Coronavirus live updates: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat tests Covid-19 positive, hospitalised

Japan announced on Friday that it will raise the coronavirus alert level in Tokyo to allow tougher measures to curb the rapid spread of a more contagious variant ahead of the Summer Olympics. Japan's national vaccination drive has lagged and most people in the capital still have not been inoculated as infections have surged.

Our work has gone to zero. Over 2,500 taxis in Dharamshala are currently out of business. There is no respite in taxes from the govt, we have to pay them irrespective of our business conditions: A taxi driver

There has been a more than 14-fold rise in the number of Covid cases in West Bengal in the last one month. The Covid-19 case count in Bengal this year shows the infection rate has doubled since last year. While it took two months for the number to increase 10 times last year, this year it has happened in less than a month. The massive surge in Covid cases has prompted the state government to go back to 50% employee attendance in government offices.

No fresh Covid-19 case has been reported in 149 districts in a week, while eight have not registered any new infection in a fortnight, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday even as daily cases hit a record high of 1.31 lakh.Chairing the 24th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 through a video link, he said more than 9.43 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country till Friday morning.More than three crore vaccine jabs have been administered to senior citizens, the health minister said.

A probe has been ordered in the incident in which three elderly women were allegedly administered anti-rabies injections instead of the Covid vaccine at a government hospital in Shamli district. Three women had gone to the government community health centre in Kandhla on Thursday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.