10.47 pm: Nagaland’s number of recoveries outnumber fresh coronavirus cases for fourth straight day, as 134 more patients recover while 65 new cases recorded on Tuesday, reports PTI.

10.45 pm: Uttarakhand’s coronavirus case count rises to 12,961, with 497 new infections. Six more deaths takes the state’s toll to 164, reports PTI.

10.41 pm: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation says perks and allowances of employees to be reduced by 50% from August, reports ANI. “Starting with the salary for August, perks and allowances will be payable at the rate of 15.75% of Basic Pay,” it says in a statement. “With immediate effect, all sanctions of fresh advances for house building advance, multipurpose advance, laptop advance, festival advance, etc to be kept on hold till further orders. Advances already sanctioned will continue to be disbursed, as and when a demand is received.”

10.40 pm: Jharkhand’s Health Minister Banna Gupta tests positive for the coronavirus.

10.40 pm:

10.31 pm: Bihar records 16 new fatalities, the toll rises to 558. The tally rises to 1,09,875, reports PTI.

10.28 pm: Rajasthan reports 1,374 new coronavirus, taking the state’s tally to 63,977, reports ANI, citing the state health department. The state’s toll rises to 898.

10.25 pm: Delhi records 1,374 new coronavirus cases, taking the Capital’s tally to 1,54,741. The toll rises to 4,226, with 12 more deaths, reports ANI, citing the government’s bulletin.

9.39 pm: West Bengal records 3,175 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s case count to 1,22,753, reports PTI, citing tthe state health department. The toll rises to 2,528, with 55 more fatalities.

9.35 pm: Karnataka reports 7,665 new coronavirus cases and 139 deaths, taking the state’s tally to 2,40,948 and toll to 4,201, reports ANI, citing the state health department.

8.44 pm: Mumbai registers 931 new coronavirus cases and 49 deaths, ANI reports, quoting a bulletin by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. With this, the city’s tally rises to 1,30,410 and the toll stands at 7,219.

8.40 pm: Bangladesh Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus says the coronavirus vaccine should not be protected with a patent right, should not have commercial ownership and must be made accessible to all, PTI reports. Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, also called for the creation of a social business pharmaceutical company for the benefit of people and society at large.

8.39 pm: The number of Covid-19 cases in Ahmedabad district rose by 165 to 29,327 on Tuesday ,while the toll rose by four to 1,666, PTI reports, quoting the Gujarat health department.

8.37 pm: A 51-year-old Delhi Police inspector died of the coronavirus at a city hospital on Tuesday morning, PTI reports. Sanjay Sharma, a 1997 batch officer, was posted at the Police Control Room department in south zone. He was was suffering from pneumonia and was admitted in the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj on Saturday.

8.35 pm: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope says at least six districts need to put more efforts in contact tracing of Covid-19 patients to curb the spread of the infection, PTI reports. These district are Parbhani, Nandurbar, Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur and Ahmednagar.

8.33 pm: The Haryana Police shuts down the Director General of Police’s office in Panchkula for two days, after six of its personnel test positive for the coronavirus, ANI reports.

8.31 pm: Goa registers 339 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing its tally to 12,333, ANI reports. This includes 116 deaths, 3861 active cases and 8,356 recoveries.

8.28 pm: Punjab records 1,704 new Covid-19 cases, 1,582 recoveries and 35 deaths on Tuesday, ANI reports. With this, the state’s tally rises to 34,400 and the toll stands at 898.

8.25 pm: Maharashtra registers 11,119 new coronavirus cases, 9,356 recoveries and 422 deaths on Tuesday, ANI reports. The state’s tally of infections – which is the highest in the country – rises to 6,15,477. The toll stands at 20,687.

7.51 pm: Local administration issues prohibitory orders in Kathmandu Valley till August 26, amid a rise in coronavirus cases, reports ANI, citing the local authority in Nepal. The order comes into effect from Tuesday midnight.

7.23 pm: Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar on Tuesday recorded 54 new Covid-19 cases, pushing the district’s tally to 6,596, PTI reports. The toll stands at 43.

7.20 pm: The Centre allows entry to foreign journalists with valid visas into the country along with their family members, PTI reports. A notification by the Union home ministry says that foreign nationals holding Journalist (J-1) visas and their dependents holding J-1X visas, will be allowed to travel to India. If they have J-1 or J-1X visas, which have been suspended, such visas shall stand restored with immediate effect to facilitate their entry into India, the notice adds.

7.12 pm: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain says the results of the sero-prevalence survey, which was conducted in Delhi in the first week of August to better assess the city’s Covid-19 situation, is expected to be announced this week, PTI reports. A sero-survey involves testing blood serum of individuals to check for prevalence of antibodies against the viral infection.

