1. India registered 56,282 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the total number of infections to 19,64,536. The toll rose by a record 904 to 40,699.
  2. The Centre released Rs 890.32 crore as the second tranche of the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness package to 22 states and Union Territories. The amount provided to each state and Union Territory will be based on their caseload.
  3. The Reserve Bank of India Monetary Policy Committee kept both the repo rate and the reverse repo rate unchanged. The repo rate stayed at 4% and the reverse repo rate at 3.3%. It was widely expected that the RBI would either cut the key rates or keep them steady, due to rising inflation and grim projections of economic growth rate, to due the lockdown announced to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
  4. Maharashtra reported its biggest one-day rise of 11,514 coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 4,79,779. The state’s toll rose by 316 to 16,792. Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 tally rose to 2,79,144, including 4,571 deaths, 53,846 active cases and 2,21,087 recoveries. Andhra Pradesh’s tally, meanwhile, inched closer to 2 lakh with over 10,000 new cases. The state’s tally stood at 1.96 lakh and toll at 2,897.
  5. Eight patients in the Intensive Care Unit of a private Covid-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad died in a fire.
  6. The Delhi High Court directed the Aam Aadmi Party government in the Capital to take action against online health service aggregators who are operating illegally, taking samples for coronavirus testing.
  7. Indian drugmaker Novavax on Wednesday said it has entered a supply and licence agreement with the Serum Institute of India for the development and commercialisation of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate. The company will have exclusive rights for the vaccine in India during the term of the deal and non-exclusive rights during the “Pandemic Period” in all countries other than those designated by the World Bank as upper-middle or high-income countries.
  8. Drug maker Zydus Cadila said it will start the second phase of clinical trials of its vaccine candidate from Thursday. The company had received the central drugs controller’s approval for human trials on July 2.
  9. US biotechnology company Moderna’s vaccine protected mice from getting infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The findings by scientists, including those from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, show that the vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, induced neutralising antibodies in mice when given as two intramuscular injections of a 1-microgramme dose three weeks apart.
  10. The global coronavirus count crossed 1.88 crore, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The toll rose to 7,08,941. More than 1.13 crore people have recovered.