Here are the top updates on Wednesday:

  1. The Karnataka government announced that an RT-PCR test will be mandatory for passengers from Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe, Mint reported. It also tightened its curbs for passengers from Kerala, and asked them to bring a negative Covid-19 test report that is not older than 72 hours.
  2. India on Wednesday morning recorded 41,965 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking its infection tally to 3,28,10,845 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The new cases are 35.6% higher than Tuesday’s count of 30,941 cases. With 460 deaths, the toll climbed to 4,39,020. The active caseload rose to 3,78,181.
  3. Delhi schools reopened with coronavirus guidelines in place after a gap of 17 months, reported NDTV. The guidelines to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease include mandatory thermal screening, 50% seating arrangement in each school, staggered lunch breaks, and a mandatory isolation room in school premises. Uttar Pradesh reopened schools for Classes 1 to 5, India Today reported.
  4. The Delhi High Court said that the Afghans who have gathered outside the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees office in the national Capital could act as Covid-19 super spreaders, India Today reported. Justice Rekha Palli was concerned about the lack of physical distancing at the protest. Several Afghan nationals have been staying outside the office for days, demanding refugee status.
  5. Kerala logged 32,803 new Covid-19 cases, taking the state’s cumulative tally to 40,90,036. The state registered more than 30,000 cases for a second day in a row. The test positivity rate – the number of samples that test positive from the daily lot – stood at 18.46%. The toll rose to 20,961 after 173 deaths over the last 24 hours.
  6. The Supreme Court asked states and Union Territories to set a deadline for vaccination of inmates at mental healthcares, ANI reported. It demanded a detailed report on the progress of vaccination at the institutions by October 15.
  7. France rolled out the booster shot of Covid-19 for citizens aged 65 and above and those with comorbidities, AP reported. Those who were fully vaccinated with either a Pfizer or a Moderna shot are eligible for the booster dose.
  8. For the fourth time this week, Japan reported contamination in Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine vials, Reuters reported. Health experts said that they had spotted “several black particles”. Japan has already suspended more than 16 lakh vaccines owing to the contamination.
  9. North Korea rejected approximately three million vaccines offered by China’s Sinovac Biotech, Reuters reported. Unicef said that the country returned the shots so that they could be sent to severely affected countries. North Korea has imposed strict domestic travel limits and has shut off its international borders. The country has claimed that it has not recorded any Covid-19 cases.
  10. Covid-19 has infected more than 21.80 crore people and led to over 45.25 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.