7.11 pm: Chandigarh registers 89 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its tally of infections to 2,305, ANI reports. The Union Territory has recorded 30 deaths so far.

6.58 pm: Manipur records 78 new coronavirus cases, including five personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces, on Tuesday, ANI reports. With this, the state’s tally rises to 4,765. The recovery rate is 58.53%, according to the state health department.

6.41 pm: Jammu and Kashmir registers 434 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, ANI reports. Of these, 88 cases were reported from Jammu and 346 were recorded in Kashmir. With this, the Union Territory’s tally rises to 29,326 and the toll is 561.

6.38 pm: Mizoram’s coronavirus tally stands at 815 as of 5 pm on Tuesday, ANI reports, quoting the state health department.

6.37 pm: Andhra Pradesh registers 9,652 coronavirus cases, 9,211 recoveries and 88 deaths in 24 hours on Tuesday, ANI reports. With this, the state’s tally rises to 3,06,261 and the toll stands at 2,820. Andhra Pradesh is now the third state after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in the country to cross the three lakh-mark.

6.34 pm: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says his country has reached a “promising deal” with Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to receive the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Oxford University, Reuters reports. “If this vaccine proves successful we will manufacture and supply vaccines straight away under our own steam and make it free for 25 million Australians,” he says

6.30 pm: Kerala registers 1,758 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking its total tally to 47,898, PTI reports. The state has 16,724 active cases and 31,394 people have recovered so far. The toll rises to 175 after six more fatalities were reported.

6.28 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,709 coronavirus cases and 121 deaths on Tuesday, taking the state’s tally of infections to 3,49,654 and the toll to 6,007, ANI reports. The number of active cases in the state stands at 53,680.

4.54 pm: The Union health ministry releases a pie chart showing the overall percentage of Covid-19 cases in three different categories.

“73.18% of the total cases are recovered/discharged,” the Union health ministry says. “24.91% of the total cases are active. 1.92% of the total cases are deaths.”

4.51 pm: NITI Aayog member VK Paul reiterates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks related to vaccines during his Independence Day speech. “He had said that three vaccines are being developed in India and are in different stages,” Paul says during the health ministry’s briefing. “One of them will enter phase three trial today or tomorrow. The other two are in phase one and two trials.”

4.48 pm: Bogota implements strict quarantine measures till August 30 that will affect over a million residents in Colombia’s capital, reports AFP. This is an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 and avoid a collapse of the Bogota’s intensive care network.

4.34 pm: Nagaland reports 127 recoveries of Covid-19 patients, of whom 79 are from Dimapur, 29 from Kohima and 19 from Zunheboto, reports ANI, citing state’s Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom. “However, all the recovered patients will be kept under strict surveillance,” he adds.

4.31 pm: Union Health Ministry’s Secretary Rajesh Bhushan says India’s number of recoveries is nearly 20 lakh – 2.93 times of active cases. He adds that the case fatality rate is below 2%.

4.27 pm: India has begun negotiations with 13 countries, including Australia, Singapore and Japan, to establish separate bilateral air bubble services for international flight operations, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says.

“These countries include Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand,” the Union minister tweets. “The ongoing negotiations will benefit stranded Indians and nationals of these countries.”

4.25 pm: A total of 3.09 crore coronavirus tests have been conducted in India, with a record 8.99 lakh tests in a single-day. The positivity rate in the country remains low at 8.81% compared to the weekly national average of 8.84%, the Centre said, according to PTI.

4.23 pm: South Africa, which had one of the world’s stringent coronavirus lockdowns for five months, eased its curbs in response to a decrease in new cases, reports AP.

3.13 pm: The total number of coronavirus cases in Tripura rises to 7,427, after 205 more people tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, PTI reports. The toll rises by three to 62.

3.08 pm: Nagaland Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom says the government tested 577 more samples on Tuesday, of which, 65 have tested positive for the coronavirus. “Necessary contact tracing has been activated and all primary contacts under self-isolation,” he adds.

3.04 pm: The World Health Organization said the spread of the coronavirus was being increasingly driven by people aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s and many were not aware that they have been infected, Reuters reports. “This increases the risk of spillovers to the more vulnerable: the elderly, the sick people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated areas and underserved areas,” WHO’s regional director for the Western Pacific, Takeshi Kasai, told a virtual briefing.

3.02 pm: Pakistan registered 488 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Tuesday, taking the country’s tally to 289,213, PTI reports. The toll rises to 6,175 with seven more fatalities reported overnight.

