8.45 pm: New cases reported today:

Maharashtra: 9,431 new cases, 267 deaths; total cases rises to 3,75,799, toll now 13,656,

Mumbai: 1,115 new cases, 57 deaths; total cases rises to 1,09,096, toll stands at 6,090,

Punjab: 534 new cases; total rises to 13,218, toll now 306,

Jammu and Kashmir: 615 new cases; total cases rise to 17,920, toll stands at 312,

Haryana: 794 new cases, total rises to 31,332, toll stands at 392.

7.45 pm: More than 8.14 lakh stranded Indians have returned home through the Vande Bharat Mission since May 6, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri says.

7.10 pm: Hyderabad Mayor Bontu Rammohan tests positive for the coronavirus, ANI reports.

6.51 pm: Karnataka reports 5,199 new cases of the coronavirus. With this, the state now has 96,141 total cases, including 58,417 active cases and 1,878 deaths.

6.49 pm: In Madhya Pradesh’s Katni district, a total lockdown would be imposed from 8 pm today toll 5 am on August 2, ANI reports.

6.48 pm: Andhra Pradesh records 7,627 new cases in a day. The state now has 96,298 total cases, including 1,041 deaths and 46,301 recoveries.

6.46 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 6,986 new cases and 85 deaths in a day, ANI reports. This takes the state’s total to 2,13,723, including 1,56,526 recoveries and 3,494 deaths. There are 53,703 active cases.

6.45 pm: The National Task Force on the coronavirus pandemic has decided not to recommend the drug itolizumab in the national protocol for treating the Covid-19 infection for now. The drug was struck down as a treatment option at a meeting on Friday, as most members of the task force felt the evidence cited in favour of the medicine is “inconclusive”.

Read more here:

Coronavirus: Task force decides not to recommend Biocon’s itolizumab for treatment, say reports

6.40 pm: Fifty employees of the Malabar Medical College Hospital in Ulleyeri, Kerala, have been placed under quarantine after a woman working in the pharmacy department tested positive, PTI reports.

6.07 pm: Kerala reports 927 new coronavirus cases in a day. With this, the active cases in the state rise to 9,655.

6 pm: The number of coronavirus cases in Himachal Pradesh rises to 2,136, and the toll is 12.

5.50 pm: An analysis by the Delhi government on Covid deaths in June and July has showed that there was a 44% decline in deaths during July 1 to July 12 compared to the same period the previous month. There were 1089 deaths between June 1 and June 12, and it reduced to 605 in July, ANI reports.

5.15 pm: The police of Kolkata says they have arrested 241 people for deliberately violating the Covid-19 restrictions since Sunday noon, ANI reports. A total of four vehicles have been seized in the same period.

5.14 pm: The Sikkim government extends the lockdown in the state till 6.00 am of August 1, ANI reports. The lockdown, which was imposed on July 27 was to end on July 27, Monday.

5.10 pm: Puducherry Health Minister M Krishna Rao says the number of Covid-19 patients in the Union Territory will be over 6,000 by the end of August, ANI reports. “Around 2,000 beds will be needed,” he adds. “Private and government hostels will be turned into temporary hospitals. Full curfew is required for a day every week.”

5.07 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch “high throughput Covid-19 testing facilities” in three cities – Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata – on July 27, Monday, in a bid to rein in the coronavirus outbreak. “These facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment,” a statement from his office says.

These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up at Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata,

4.20 pm: Thirty-six inmates of the district jail in Etah have tested positive, PTI reports.

4.15 pm: New cases reported today:

Delhi: 1,075 new cases, 21 deaths; total rises to 1,30,606, toll stands at 3,827,

Bihar: 2,605 new cases, total rises to 38,919,

Uttar Pradesh: 3,260 new cases; total rises to 66,988, toll now 1,426,

Andaman and Nicobar Islands: 31 new cases; total rises to 290.

3.53 pm: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation removes the poster declaring the area as a containment zone from the residence of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.

Besides Bachchan, actors Abhishek Bachhan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and their daughter are also admitted at the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai.

3.45 pm: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is in a Bhopal hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus, expresses his gratitude to all Corona warriors. “No need to fear Corona,” Chouhan says. “As soon as you see symptoms, get tested and don’t hide it so treatment can begin. Major weapons against Corona are masks and 6-ft distance. Should use them.”

1.38 pm: Russia registers 5,765 new coronavirus cases and 77 deaths.

1.36 pm: Sikkim reports its first Covid-19 death after a 74-year-old man succumbs at a state-run hospital, reports PTI.

1.33 pm: Himachal Pradesh reports 21 new cases today, taking the total number to 2,072, reports ANI citing the state health department

1.32 pm: Puducherry’s tally rises to 2,787 with 131 people testing positive, reports PTI. The toll climbs to 40 with two new deaths.

