1. India on Saturday registered a record single-day increase of 27,114 new cases, pushing the country’s tally to 8,20,916. The toll in the country stood at 22,123 with 519 new fatalities. More than 5.15 lakh people have recovered. Tamil Nadu reported 3,965 new cases and 69 deaths. The state’s total rose to 1,34,226, and the toll reached 1,898.
  2. Several states are going back to strict lockdowns as coronavirus cases continue to rise. A complete lockdown will be imposed in Bengaluru from 8 pm on July 14 till 5 am on July 22. Maharashtra’s Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities will go under a complete lockdown from July 14 to July 23. The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday announced a lockdown in the state till July 13, while Patna went under a week-long lockdown from July 10.
  3. Maharashtra reported 8,139 new coronavirus cases and 223 deaths. With this, the state’s count rose to 2,46,600, and the toll went up to 10,116. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, meanwhile, praised the state government for its containment measures in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum. The area reported 11 new cases in the day, taking the overall count to 2,370. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s assistant municipal commissioner died due to Covid-19.
  4. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to cancel the examinations of Centre-run universities amid the coronavirus crisis. The Delhi government has decided to cancel all state university exams, including for the final-year, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Punjab counterpart Amarinder Singh also appealed to the prime minister to re-examine the UGC’s direction to colleges to conduct final examinations by the end of September.
  5. The Drug Controller General of India approved the use of Itolizumab, a drug to cure psoriasis, for “restricted emergency use” to treat Covid-19 patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress.
  6. Scientists from the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and Principal Scientific Advisor K Vijay Raghavan told a parliamentary standing committee on Friday that a vaccine for the coronavirus could be expected only by early next year.
  7. Assam activist Akhil Gogoi tested positive for the coronavirus in prison. He had earlier tested negative earlier in an antigen as well as the confirmatory RT-PCR (Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test) but tested positive in an antigen test on Saturday.
  8. A team of health workers, who had gone to collect swab samples from locals at the Poonthura fishing hamlet near Thiruvananthapuram were allegedly abused and coughed at by some agitated residents. Poonthura is one of the coronavirus hotspots in Kerala.
  9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Centre and the Delhi government for their coordinated efforts to manage the Capital’s coronavirus crisis and said that states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan must also adopt a similar approach. Delhi reported 1,781 new cases and 34 deaths on Saturday. The Capital’s total rose to 1,10,921 and the toll reached 3,334.
  10. The global coronavirus count is now over 1.25 crore, while the toll has crossed 5.61 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 69 lakh people have recovered so far.