The vaccine is the third to be approved by Health Canada following the December approval of vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc.

“With Pfizer, Moderna, and now AstraZeneca, Canada will get more than 6.5 million doses before the end of March,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters. “And there will be tens of millions more doses to come between April and June.”

Canada has ordered 20 million doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca, and is due to receive 1.9 million through COVAX – the international initiative set up to provide equitable access to vaccines – in the first half of the year.

On Friday, Canada said it had secured an additional 2 million doses through its agreement with Verity Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc and the Serum Institute of India.

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An expert has told a news channel that the spike in the cornavirus cases in India could be linked to the super spreader events and not the mutations of the virus.

Dr V Ravi, Retired Professor of Neurobiology at NIMHAN and Nodal Officer for Genomic Confirmation of SARS-CoV-2, Government of Karnataka, quoted saying that the upsurge in the India coronavirus cases is triggered by super spreader events and then lack of tracking, testing to detect the spread.

“It is not true that we have our own Indian variant that has emerged with the amino acid mutations that have been seen in Maharashtra. These changes have been witnessed in other places as well. We have been doing genomic sequencing at NIMHANS. We have found both the 440 and the 484 mutations isolated in variants that have been circulating ever since the post lockdown period. There is no variant that has a propensity to spread higher than what has been identified in India,” he said.

On the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines on the new variants of the coronavirus, the report quoted experts as saying that there was absolutely no evidence to suggest that the vaccines will not be effective on the variants.

Amid a spurt in the coronavirus cases in India, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the existing Covid-19 guidelines will remain in force till March 31.

In a statement, the home ministry said while there has been a substantial decline in the active and new coronavirus cases, there is a need to maintain surveillance, containment, and caution so as to fully overcome the pandemic.

The states and union territories have also been advised to speed up the vaccination of the target population so as to break the chain of transmission and overcome the pandemic.

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White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that it is imperative that the report be independent and free from “alteration by the Chinese government”, echoing concerns raised by the administration of former President Donald Trump, who also moved to quit the WHO over the issue.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy fired back with a strongly-worded statement, saying the United States had damaged multilateral cooperation and the WHO in recent years, and should not be “pointing fingers” at China and other countries that supported the WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic.

China welcomed the U.S. decision to reengage with the WHO, but Washington should hold itself to the “highest standards” instead of taking aim at other countries, the spokesperson said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses were still open about the origins of Covid-19, after Washington said it wanted to review data from a WHO-led mission to China, where the virus first emerged.

A WHO-led mission, which spent four weeks in China probing the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which is considered highly unlikely.

The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing strongly denies.

Sullivan noted that U.S. President Joe Biden had quickly reversed the decision to disengage from the WHO, but said it was imperative to protect the organization’s credibility.

China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, Retuers reported.

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Besides the new cases, 15,858 recoveries were reported in the country in the same period, the Ministry said.

The total count includes 1,35,926 active cases and 1,05,89,230 recoveries.

The COVID-19 death toll has reached 1,55,447 with 87 people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours.

As many as 75,05,010 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country so far.

A total of 20,40,23,840 samples have been tested for the coronavirus as of February 10. Of these, 6,99,185 samples were tested on Wednesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) informed.

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At the same time, the government has said a total of 70,17,114 people have been vaccinated so far.

Along with the fresh coronavirus cases, states and union territories have also recorded 11,764 discharges, said the Union Health Ministry. The total number of recovered cases now stands at 1,05,73,372.

India now has 1,42,562 active Covid-19 cases. With 108 deaths, the country’s Covid-19 death toll has now gone up to 1,55,360.

ICMR has said a total of 20,40,23,840 samples have been tested for Covid-19 up to February 10. Of these, 6,99,185 samples were tested on Wednesday.

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AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective and should be deployed widely, including in countries where the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce its efficacy, a World Health Organization panel said on Wednesday.

The benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University outweigh any risks and the shot should recommend for use, including in people aged 65 and older, the WHO panel said.

Earlier South Africa stopped part of its roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine after data small trial showed it did not protect against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant of the coronvirus now dominant in the country.

The WHO said it expected by mid-February to finalise its review of the shot for emergency use approval under COVAX agreement.

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Moreover, with 117 deaths related to the novel coronavirus infection, total fatality in the country has surged to 1,53,587.

India currently has 1,77,266 active cases and 1,03,45,985 people have been recovered and discharged so far.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 19,30,62,694 samples have been tested for Covid-19 detection up to January 25 with 7,25,577 of them being tested on Monday.

