10.41 pm: Nagaland’s coronavirus case count rises to 2,498 after 93 more people test positive, reports PTI.

10.39 pm: Thirty seven people, including an Army jawan, test positive for coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh, state’s tally rises to 2,917, reports PTI.

10.35 pm: Chhattisgarh records 205 new coronavirus cases, two more deaths, reports PTI, citing a health official.

9.50 pm: Goa’s tally rises to 7,423 with 348 new cases on Wednesday. The toll stands at 64.

9.47 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 10,128 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. The state’s tally rises to 1,86,461 and the toll stands at 1,681.

9.41 pm: Mumbai’s tally crosses 1.19 lakh with 1,125 new cases. The toll rises to 6,588 with 42 more deaths.

9.39 pm: Maharashtra records 10,309 new coronavirus cases and 334 deaths on Wednesday. The state’s tally rises to 4,68,265 and the toll reaches 16,476.

6.55 pm: Denmark’s Copenhagen Airports may lay-off over 650 staff members as the aviation sector remains adversely impacted by the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.

6.51 pm: World Health Organization official Edwin Salvador says North Korea’s test results for a man suspected of being the country’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, Reuters reports.

6.45 pm: Delhi’s overall count of cases crosses 1.40 lakh with 1,076 new cases on Wednesday. Eleven more deaths push the Capital’s toll to 4,044.

6.42 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,175 new cases and 112 deaths on Wednesday. The states’s overall count rises to 2,73,460 and the toll reaches 4,461.

6.39 pm: Kerala reports 1,195 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths on Wednesday.

5.50 pm: All passengers arriving in Goa are required to be in 14 days of home or paid institutional quarantine, reports ANI.

5.37 pm: Israel says India’s support in developing a rapid test for the coronavirus could bring “good news” to the world within a few months, reports PTI. Both the countries are jointly working on an project to develop a rapid test that can provide results within tens of seconds.

5.33 pm: Mumbai’s Dharavi area records one new coronavirus case, taking the total number to 2,589, according to ANI.

4.33 pm: India registers the highest single-day recoveries of 51,706 patients, the Centre says. The country’s recovery rate stands at 67.19%.

4.31 pm: Karnataka’s Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar inaugurates the state’s first Indian Council of Medical Research-approved mobile coronavirus testing labs, reports ANI.

3.02 pm: Over 10,000 personnel of the Maharashtra Police have tested positive for the coronavirus so far, PTI reports. “Of them, 107 personnel, including 10 officers, have died,” an unidentified official tells the news agency. The official adds that over 50% of the fatalities were reported from the Mumbai Police force.

2.58 pm: Playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam tests positive for the coronavirus and is currently admitted to a hospital in Chennai, NDTV reports. However, the singer says he is “perfectly alright except the cold and fever” and adds that he will be discharged from the hospital in two days.

2.56 pm: Puducherry registers 286 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths on Wednesday, ANI reports. With this, the total tally of infections in the Union Territory rises to 4,432 and the toll is 65.

2.55 pm: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who tested positive for the coronavirus, has no fever and his vital parameters are stable, ANI reports, quoting a statement from Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru, where he is admitted. The hospital says his symptoms have improved since admission and he is comfortable at present.

12.42 pm: Himachal Pradesh’s total count of cases rises to 2,879, including 12 deaths.

12.30 pm: Carmaker BMW records its first quarterly deficit since the global financial crisis of 2009, between the months of April and June, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg reports.

12.23 pm: Local leaders of Congress in Rajkot, Gujarat, announce they would go on a week-long token hunger strike from Wednesday onwards in protest of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation’s decision to not disclose names of persons testing positive for Covid-19, The Indian Express reports.

The RMC had stopped revealing the names of those who contracted the viral disease on July 26. Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Udit Agrawal had said that the decision was taken after the civic body received complaints from people saying that declaring their names constituted a breach of their right to privacy.

12.20 pm: Odisha’s tally of coronavirus cases crosses the 39,000-mark, after 1,337 infections were reported on Wednesday, PTI reports. Nine more fatalities push the toll from the disease to 225.

12.00 pm: The Surat Municipal Corporation has sought additional funds to the tune of Rs 128.36 crore from the Gujarat government to continue its fight to contain the coronavirus outbreak, The Indian Express reports.

“It is a routine procedure for municipal corporation to ask the state government for funds,” Municipal Commissioner BN Pani tells the newspaper. “Later, when funds are allocated, we have to give them details of expenses.”

11.58 am: Zenara Pharma, a subsidiary of Biophore India Pharmaceuticals, receives approval from the Drugs Controller General of India to manufacture and sell Favipiravir tablets for treating patients with mild to moderate symptoms of Covid-19, NDTV reports. The tablet, to be sold under the brand name “Favizen”, will be manufactured at Zenara’s facility in Hyderabad.

