Coronavirus live updates: More than 27 lakh vaccinated on day 1 of Tika Utsav

Punjab's Covid-19 vaccine stock will last another five days, chief minister Amarinder Singh said on Saturday as he urged the Centre to share the schedule of supply of the vaccines.The state has been inoculating 85,000-90,000 beneficiaries in a day, and at this rate, Punjab's current stock of 5.7 lakh vaccine doses will run out in five days, he said. Pinning hopes on fresh batches of vaccines from the Centre, Singh stressed that if Punjab was able to meet its target of administering two lakh shots a day, then its current supplies will last only three days.

Iran imposed a 10-day lockdown across most of the country on Saturday to curb the spread of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, state media reported. The lockdown affects 23 of the country’s 31 provinces, health ministry spokesman Alireza Raisi said. Businesses, schools, theatres and sports facilities have been forced to shut and gatherings are banned during the holy fasting month of Ramadan that begins on Wednesday.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope has urged the Centre to formulate criteria for allotment of COVID-19 vaccines by taking into consideration factors like population and number of active coronavirus cases of a particular state. He alleged that many states, which are smaller than Maharashtra in terms of population and the number of patients, have received more doses.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday reviewed the efforts by the states ruled by her party to tackle the second wave of the coronavirus infection and the vaccination drive. Addressing a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states and ministers of the party in states where it is in power in alliance with others, she said the priority should be to test, track and vaccinate.