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Dubai’s Supreme Committee for Crisis and Disaster Management said on January 22 that attendance at social events, including weddings and private parties, will be limited. The new order comes after a high number of incidents of non-compliance with COVID-19 precautionary measures and increasing cases of infection.

Only first-degree relatives – parents, siblings and children – will be allowed at weddings, and not more than 10 people can attend the function.

The ruling will come into effect on January 27. It applies to events in hotels as well as home gatherings.

The UAE reported 3,552 cases of the disease on January 22 taking the total number of cases to 270,810 after 170,694 tests were carried out across the country. While 3,945 patients recovered from the virus, taking the total number of recoveries to 243,267, ten people died on the day and the death toll has reached 776 in all.

Non-essential surgery has been suspended until February 19 in Dubai. The decision was an extension of the one made in March 2020 in order to protect at-risk patients and release equipment such as ventilators.

Live entertainment in hotels and restaurants in Dubai will be halted because of the surge in cases and breaches found during inspections, Dubai Tourism has noted. According to Dubai Media Office, the decision was made to ensure “public health and safety” and “all permits issued will be on hold effective immediately”.

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As the vaccines reached Brazil early on Saturday, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said, “Made in India vaccines arrive in Brazil.”

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro thanked PM Narendra Modi for the vaccines and said, “Namaskar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Brazil feels honoured to have a great partner to overcome a global obstacle by joining efforts. Thank you for assisting us with the vaccine exports from India to Brazil. Dhanyavaad.”

To this, PM Modi replied, “The honour is ours, President Jair M. Bolsonaro to be a trusted partner of Brazil in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic together. We will continue to strengthen our cooperation on healthcare.”

Bolsonaro referred to the Covid-19 vaccine from India as ‘sanjeevni booti’ from Ramayana.

The Indian ambassador to Brazil said, “Today is a historic day in India-Brazil relations. Brazil is the first country to get such a consignment. PM Modi said we’ll make vaccine available to all countries and we’ll continue to work towards that and I wish you good luck in your efforts.”

Two flights, each carrying 2 million doses of Covishield vaccine, departed from the Mumbai airport for Brazil and Morocco in the early hours of Friday.

India is one of the world’s biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines.

Since Wednesday, India has begun sending Covid-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles.

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As many as 152 coronavirus positive patients succumbed to the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll due to coronavirus in India to 1,53,184. India also registered 17,130 discharges on Friday.

With the fresh number of coronavirus cases and discharges, the active Covid-19 cases in the country now stand at 1,85,662. So far, 10,300,838 people have recovered from the disease taking the national recovery rate to 96.81 percent.

The Covid-19 case fatality rate stood at 1.44 percent.

According to the ICMR, a total of 19,09,85,119 samples have so far been tested for the viral disease in the country, including 8,37,095 on Friday.

Maharashtra has so far reported the highest number of 50,684 deaths caused by the viral disease in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu (12,307), Karnataka (12,190), Delhi (10,789), West Bengal (10,097), Uttar Pradesh (8,605), Andhra Pradesh (7,146), Punjab (5,543) and Gujarat(4,374).

Since the vaccination drive was launched last Saturday, 13,90,592 have been vaccinated.

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The country’s death toll increased to 1,52,556 as 137 fatalities, the lowest in around eight months, were recorded in a span of 24 hours, the data showed.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,02,28,753 pushing the national COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.66 percent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.44 percent. The COVID-19 active caseload remained below three lakh.

There are 2,00,528 active COVID-19 cases in the country which comprise1.90 percent of the total caseload, the data stated. India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed 20 lakh on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 18,78,02,827 samples have been tested up to January 18 with 7,09,791 samples being tested on January 19.

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Out of the total cases, active cases further dropped to 2.08 lakh while recoveries went up to 1,02 crore. With 145 deaths reported on January 17, the toll stands at over 1.52 lakh. Kerala recorded 5,005 new cases, more than 36 percent of all. Maharashtra reported 3,081 cases.

Now the total caseload in the country has mounted to 1,05,71,773. The active cases tally in India stands at 2,08,012 and total recovered/discharged cases at 1,02,11,342.

On January 17, active cases declined below 2 percent of the total cases reported in the country for the first time. Daily new COVID-19 cases have stayed below the 20,000 mark from the last 10 days.

Over 2.24 lakh priority group individuals have been vaccinated at the end of two days of India’s mega inoculation drive. Out of the beneficiaries, only 447 adverse events cases have been reported, 3 of them required hospitalization, with 2 being discharged already, the Union Ministry said.

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52,310 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate was at 9.57 percent. So far 88,68,737 samples have been tested in the state.