12.51 pm: Telangana’s tally rises to 54,059 with 1,593 new cases and 8 deaths.

12.50 pm: Minister Gopal Rai says the Delhi government will launch a job portal for a common platform for both companies as well as job seekers, reports PTI.

12.20 pm: Chennai wears a deserted look.

12.19 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath visits LNM Railway Hospital.

12.18 pm: Arunachal Pradesh’s tally rises to 1,126 with 70 people, including nine security personnel, testing 1,126, reports PTI.

12.08 pm: Jharkhand’s toll rises to 83 with seven fresh fatalities, reports PTI. With 214 new cases, the state’s tally is now 7,841.

11.29 am: Modi shares some “inspiring stories” of people fighting the pandemic.

11.16 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India’s recovery rate is better and fatality is much less than most other nations. “We able to save the lives of lakhs of people, but threat of coronavirus is not over yet,” he says during his monthly radio programme, Mann Ki Baat. “It is spreading fast [in] many areas, we need to remain vigilant.”

11.06 am: Odisha registers 1,376 new cases, taking the total number of infections to 25,389.

11.05 am: Rajasthan’s tally rises to 35,909 with 611 new infections till 10.30 am. The toll in the state stands at 621.

11.04 am: Nagpur observes ‘Janta Curfew’. Only essential services to remain functional.

11.03 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan says he is fine and thanks corona warriors for their effort.

9.57 am: India reports 48,661 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking its overall tally to 13,85,522. The toll rises by 705 to 32,063. More than 8.85 lakh people have recovered.

9.48 am: An ambulance driver allegedly forced two boys, who are Covid-19 positive, and their mother to get off the vehicle as they could not pay the exorbitant fare of Rs 9,200 for a 6-km journey between two hospitals in Kolkata, reports PTI.

9.47 am: Australia’s Victoria state reports record 10 deaths and 459 cases in the last 24 hours.

9.46 am: With 305 more people contracting the coronavirus dosease in the last 24 hours, Germany’s infection tally has gone up to 2,05,269.

8.57 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says “corona bed occupancy” has come down sharply from June 23 to July 26.

8.34 am: India on Saturday tested a record 4,42,031 samples, reports ANI citing the health ministry.

8.15 am: Mexico’s health ministry registers 6,751 new cases and 729 deaths. With this, the country’s tally is now 3,85,036 cases and toll stands at 43,374.

8.14 am: China reports 46 new cases, says the health commission. Of the new infections, 22 were in the western region of Xinjiang, while 13 were in the northeastern province of Liaoning, while the remaining 11 were imported cases.

8.04 am: As many as 3,338 people infected with the novel coronavirus are untraceable in Bengaluru. “We could trace some of the positive patients with the help of the police but 3,338 are still untraceable,” says Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said. “Some of them provided wrong mobile number and address at the time of giving samples. They disappeared after getting positive results.”

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Coronavirus: Over 3,300 infected persons untraceable in Bengaluru, says civic body chief

7.39 am: Britain imposes a two-week quarantine on all travellers arriving from Spain, reports Reuters. The country also recommends against all but essential travel to mainland Spain.

7.37 am: A total lockdown will be imposed in Tripura from 5 am on Monday 5 till 5 am on July 30.

7.22 am: Brazil reports 51,147 new cases in the last 24 hours pushing the country’s infection tally to 23,94,513 while the toll from the disease has gone up to 86,449.

7.21 am: The United States registers 68,212 new cases in the last 24 hours. With this, the country’s tally is now 41,74,437.

7.19 am: Florida passes New York as the US state with the second-highest number of total virus cases. While New York’s total count is 4,11,200 with 750 new cases, Florida’s tally is now reported 4,14,511 after 12,199 fresh infections.

7.16 am: The Uttar Pradesh government has removed Lucknow Chief Medical Officer Naresh Agarwal, reports The Indian Express. Agarwal has been replaced by Rajendra Prasad Singh. Lucknow has witnessed a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks. On Saturday, the city recorded 429 cases.

7.06 am: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Pragya Singh Thakur asks people to recite the Hanuman Chalisa five times a day till August 5 to get rid of the coronavirus pandemic.

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BJP’s Pragya Thakur claims chanting Hanuman Chalisa till August 5 will get rid of the coronavirus

7.05 am: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un places the Kaesong city near the border with South Korea under total lockdown over fears of coronavirus, reports AP. He also declares a state of emergency.

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Coronavirus: North Korea records ‘first case’, imposes lockdown in Kaesong city, say reports

7.03 am: Assam’s toll rises to 77 with a 65-year-old man succumbing to the infection. The state’s tally crosses the 31,000-mark with 1,165 fresh new cases, says Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

7.01 am: Here are the top updates from Saturday

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.”
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.