Highlights:3 weekly markets to close in Maharashtra's Palghar as Covid-19 surges

Rajasthan records 156 new Covid-19 cases and one death. Infection tally rises to 320,928 including 316,131 recoveries, 2,788 deaths and 1,509 active cases. 39 or 25% of state's new Covid-19 cases from capital Jaipur.

Directorate of school education, Kashmir constitutes a four-tier monitoring team to ensure the adherence of Covid-19 related SOPs in govt and private schools.

Manik Gursal, district collector of Maharahtra's Palghar, orders closure of three weekly markets in the district in view of rising cases of Covid-19

The cumulative number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 17,700,000 today, says Union Health Ministry.

Maharashtra reported 8,998 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the infection tally to 21,88,183, while the death toll reached 52,340 as 60 patients succumbed to the infection, a health official said. The number of single-day cases went down as compared to Wednesday, although the per day fatality count increased. The state had reported 9,855 new Covid-19 cases and 42 fatalities on Wednesday. A total of 6,135 patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, which took the overall recovery count to 20,49,484. The number of active cases is 85,144 at present.

Delhi recorded 261 new coronavirus cases and one fresh fatality on Thursday which pushed the death toll in the city to 10,915, authorities said. These new cases came out of 66,432 Covid-19 tests conducted on Wednesday. The infection tally crossed 6.40 lakh on Thursday, according to the latest health bulletin.

The number of active cases of the disease in the city increased to 1,701 from 1,584 on Wednesday, while the positivity rate rose to 0.39 per cent. The city had reported 240 Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate 0.35 per cent on Wednesday.

The Election Commission on Thursday started a Covid-19 vaccination drive for its officers and staff working at the Nirvachan Sadan here with former chief election commissioner M S Gill taking the first shot. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar will get vaccinated after all officials and staff of the commission are inoculated, an official statement said. Arora had recently announced that all staff on poll duty for the upcoming assembly elections have been declared as 'frontline workers' and will be vaccinated before assuming their election duties.

Andhra Pradesh reported 102 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Thursday, taking the caseload to 8,90,317, while recoveries mounted to 8,82,275 with 56 people getting cured. More than 45,000 tests were conducted during the period and one more person succumbed to the disease, pushing the toll to 7,171. The active caseload increased to 871, the bulletin said. Chittoor continued to report the highest number of fresh cases, 25 in a day, followed by Visakhapatnam 22 and East Godavari 13. The remaining 10 districts reported less than eight new cases each.

Zimbabwe has authorized the use of Covaxin, India's indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, becoming the first country in Africa to do so. Trying to get it to Zimbabwe at an early date: Embassy of India in Harare, Zimbabwe

The number of new coronavirus cases has risen in Europe after six weeks of decline, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. "Last week, new cases of Covid-19 in Europe grew nine percent to touch a little over one million. This ends a promising six-week decline in new cases with over half our region showing an increase in new infections," WHO Europe's regional director Hans Kluge told a news conference.

Hungary will close all shops except food stores and pharmacies and shift to remote learning in primary schools as Covid-19 cases are spreading fast, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday. Gergely Gulyas told a government briefing that the government would extend state income support to sectors that have to close down from March 8 until March 22.

Russia said Thursday it will be able to provide its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for 50 million Europeans from June if it is approved by the European Medicines Agency. "Following EMA approval, we would be able to provide vaccines for 50 million Europeans starting from June 2021," Kirill Dmitriyev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund which developed Sputnik, said. The Amsterdam-based EMA Thursday started a "rolling review" of Sputnik V.

Russia on Thursday reported 11,385 new Covid-19 cases, including 2,150 in Moscow, taking the national case total to 4,290,135, reports Reuters.

Puducherry reported 17 fresh Covid-19 cases taking the overall tally to 39,794, a top Health department official said on Thursday.

This is a difficult time for all of us because of Covid. For us, it was important that we are partnering with you in your health and economic recovery. The largest number of vaccines shipped by India to any foreign country so far - 9 million - has been to Bangladesh, said external affairs minister S. Jaishankar in Dhaka, reports ANI.

Former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur took the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in AIIMS on Thursday, reports ANI.

The total number of cases with UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of Covid-19 virus in the country now at 242, said government of India, reports ANI.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen received on Thursday a shot of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine supplied by India, about three weeks into the launch of his country's inoculation programme, which initially relied only on Chinese vaccines, reports Reuters.

Arunachal Pradesh did not report any fresh Covid-19 case in the last 24 hours, a senior health department official said on Thursday, reports PTI.

India reports 17,407 new Covid-19 cases and 89 deaths. The total coronavirus caseload in the country now stands at 1,156,923, as per the Union health ministry.

Thane has added 818 new cases of coronavirus, taking the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 2,66,910,an official said on Thursday, reports PTI.