4,408 recoveries were also recorded on this day. 4,506 people contracted the virus through contact.The source of 388 contact cases could not be traced. Sixty-eight of the coronavirus patients came from outside the state.

Twenty one deaths were confirmed in the last 24 hours taking the COVID death toll to 3,463.

With this, the number of active cases in the state reached 68,991.

The state has reported 8,47,848 COVID-19 infections so far. Of this, 7,75,176 were
cured.

The district-wise statistics of positive cases: Ernakulam – 767, Kozhikode – 677, Malappuram – 479, Kollam – 439, Pathanamthitta – 427, Kottayam – 399, Alappuzha – 302, Thiruvananthapuram – 296, Thrissur – 262, Kannur – 239, Idukki – 237, Wayanad – 226, Palakkad – 176 and Kasaragod – 79.

None of the UK returnees tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. So far, 56 UK returnees have tested positive for coronavirus. Among them 9 have been identified as mutant virus strain.

The district-wise statistics of contact cases: Ernakulam – 723, Kozhikode – 659, Malappuram – 457,Kollam – 430, Pathanamthitta – 377, Kottayam – 369, Alappuzha – 287, Thiruvananthapuram – 189,Thrissur – 249, Kannur – 185, Idukki – 227, Wayanad – 209, Palakkad – 76 and Kasaragod – 69.

Forty three health workers also tested positive. Among them, 10 were from Wayanad, 8 from Kannur, 5 each Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, 4 each from Pathanamthitta and Thrissur, 3 from Kasaragod and 1 each from Palakkad, Kottayam, Malappuram and Idukki.

The district-wise statistics of recoveries: Thiruvananthapuram – 431, Kollam – 176, Pathanamthitta –437, Alappuzha – 512, Kottayam – 367, Idukki – 83, Ernakulam – 427, Thrissur – 433, Palakkad –221, Malappuram – 515, Kozhikode – 457, Wayanad – 179, Kannur – 118 and Kasaragod – 52.

There are 2,09,679 people under observation in the state. Out of this, 1,98,502 are under home/institutional quarantine and 11,177 people are in hospitals. 1,217 people were taken to hospitals on January 17.

Eight areas were declared hotspots on Sunday. Meanwhile, one area was removed from the hotspot list.With this, there are a total of 420 hotspots in the state.

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Priyanka thanked the warrioirs for serving the nation. She took to her social media and wrote, “Bravo India! Congratulations to Indian authorities, medical & health teams for starting off the massive Covid vaccination drive. Forever grateful to our frontline heroes who have been risking their lives this past year to save others”.

Bravo India! Congratulations to
Indian authorities, medical & health teams for starting off the massive Covid vaccination drive. Forever grateful to our frontline heroes who have been risking their lives this past year to save others 🙏🏻 🇮🇳 https://t.co/VA56OzVLUy

— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) January 16, 2021

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16 launched the pan-India rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination drive through video conferencing.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Priyanka was last seen in We Can Be Heroes, which garnered positive reviews from fans. She will be seen in the upcoming movie, The White Tiger, alongside Rajkummar Rao. The film will follow the story of an ambitious driver, Adarsh Gourav, of a rich Indian couple played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Rajkummar Rao. Apart from this, she recently wrapped up the shooting schedule of her next film Text For You in the UK.

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Addressing the nation, PM Narendra Modi said, “India’s vaccines enjoy much credibility across the world . We’ve earned this via our track record. Most children in the world get their vaccine shots of those made in India. The world’s trust is on our Made in India vaccines will rise soon. These Indian vaccines are cheaper than foreign shots and easy to use. Some foreign doses are close to 5000/dose and to be stored in -70 degrees.”

PM lauded doctors and scientists who worked tirelessly to create the vaccine. He also stressed the importance of taking two doses of covid vaccine.

On the inaugural day, around 3,006 session sites across the country will be virtually connected. Around 100 beneficiaries would be vaccinated at each session.

India has two vaccine candidates so far — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the vaccines for emergency use on January 2.

All states and UTs will have multiple session sites or centres at the district level. There will be a registration and waiting room, a vaccination zone and an observation room.

Once the beneficiary reaches the site at the designated time and date, they will produce identification documents. When they are verified, they will be sent to the vaccination room where they will receive the shot. After the shot, the beneficiary will have to wait in the observation room and will be under observation for 30 minutes. There are emergency kits and ambulances on site.

In the first phase, 30 crore health workers, frontline workers and senior citizens will be vaccinated. All the beneficiaries will be registered on the CoWIN app. Only beneficiaries who have registered on the app will be allowed to visit the centre

COWIN APP

The vaccination process will use the online digital platform developed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that will help the authorities keep track in real-time of vaccination stocks, storage temperature and track the beneficiaries.

COVID-19 VACCINE HELPLINE

A 24X7 call centre has been established to answer queries about the coronavirus pandemic, vaccine rollout and the CoWIN software.

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Matshidiso Moeti told reporters that a larger rollout of the millions of doses from COVAX is expected by June – the second major vaccine announcement this week for the African continent of 1.3 billion people as infections surge for a second time.

The African Union chair on Wednesday said 270 million doses have been secured from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca via the Serum Institute of India. Doses of the vaccines are expected to be allocated to countries based on population size and the severity of the outbreak, with health workers considered the highest priority after thousands have been infected.

The African continent is now recording about 30,000 new virus cases daily. More than 5,400 deaths were reported last week in Africa. The continent has more than 3.1 million confirmed virus cases as the second wave of infections is hitting hard.

The case fatality rate in Africa is now 2.4 percent, above the global rate of 2.2 percent. Some 20 African countries have case fatality rates above the global average, including Sudan at 6 percent, Egypt at 5.5 percent, Mali at 3.9 percent, Congo at 3.1 percent and South Africa at 2.8 percent.

South Africa,one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa is now dominated by the highly infectious variant of the virus. The country has more than 1.2 million cases including 35,000 deaths.

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Dr V K Paul, a member(Health), NITI Aayog, said on Tuesday that Covishield of Serum Institute of India, and Covaxin are the two COVID-19 vaccines that have received Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU). He said that these vaccines are the safest vaccines and have been tested on thousands of people and side-effects are negligible.

The Union Health Ministry has said apart from Covishield and Covaxin, there are four more vaccines in the pipeline. Their manufacturers may soon apply for emergency use authorisation in India.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadilla, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova are the COVID-19 vaccines that are in the pipeline and are currently in advanced clinical trials in Indian

About half a crore doses of Serum Institute of India (SII’s) Covishield vaccine were shipped out of Pune to cities across India on January 12, as the country launched its final phase of preparations for the mass inoculation drive against the novel coronavirus.

What one dose of Covid vaccines will cost in India?

Covishield: Rs 200 per dose (for first 100 million doses), Rs 1,000 per dose thereafter at private outlets
Covaxin: Rs 206 per dose
Pfizer-BioNTech: Rs 1,431 per dose
Moderna: Rs 2,348 to Rs 2,715 per dose
Sinopharm: less than Rs 5,650 per dose
Sinovac Biotech: Rs 1,027 per dose
Novavax: Rs 1,114 per dose
Gamaleya Centre: less than Rs 734 per dose
Johnson and Johnson: Rs 734 per dose

Meanwhile, India reported 15,968 new Covid-19 cases, 17,817 discharges and 202 deaths in last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry data. The total cases now stand at 1,04,95,147, active cases are 2,14,507 and overall recoveries is at 1,01,29,111. The total death toll is 1,51,529.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 18,34,89,114 samples tested for Covid-19 till 12th January, of which 8,36,227 samples were tested on January 12.

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On January 8, Madhya Pradesh reported its first case of the new mutated strain from the UK. The patient, a 39-year-old man, had returned to Indore from the UK last month and has tested positive for the new coronavirus strain. Officials say he is asymptomatic.

A day earlier, three more people were found positive with the new UK-variant of Covid-19 in Maharashtra, taking the state’s tally to 11.

Officials said all 11 cases were asymptomatic.

As of January 6, the number of people who had tested positive for the new UK variant was 73.

The Union health ministry had said these cases included the 58 which were announced by the ministry till Tuesday.

“The total number of cases infected with the new strain of the novel coronavirus first reported in the UK now stands at 73,” the ministry had said.

The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by several countries including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.

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With 214 fresh deaths, India’s coronavirus death toll now stands at 1,49,649.

Among 1.03 crore total cases, there are 2,43,953 active cases while 99,46,867 have recovered. In the past 24 hours, India saw 19,557 recoveries, as per the Union Health Ministry.

Maharashtra reported 3,282 new cases and 35 deaths in the last 24 hours. There are now 53,137 active cases in the state, the health department informed. So far, 18,36,999 people have recovered, while the death toll stands at 49,666.

Kerala reported 4,600 new cases and 4,668 recoveries on Sunday. With this, the total number of active cases in the state now stands at 65,278.

