8.55 pm: Srikakulam Municipal Corporation Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh, announces a 14-day lockdown in the district, starting from Saturday, ANI reports. Shops selling essential items, including dairies and vegetable shops, are allowed to operate between 6 am and 1 pm.

8.53 pm: The number of coronavirus cases in Karnataka rises to 59,652 after 4,537 new infections were reported in 24 hours on Saturday, ANI reports, quoting the state health department. The toll rises by 93 and is now 1,240.

8.50 pm: West Bengal reports 2,198 cases of the coronavirus and 27 deaths in 24 hours on Saturday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 23,539, ANI reports. The toll rises to 1,076. The recovery rate in the state stands at 58.54% and over six lakh samples have been tested so far.

8.47 pm: Maharashtra reports 8,348 new cases of the coronavirus and 144 deaths, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 3,00,937, according to ANI. Of these, 1,65,663 have been discharged and 11,596 have died.

8.44 pm: Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna issues guidelines on relaxations in the lockdown in place at Kamrup Metropolitan district, ANI reports. All shops and business establishments are allowed to operate on one side of any street alternatively between Monday and Friday from 7 am to 5 pm. Courier, e-commerce, all industrial and construction activities have been allowed. The guidelines will come into from 7 pm of July 19 and remain in force till 7 pm of August 2.

7.10 pm: Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja says the state will implement a “cluster care” method to control the spread of the coronavirus, PTI reports. Testing, treatment and quarantining would be strengthened within a cluster to ensure the virus doesn’t spread outside the area.

“Those in the clusters must strictly follow the health protocol including wearing of masks, social distancing, handwash, use of sanitisers,” she says. We must keep in mind that the clusters are formed just before the community transmission.”

Clusters are formed when there is an “unexpected surge in Covid-19 cases” in a specific area. Kerala currently has 87 clusters, and 70 of these are active, she says. “Two such clusters have reported community transmission and the people there need to cooperate with the health department to bring those regions from the cluster classification.”

6.58 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 4,807 new Covid-19 cases and 88 deaths in 24 hours. With this, the total number of positive cases in the state rises to 1,65,714, including 2,403 deaths and 1,13,856 people who have discharged, the state government says.

6.56 pm: Thiruvananthapuram district authorities have divided the coastal area into three critical containment zones to effectively maintain the lockdown as coronavirus cases surge. The zones will be under strict lockdown for 10 days from July 18 to July 27.

“The decision has been taken in view of community spread of COVID-19 in coastal areas of the district,” the order says.

6.42 pm: The Delhi government has conducted a total of 7,98,783 tests so far, ANI reports.

6.35 pm: Delhi reports 1,475 cases and 26 deaths in a day, ANI reports. This takes the total number of positive cases in the Capital to 1,21,582. Of this 1,01,274 people have recovered and 3,597 have died.

6.30 pm: Kerala reports 593 new cases in 24 hours, taking the total cases to 11,659. Of this, 6,416 patients are still undergoing treatment. “60% of Covid-19 cases are due to local transmission,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says. “Community spread of coronavirus has been confirmed at two places in Thiruvananthapuram. Everyone should strictly adhere to Covid-19 guidelines to break the chain.”

5.43 pm: Six new coronavirus cases reported in Dharavi in Mumbai, BMC says. This takes the total number of active cases in Dharavi to 107.

5.35 pm: As many as 110 Army personnel in Dehradun have tested positive for the coronavirus, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat says, according to ANI. “Of this, around 100 cases have come up in last two to three days,” he says. “Tracing and origin of virus will not be an issue as their travel history remains specified.”

5.13 pm: The West Bengal government announces a toll-free number for home isolation services.

5 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 3,963 new Covid-19 cases and 52 deaths in 24 hours, taking the state’s total to 44,609, including 21,763 recoveries and 586 deaths, ANI reports.

4.50 pm: West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha says the state won’t reintroduce lockdown in non-containment zones.

4.40 pm: AAP leader Atishi donates blood plasma in Delhi, ANI reports.

4.31 pm: The toll from the coronavirus in Puducherry rises to 28 after three more people die of the disease on Saturday, PTI reports. The total number of cases in the Union Territory stands at 800.

4.30 pm: The Odisha government exempts the use of biometric mode of Aadhaar authentication for giving out Public Distribution System commodities at fair price shops until further orders, ANI reports.

4.27 pm: The Aadi Mulaikathu festival at the Meenakshi Amman temple in Tamil Nadu, will be held from July 20 to July 30, ANI reports. However, devotees will not be allowed inside the temple premises, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the temple management says.

4.26 pm: An 85-year-old cancer patient and his septuagenarian wife recover from Covid-19 in Odisha’s Kendrapara, District Collector Samarth Verma says, according to PTI.

4.20 pm: A group of scientists led by those from King’s College, London, claim they have identified six types of Covid-19, each distinguished by a particular cluster of symptoms in patients, PTI reports. The study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, was published on the website medRxiv.

4.17 pm: Bihar reports 739 cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 24,967, ANI reports.

4.14 pm: Uttar Pradesh reports 1,986 new cases of the coronavirus in 24 hours on Saturday, Health Secretary Amit Prasad says, according to ANI. The total active cases in the state now stands at 17,624 and the toll is 1,108, he adds.

4.11 pm: Gandhi adds that according to media reports, 70% of the Covid-infected people in Prayagraj died within 48 hours of testing positive. “We were afraid of this and therefore, at the beginning itself, we had written a letter to the Chief Minister of UP and gave constructive suggestions in this context and also raised the issue of maximum testing,” she says.

