Here are the top updates from Tuesday:

  1. Bhutan has fully vaccinated 90% of its eligible adult population within just seven days, the health ministry announced. Most adults were vaccinated through shots donated by foreign countries for the Himalayan kingdom’s second round of vaccinations, The New York Times reported. UNICEF’s Bhutan representative, Will Parks, praised the vaccination drive as a “great success story”.
  2. India recorded 29,689 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday morning, taking the overall count of infections to 3,14,40,951 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The country recorded less than 30,000 daily new cases after 132 days.
  3. The Centre has written to state governments seeking data on deaths related to oxygen shortages, The Times of India reported. The data is likely to be presented in Parliament before the end of the Monsoon Session on August 13.
  4. The Centre has claimed that more than 2.28 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses are still available with states, Union Territories and private hospitals for inoculation, PTI reported. Over 45.73 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and Union Territories so far, and 24,11,000 additional doses are in the pipeline, the Union health ministry said.
  5. Twenty-two districts in the country have reported a rising trend in Covid-19 cases, which is a cause for concern, ANI reported, citing the Union Health Ministry’s Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal. Out of these, seven districts are from Kerala, five from Manipur, three from Meghalaya, while the rest are in other states.
  6. The Covishield vaccine was able to reduce coronavirus infections by 93% and mortality by 98% during the second wave of the pandemic, according to a study by the Armed Forces Medical College, PTI reported. NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul presented the findings of the study, which was conducted on 15 lakh doctors and frontline workers.
  7. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya reportedly said at a meeting of the BJP’s parliamentary party that Covid-19 vaccines for children are likely in a matter of days, according to NDTV. The government would likely start vaccinating children next month, the report added.
  8. Antibodies triggered by Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine declined below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, Reuters reported. However, a third shot had a strong booster effect, according to a lab study.
  9. Four more residents of the Olympic Games village in Tokyo, including two athletes, have tested positive for Covid-19, PTI reported. They were among the seven new cases reported by the organisers of the event. With this, the number of cases linked to the Olympics rose to 155.
  10. Globally, Covid-19 has infected 19.46 crore people and caused 41.67 lakh deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.