The single day rise in coronavirus cases was recorded at 1,73,790, the lowest in last 45 days, taking India's total tally of COVID-19 cases to 2,77,29,247, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The daily positivity further declined to 8.36 per cent, remaining below 10 per cent for five consecutive days, while the weekly positivity rate dropped to 9.84 per cent, it said.

A new born girl tested positive for COVID-19 at a hospital in Banaras Hindu University's (BHU) Sir Sunderlal Hospital, despite her mother testing negative before the delivery.

According to Dr Kaushan Kumar Gupta, the Medical Superintendent, the mother was tested for COVID-19 on May 24 before giving birth. The following day, she gave birth to a girl, who tested positive.

Top officers of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar on Friday resolved to make it India's first fully-vaccinated district against coronavirus, according to officials.

A clarion call towards the resolution was given by District Magistrate Suhas L Y during a virtual meeting with top health and administration officials of the district with Police Commissioner Alok Singh also in attendance, they said.

The government has cut down capacity for airlines to operate from 80 per cent to 50 per cent from 1st June in order to safeguard viability of airlines with weak finances. Simultaneously it has increased the upper cap of airfare to go up by around 14 per cent due to the rise in fuel prices.

In view of sudden change in the number of Covid-19 cases, and decrease in number of passengers and reduced occupancy, the existing capacity cap of 80 per cent is reduced to 50 per cent, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in an order.

Europe's medicines regulator on Friday backed the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, paving the way for a broader roll-out in the region after similar clearances in the United States and Canada.

The European Medicines Agency's endorsement comes weeks after it began evaluating extending use of the vaccine, developed with Germany's BioNTech, to include 12- to 15-year-olds. It is already being used in the European Union for those aged 16 and older.

Seven social media platforms have complied with some of the rules under the new IT rules that came into effect earlier this week. Koo, Sharechat, Telegram, LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, WhatsApp have shared the list of their Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Contact Person, and Grievance Officer as envisaged under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 with India's Information Technology(IT) ministry. IT ministry is the main nodal ministry that deals with the matter.

India's blue-chip Nifty 50 index hit a record high on Friday, as financials and materials stocks gained ahead of a key indirect tax related meeting by the country's finance minister later in the day.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.65% at 15,437.05 by 0347 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was 0.53% higher at 51,383.43. Both the indexes have gained around 2% for the week.

French IT services major Capgemini rolled out on-premises vaccination drive for its 125,000 employees and dependents in association with health and security partner International SOS across India.

Capgemini has partnered with Aditya Birla, Reliance, Apollo, MGM and Rainbow to facilitate the vaccination drives across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and NCR. Capgemini is planning to expand the vaccination drive to other locations in the coming weeks, said the company in a statement.

On Friday, India recorded 179,770 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily count in 44 days, as infections continued to decrease in the country. The daily death toll, however, remained over the 3,000-mark, with 3,558 deaths. India's total cases now stand at 27,547,705, while total fatalities are at 318,821.

Currently, the active caseload of COVID-19 in India stands at 24.2 lakh, after a reduction of 35% from 37.4 lakh active cases recorded on May 9.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to chair the 43rd Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting through video conferencing on Friday.

According to the official Twitter account of the Ministry of Finance, the meeting is scheduled to begin at 11 am and the Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur along with Finance Ministers and senior officials of all States and Union Territories (UT) are likely to participate.

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