The Karnataka government will resume the COVID-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years age group from Saturday.

The frontline warriors will be the first to receive the jabs followed by other eligible groups in the list, the state government said in an order on Thursday.

The number of U.K. cases of a worrying coronavirus variant from India more than doubled for a second week as authorities also monitor a new mutation of the virus, adding fresh doubt to U.K. plans to fully unlock the economy.

Health officials have now detected 3,424 cases of the B1.617.2 variant, also known as VOC-21APR-02, Public Health England said Thursday in a statement. That’s up from 1,313 last week, and 520 a week earlier.

Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) rallied 8 per cent and hit a 52-week high of Rs 288.15 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday after reporting many-fold jump in its March quarter (Q4FY21) net profit to Rs 3,018 crore on the back of inventory gains and rise in refining margins. The state-owned oil marketing company had a net profit of Rs 27 crore in January-March 2020 (Q4FY20).

Shares of JK Lakshmi Cement surged 7 per cent and hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 499.70 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday after the company reported 37 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in March quarter (Q4FY21) standalone net profit at Rs 138.27 crore, on the back of healthy operational performance. It had a profit of Rs 101.21 crore in Q4FY20. The stock was trading close to its record high level of Rs 535, touched on May 17, 2017.

Oyo Hotels, one of India’s most valuable startups, is offering unusually generous terms to investors as it seeks to raise $600 million in debt, following a fresh surge of coronavirus cases in its home country that decimated travel and undercut its recovery plans.

Oravel Stays Pvt, as the parent company is officially known, is discussing with banks and investors a five-year term loan B at 850 basis points over Libor, higher than the usual guidance given for recently issued term loan Bs in the Asia-Pacific market, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has surpassed 19 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

On the day-125 of the vaccination drive on Thursday, a total of 14,56,088 vaccine doses -- 12,73,785 first dose and 1,82,303 second dose -- were given according to provisional report till 8 PM, the ministry data showed.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said dedicated centres will be set up for the treatment of black fungus or mucormycosis cases at three city government-run hospitals.

He made the announcement after discussing the rise in black fungus cases with officials and specialists at a meeting here.

Drug major Cipla on Thursday announced the commercialisation of its RT-PCR test kit 'ViraGen' for COVID-19 in India, in partnership with Ubio Biotechnology Systems.

This launch will help address the current testing services and capacity issues while reaffirming the company's ongoing expansion in the diagnostic space, Cipla said in a regulatory filing.

The double mutant B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2 is further mutating and one of its sub-lineages, the B.1.617.2, reported in India, is more infectious than its parent and fast increasing its footprint, according to Rakesh Mishra, former Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

He also said there is nothing called the Singapore variant, a term that has led to a war of words between the Centre and the AAP government after Singapore objected to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's tweet that a new coronavirus strain in the city-state is very dangerous for children.

Andhra Pradesh government has placed orders for purchasing 15,000 vials of Amphotericin B injection to treat persons infected with black fungus or Mucormycosis, said state Medical and Health Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal on Wednesday.

The state government is taking precautionary measures to prevent black fungus. The Centre has allocated 1650 vials for Andhra Pradesh and the state government has already given orders for 15,000 vials from three companies, and the supply is likely to start on May 22 or 23.

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