India recorded 26,727 new Covid-19 cases on Friday morning, taking the total number of infections in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year to 3,37,66,707. The tally on Friday was 13.59% higher than Thursday’s count of 23,529 cases.

The number of deaths due to the coronavirus in India increased to 4,48,339 with 277 more fatalities in the past 24 hours. On Friday morning, India’s count of active Covid-19 cases stood at 2,75,224, and active cases decreased by 1,796 in the past 24 hours.

A total of 3,30,43,144 persons have recovered from Covid-19 in the country so far.

A total of 89,02,08,007 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country till Friday morning, as per the Union health ministry’s figures. In the past day, 64,40,451 people received vaccine doses.

Other updates

  • The Union government will provide financial assistance to Mizoram and also send an expert team to the state to deal with the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases there, IANS reported. About 1,500 people are testing positive for the virus every day, the agency quoted officials as saying.
  • Pune’s Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College has started phase 2 and 3 trials of the Covid-19 vaccine Covovax on children between 7 and 11 years of age, ANI quoted Sanjay Lalwani, medical director of the hospital as saying. Nine children have been enrolled for the trial here. A total of 920 children will be included in the trials which will be conducted at ten centres across the country.
  • September was only the fourth month this year when a death rate of less than 1% was recorded, News18 reported. The other such months were February (0.78%), March (0.52%) and April (0.7%),

Global updates

  • Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday that a ban on citizens travelling abroad will be lifted from November, Reuters reported. “It’s time to give Australians their lives back,” Morrison said. “We’ve saved lives. We’ve saved livelihoods, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can reclaim the lives that they once had in this country.”
  • Malaysia has made it mandatory for all federal government employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and exceptions will only be allowed on health grounds, according to Reuters. Till now, 61% of the country’s population of 32 million has been fully vaccinated.
  • Globally, the coronavirus has infected over 23.37 crore people and caused more than 47.82 lakh deaths since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.