1. The lockdown in Telangana will extend till May 29, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced on Tuesday. The state has reported 1,096 cases so far. India’s tally, meanwhile, rose to 46,711 coronavirus cases and 1,583 deaths.
  2. Non-essential outlets such as liquor and paan shops in Mumbai will be shut from Wednesday. Only essential items – groceries and medicines – will be available. The city’s count of coronavirus cases rose to 9,758 on Tuesday, and Maharashtra’s tally went up to 15,525. Maharashtra also declared a freeze on new capital works till March next year.
  3. The government will send 64 flights to bring stranded Indians back from different countries between May 7 and 13. Since the passengers will be paying for the journey, the government has fixed ticket prices.
  4. The Border Security Force on Monday closed two floors at its headquarters in New Delhi, a day after a head constable tested positive for the coronavirus. Shastri Bhavan, another prominent building in Delhi, was also sealed after a law ministry official tested positive.
  5. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said on Tuesday that India’s unemployment rate hit 27.1% for the week ended May 3. This is higher than the 23.8% unemployment rate recorded during the last week of March, when the nationwide lockdown was imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
  6. The West Bengal government admitted that there was a problem in collating data about the coronavirus cases and deaths in the state amid allegations that the true extent of spread of the infection was not divulged. India on Tuesday attributed the 24-hour rise of 3,900 cases to delayed reporting by some states.
  7. Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee said India needed a stimulus package to tackle the economic fallout of the lockdown put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The economist made the remarks during an online conversation with former Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
  8. Globally, the coronavirus has infected over 36.1 lakh people and killed at least 2.53 lakh people, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
  9. Several world leaders and organisations on Monday pledged $8 billion (over Rs 60,000 crore) to manufacture a vaccine to combat Covid-19, the diseases caused by the novel coronavirus. However, the United States was conspicuous in its absence at the Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference.
  10. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has the highest toll in Europe, with more than 32,000 deaths. According to the Office for National Statistics, England and Wales had registered 29,648 deaths by May 2. If the deaths from Scotland and Northern Ireland are added, this would take the UK’s total toll to 32,313, much higher than the 29,029 deaths in Italy, which was the worst affected country in Europe so far.