1. India on Saturday reported 48,916 fresh coronavirus cases with 757 deaths. With this, the country’s tally rose to 13,36,861 and the toll stood at 31,358. More than 8.49 lakh people have recovered from the infection.
  2. The Centre said over 4.2 lakh tests were conducted on Friday, the highest yet. “A strong factor contributing to this achievement is the persistent increase in the number of labs from merely one in January to 1,301 today, inclusive of 902 government labs and 399 in the private sector,” it said.
  3. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. He was admitted to the Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal.
  4. Tamil Nadu crossed the two lakh mark with 6,988 new cases, taking the state’s count to 2,06,737. Meanwhile, 1,142 fresh cases were reported in Delhi in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 1,29,531, according to a health bulletin released by the Delhi government. The coronavirus recovery rate in the national Capital stood at 87.29% and the active cases reduced to 12,657 – the lowest in seven weeks.
  5. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray warned against rushing to lift the lockdown restrictions. “People may be bored [of the lockdown], but to give them a break from it we cannot lift restrictions,” he said. “If we hastily unlock, and someone loses their life then what good is a livelihood? Then we must decide that no matter how many people succumb to this disease, we do not want a lockdown. Are you prepared? I am not.”
  6. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that he has tested negative for the coronavirus, more than two weeks after he was first diagnosed with the infection on July 7. However, the 65-year-old leader did not mention when he took the latest test.
  7. Union minister Piyush Goyal criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after he accused the Centre of earning profits by operating the special trains to transport stranded migrant workers during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in the country.
  8. World Health Organization Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned that the concept of herd immunity, or a large section of the population developing antibodies against Covid-19, is still a distant reality. The scientist said that more waves of the infection would be required to reach the stage of natural immunity.
  9. The United States government said that it will not admit new foreign students for online-only courses, over a week after it revoked an order to strip international college students of their visas if their courses move fully online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
  10. The global coronavirus count has now gone up to 1.57 crore, while the toll has crossed 6.40 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University.