Here are the top updates from Sunday:

  1. Kerala registered 17,466 new Covid-19 infections and 66 deaths in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall case count to 32,71,530 and toll to 16,035, reported Onmanorama. Kerala Health Minister Veena George said the active cases reached 1,40,276. The positivity rate, which is the percentage of people who test positive for the virus of those overall who have been tested, rose to 12.3%.
  2. India recorded 39,742 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours as the country’s tally rose to 3,13,71,901 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The number was 1.64% higher than the 39,097 cases reported on Saturday.
  3. Cinemas, multiplexes and spas will reopen in Delhi from Monday with 50% capacity, while metro trains and buses will run at full capacity.
  4. Tamil Nadu reported 1,808 new Covid-19 infections, 22 deaths and 2,447 recoveries in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall case count to 25,48,497 and toll to 33,911, reported ANI, citing a health ministry bulletin. Meanwhile, Maharashtra logged 6,843 new cases and 123 fatalities. With this, the state’s total caseload jumped to 62,64,922 and the toll rose to 1,31,552.
  5. The Jammu and Kashmir administration announced that the curfew on the weekends will no longer continue in any district, reported ANI.
  6. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that he has asked the United Kingdom to review its travel ban on visitors from India. In April, Britain added India to its travel “red-list”amid concerns about the Delta variant of the coronavirus. This effectively bans visitors from travelling to the United Kingdom. British citizens returning to the country are required to undergo a compulsory 10-day hotel quarantine on arrival.
  7. Tens of thousands of Brazilian residents protested on the streets, demanding President Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment, reported AFP. The protests came as a federal investigation is underway into alleged irregularities in a contract between Brazil’s health ministry and Bharat Biotech for 20 million (2 crore) doses of Covaxin. The deal was made despite Covaxin’s failure to obtain regulatory clearance for the vaccine’s use in the country. The government suspended its contract with Bharat Biotech on June 29.
  8. United Kingdom’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid apologised for saying that people should no longer “cower” from Covid-19. “I was expressing gratitude that the vaccines help us fight back as a society, but it was a poor choice of word and I sincerely apologise,” he tweeted. “Like many, I have lost loved ones to this awful virus and would never minimise its impact.”
  9. Politicians in Australia have criticised the protests against coronavirus-induced restrictions amid a surge in infections, reported BBC. Thousands of residents marched through Sydney on Saturday, calling for an end to the curbs, with small-scale protests in Melbourne and Brisbane.
  10. Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has infected 19.38 crore people and caused 41.55 lakh deaths in the world since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.