INDIA TO START SECOND ROUND OF VACCINATION FROM 1 MARCH

The government on Wednesday announced that people above the age of 60 and those over 45 with co-morbidities will be able to receive Covid-19 vaccines from 1 March.

Speaking at a media briefing, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that the vaccinations will be given free of cost at around 10,000 government centres spread across the country.

Vaccines will also be provided at 20,000 private centres, but there, people will have to pay to get inoculated, he added. This comes as the Bengal government has made it mandatory for passengers travelling in flights from Maharashtra, Kerala and two other states to produce a negative Covid-19 report.

In the meantime, India reported 13,742 new Covid-19 cases and 104 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to data released by the Union Health Ministry. With this, the country’s total caseload has risen to 1,10,30,176, while the death toll has surged to 1,56,567. The total number of active cases is now at 1,46,907, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease is now over 1,07,26,702, the Ministry said.

Mumbai on Wednesday recorded 1,167 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily spike in about four months, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The tally of cases in the country’s financial capital thus rose to 3,21,698, while the death toll reached 11,453 with four new fatalities. 

Kerala has recorded 4,106 new cases with the tally now touching 10.45 lakhs. The active number of cases in the state currently sits at 52,689.

Gujarat, on the other hand, reported 380 new cases taking the total to 2.68 lakhs.

In Goa, as many as 52 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while 35 were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection on Wednesday, an official from the health department said. With the addition of the latest cases, the state’s Covid-19 tally has reached 54,700, of which 53,416 patients have recovered so far, the official said.

Andhra Pradesh reported 94 new cases and 66 recoveries in the last 24 hours. There were no deaths reported in this period. This has taken the total number of cases to 8,89,503 with the total recoveries at 8,81,732. The total death toll stands at 7,168 in the state while active cases are at 603.