Latest News LIVE Updates: India’s COVID-19 tally stands at 1,11,24,527. (File)
New Delhi:
India today reported 12,286 fresh coronavirus cases and the tally has climbed to 1,11,24,527, while the number of recoveries has surged to 1,07,98,921, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.
The death count due to the viral disease has gone up to 1,57,248 in the country with 91 more fatalities reported in a 24-hour period, the ministry’s data showed.
Meanwhile, Judges of the Supreme Court will get COVID-19 vaccine shots from today. Those eligible for the vaccine in the drive starting today also includes the families of the judges and retired judges. The Supreme Court registry has arranged a vaccination facility at the court complex.
The judges and their families have an option of getting the jabs at the Supreme Court complex or any hospital listed by the government.
The cost of vaccination will be as per the centre’s guidelines, the Supreme Court registry said. Private hospitals can charge up to Rs 250 per shot.
The Health Ministry said the judges will not have an option to choose which vaccine they want to take – Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, or Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and made by the Serum Institute of India.
Here are the Latest News Live Updates:
MoS MHA G Kishan Reddy takes his first dose of COVID-19 Vaccine, at Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad.
The second phase of nationwide vaccination to inoculate people above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with comorbidities, began yesterday.
A top American lawmaker on Monday urged the Biden administration to stand by India in view of the Chinese cyber attack on India’s power grid system as reported by a US-based company that monitors such malicious activities by the state actors.
“The US must stand by our strategic partner and condemn China’s dangerous cyber-attack on India’s grid, which forced hospitals to go on generators in the midst of a pandemic,” Congressman Frank Pallone said in a tweet on Monday.
“We cannot allow China to dominate the region through force and intimidation,” tweeted Pallone, a day after Recorded Future, a Massachusetts-based company which studies the use of the internet by state actors, said Chinese government-linked group of hackers targeted India’s critical power grid system through malware, amidst the tense border tension between the two nations.
The State Department said it is aware of these reports. “For specifics, we refer you to the company that conducted the study. More broadly, however, the State Department works with partners around the world to respond to shared threats in cyberspace,” a State Department spokesperson told PTI.
The Biden administration on Monday indicated it is still undecided on ending the Trump-era ban on issuing of new H-1B visas, with the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserting that its top priority is the acute needs of individuals fleeing persecution.
In January, the then President Donald Trump had extended the ban on issuing of new H-1B visas till March 31 arguing that the country is having a very high unemployment rate and the US cannot afford to have more foreign workers.
“His successor President Joe Biden has revoked dozens of the executive orders of Trump including several of those related to immigration like the lifting the Muslim visa ban or those related to Green Card, the one that imposed ban on issuing H-1B has still not been lifted. It will expire on March 31, if Biden does not issue a fresh proclamation.
“What is the status of the review of the Trump era visa bans for H1B visas and has the White House decided to lift those bans before they expire at the end of the month?” Mayorkas was asked at a White House news conference.
Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, were vaccinated against the coronavirus in January before leaving the White House, an advisor to the former president said on Monday.
“President Trump and the first lady were vaccinated at the White House in January,” the advisor said without providing any further details.
Joe Biden, who took over as president on January 20, was vaccinated publicly against the coronavirus on December 21 but the Trumps’ vaccinations had not been revealed previously.
Trump, in a speech on Sunday, his first since leaving the White House, said everyone should get vaccinated against Covid-19, which has left more than 500,000 people dead in the United States.
Over 29 lakh people had registered – online or via the Aarogya Setu app – by 8.30 pm on Monday, the first day of the public rollout of the coronavirus vaccines, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan told NDTV. Dr Vardhan even suggested that the actual number could be as much as a crore, because each individual who registered could add up to four others.
“I had checked the data before speaking with you… till 8.30 pm over 29 lakh people have registered on the platform. And, you see, if one person registers, s/he has the facility of registering for four family members,” Dr Vardhan told NDTV.
