Coronavirus live updates: Arvind Kejriwal, Amit Shah discuss Covid-19 situation in Delhi

The move comes after it received minimal nomination from states and central government departments on a request made in November last year seeking officers under the central staffing scheme and for posts of chief vigilance officers, who act as a distant arm of the Central Vigilance Commission to check corruption."The number of nominations received so far has been very minimal and as such the representation of officers from various cadres/services under central staffing scheme, especially at DS/Director level, is extremely low," the Personnel Ministry said in a recent order.

A potential Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese researchers showed promise in trials in monkeys, triggering antibodies and raising no safety issues, researchers said, and a human trial with more than 1,000 participants is underway. "These results support the further evaluation of BBIBP-CorV in a clinical trial," researchers said in the paper. BBIBP-CorV, developed by Beijing Institute of Biological Products affiliated to state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), is among five candidates China is testing in humans.

Action would be initiated against all CGHS empanelled hospitals designated as Covid and non-Covid facilities for denying treatment to coronavirus infected patients and to those suffering from other diseases, the Union health ministry said. "The matter has been reviewed and it is now decided to reiterate that all CGHS empanelled hospitals, which are notified as COVID-hospitals by state governments shall provide treatment facilities to CGHS beneficiaries as per norms of the scheme, for all Covid-19 related treatments.

According to the Ministry of National Health Services, 83 more Covid-19 patients died during the same period, taking the death toll to 2,255 and 5,387 new patients were detected in the last 24 hours.

"Karnataka crossed 4 lakh tests mark on Tuesday. So far, we tested 4,00,257 samples in 71 Covid-19 testing labs across the state with a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent," medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar said.

All movement to and from the state will be regulated. No person can enter Rajasthan without a 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) from the state or leave without a pass, director-general of police, law and order, M L Lather said in an order. Directions were issued to all range IGs, SPs, commissioners and deputy commissioners in this regard, officials said.