Here are the top updates from Wednesday:

  1. The Centre asked states and Union Territories to consider imposing local-level restrictions to curb mass gatherings during festivals such as Muharram, Onam, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Puja, India Today reported.
  2. India registered 42,625 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s tally to 3,17,69,132 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The country’s toll rose by 562 to 4,25,757. The number of active cases went up by 5,395 to 4,10,353.
  3. The health ministry said that while some Covid-19 cases in the country could go undetected, “missing out on deaths is completely unlikely”. The ministry’s claim sought to defy several reports citing data from the Civil Registration System, which have pointed towards massive undercounting in Covid-19 deaths in India.
  4. The Delhi High Court said that there was a lack of clarity in the steps taken by the Centre for setting up buffer stock of liquid medical oxygen in the city to deal with the pandemic even as a third wave of Covid-19 was anticipated, PTI reported.
  5. A study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology has found that those who have recovered from a Covid-19 infection and received both doses of the Covishield vaccine have higher immunity against the Delta variant of the virus, ANI reported.
  6. Kerala, the top contributor of new Covid-19 cases among all states, registered 22,414 infections in the last 24 hours, The Times of India reported. As many as 108 people died due to the infection.
  7. The World Health Organization called to stop administering a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine, as a booster shot, at least till the end of September, Reuters reported. The UN body’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the move will enable the inoculation of at least 10% of the population in every country.
  8. Most children who develop a symptomatic Covid-19 infection recover in six days and the number who experience symptoms after four weeks is low, a study published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal said.
  9. Japan warned that coronavirus infections were surging at an unprecedented pace as new cases hit a record high in Capital Tokyo, where the Olympic Games are being held, Reuters reported.
  10. Globally, Covid-19 has infected 19.98 crore people and caused more than 42.51 lakh deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.