Highlights: Night curfew in Maharashtra from December 22 to January 5

An Amazon spokesperson has confirmed that the company's warehouse in Robbinsville Township in New Jersey, USA, has been shut following an increase in asymptomatic Covid-19 cases.

“Through our in-house Covid-19 testing program, we detected an increase in the number of asymptomatic positive cases at our PNE5 facility in northern New Jersey and have pro-actively closed the site until December 26th out of an abundance of caution,” Amazon spokesperson Leah Seay said, reports Bloomberg.

With 1,515 new Covid-19 infections and 41 new deaths, West Bengal's Covid-19 tally reached 538,343 cases and 9,401 fatalities, according to the state health department.

The state has 16,903 active cases and also reported 2,342 discharges taking the overall recoveries to 512,039 patients, ANI reported.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the conditional marketing authorisation for Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.

"I am delighted to announce that the EMA scientific committee met today and recommended a conditional marketing authorisation in the EU for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech," EMA chief Emer Cooke told an online press conference.

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Maharashtra reported 2,234 new Covid-19 cases and 55 deaths, taking the state's tally to 1,899,352 cases and 48,801 deaths, according to the state health department.

In the last 24 hours 6,053 recoveries have been reported, exceeding the daily infection count, taking the overall recoveries to 1,789,958 patients with 99.24 per cent recovery rate, reports PTI.

With 214 new Covid-19 cases and 422 recoveries, Andhra Pradesh's Covid-19 tally reaches 878,937 total cases and 867,867 overall recoveries. There are 3,992 active cases in the state and the total death toll stands at 7,078., reports ANI.

Andhra Pradesh reports 214 new COVID-19 cases, 422 recoveries, according to the State Health Department.

Total cases: 8,78,937

Active cases: 3,992

Total recoveries: 8,67,867

Death toll: 7,078 pic.twitter.com/JwbiMQoBgb

— ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2020

The Maharashtra government has decided to impose seven-hour night curfew from Tuesday for the next 15 days till January 5, 2021.

The curfew will be effective in all the cities (municipal corporation areas) across the state from 11 pm till 6am in the morning.

Travelers coming from Europe and Middle-East countries are to be kept under institutional quarantine facilities for 14 days and travelers coming from other countries would be directed to home quarantine for 14 days.

With 803 new Covid-19 cases and 27 new deaths reported, Delhi's Covid-19 tally reached 617,808 infections and 10,304 fatalities, Delhi's health department said.

Currently there are 9,255 active cases in Delhi. In the past 24 hours, 1,669 recoveries have been reported, taking the overall recoveries to 598,249, news agency ANI reported.

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, chaired by Congress leader Anand Sharma, has submitted its Covid-19 report to vice president Venkaiah Naidu.

The report recommends multiple measures to the central government in its efforts against Covid-19.

A comprehensive public health law and sufficient testing before providing emergency use authorisation to Covid-19 vaccines, were some of the key suggestions, reports PTI.

France needs to step up its vigilance regarding the coronavirus situation in the country, given the emergence of a new strain of the virus in the United Kingdom, President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has announced suspension of all flights originating from the UK to India effective December 22 from 11:59pm to December 31 11:59pm over new coronavirus strain fears.

Russia reported 29,350 new coronavirus infections, a record high, taking the country's tally to 2,877,727. 493 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 51,351.

An Air India official said that a decision regarding flights to and from the UK has nit yet been made in view of the new coronavirus strain that was discovered.

Several European countries like Italy, Germany, France and The Netherlands to name a few, have blocked air travel from the UK over fears the new coronavirus strain that was discovered there.

Himachal Pradesh reported 30 new coronavirus infections, taking the state's tally to 52,359 including 4,936 active cases. The death toll currently stands at 866 and 46,510 people have recovered.

Union Health Minister said that there was no need to panic regarding the new coronavirus strain discovered in the UK since the government was alert about it.