Coronavirus live updates: Consider imposing lockdown to curb Covid cases, SC tells Centre

The government has extended the insurance scheme for frontline health workers by six more months. The decision was taken on Friday at a meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII) on Saturday night said that the production of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield is in full swing in Pune. The SII CEO also held a meeting with his partners and stakeholders in the UK.

Amid soaring demand due to rising cases of Covid-19 across India, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) on Saturday announced that it has ramped up production of medical oxygen to 1,000 metric tonnes (MT) per day. This makes RIL India’s largest producer of medical-grade liquid oxygen from a single location, in this case Jamnagar.

The first Covid-19 casualty at the farmers’ protest on Delhi’s borders was recorded on Friday. Momita Basu (25), daughter of Utsav Basu of West Bengal, died of Covid-19.

As Phase 3 of the Covid-19 vaccination programme for people above 18 years got underway on Saturday, just a handful of states were able to deliver jabs under the new category due to shortage of supplies.

The Health Ministry said 84,599 beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group received their first dose of coronavirus vaccine in the country on Saturday.

India’s diesel consumption in April fell 10% and petrol 4% from the same month of 2019, the pre-pandemic year with ‘normal’ offtake, as a virulent second wave of Covid-19 infections hammers the world’s third-largest oil consumer.

France on Sunday will send to India 28 tonnes of medical supplies, including eight large oxygen generation plants, as part of its "solidarity mission" to help the country in its fight against a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Mizoram government on Saturday announced an eight-day lockdown in Aizawl and other district headquarters town from May 3 following the surge in Covid-19 cases.

Health experts on Saturday said oxygen concentrators can be used only in moderate cases of COVID-19 when a patient experiences a drop in oxygen level and not by everyone who finds it below acceptable limits. According to the health ministry, the experts also made it clear that using oxygen concentrators without medical guidance can be very harmful. "Oxygen concentrators can be used only in moderate cases of COVID-19 when a patient experiences a drop in oxygen level and where the requirement is a maximum of 5 litres per minute," an expert said.