Live Updates: India Registers 30,773 New COVID-19 Cases

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs will lift the ban on foreign tourist arrivals within the next 10 days, The Hindu newspaper reported on Sunday, citing ministry officials.

India considers it safe to reopen because of a downward trend in COVID-19 cases, according to the report.

The reopening will proceed in phases in order for the Indian authorities to evaluate the response and consequences, a ministry official was cited as saying.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India is taking steps to return foreign tourists. As part of the effort, the Indian government pledged to issue the first 500,000 tourist visas free of charge after international flights resume.

International and domestic passenger flights in India have been suspended since the end of March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last July, India started making so-called air bubble arrangement with select countries and cities with good COVID-19 dynamics to resume bilateral flights. To date, India has made such arrangements with 27 countries but has not greenlighted tourist arrivals from any of them.

India has the second highest number of detected coronavirus cases in the world. As of Sunday, the country's total toll exceeds 33.4 million cases, including more than 444,000 deaths and 32.6 million recoveries.

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs will lift the ban on foreign tourist arrivals within the next 10 days, The Hindu newspaper reported on Sunday, citing ministry officials.

India considers it safe to reopen because of a downward trend in COVID-19 cases, according to the report.

The reopening will proceed in phases in order for the Indian authorities to evaluate the response and consequences, a ministry official was cited as saying.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India is taking steps to return foreign tourists. As part of the effort, the Indian government pledged to issue the first 500,000 tourist visas free of charge after international flights resume.

International and domestic passenger flights in India have been suspended since the end of March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last July, India started making so-called air bubble arrangement with select countries and cities with good COVID-19 dynamics to resume bilateral flights. To date, India has made such arrangements with 27 countries but has not greenlighted tourist arrivals from any of them.

India has the second highest number of detected coronavirus cases in the world. As of Sunday, the country's total toll exceeds 33.4 million cases, including more than 444,000 deaths and 32.6 million recoveries.

Russia registered 20,174 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, which brings the cumulative total to 7,274,928, the federal response center said on Sunday.

Moscow had the highest number of new cases at 2,376, St. Petersburg the second highest with 1,834, the Moscow region the third highest with 1,004.

In the same 24 hours, 793 deaths of patients with COVID-19 and 13,418 recoveries were recorded across the country.

India has administered 800 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday, adding that that marked the world's largest vaccination campaign.

India launched the vaccination drive on 16 January to vaccinate around 300 million people in priority groups within six months.

"Standing tall against #COVID19. India administers 80 crore vaccine doses. Congratulations to the nation on this momentous feat #WorldsLargestVaccinationDrive," Mandaviya said on Twitter.

Earlier on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said that more than 601,04 million people received one dose of the vaccine, and more than 203,3 million received both doses.

India has the world's second-highest cumulative number of COVID-19 cases. Since March 2020, when the pandemic began, India has recorded nearly 33,4 million cases. More than 32,6 million patients have recovered and 444,248 have died.