Here are the top updates from Saturday:

  1. Kerala government will enforce a night curfew from next week amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in the state, PTI reported. The timings of the curfew will be from 10 pm to 6 am. The state recorded over 30,000 infections for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday.
  2. India registered 46,759 new coronavirus cases, pushing count of infections to 3,26,49,947 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. This is the highest number of cases that India has recorded since July 1. With 509 more deaths, India’s toll rose to 4,37,370.
  3. Fifty-six doctors and academics in India have said that the inoculation of children should not be a requirement for reopening schools, PTI reported. “The benefit of vaccinating children is limited, as they have a low rate of moderate to severe disease and mortality is already low,” they said in an open letter to the chief ministers.
  4. The risk of hospitalisation doubles with Delta variant of Covid-19 as compared to the Alpha strain, according to a study by researchers from University of Cambridge and Public Health England, published in medical journal The Lancet.
  5. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the Aam Aadmi Party government was preparing thoroughly for a possible third wave of the pandemic, PTI reported. He emphasised on the need to take safety precautions and advised people not to become negligent.
  6. Meanwhile, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority announced that schools in the Capital will open in a phased manner from the first week of September. Classes 9 to 12 will start from September 1 and Classes 6 to 8 will begin from September 8.
  7. The number of vaccine doses administered in India since the beginning of the inoculation drive on January 16 reached 62,29,89,134. A record 1,03,35,290 dosses were administered on Friday alone.
  8. Sri Lanka has opened its borders to Indian travelers. Fully vaccinated travelers still need to produce a negative Covid report from 72 hours before arrival.
  9. New Zealand recorded 82 new cases on Saturday, taking the number of infections to 415, The Guardian reported. A countrywide lockdown is in place in New Zealand.
  10. Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 21.53 crore people and led to over 44.85 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.