Coronavirus live updates: Vaccine availability to see exponential rise in coming months, says Harsh Vardhan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with doctors, paramedical staff and other frontline health workers of Varanasi on Friday at 11 am via video conferencing. He will review the functioning of various Covid hospitals in Varanasi, including Pandit Rajan Mishra Covid Hospital, which was recently started through the joint efforts of the DRDO and the Indian Army, and non-Covid hospitals in the district. Prime Minister will also discuss the ongoing efforts for tackling the second wave of Covid in Varanasi, and preparations for the future.

Chandigarh health department has notified Mucormycosis (black fungus) under Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. It is mandatory for all government and private health facilities to report all suspected and confirmed cases to the health department, Chandigarh administration said.

Maharashtra reports 29,911 new Covid-19 cases, 47,371 recoveries and 738 deaths in the last 24 hours.Total number of cases stands at 54,97,448 and total recoveries at 50,26,308. The death toll is 85,355Active cases 3,83,253

Mucormycosis termed epidemic by the Gujarat government. After a meeting by the core committee on Covid, Gujarat CM said that all private and government hospitals would have to follow ICMR guidelines for treatment protocol

The Covid-19 case positivity rate in India has declined in the last two weeks with an increase in the number of districts where the positivity rate has shown a downward trend, as per the Union health ministry data.

The state also recorded deaths of 64 positive patients, taking the death toll to 9,404

The Indian Medical Association on Thursday released fresh figures on Covid-related fatalities among doctors, saying 329 of them succumbed to the disease during the ongoing second wave of the pandemic. Bihar alone saw 80 deaths, the maximum among states, followed by Delhi (73), Uttar Pradesh (41), Andhra Pradesh (22) and Telangana (20), the IMA said.