1. India on Sunday reported 63,489 new coronavirus cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health. The toll was up by 944 to 49,980. This took the total number of cases in the country to 25,89,682. The health ministry said India’s Case Fatality Rate is one of the lowest in the world and stood at 1.93% as of Sunday.
  2. Maharashtra’s toll crossed the 20,000-mark on Sunday after 288 patients died from the infection. The state reported 11,111 new cases, taking the tally to 5,95,865. Punjab reported the biggest single-day rise of 1,165 new cases and 41 deaths. With this, the state’s  tally rose to 31,206 and the toll to 812.
  3. Former India opener Chetan Chauhan died on Sunday due to Covid-19 related complications after being put on life support for nearly 36 hours. Chauhan was admitted to Sanjay Gandhi PGI in Lucknow on July 12 after being found Covid-19 positive. Due to kidney-related ailments, his health deteriorated and he was shifted to Medanta hospital in Gurugram. On Friday night, he had a multi-organ failure and was put on ventilator support.    
  4. Rajya Sabha Chairperson Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday directed that Parliament House should be fully prepared to start the Monsoon session from the third week of August. “Work is in progress at fast pace for ensuring several additional installations in prescribed time like four large display screens in the chamber of the House,” a statement by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said.
  5. The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday resumed pilgrimages to the Vaishno Devi temple nearly five months after it was suspended in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The gates of the shrine reopened around 6 am. In the first week of the pilgrimage, only 2,000 devotees will be allowed of which, 1,900 will be from Jammu and Kashmir and 100 will be from outside the Union Territory. Only online registrations were allowed for the pilgrimage.  
  6. Tamil Nadu reported 5,950 new cases and 125 deaths on Sunday. With this the state’s tally rose to 3.38 lakh. Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, registered over 8,000 fresh infections and 88 additional fatalities in the last 24 hours. The state’s total count climbed up to 2.89 lakh.
  7. Veteran playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam continued to be on life support in the Intensive Care Unit. “He remains stable and the doctors are closely monitoring his clinical parameters,” said a statement by Assistant Director (Medical Services) Anuradha Baskaran of MGM Healthcare in Chennai. The veteran musician had tested positive for the coronavirus on August 5.  
  8. Government-run liquor shops in Chennai were on Sunday allowed to reopen from August 18 from 10 am to 7 pm. The TASMAC shops were earlier reopened in other parts of the state.
  9. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use of a saliva-based test for detecting the coronavirus. Food and Drugs Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the new saliva test will increase efficiency and avoid shortage of crucial test components like reagents. “Providing this type of flexibility for processing saliva samples to test for Covid-19 infection is groundbreaking in terms of efficiency and avoiding shortages of crucial test components like reagents,” he said in a statement.  
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has infected 2.14 crore people and claimed over 7.71 lakh lives, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. More than 1.3 crore people have recovered so far.