From the Newsroom: Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa says Covid-19 situation in state has become ‘uncontrollable’

In your evening news brief, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa says Covid-19 situation in the state has become ‘uncontrollable’; India will start receiving Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine by May-end and the US pledged to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

Here is the top news of April 22, 2021:

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who was discharged from hospital on Thursday, six days after he tested positive for Covid-19, has convened a meeting of ministers to discuss the pandemic situation, which he said had become “uncontrollable”.

Yediyurappa was undergoing treatment in hospital as he was infected with the coronavirus on April 16, the second time in nine months.

Yediyurappa, 78, is likely to remain home for the next couple of days following the advice of doctors. “The situation is deteriorating with each passing day. In every house, 3-4 people are infected,” Yediyurappa said.

India will start receiving Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine by end-May, its local distributor Dr. Reddy's Laboratories told Reuters on Thursday, a later than expected schedule that could slow the country's immunisation drive.

Also read: India to get Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine only by end-May

"We are targeting to have the first batches imported by (fiscal) Q1, and are trying our best to have them by end-May," a Dr. Reddy’s spokesman told Reuters.

"Sputnik is going to be made in India in a few months. We expect the India-made vaccine to start being available from the second quarter of the fiscal (year)."

The Biden administration on Thursday pledged to slash US greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent-52 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, a new target it hopes will spur other big emitter countries to raise their ambition to combat climate change.

The goal, unveiled at the start of a two-day climate summit hosted by Democratic President Joe Biden, comes as the United States seeks to reclaim global leadership in the fight against global warming after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from international efforts to cut emissions. It also marks an important milestone in Biden's broader plan to decarbonize the US economy entirely by 2050 - an agenda he says can create millions of good-paying jobs but which many Republicans say they fear will damage the economy.