Few finance ministers announce any taxation measure that could upset the stock market. Ms Sitharaman decided to take that risk, observes A K Bhattacharya.
In addition, 22,533 'Make in India' ventilators have been delivered to various states, Union territories and central institutions, the ministry said, adding that the Centre is also ensuring the installation and commissioning of the machines.
The national recovery rate was recorded 93.68 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.46 per cent.
Facing an acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, the Odisha government on Monday decided to float a global tender for procuring the vaccine to inoculate the states entire population, Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra said.
The official asserted that following social distancing, wearing masks, maintaining hand hygiene and avoiding big gatherings remain vital in preventing the spread of the infection.
In 2014, Vardhan had defeated Kapil Sibal, then with the Congress, to win the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat while in the 2019 polls, he trounced Congress' Jai Prakash Agarwal.
The lockdown in India has been a timely, graded, proactive and pre-emptive public health measure to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and has been part and parcel of the government's overall strategy, Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and Chairman, Empowered Group 1, said at a media briefing on the COVID-19 situation.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease is 1,48,17,371, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.12 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said it has issued fresh guidelines for surveillance with regard to COVID-19 that will remain in force till January 31, as it asked the states and union territories to keep a strict vigil to prevent any rise in cases during the New Year celebrations and the winter season.
The new rates will be Rs 900, Rs 1,400 and Rs 1,800 per test, adding it was the fourth time rates had been revised from the original Rs 4,500.
The active cases have declined to 4,24,025 and comprise 1.36 per cent of the total infections.
Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) is sitting on 200 million doses of Covishield that were manufactured in December and are set to expire in September. The company is likely to destroy these vaccines if nothing works out, Sohini Das reports.
The active cases have reduced to 16,35,993 comprising 5.73 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 93.08 per cent.
Whenever the Census operation resumes, it will capture the impact of Covid-19 to a large extent, including the extra-lethal second wave, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
Olympic Council of Asia has postponed the 19th edition of the multi-sports Games
'We are the only country in the world where everybody gets a digital vaccination certificate immediately... Then as we open up, as they did yesterday, which I think is a welcome move, you will have lots and lots of points where people will come in'
The reason is that because of the hybrid immunity after three waves of natural infection and a large proportion of adults receiving both doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the susceptible pool has come down drastically, Lahariya said.
The Centre has said that on-site registration for COVID-19 inoculation for healthcare and frontline workers aged 18 to 44 years will now only be available at government COVID vaccination centres.
The ministry further stated that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the anti-coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection with COVID-19 as this will help in developing a strong immune response against the disease.
Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Uttar Pradesh government Thursday decided to increase the duration of weekend lockdown by 24 hours, announcing that it will now cover Mondays too.
He claimed that the Shiv Sena MPs were asking the Centre for more vaccines while the state has only utilised 44 per cent of what has already been delivered.
'Modi must see how we live, what we have to do to educate our children.'
Head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar said 80 out of 100 infected people do not show any symptoms.
The ministry on Sunday wrote to the Delhi government, saying the bodies of suspected COVID-19 cases should be handed over to their relatives without waiting for laboratory confirmation but the mortal remains should be treated as per the government guidelines.
India has one of the lowest cases per million at 1,469 as against the global average of 2,425, the government said.
With around 2 million Covid vaccine doses likely to get wasted in December, leading hospital chains have now started to give it gratis to citizens. Sohini Das and Ruchika Chitravanshi report.
The Centre said the upsurge of COVID-19 cases is happening in cities and the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain.
The Ghatne village of which Ruturaj Deshmukh, 21, is the sarpanch has a population of 1,500. The village had not reported any COVID-19 cases from March 2020 to April 2021.
Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E are among the domestic pharma firms working on the coronavirus vaccines in India.
The active cases were the lowest in 156 days, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has increased to 97.68 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 26 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 129 consecutive days now.
Maharashtra is expecting its active caseload to reach 11.9 lakh by April 30, compared to the current active caseload of 5.64 lakh, Thackeray said.
The Chief Election Commissioner pointed out that the exercise involved nearly 7.3 crore voters and over 1.06 lakh polling stations.
The fire in the ICU of a hospital in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district is one more in a series of devastating blazes in the state, claiming lives of coronavirus patients.
India's COVID-19 recovery rate rose to 63.13 per cent on Wednesday with a record 28,472 patients recuperating from the disease in 24 hours, while the case fatality rate further dropped to 2.41 per cent, the Union health ministry said.
These include the 25 cases which were announced till Thursday. "All the 29 persons are in physical isolation in health facilities," an official said.
The further distribution of vaccine to the districts will be done as per the registered beneficiaries, for which a separate communication will be done shortly, the letter stated.
The active cases have further reduced to 22,28,724 with a decline of 1,14,428 cases being recorded in the active caseload. It now comprises 8.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 90.80 per cent.
Intensifying screening of international passengers at airports, asking educational institutions to postpone their public events, and limiting gatherings, meetings, conferences to 500 people, are among the other measures announced by the government.
The government has declared that night curfew would be enforced in the state from next week to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances