Here are the top 5 news updates of August 7, 2021:
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the government will soon take a decision regarding extending the timings of restaurants and hotels after reviewing the situation. He was speaking at a meeting with a delegation of representatives of the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) and the Hotel Owners Association.
Thackeray said that the COVID-19 restrictions have been eased in a few districts. However, he added that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic has to be avoided. For this, the Chief Minister said that the guidelines have to be strictly followed.
"We want to start everything as smoothly as before. We have relaxed some restrictions in the first phase. We have reduced restrictions on outdoor movement but we have to be careful about such things indoors," Uddhav said.
In a significant achievement, India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 50 crore landmark milestone (50,03,48,866) on Friday, as per Union Health Ministry data.
"22,93,781 vaccine doses were administered as first dose and 4,32,281 vaccine doses given as second dose in the age group 18-44 years today. Cumulatively, 17,23,20,394 persons in the age group 18-44 years across 37 States/UTs have received their first dose and total 1,12,56,317 have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive", stated the Health ministry.
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh has collectively administered more than one crore COVID-19 jabs in the 18-44 years age group.
3. Olympics | Aditi Ashok finishes agonisingly close to India's maiden medal in golf
India’s surprise package at Tokyo Olympics, golfer Aditi Ashok came agonisingly close to clinching historic Olympic medal at the Tokyo 2020 in women’s individual strokeplay.
Aditi finished 15 under and had to hit a birdie in the 72nd hole to force a bronze medal playoff with Lydia Ko.
However, Ko got a par score on the 18th and forced a silver medal play off for herself against Japan’s Inami Mone.
India got it's fifth COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday as Johnson & Johnson's jab was approved for emergency usage. The development comes less than a day after the US pharma giant said that it had applied for authorisation of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine Janssen to the Government of India.
"India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India. Now India has 5 EUA vaccines. This will further boost our nation's collective fight against COVID-19," read a tweet from Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
As per a statement from the company's India spokesperson, the single dose vaccine will be made available to all individuals above the age of 18. The vaccine will be brought to India through a collaboration with Biological E Limited. It is however not clear when exactly the vaccine will become available to the general populace.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday allocated portfolios to Ministers in his new cabinet, with most of them retaining the Ministries they had in the previous B S Yediyurappa government.
In a surprising move, debutant ministers have got plum portfolios like Araga Jnanendra- Home and V Sunil Kumar- Energy, along with Kannada and Culture.
The Chief Minister who had on Wednesday expanded his new cabinet, by inducting 29 Ministers, had tried to play it safe with by and large retaining old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous Yediyurappa cabinet, while six were new.
Bommai has retained the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DAPR), Finance, Intelligence, Cabinet Affairs, Bengaluru Development and all unallocated portfolios with himself.
