'1 billion' doses live: Archaeological Survey of India illuminates 100 monuments in Tri-color to celebrate landmark achievement

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), exuded confidence in meeting the Centre’s goal of immunising all adults by yearend, while announcing that Covid-19 vaccine for children, Covavax, is readying for a February-March launch. The Pune-based company hopes to resume exports of its vaccine, Covishield to WHObacked global platform, Covax by November.

After China, that leads the field by a long margin, having administered more than 200 crore doses, India now comes second with 100 crore jabs, 58 crore more than the US. Significantly, while the vaccination graphs of countries with significant populations like the US, Brazil and Indonesia remain flattish, India’s has been rising steeply.

Canada will not extend existing broad-based Covid-19 support programs for companies and individuals when they expire on Saturday because the economy is recovering well, said Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland

The US has administered 411,010,650 doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country and distributed 498,702,405 doses, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention said

The World Health Organization has said 80,000-180,000 healthcare workers may have been killed by Covid-19 up to May this year

West Bengal reports 833 new cases, 14 deaths

Officials have blamed the spike in infections on unrestricted crowds on roads during Durga Puja festivities. The spike was anticipated as people went out for shopping and pandal hopping without wearing masks, said Atin Ghosh, the Health in charge of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

From Oct 22, travelers from India who are fully vaccinated with a WHO-approved vaccine are no longer required to do a PCR-test before their departure to the Netherlands

BJP national spokesperson and Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Rathore has accused the Cong govt in Rajasthan of not promoting coronavirus vaccination in the state and instead "politicising the inoculation drive"

Rajyavardhan claimed there was discrimination in the vaccination campaign in Rajasthan due to which people had to wait in long lines to get their jabs, report PTI. "Congress workers used the government machinery in their favour due to which the public had to wait in long lines for vaccination," he told reporters at the party office here.

Britain reports 52,009 new Covid-19 cases, the highest daily tally since July 17

Gujarat reports 13 new positive cases, taking the tally to 8.26 lakh. The state's death toll remains at 10,087 with no new deaths recorded in the past 24 hours

The state vaccinated 70,967 people with the first dose and 2.82 lakh with the second dose in 24 hours. In all, 4.42 crore have been given the first jab and 2.37 crore their second dose of the Covid vaccine

As many as 82 per cent of the eligible population has already received one dose of the Covid vaccine and 39 per cent has received both doses, as per the IANS-CVoter Vaccine Tracker

Moscow will shut non-essential services between October 28 and November 7, as coronavirus deaths soar and vaccination rates stall in Russia

Canada's federal government and the 10 provinces have agreed on a standard Covid-19 electronic vaccination passport allowing domestic and foreign travel

The vast majority of Covid vaccines have been given in high-income or upper middle-income countries. Africa accounts for just 2.6 per cent of doses administered globally: WHO

The Covid-19 pandemic will drag on until 2022, longer than it needs to, because several poor countries have not received vaccines against the deadly infectious disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said

Mumbai reports 429 new coronavirus positive cases and five deaths, taking the infection tally to 7,52,386 and toll to 16,197

Authorities in Moscow on Thursday announced plans to shut restaurants, cinemas and non-food stores and introduce other restrictions later this month, as Russia registered the highest daily numbers of new coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Russia's coronavirus task force reported 36,339 new confirmed infections and 1,036 deaths in the past 24 hours. That brought Russia’s death toll to 227,389, by far the highest in Europe. President Vladimir Putin has voiced consternation about vaccine hesitancy and sought to urge more to come forward for jabs.

Kerala reports 8,733 new case and 118 deaths in 24 hours, reports ANI