Coronavirus India Live Updates: 75% of all adults in India fully vaccinated

Delhi reports 3,674 new cases, 30 deaths and 6,954 recoveries. Positivity rate 6.37%.

Mumbai reports 1,160 new #COVID19 cases, 2,530 recoveries, and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Covid-19 cases in Kerala continued to rise with the southern state reporting 51,570 new infections on Sunday taking the total number of affected people to 59,83,515.

Rajasthan on Sunday logged 10,061 fresh COVID-19 cases and 21 deaths due to the viral disease, according to an official report. Jaipur reported the maximum number of fresh cases at 1,813, followed by 888 in Jodhpur, the report stated.

Gujarat on Sunday reported 9,395 COVID-19 cases, which raised the tally to 11,53,980, while 30 deaths took the toll to 10,438, an official said. The state reported less that 10,000 cases in a day for the first time in nearly two weeks, while the deaths were slightly less than the 33 witnessed on Saturday, he pointed out.

India's daily positivity rate rose to 14.5% on Jan 30 after 16.15 lakh tests were conducted in 24 hours. A day earlier the positivity rate was 13.39% with 17.59 lakh tests being conducted.

PM Modi congratulated the nation for the 'momentous feat' of full vaccination, i.e. 2-dose inoculation, of 75% adults. PM said he was proud of all those making India's vaccination drive a success.

India reported 2.34 lakh new cases on January 30, a marginal decrease from a day earlier when 2.35 lakh cases were recorded.

There is still a need to be vigilant and not lower the guard even though the active cases of Covid-19 in most of the states and the positivity rate have shown a fall in the last two weeks, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in an interaction with five eastern states on Saturday.

State health ministers, principal secretaries/ additional chief secretaries and information commissioners of Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal participated in the meeting, according to an official release.

Mandaviya urged them to monitor the case positivity rate on a daily basis and increase the RT-PCR testing rate as most of the states exhibited a lower share of such tests.

 Kerala logged 50,812 new infections and eight COVID-19-related deaths on Saturday, taking the infection count to 59,31,945 and the death toll to 53,191.

According to the health department, 47,649 persons recuperated from the disease, pushing the number of total cured to 55,41,834.

Yesterday, the state reported 54,537 COVID-19 cases whereas it was 51,739 on Thursday. On January 25, Kerala had registered 55,475 cases, the highest ever single day spike in the infection since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.

Rajasthan Governor Kalraj Mishra tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. The governor's office tweeted that he was asymptomatic. Mishra appealed to all who had recently come in contact with him to isolate themselves and get tested.

Karnataka government to reportedly withdraw night curfew from Jan 31. Schools and colleges in Bengaluru will be allowed to reopen from Monday as well. Hotels, restaurants, clubs, pubs, bars will be able to function at full capacity, though 50% cap will remain for theatres, auditoria, and multiplexes, as per reports.

India recorded 2.35 lakh new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, as per Union government data updated on January 29. This figure stood at 2.51 lakh a day earlier. 871 deaths were also recorded in 24 hours, as per reports. Meanwhile, 3.35 lakh patients recovered.

Gujarat government reportedly extended night curfew till February 4. The night curfew, from 10 pm to 6 am, is in place in 27 cities, as per reports.

India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 164.96 crore with more than 48 lakh vaccine doses being administered on Friday, the Union health ministry said.

Cumulatively, 53,86,46,325 first doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to individuals in the 18-44 age group and 39,93,83,859 second doses have been given in the same age group since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive, according to ministry data.

Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech has received Drugs Controller General of India's permission to conduct Phase 3 trials for its nasal booster dose for novel coronavirus. 

Bharat Biotech has said that the intranasal booster dose will meant for people who have received both shots of Covaxin

Delhi reports 4044 new Covid-19 cases, 8042 recoveries, and 25 deaths in the last 24 hours. Active cases stand at 29,152. 

Maharashtra reports 24,948 fresh COVID cases, 45,648 recoveries, 103 deaths in the last 24 hours and 110 tested positive for Omicron.

Kerala reports 54,537 fresh COVID cases, 30,225 recoveries, and 13 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Jammu and Kashmir records 4,354 new Covid cases as the infection tally roises to 4,24,085. Five more fatalities in the last 24 hours pushed the death toll to 4,647. 

Odisha reports 5,057 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths. More than 660 children tested positive in the past 24 hour. 

Daily Covid-19 cases continued to dip in Odisha, where 5,057 more people tested positive on Friday, 844 less than the previous day, the health department said.

The coronavirus tally stood at 12,36,226, while 10 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,560, it said in a bulletin.

The state had logged 5,901 single-day cases and eight deaths on Thursday. A week ago, it had reported 9,833 fresh infections.

Parental vaccination against COVID-19 confers substantial protection to children residing in the same household, according to a study that reinforces the importance of immunisation to curb the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and protect those who cannot be vaccinated.

A team of researchers from Harvard University, US, Clalit Research Institute and Tel-Aviv University in Israel, analysed one of the world’s largest integrated health record databases to examine the indirect protection provided to unvaccinated children.

