1. India’s tally on Wednesday crossed 15 lakh with 48,513 new cases. The toll rose to 34,193 with 768 fresh fatalities. India now has over 5 lakh active cases while more than 9.8 lakh patients have recovered. The Union health ministry said India’s coronavirus death rate as of Wednesday was 2.23% – the lowest since April while the recovery rate was 64.51%.
  2. The Centre on Wednesday released guidelines for Unlock 3, the third phase of lifting of restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The guidelines will come into effect from August 1. Under the new advisory, night curfew will no longer remain in force and gyms and yoga institutes have been allowed to resume services from August 5. The lockdown in containment areas has been extended till August 31.
  3. Maharashtra’s coronavirus tally crossed the four-lakh mark with 9,211 new cases and 298 deaths reported in 24 hours. The state’s total tally is now 4,00,651 and the toll is 14,463. The Maharashtra government issued directions late o Wednesday to extend the lockdown in the state till August 31.  
  4. Coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh crossed the one-lakh mark, with 10,093 new infections and 65 deaths. This was the biggest single-day rise in infections the state has seen so far, taking its total tally to 1,20,390. The toll stood at 1,213. Gujarat also recorded its highest single-day jump of infections with 1,144 cases and 24 deaths. The state’s total tally is 59,126 and the toll is 2,396. 
  5. Madhya Pradesh Cabinet ministers Tulsi Silawat and Ramkhelawan Patel tested positive for the coronavirus. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had tested positive last week.
  6. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal directed health officials to strictly follow the rule to conduct Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction, or RT-PCR, tests on people who show coronavirus symptoms but test negative in a rapid antigen examination. His order came two days after the Delhi High Court pulled up the Aam Aadmi Party government for choosing Rapid Antigen Testing, or RAT, which has a high rate of false negative results, over the RT-PCR method. Meanwhile, Delhi registered 1,035 coronavirus cases, 1,126 recoveries and 26 deaths, taking the total tally of infections in the city to 1,33,310, including 3,907 deaths.
  7. American biotech firm Moderna may price its coronavirus vaccine at $50 to $60 (approximately Rs 3,739 to Rs 4,486) per course. The price of Moderna’s vaccine will be at least $11 (Rs 822) more than those from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech.   
  8. Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit went for a seven-day isolation as a precautionary measure after three people at the Raj Bhavan tested positive. In Tamil Nadu, cases rose to 2,34,114, after 6,426 new Covid-19 infections were reported. The toll rose by 82 to 3,741.
  9. The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that the coronavirus pandemic was “one big wave” and not seasonal. “We are in the first wave,” WHO official Margaret Harris said. “It’s going to be one big wave. It’s going to go up and down a bit. The best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something lapping at your feet.”
  10. The global coronavirus count has now crossed 1.68 crore while the toll has gone up to 6,61,917, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 98 lakh people have recovered.