The Supreme Court on Thursday said women, other than cisgender women, may also require access to safe medical termination of pregnancies, while expanding the scope of the MTP Act to include unmarried women with 20-24 weeks pregnancy for abortion.
Union Health Secretary said that priority groups have been decided who are vulnerable to mortality.
Five states -- Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat -- have registered a sharp rise in daily COVID-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday as India recorded 59,118 new infections, the highest single-day rise so far this year.
The bench said that there are reports coming that many areas doctors are not being paid. "We saw report that doctors went on strike. In Delhi, some doctors have not been paid for past three months. These are concerns that should have been taken care off. It should not require court intervention."
The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.
This would be India's largest crowd-funded programme to help patients with a particular disease.
With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,29,93,494. On May 3, 2020, 2,487 cases were recorded.
Delhi, which has been one of the worst affected states, accounted for less than two per cent of total vaccinations in the 18-44 age-group.
The death toll due to the viral disease went up to 5,15,803 with 89 more fatalities, according to the ministry's data updated at 8 am.
The government on Friday said 25 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in India so far and that mostly mild symptoms have been noted in all the cases.
The age cap for the booster shot came at a time when another highly transmissible XE variant of the coronavirus is being reported.
With the Omicron variant of coronavirus slowly spreading its tentacles in the country, a number of states enhanced surveillance to trace, track and quarantine contacts of COVID-19 positive persons while Delhi began genome sequencing of samples of all infected people and has prohibited Christmas and New Year gatherings.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,21,656 with 83 daily fatalities being reported, data updated by the ministry at 8 am showed.
The priority in ticket distribution will be given to youth, women, and those with a clean image, he said.
A woman who returned to Chandigarh from South Africa two days ago allegedly broke home quarantine and went to a five-star hotel in Chandigarh, prompting the authorities on Friday to order strict action against her for violating COVID protocols for travellers.
On December 28 last year, 9,195 people were infected in a day. The death toll has climbed to 5,13,843 with 119 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
India achieved a major milestone in its vaccination programme against COVID-19 as the cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 100-crore mark on Thursday.
In a statement, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association said the decision has been taken in view of the developments in the last few days in connection with the issue, and the death of chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and others in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
BJP candidate and former chief minister Bhajan Lal's grandson Bhavya Bishnoi on Sunday defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Jai Prakash in the Adampur assembly seat by-election, retaining the family bastion.
It is alleged that Chandrashekhar to purchase gifts for Fernandez used illegal money, extorted by cheating high-profile people including former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.
The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.20 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded as 0.25 per cent, according to the ministry.
The death toll climbed to 5,21,035 with 31 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
With 1,421 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,19,453, while the active cases dipped to 16,187, according to the Union health ministry.
About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria and Panama, have shown interest in having a Co-WIN like system to run their vaccination drive, a senior official said on Monday, adding India is ready to share the open source software free of cost.
India reported a single-day rise of 1,581 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 4,30,10,971, while the active cases further declined to 23,913, the Union health ministry said.
President Ram Nath Kovind along with First Lady Savita Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and other leaders joined the fellow citizens on Sunday to express their gratitude towards all those who are safeguarding the health of the nation in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The death toll has climbed to 5,16,132 with 60 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The 34-year-old cricketer, one of the country's all-time greatest spinners, is currently representing his franchise Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, which is being held in a bio-secure bubbles.
This follows a widespread criticism of its pricing policy as it sold Covaxin to the central government at Rs 150 per dose.
"Zero is an unlikely figure. The virus is mutating and it is difficult to predict it's future behaviour,
The death toll climbed to 5,01,114 with 1,059 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. The active cases comprise 3.16 per cent of the total infections in the country, the ministry said.
The 36-year-old actor was stopped by the immigration authorities at the Mumbai airport on the basis of a Look Out Circular (LoC) issued by the federal probe agency, they said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the 6th India Mobile Congress at Pragati Maidan in Delhi and launched 5G services. The 5G telecom services seek to provide seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency and highly reliable communications system. The three major telecom operators of the country demonstrated one use case each in front of the prime minister to show the potential of 5G technology in India.
The active cases comprise 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate further improved to 98.69 per cent, the ministry said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh in a money laundering case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest. A team of ED officials went to Tihar Jail and placed Singh under arrest as per the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
But the numbers have continued to rise in 23 states including Bihar, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty retreated from over one-week highs to close lower on Wednesday due to profit booking in banking, IT and metal stocks amid weak global trends. After a two-day rally, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 90.99 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 57,806.49 in volatile trade. As many as 19 of its constituents declined while 11 advanced. The broader Nifty slipped by 19.65 points or 0.11 per cent to close at 17,213.60 with 31 of its stocks ending in the red.
The World Health Organisation has issued warning against XE, a new variant of Omicron first detected in the UK.
The renowned pulmonologist, who was part of the national COVID task force, highlighted the need for research on developing vaccines which will cover not only the current circulating strains but also from the emerging variants.
The death toll from the pandemic has climbed to 5,14,878 with 289 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, according to the data updated at 8 am.
