LIVE| 2 more individuals test positive for new Covid-19 strain in Karnataka

The United Kingdom on Tuesday reported a total of 45,533 cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, and 1243 total fatalities in the span of 24 hours, according to the British health ministry. Reuters reported that Tuesday marked one of the deadliest days in the country's battle against the coronavirus.

Two people, both contacts of UK returnees, were found to be carrying the mutated strain of Covid-19, taking Karnataka's total tally of the new strain to 13, reported news agency PTI. Till date a total of 45 UK returnees and 26 of their primary contacts have tested positive for coronavirus on landing in Bengaluru.

Italy witnessed a surge in its daily tally of Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, as the count went up to 14,242 from 12,532 the day before. The number of deaths recorded in the same time period too surged as 616 people succumbed to the infection, up from 448 fatalities recorded on Monday.

Delhi on Tuesday saw 386 new Covid-19 cases taking the total count of cases to 6,30,892. It was the third successive day when the national capital saw less than 400 new cases, reports ANI.

Odisha Government allows marriage processions with a ceiling of 200 persons including the bride, bridegroom, priest, friends, relatives, members of band party, light and sound system etc. The state government said mandatory to follow Covid safety protocol including provision of wearing of masks, maintaining social social distracting, provision of thermal scanning and use of hand wash or sanitizer will be necessary, reports ANI.

Bharat Biotech announces that it has signed an agreement with Precisa Medicamentos for the supply of Covaxin to Brazil, reports ANI.

Belgium could see an increase in daily cases of Covid-19 infections in coming weeks as more Belgians undergo tests on return from holidays, the government said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

There is a gap of 28 days between the two doses of Covid vaccine. The effectiveness of vaccine begins after 14 days of the inoculation, therefore it is important to keep in mind Covid appropriate behaviour. The vaccines are totally safe and immunogenicity produced by the vaccines have been established, said the health ministry.

The health ministry has also said that 5 principles are the most important for inoculation programme that will take more than 1.5 years. Those five principles are active people participation, experience from universal immunization and elections, existing healthcare services should not to be affected during the process, no compromise on scientific and other SOPs, orderly and smooth delivery of vaccines driven by technology.

Case positivity is coming down. Last one week's case positivity rate has come down significantly. Only two states in the country with more than 50, 000 active Covid cases. Those two states are Kerala and Maharashtra, says health ministry.

We make 70-80 million doses every month. Planning is underway to see how many will be given to India and foreign countries. Health Ministry has made logistics plans. We also have partnership with pvt players for trucks, vans and cold storage, said CEO-Owner, Serum Institute of India, reports ANI.

We've given a special price of ₹200 for the first 100 mn doses only to GoI on their request, that we want to support common man, vulnerable, poor, healthcare workers. After that we'll be selling it at ₹1000 in pvt markets, said Adar Poonawalla, CEO-Owner, Serum Institute of India, reports ANI.

The European Medicines Agency said Tuesday that AstraZeneca and Oxford University had filed a formal bid for authorisation for their coronavirus vaccine and that a decision could come by January 29.

"EMA has received an application for conditional marketing authorisation for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University," the Amsterdam-based regulator said in a statement.

Hong Kong is in no hurry to roll out Covid-19 vaccinations, according to government advisers, preferring instead to see what happens in other, harder-hit places. “We have the luxury of a bit of time to observe how the program is being rolled out elsewhere, especially on the safety side,” Lam Ching-choi, a medical doctor and member of the chief executive’s advisory Executive Council, said in an interview on Monday. “Our experts are not in a hurry to be the first to be doing a vaccination program. We’re finding a balance between not having the vaccine late, and having adequate supplies, and we have the luxury to know that the vaccine we’ve purchased is safe.”

The first consignment of Covid-19 vaccines have arrived here on Tuesday, and the Karnataka government said it was committed to conducting the vaccination drive in a transparent way. According to official sources, the flight carrying the vaccines landed at the Kempegowda international airport here. Earlier in the day, Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said 7.95 lakh Covishield vaccines were arriving. "... 7,95,000 vials of Covishield vaccine are arriving in the first consignment at around 11:45 this morning.. the arrival of the remaining of the total 13,9000 vails that the state will get, will be known in the later stages," he said.

"In continuation of our support to the nation in its fight against COVID-19, IndiGo has transported 900 Kgs of vaccine from Pune to Chandigarh and Lucknow via flight 6E 6515 and 6E 882 respectively today. Starting from January 13, the vaccines will be transported from Mumbai to other cities basis the allocation," IndiGo spokesperson

Malaysia Pharmaniaga Bhd has signed an agreement with China's Sinovac to purchase ready-to-fill Covid-19 vaccines and later to manufacture the vaccine domestically, it said on Tuesday. Pharmaniaga said in a filing to the bourse that the company will carry out a fill-and-finish process of the vaccine in Malaysia, and will subsequently enter into local manufacturing, under license from Sinovac for its technology and know-how. "This will also help Pharmaniaga in long-term partnerships, including technology transfer to grow the sector in Malaysia," the company said.