4.08 pm: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi attacks the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the rapid rise in coronavirus cases and says the disease has taken a “gigantic form” because Chief Minister Adityanath did not pay attention to key containment measures such as testing and contact tracing.

“Despite almost three months of lockdown and all claims of the UP government, coronavirus cases have increased sharply in 25 districts of UP in July,” she tweets in Hindi. “There has been a jump of 200% in COVID-19 cases in three districts of UP, 400%in three districts and above 1,000% in one district.”

1.57 pm: Mumbai’s coronavirus recovery rate is nearly 70%, 7% higher than the national average, PTI reports. A release issued by the Press Information Bureau has said that Mumbai’s recovery rate is also around 15% higher than that of the rest of Maharashtra. On Friday, Mumbai had reported 1,228 new cases and 62 new deaths, taking its count to 98,979 and toll to 5,582.

1.30 pm: The US has 71,600 new cases today, the second consecutive day of more than 70,000 new cases. A day earlier, the US reported 77,255 fresh cases of the infection.

1.12 pm: The US State Department has released an internal cable from 2018 on the concerns expressed by embassy officials in China about a lack of adequately trained personnel at a virology lab in Wuhan, The Washington Post reports. Leaked contents of the cable had created speculation that the coronavirus was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan, not originated in a wet market. The Washington Post filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain the full records.

12.55 pm: Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray files a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the decision of University Grants Commission to conduct final year examinations, ANI reports. The court is yet to admit the petition for hearing.

12.25 pm: Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis says he apprised Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the coronavirus situation in the state, when he visited New Delhi on Friday, PTI reports. “As a leader of opposition, it is my job to apprise the government of the loopholes in the system and the improvements required to be made,” he says. “I have been demanding that testing in Mumbai should be increased.”

12.12 pm: The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Himachal Pradesh stands at 1,421, including 381 active cases, 1,014 recoveries and nine deaths.

11.47 am: Two people have died in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, while 14 have recovered from the illness, PTI reports. Chief Medical Officer Praveen Chopra says the district now has 123 active cases, while 357 individuals have recovered.

11.40 am: Jharkhand reports 305 new cases and four deaths.

11.26 am: In Odisha, 593 new cases have been reported, three people have died and 453 recovered. The total number of cases in the state is now at 16,701, including 5,259 active cases, 11,330 recovered and 86 deaths

11 am: Rajasthan records 184 new cases, four deaths and 88 recoveries, according to ANI. Total number of cases in the state is now at 27,973, including 6,737 active cases and 550 deaths.

10.35 am: The Panvel Taluka Police has arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly raping a 40-year-old woman at a coronavirus care centre, Mumbai Mirror reports. While the woman had been admitted to the centre five days ago, the accused had arrived only hours before he allegedly committed the crime. around 6:30 pm on Thursday, the accused allegedly raped the woman in her room, on the pretext of giving a massage.

10.21 am: The Indian Premier League is likely to be held in the United Arab Emirates during October-November, subject to government clearance, The Indian Express reports. Board of Control for Cricket in India President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah have appraised the board’s members of this possibility.

10.13 am: The Goa Education Department says that the disbursement of salary to the teaching and non- teaching staff of the aided schools in the state for July may get delayed, as employees engaged in processing it have been home-quarantined, PTI reports.

10 am: Election Commission of India has asked national and regional political parties to send their views and suggestions on how to conduct election campaigns and public meetings during the coronavirus pandemic, ANI reports. The last date for making submissions is July 31.

9.39 am: A man has been fined in Victoria, Australia for travelling from the outer Melbourne suburb of Werribee to the city to “get a specific butter chicken”, The Guardian reports. As many as 74 fines have been handed out in Victoria over the last 24 hours.

9.25 am: India reports 34,884 new cases on Saturday, taking its total to 10,38,716 cases. The toll is at 26,273.

9.20 am: US President Donald Trump will not instruct Americans to wear masks despite the huge number of cases cropping up, reports The Guardian. The US on Friday recorded the world’s highest number of new cases in a day, at 77,300.

9.12 am: The WHO warns that the pandemic threatens to exacerbate conflict and humanitarian crises across parts of the world. “The greatest concentration of need is in Africa, but countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia – including middle-income nations – are also being ravaged by crippling levels of food insecurity.”

“Three months ago at the UN Security Council, I told world leaders that we ran the risk of a famine of biblical proportions,” says World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley. “Today, our latest data tell us that, since then, millions of the world’s very poorest families have been forced even closer to the abyss. Livelihoods are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate and now their lives are in imminent danger from starvation.”

Besides this, many virus hotspots named are in the stretch from West Africa and across the Sahel to East Africa. Others are also in nations such as Syria, Yemen, Bangladesh and Haiti.

The pandemic is further worsening conditions for refugees in regions such as Latin America, while in the Middle East, it is “exacerbating Lebanon’s worst-ever economic crisis, where food insecurity is growing fast not only among citizens, but also 1.5 million Syrians and other refugees”.

9 am: Global cases cross 14 million or 1.40 crore according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of people who have died due to the virus across the world is 6.01 lakh.

Here are the biggest updates from Friday:

  • 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.
  • Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the coronavirus has reached community transmission stage in some areas of Thiruvananthapuram.
  • 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. 
  • A study in medical journalThe 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.