Coronavirus live updates: 56 lakh vaccine doses given today, India's total coverage now 58.82cr

Auckland, which is the epicentre of the latest Delta variant outbreak, may be in lockdown for longer, the report said. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to announce a decision shortly on whether she will extend or end the lockdown. Currently, the country of 5.1 million is under lockdown until midnight on Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday the country must begin to ease strict Covid-19 restrictions once vaccination rates increase, with over half of all Australians enduring weeks-long lockdowns to curb Delta outbreaks.

Indian citizens will now be allowed to visit the UAE on tourist visa if they have not been in India for 14 days prior, according to Dubaibased flydubai. The visitors will need to follow other pandemic-time requirements. “Passengers carrying passports of India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan or Uganda with tourist visas can be accepted if they have not entered or been in India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Uganda in the previous 14 days. PCR requirements will be based on the country of departure,” says the flydubai website.

A report by a committee of experts constituted under the National Institute of Disaster Management has called for prioritising vaccination among children with co-morbidities and a special focus on those with disability. Even with “strict interventions”, the peak of the third wave is expected to arrive by late October, the experts have concurred with earlier assessments of different institutions. Several studies have spoken of the likelihood of a third wave but these are estimates. The vulnerability of kids as they haven’t been vaccinated has been discussed, with most experts of the view they are not prone to severe infections though it can pass the virus to others. Other estimates have said the third wave, seen to be the result of renewed mobility, may prove to be less severe than the second.

Kerala reported a Covid-19 test positivity rate (TPR) of 17.7% — the highest in the past three months — on Saturday, the Thiruvonam day. The rate has been showing a steady rise from 14 % on August 16 and it was feared that relaxation in movement during the festival season could take the rate higher. Around 27,260 people are admitted to various hospitals in the state now, against 1.7 lakh active cases. The occupancy rate in government hospitals is above 70% in Kasaragod, Thrissur and Malappuram.

China's health authority reported on Monday that there were no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 for the first time since July, offering more signs that the current outbreak which began late last month may be tapering off soon. The latest outbreak was driven mainly by infections first detected among a few airport workers in the eastern city of Nanjing on July 20. Since then, more than 1,200 people in China have been confirmed to be infected. (Reuters)

A committee of experts constituted under the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) has warned of an imminent third wave of Covid that could peak around October and sought better medical preparedness for children who might be at similar risk as adults.