Top 10 Covid updates: Delta strain accounts for 80% of India’s new cases, says government panel head
A look at the biggest Covid-19 developments of the day.
- The Delta variant of Covid-19 accounts for over 80% of new cases in India, said Dr NK Arora, the co-chair of Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, PTI reported. Arora added that the variant was primarily responsible for the second wave of the pandemic in the country.
- India on Monday reported 38,164 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year to 3,11,44,229. The number was 7.27% lower than Sunday’s tally of 41,157 cases. The country’s toll rose to 4,14,108 as 499 more patients died due to the infection in the last 24 hours.
- The total number of vaccine doses administered in India has crossed 41 crore, the health ministry said.
- Kerala, a state that has been recording a surge in Covid-19 cases, recorded 9,931 new infections on Monday evening. With this, the state’s tally rose to 31,70,868. The positivity rate stood at 11.08%. Fifty-eight more deaths pushed the state’s toll to 15,408.
- Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 6,017 new cases on Monday, its lowest daily count since February 22. The state now has 62,20,207 total cases. The toll jumped by 66 to 1,27,097. This was the lowest number of deaths reported in the last one week.
- The Uttarakhand government extended the Covid-19 curfew till July 27 but allowed certain relaxations. The government did away with the requirement of carrying negative test reports for travelling within the state and allowed shops to stay open for a longer duration.
- The Supreme Court directed the Kerala government to file its reply by the end of Monday to a plea challenging its decision to relax Covid-19 restrictions in view of Eid-al-Adha, or Bakrid.
- The British government lifted pandemic restrictions in England, even after scientists and opposition parties warning that it was a “dangerous and unethical experiment”, AFP reported. The government has allowed nightclubs and other indoor venues to run at full capacity.
- A Czech beach volleyball player tested positive for Covid-19 at the Tokyo’s Olympic Village, AFP reported. With this, the number of cases in the Village rose to four.
- Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected more than 19.03 crore people and killed over 40.88 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.