, degree colleges, technical colleges and all other educational institutions in online mode on various platforms including digital, television and the T-SAT app from July 1, reports News18. The government adds taht attendance of teaching staff will be limited to 50%.

1.08 pm: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma says that his government will vaccinate 70% of the population of the state against the coronavirus disease by July-end, reports ANI. He also thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for free vaccines.

1.06 pm: Residents crossing the Karnataka-Kerala border take RT-PCR test at the Talapady border, reports ANI.

11.47 am: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says the second wave is still not over. “Cases have definitely gone down sharply in Delhi but our experience of 1.5 yrs tells us that we shouldn’t relax under any circumstance,” he adds.

11.44 am: Dr. Reddys says the commercial launch of Sputnik V may be delayed due to dependency on imported consignments and quality testing, reports The Economic Times.

11.38 am: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel writes to PM Narendra Modi, requesting him to make at least 1 crore doses of vaccine available to the state in July. He adds that the current stock of 9,98,810 jabs will last for only three days.

11.35 am: Karnataka health minister says he will visit Delhi next week to request for more vaccines.

11.34 am: The Uttarakhand government postpones the Char Dham Yatra with immediate effect till further orders after court rap, reports ANI.

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Uttarakhand HC stays decision allowing Char Dham Yatra, says it would ‘invite catastrophe’

11.33 am: Himachal Pradesh reports 76 cases of the Delta variant.

11.31 am: Jharkhand registers 90 new cases. There has been no Covid-19 fatality in the state in the last 24 hours.

11.24 am: The Supreme Court directs all states and Union Territories to run community kitchens for migrant workers till the pandemic situation continues, reports Live Law. It also asks states to implement the “one nation one ration card” scheme by July 31.

9.43 am: Not a single state reported more than 10,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, reports The Indian Express. Kerala reported the highest single-day rise with 8,063 cases.

9.39 am: Serum Institute applies for approval of emergency use authorisation of its vaccine from the European Union, reports The Times of India.

9.16 am: India reports 37,566 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in January 2020 to 3,03,16,897. The country’s toll rises by 907 to 3,97,637. India’s tally of active cases stands at 5,52,659.

9 am: Health ministry issues fresh guidelines on administering Covid-19 vaccine to pregnant women, reports ANI.

In case a woman gets infected by Covid-19, she should be vaccinated soon after delivery, says ministry.

Here are the top updates from Monday: