Local media reported that Congress has a clear advantage in exit polls in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir
The Philippines launched on Monday an ambitious drive to vaccinate nine million people against Covid-19 over three days, deploying security forces and using tens of thousands of volunteers to help administer the programme.
The immunisation campaign was scaled back from an earlier target of 15 million shots, but would still be a record in a country where vaccine hesitancy remains an obstacle and there are logistical hurdles to reach people in the sprawling archipelago.
Three million vaccinations per day is nearly four times the average of 829,000 daily shots in November. An official said news of the Omicron variant made the campaign even more vital.
"It is better to be prepared for the effects of Omicron," Carlito Galvez, the country's vaccination chief, told CNN Philippines on Monday.
The spread of the Omicron variant, which the World Health Organization has described as a "variant of concern", has sparked global travel restrictions and rattled financial markets.
The Philippines has faced one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Asia and has been slower than many of its neighbours in immunising its people. About 35.6 million people have been fully vaccinated, or a third of its 110 million population.
The country aims to immunise 54 million people by the end of 2021 and 77 million by next March.
New infections have fallen sharply to an average of 1,679 a day in November from a peak of 18,579 average daily cases in September, paving the way for a wider economic reopening.
Vaccination rates have remained uneven, with 93 per cent of the capital region's residents fully inoculated as of mid-November compared with 10.9 per cent in the southern Philippines, government data show.
The government has said it would deploy 160,000 volunteers in 11,000 vaccination sites nationwide for the three-day campaign.
Local media reported that Congress has a clear advantage in exit polls in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir
Double Olympic Gold Medalist Aims to Inspire the Next Generation of Sailors as she makes her debut for Mubadala Brazil SailGP Team
The 33-year-old needs just 71 more to overhaul Cook's 12,472 Test runs for England
The rematch will take place on December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the WBC, WBO and WBA titles on the line
Masdar’s clean energy capacity rose from 20GW in 2022 to 31.5GW in 2023
Pakistan captain Shan Masood said they knew how to neutralise England's aggressive style
With this, the number of drug-related killings in Marseille has risen to 17 since the start of the year
The soon-to-be-introduced personal wearable smart tracking device from Samsung is designed to be your constant companion for all things health and fitness