India recorded 38,949 new coronavirus cases on Friday morning, pushing the tally of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year to 3,10,26,829. The number was 6.8% lower than Thursday’s count of 41,806 cases. India’s toll rose to 4,12,531 as it recorded 542 more deaths in the last day.

The number of active cases in India stood at 4,30,422 while the count of recoveries reached 3,01,83,876.

Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak to the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Kerala and Maharashtra on Friday. These states have either not recorded a general decline in cases or are registering a surge in several districts.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government exempted fully-vaccinated domestic and international flyers from producing a negative RT-PCR certificate to enter the state, ANI reported.

Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 18.88 crore people and killed more than 40.65 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The spread of the Delta variant has sparked global concern. The World Health Organization on Thursday said that the strain was detected in more than 111 countries. “Unfortunately…we are now in the early stages of a third wave,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

In view of the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant, officials in Los Angeles reinstated the requirement to wear masks indoors. The rule will come into effect this weekend.