Coronavirus in India LIVE updates: Maharashtra reports 5,218 new Covid cases; Mumbai sees 50% rise in daily cases with 2,479 new infections

Austria is dropping compulsory Covid-19 vaccination for adults saying it is unlikely that the measure, suspended since March, would raise one of western Europe's lowest vaccination rates, Health Minister Johannes Rauch said on Thursday. "The vaccine mandate won't lead anyone to get vaccinated. Surveys have shown that 13% of people who live in Austria will not get vaccinated despite the vaccine mandate," Rauch of the Greens told a news conference.

The subject expert committee on Covid-19 of India's drug regulator will on Friday review the applications of Serum Institute of India seeking emergency use authorisation to use Covovax among those aged two to seven years and seven to 11 years, official sources said. The two applications were submitted by Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII) on March 16 and June 1.

With a surge in Covid-19 infections in Delhi, hospitals are also witnessing a slight increase in admissions, but most of these patients, doctors say, have comorbid conditions. According to the Delhi Corona app, out of 9491 designated Covid-19 beds, 263 (2.77 per cent) are occupied while 24 out of 1178 ICU beds with ventilators have patients. On June 15, 182 (1.9 per cent) patients were in hospitals while on June 8, 85 (0.88 per cent) beds were occupied.

Denmark plans to offer a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose this autumn to almost 2.5 million people residing in nursing homes or aged over 50, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday. The new vaccine plan, part of the latest strategy to combat the rising coronavirus cases, will start on Sept. 15 with the elderly and vulnerable, and become applicable on Oct. 1 for all citizens aged over 50, Frederiksen said at a press conference.

China reported 13 locally transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, including three in Beijing and nine in Shanghai and one in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions in the past 24 hours, according to the National Health Commission's report Thursday. A total of 18 local asymptomatic carriers were newly identified in four provincial-level regions, including seven in Jilin and five in Liaoning, Xinhua News Agency reported citing the municipal health commission. As of Wednesday, 93 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after which the recovered persons' tally reached 219,454, the National Health Commission said in its Thursday report.