Here are the top updates from Monday:

  1. Bharat Biotech said it has submitted all documents to the World Health Organization for the emergency-use listing of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin. “The review process has now commenced with the expectation that we will receive EUL [emergency-use listing] from the WHO at the earliest,” it added.
  2. India recorded 37,154 new coronavirus cases and 724 deaths in 24 hours on Monday morning. With this, the country’s tally of infections rose to 3,08,74,376 and the toll went up to 4,08,764 since the pandemic broke out in January last year.
  3. The Indian Medical Association cautioned the central and state governments that the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic was inevitable and imminent. The doctors’ association said that “tourist bonanza, pilgrimage travel, religious fervour” could wait and the people should follow Covid protocols for at least three more months. Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy also urged Indians to follow Covid protocol while travelling.
  4. Data from the National Health Mission’s Health Management Information System showed that there were nearly 3,00,000 more deaths in India in May 2021, compared to the same month in 2019, according to an analysis by IndiaSpend. This is more than 2.5 times India’s official Covid-19 toll of 1.2 lakh for the same period.
  5. Delhi’s Janpath Market was briefly closed after Covid-19 rules were violated. However, the government withdrew the order after traders promised that they would strictly follow safety protocol, PTI reported.
  6. Delhi reported 45 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. This was the city’s lowest daily rise in infections in nearly 15 months, The Indian Express reported. Its tally went up to 14,35,128. The city’s toll rose by three to 25,018.
  7. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the central government for the shortage of vaccine doses in the country. He said the number of ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet had increased but not the Covid-19 vaccine stocks in the country.
  8. Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasised on the need to end vaccine hesitancy in the country, PTI reported. “I urge volunteers of social organisations to adopt villages for this purpose and launch such awareness drives,” he said. “You can give your example to allay their fear and win their confidence.”
  9. The outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in Australia has worsened. New South Wales state recorded 112 new cases over a period of 24 hours. This was the highest single-day rise in cases in the state his year in the state and almost all the new infections were detected in Australia’s largest city Sydney.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 18.67 crore people and killed over 40.29 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.