The study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, shows that not only is a vaccinated parent less likely to experience a documented infection, they are also less likely to transmit the infection to other household members if infected.

Pakistan has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases in a day with 8,183 new infections clocked in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Friday, as the country grappled to contain the fifth wave of the pandemic.

With the new cases, the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country reached 1,402,070, while with 30 more deaths in the last 24 hours, the number of fatalities jumped to 29,192, according to the data by the Ministry of National Health Services.

The new positivity rate was about 12 per cent, while several big cities like Karachi reported positivity rate of over 20 per cent.

Daily Covid infections in India dropped by 12 per cent as 2.51 lakh new cases were reported in the last 24 hours ending at 8am on Friday. The positivity rate is down from 19.59% to 15.88% while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 17.47 per cent.

India's active Covid-19 cases decrease by 96,861 to reach 21,05,611: Health Ministry

Early indications of Covid cases plateauing have been reported in some places but the trend needs to be observed, the Union government said on Thursday whilst noting that 400 districts have logged over 10 per cent positivity rate in the week ending January 26.

Watch: Early signs of Covid cases plateauing, but situation needs to be observed: Govt

Kerala is witnessing a wave of Omicron infections, with cases of the highly contagious variant now on the rise, state Health Minister Veena George said on Thursday.

"It is now clear that the third wave in Kerala is the Omicron wave," she told reporters here.

The Minister said that the Omicron variant was found in 94 percent of samples of COVID-19 patients tested as part of surveillance in the state. Delta strain was detected in 6 per cent.

As Kerala recorded 51,739 coronavirus cases on Thursday, she said sequencing of the COVID-19 samples of infected persons who came to Kerala from other places has revealed that 80 per cent of them have been affected by Omicron variant while 20 per cent were infected with Delta variant of the virus.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has now upgraded the permission for Covaxin and Covishield from restricted use in emergency situations to normal new drug permission in the adult population with certain conditions: Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday decided to lift weekend curfew and odd-even system of opening non-essential shops in the city besides permitting restaurants and bars to reopen with 50 per cent seating capacity, in view of improving Covid-19 situation.

The Covid-19 situation in Delhi is under control and the city is expected to report less than 5,000 cases of the infection today, said city health minister Satyendar Jain. Speaking to news agency ANI, he also said the positivity rate in the national capital will also decline from the current 10 per cent.

Odisha recorded 5,901 fresh coronavirus cases on Thursday, 1,515 less than the previous day, raising the tally to 12,31,169, the health department said in a bulletin. The death toll mounted to 8,550 with eight more fatalities - three deaths in Sundargarh, and one each in Bhubaneswar, Balasore, Keonjhar, Koraput and Rayagada.

Congress leader Jagdish Sharma has filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court seeking postponement of assembly elections in the five states, citing the third wave of COVID-19.

Sharma, who has also floated the Rahul Priyanka Sena, has in the petition urged the court to issue directions to postpone the elections as the Omicron variant is spreading fast.

He also sought directions to ask the central and state governments to submit the plan for distribution of essential supplies and services during the third wave of the pandemic which is expected in the next 10 days.

He asked the court to direct the governments to submit the plan for availability and distribution of oxygen and to give directions to the Election Commission to postpone the polls for few weeks or months in all the five states.

Schools in Uttar Pradesh will remain closed till February 15 though online classes will continue. This decision has been taken in view of increasing Covid cases.

Source based reports say the price of Covishield and Covaxin, the Covid vaccines which are expected to soon get regular market approval from India's drug regulator, is likely to be capped at Rs 275 per dose plus an additional service charge of Rs 150

Two German soccer coaches have been suspended from working in the sport after it was ruled they used fake coronavirus vaccination records. A disciplinary panel at the German soccer federation ruled former Werder Bremen head coach Markus Anfang and his assistant Florian Junge had obtained fake passes last year identifying them as being fully vaccinated. The federation said Anfang and Junge used the passes to be exempt from virus testing at the club and presented them to local health authorities to avoid going into isolation after contact with an infected player.

With the addition of 1,496 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra went up to 6,97,637, while the death of seven patients pushed the toll to 11,743, an official said on Thursday. Thane's Covid-19 mortality rate currently stands at 1.68 per cent, he added. In neighbouring Palghar district, the caseload has grown to 1,61,231, and death toll is 3,364, another official said.

For the third straight day, India reported less than three lakh Covid-19 infections on Thursday but saw a marginal increase in the infection tally from Wednesday.

According to the Union Health Ministry data in the 24 hours till 8am on Thursday India saw 2,86,384 new Covid-19 cases and 573 related deaths.

The data showed that 3,06,357 patients had recovered during the period. But in a spot of concern, the positivity rate has shot up from 16.1% to 19.59%.

The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant, which is dominant in Denmark, appears more contagious than the more common BA.1 sub-lineage, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said on Wednesday in a national address.

Watch an explainer on the sub-variant that is being dubbed as Stealth Omicron