As many as 424 new coronavirus cases and 708 recoveries were reported in the national capital on Sunday, as per the Delhi Health Department. The total number of positive cases now stands at 6,26,872, while the death toll stands at 10,585, including 14 on Sunday. There are currently 5,044 active cases in the national capital.

With 7,35,978 samples tested for the coronavirus on Sunday, the total number of samples tested so far stands at 17,56,35,761, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) informed.

On January 3, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation to vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria clarified that approval of COVAXIN, Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine is for an emergency situation and not emergency use authorisation which is given to Serum Institute of India’s COVISHIELD.

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This year Indians will face more subdued New Year’s eve celebrations as several states are announcing restrictions and night curfews, including prohibiting gathering of more than five people on the road and on events, shows and programmes.

The Indian government has issued SOPs to keep large gatherings to a minimum as the highly infectious coronavirus strain from United Kingdom has surfaced in the country.

Here’s a state-by-state guide to what you can and can’t do while celebrating New Year’s eve.

Delhi

In Delhi, night curfew has been declared from 11 pm to 6 am. “No New Year celebratory events, congregations and gatherings at public places shall be permitted from 11 pm of December 31 to 6 am of January 1 and 11 pm of January 1 and 6 am of January 2,” the Delhi Disaster Management Authority has declared.

Traffic movement will not be restricted. However no vehicle, both private or public transport, shall be allowed to proceed towards Connaught Place post 8 pm till celebrations are over.
To decrease overcrowding on New Year’s Eve Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) announced that exit from Rajiv Chowk metro station will not be allowed after 9 pm onwards.

Maharashtra(Mumbai)

Night curfew from 11pm to 6am has been announced in Mumbai also. Large gatherings have been banned, but there will be no restriction on visiting friends, relatives and public places in groups of four persons. The use of face masks and social distancing will remain mandatory.
The Mumbai Police also warned that drones will be used to keep watch.

Karnataka

In Bengaluru, prohibitory orders banning large gatherings will be imposed from noon today, the city police commissioner has said.

Section 144 imposed from 6 pm in Mangaluru. The government, through guidelines and orders, has prohibited parties, and special events at clubs, pubs, restaurants, and other places that attract people in large numbers without social distancing.

Tamil Nadu

Chennai , too, has barred large gatherings, especially on beaches and roads. The hugely popular Marina beach, Elliot’s beach and other beaches have been shut. Hotels and bars will have to shut by 10 pm. Hotels have been asked to verify credentials of visitors.
However Puducherry permitted celebration on beaches with regular rules. There are no strict restrictions.

West Bengal

Bengal has called for peaceful, disciplined celebrations, saying extremes like night curfews “not perceived to be required”. “No need for extreme steps but urge caution over new year celebrations… Best to maintain a careful middle path,” the state’s Chief Secretary has said.

Chandigarh

In Chandigarh too, there will be no special restrictions. “Review meeting was held; No night curfew in Chandigarh on the New Year Eve as there is a decline in Covid positive cases. Chandigarh police will ensure the existing Covid protocols are followed,” Lieutenant Governor VP Badnore has tweeted.

Punjab

The Amarinder Singh government has decided to lift it from January 1, and advised the public to follow Covid appropriate behaviour. Night curfew is in place today from 10 pm to 5 am in all cities and towns and hotels, restaurants, marriage palaces will be closed by 9.30 pm.The ceiling of 100 people and 250 people in all the indoor and outdoor social gatherings in the state will be applicable only till tonight.

Kerala
Kerala government sets 10pm deadline for New Year’s Eve celebrations . The fresh directive also said that no public gatherings will be allowed for the celebrations.
The government said “lawful action” will be taken under various provisions of law against people who fail to adhere to the rules. In its order, the government has asked district collectors and district police chiefs to ensure compliance.

Gujarat
The night curfew will be strictly enforced after 9 pm today in Ahmeddabad city.

Odisha

Odisah government has totally prohibited zero night and New Years celebrations across the state. However cinema halls, theatres and other entertainment facilities will be opened as part of Unlock 8 from January 1, 2021.

Haryana

In Gurgaon, New Year celebrations will happen as usual with beefing up the security. Around 4,000 police personnel have been deployed in Gurugram on the New Year’s Eve, with special traffic arrangements made to regulate movement of revellers.

Telengana

Liquor shop will remain open till midnight in Telengana and New Year celebrations and parties are allowed till 1 am . Permission has been given to the licence holders of bars, event organisers and In-House licences of Tourism Development Corporation to serve liquor up to 1 am, on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, it said.

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Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday, “Decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension of flights to and from the UK till 7 January 2021. Thereafter, a strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly.”

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