Ram Kapoor and wife Gautami receive first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, actor shares video

Actor Ram Kapoor and his wife Gautami Kapoor on Saturday received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The actor, known for playing affable characters on TV shows such as Kasamh Se and Bade Achhe Lagte Hain, as well as movies Mere Dad Ki Maruti and Baar Baar Dekho, also did something to make the frontline workers laugh amid the ongoing global pandemic.

While the nurse was prepping Ram for his vaccine, the actor pretended to cry out loud (fear of needle) and this left everyone in the room chuckling. Gautami, who was shooting the video captured the moment perfectly as Ram wrote, "All these frontline workers are working so hard, it felt nice to make them laugh a bit. Thank you to all the frontline workers."

Ishaan Khatter dropped a heart emoji in the comments section.

Over 65 lakh people given the COVID-19 vaccine in Maharashtra

Over three lakh people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in Maharashtra on Thursday, which took the number of such beneficiaries in the state to over 65 lakh, an official said.

'This is the highest vaccination figure Maharashtra has ever achieved in a day. The state has set up 3,295 centres to carry out vaccination at mass level,' the official from the state health department said.

The state on Thursday started giving vaccines to people above 45 years of age. Meanwhile, eight states witnessed a steep rise in daily new COVID-19 cases and accounted for 81.42 percent of the infections reported on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry said.

These eight states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra has shown a nine-fold jump, the maximum increase in the number of active cases in the last two months. 

India's tally of COVID-19 active caseload also increased to 6,58,909 and now comprises 5.32 percent of the total infections. In a day, there has been a net rise of 44,213 active cases.

(With PTI inputs)