Here are the top updates from Sunday:

  1. The number of children hospitalised with Covid-19 has hit a record in the United States, Al Jazeera reported, citing data from the country’s Department of Health and Human Services. The number of children hospitalised due to Covid-19 stood at 1,902. “This is not last year’s Covid,” Sally Goza, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told CNN. “This one is worse and our children are the ones that are going to be affected by it the most.”
  2. India logged 36,083 new coronavirus cases, taking the infection tally in the country to 3,21,92,576 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The toll rose to 4,31,225 after 493 patients died due to the infection in the last 24 hours.
  3. The Delhi government issued an order to reserve 70% of vaccination slots of Covishield and Covaxin at state-run facilities for beneficiaries receiving their first dose, PTI reported.
  4. The Goa government extended a curfew in the state till August 23, while the Andhra Pradesh administration extended the restrictions till August 21 to rein in the pandemic, PTI reported.
  5. Meanwhile, the Gujarat government extended night curfew in the eight cities of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar and Junagadh till August 28, reported ANI. The restrictions will be in place between 11 pm and 6 am.
  6. Kerala, which has been reporting the highest number of new cases among all states, recorded 18,582 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, The Indian Express reported. As many as 102 people died due to the infection, while the positivity rate stood at 15.11%.
  7. Maharashtra, another state with high daily caseload, reported 4,797 new cases and 130 deaths in the last 24 hours, government data showed.
  8. During his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded those involved in vaccine manufacturing in the country and said India did not have to depend on other countries, PTI reported. He also praised doctors, nurses and paramedics for their efforts in fighting the pandemic.
  9. Faced with an outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus, Australia purchased 10 lakh doses of the Pfizer vaccine from Poland, Reuters reported.
  10. Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 20.69 crore people and led to over 43.59 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.