India on Wednesday morning recorded 37,593 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking the infection tally in the country to 3,25,12,366 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The number of daily cases is 47.6% higher than Tuesday’s count of 25,467.

With 648 deaths, the toll climbed to 4,35,758. So far, 3,17,54,281 people have recovered from the infection. The number of active cases rose to 3,22,327.

Meanwhile, 16 of the 78 Afghanistan citizens who were evacuated to India on Monday have tested positive for the coronavirus disease, reported NDTV. All 78 have been quarantined as a precautionary measure.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Other updates

  • The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday temporarily suspended visa-on-arrival for any individual arriving from India. Passengers from any other part of the world need to take a Covid-19 test, the results of which cannot exceed more than six hours before boarding the flight, the UAE has specified.
  • Punjab’s Ludhiana district reported zero Covid-19 in the past 24 hours for the first time in the past 15 months, The Times of India quoted Deputy Commissioner Varinder Sharma as saying. Health authorities in the district tested 9,000 samples in the past day.
  • Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the national Capital was preparing to tackle the third wave of Covid-19 if it arises, reported ANI. He said the government was making arrangements for 37,000 non-oxygen beds and 12,000 oxygen beds. 
  • A report from the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines among frontline workers dropped to 66% after the delta variant became dominant, as compared with 91% before it, reported Bloomberg.   
  • The United Kingdom reported 174 deaths due to Covid-19 on Tuesday, which is the highest figure since March 12, according to Reuters. The country registered 30,838 coronavirus cases on Tuesday.
  • Japan has extended a state of emergency to eight more prefectures as part of its efforts to reduce Covid-19 cases, Al-Jazeera reported. With this, the total number of prefectures under the state of emergency has increased to 21 in total.
  • Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 21.31 crore people and led to over 44.5 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.