11.53 am: Police of Kolkata check vehicles on the first day of a bi-weekly lockdown enforced in the city to contain the spread of the coronavirus, ANI reports.There will be a complete lockdown in West Bengal for two days every week till the end of August.

11.50 am: Telangana registers 2,012 Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths on Wednesday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 70,958, PTI reports, quoting the state health bulletin. The total number of people who recovered from the infectious disease touches 50,814, while 19,568 are under treatment.

11.47 am: Human embryos could be susceptible to Covid-19 as early as the second week of pregnancy if the mother falls sick, found a study conducted by scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of Cambridge, and US’ California Institute of Technology, PTI reports. While initially recognised as causing respiratory disease, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19 disease, also affects many other organs, they said.

11.46 am: The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index stood at 34.2 in July, slightly higher than 33.7 in June, PTI reports. However, despite the rise, the Indian services sector activity contracted for the fifth successive month in July, the survey says. A print above 50 means expansion and a score below that denotes contraction.

“With such a prolonged and significant downturn, any substantial recovery will take many months, if not years, says Lewis Cooper, economist at IHS Markit. “Latest IHS Markit estimates point to an annual contraction in GDP of over 6% in the [financial] year ending March 2021.”

11.26 am: Arunachal Pradesh reports 32 fresh cases including 13 security personnel. With this, the state’s tally rises to 1,790.

11.01 pm: Rajasthan registers 593 coronavirus cases and 10 deaths on Wednesday, ANI reports. With this, the state’s total tally of infections rises to 47,272 and the toll stands at 742.

10.18 am: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan discharged from Bhopal’s Chirayu Hospital after recovering from Covid-19.

10.08 am: Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister Brajesh Pathak tests positive. In a tweet in Hindi, Pathak says he got tested after he showed symptoms for Covid-19. He also appeals to people who came in contact with him to quarantine themselves.

9.28 am: India records 52,509 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections to 19,08,254. The toll rises by 857 to 39,795.

9.24 am: Germany’s tally rises to 2,12,022 with 741 new cases, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. The toll climbs up by 12 to 9,168.

9.23 am: India tested over 6.19 lakh samples on Tuesday, says the Indian Council of Medical Research.

7.45 am: Novavax Inc says its experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced high levels of antibodies against the coronavirus disease, according to early-stage clinical trial. The firm adds that it could start a larger Phase III trial by late September, and adds that it could produce 1 billion to 2 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.

7.34 am: The United States adds 1,302 deaths to its tally in the last 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country registers 53,847 new cases.

7.31 am: As many as 150 police personnel who have recovered from Covid-19 will be deployed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security when he lands in Ayodhya for the Ram temple event today. “It’s in the protocol for protecting the prime minister that he must be guarded by healthy personnel,” UP deputy inspector general of police Deepak Kumar tells Hindustan Times. “Now what can be healthier in these times than a Covid-19 warrior.”

The larger security detail will comprise 400 additional personnel who have tested negative for Covid-19 in the past 48 hours and then been isolated.

7.25 am: Indian Council of Medical Research Director-General Balram Bhargava says three vaccine candidates in India are progressing well. “Inactivated virus vaccine candidate by Bharat Biotech and the DNA vaccine by Zydus Cadila have completed phase I studies in 11 sites and started phase II trials,” he tells Hindustan Times. “Phase I and II trials are for safety studies and very early efficacy studies.”

Bhargava adds that phase II/III clinical trials for the Oxford University vaccine candidate will begin within a week at 17 sites across India. The Serum Institute of India will conduct the trials.

7.20 am: Here are the top updates from Tuesday

  • India recorded 52,050 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the total number of infections to 18,55,745. The toll rose by 803 to 38,938.
  • The number of active cases in Delhi went below the 10,000-mark. The Capital’s coronavirus tally stood at 1,39,156, including 1,25,226 recoveries and 4,033 deaths. Maharashtra’s case count rose to 4,57,956 after 7,760 new infections, and the toll went up by 300 to 16,142. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has 2,68,285 cases and the toll stood at 4,349.
  • Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he has tested positive for Covid-19. He added that he has been admitted to a hospital on doctor’s advice. Meanwhile, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb said he has tested negative for the coronavirus. Deb on Monday night said he was going into self-isolation after two of his family members tested positive.
  • The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in its revised guidelines for Unlock 3, allowed shops in the city to remain open on all days on both sides of the road. Earlier, the shops had to follow an odd-even formula for opening up. The civic body has also permitted the sale of alcohol.
  • United States President Donald Trump said that his country was doing “very well” in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic while India is having a “tremendous problem” battling the health crisis. “Don’t forget, we’re much bigger than India and China,” Trump said. “China is having a massive flare up right now. India has a tremendous problem. Other countries have problems.”
  • The global coronavirus count crossed 1.81 crore on Monday morning, and the number of deaths rose to 6,91,642, according to the Johns Hopkins University. As many as 1.08 crore people have recovered.