1. India’s coronavirus cases on Friday crossed the 10-lakh mark with 34,956 new infections and 687 deaths. This is, so far, the biggest single-day increase in the number of cases and casualties. The country now has 10,03,832 total cases with 25,602 deaths. Over 6.35 lakh people or 63.34% of the patients have recovered from the infection.
  2. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the coronavirus has reached community transmission stage in some areas of Thiruvananthapuram.
  3. Maharashtra recorded 8,308 new cases and 258 deaths. The state’s tally rose to 2,92,589 and the toll reached 11,452. Delhi, meanwhile, detected 1,462 new cases, taking its total to 1,20,107. The Capital’s toll rose to 3,571 with 26 new deaths. Tamil Nadu recorded 4,538 new cases and 79 deaths. The state’s tally rose to 1,60,907 and the toll reached 2,315. Andhra Pradesh reported 2,602 new cases in 24 hours on Friday, taking the state’s overall tally to 40,646 infections and 534 deaths.
  4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the raging coronavirus pandemic is testing the strength of the world and that India was contributing to the fight against the disease by providing medical assistance to 150 nations. The prime minister added that India’s grassroots healthcare system is helping it achieve one of the best coronavirus recovery rates in the world. The Union health ministry, meanwhile, sent a special team to Bihar amid rising coronavirus cases.
  5. The West Bengal government extended the ban on flights to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad till July 31. These flights were earlier banned till July 19.
  6. Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week, was admitted to the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. She was earlier in home quarantine with her daughter Aaradhya.
  7. A study in medical journal The Lancet has said that districts in Madhya Pradesh may be the most vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus, followed by those in Bihar and Telangana. According to the study, vulnerability means the risk of consequences of infection, including spread, morbidity, mortality, and social and economic effects.
  8. The human clinical trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, which is India’s first indigenous coronavirus vaccine candidate, began at PGI Rohtak on Friday, Haryana minister Anil Vij said.
  9. Early results from two vaccine trials in the United States, run by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and biotech company Moderna, suggest both their vaccines produce a good immune response in volunteers. The White House has said that India has done the second highest number of coronavirus tests after the United States.
  10. The global coronavirus count is now over 1.38 crore, while the toll has crossed 5.92 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 77 lakh people have recovered so far. The US, meanwhile, reported a record 77,300 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. The figure is the highest one-day total for the pandemic so far.