2.58 pm: Arunachal Pradesh’s tally of coronavirus cases rises to 2,741 after 40 more people, including 13 security personnel, test positive, PTI reports.

2.56 pm: Himachal Pradesh’s tally of Covid-19 cases rises to 4,208 on Tuesday, including 2,385 recoveries and 17 deaths, ANI reports, quoting the state health department.

2.53 pm: The Supreme Court reserves its judgement on a batch of pleas challenging University Grants Commission’s directive to conduct final year examinations amid the coronavirus crisis, Live Law reports.

2.50 pm: Bihar’s tally of coronavirus cases rose to 32,626, after 3,257 new infections were recorded on Monday, ANI reports. The state has 32,626 active cases.

1.17 pm: Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Atul Garg tests positive for Covid-19.

1.15 pm: The director of the Institute of Life Sciences in Odisha’s capital Bhubaneswar Dr Ajay Parida says the coronavirus situation in the state is likely to improve from the second week of September, PTI reports.

1.08 pm: An amusement park in China’s Wuhan City, where the coronavirus pandemic originated, hosted a music festival over the weekend, which thousands of people attended with little regard for physical distancing rules, CNN reports.

12.03 pm: China reports 22 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to Reuters. All of the new infections are imported.

11.59 am: Telangana recorded 1,682 new coronavirus cases and eight deaths as of 8 pm on Monday, PTI reports, citing the state government. The state’s tally rose to 93,937 and the toll reached 711.

11.56 am: The Army’s Research and Referral hospital in Delhi, where former President Pranab Mukherjee is being treated, says he remains on ventilator support and there is no change in his condition, PTI reports. Mukherjee had tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

11.43 am: The number of coronavirus cases in the Maharashtra police rises to 12,495 as 112 personnel test positive for the infection in the last 24 hours, ANI reports. Two more deaths push the police force’s toll to 128.

11.37 am: Rajasthan records 694 coronavirus cases and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state’s tally rises to 63,324 and the toll reaches 897.

11.35 am: Odisha records 2,239 new coronavirus cases and nine deaths in the last 24 hours, ANI reports. The state’s tally rises to 64,533 and the toll reaches 362.

11.32 am: The Supreme Court rules that money from the PM CARES Fund, set up in March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic by the prime minister’s office, cannot be transferred to the National Disaster Relief Fund.

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PM CARES Fund: Supreme Court dismisses plea to transfer money to national disaster relief fund

10.45 am: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. Shah had tested positive for the coronavirus on August 2 and had announced on August 14 that he has tested negative. He was under home isolation after being discharged from the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram.

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah admitted to AIIMS after testing negative for coronavirus, say reports

9.55 am: Australia’s Victoria state detects 222 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday – the lowest in a month, Reuters reports.

9.50 am: Venezuelan lawmaker Jose Manuel Olivares, who is also the medical adviser to opposition leader Juan Guaido, says the country’s rate of coronavirus infections will soon overwhelm its testing capacity, Reuters reports. “We are reaching the point that the number of daily cases is going to be greater than the testing capacity ... and that is going to produce an artificial flattening of the contagion curve,” he says. Venezuela has reported 33,755 infections and 281 deaths so far, with daily cases crossing 1,000.

9.46 am: Maharashtra’s Beed district will start conducting rapid antigen tests on shopkeepers, vegetable vendors, milk sellers and petrol pump employees from Tuesday to identify coronavirus “super spreaders”, PTI reports.

9.43 am: The Airports Authority of India on Monday said that the Goa airport saw a steady rise in flight movement since April. “From 27 flights in April to nearly 12 times that number in in July, these are signs of normalcy returning,” AAI wrote on Twitter.

9.41 am: Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, tells Reuters that an increasingly common mutation of the coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but seems less deadly.

9.28 am: The number of coronavirus cases in the country have risen by 55,079 to 27,02,742, the Ministry of Health says. The toll is at 51,797, after 826 more people died of the virus in the last 24 hours.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

9.06 am: The Indian Council of Medical Research says it tested almost 9 lakh samples for Covid-19 on Monday. So far, 3,09,41,264 samples have been tested.

8.26 am: Mizoram’s coronavirus tally stands at 815 as of 7 am on Tuesday.

8.16 am: Brazil’s tally reached 33,59,570 after the country reported 19,373 new coronavirus cases on Monday, according to Reuters. The toll stood at 1,08,536.

8.14 am: Odisha’s Rural Development and Labour Minister Susanta Singh tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, according to PTI. Odisha has reported 62,294 cases and 353 deaths so far.

8.12 am: According to the heath ministry coronavirus update on Monday, India’s recovery rate was over 72% while the death rate was 1.92%.

8.11 am: The Union health ministry says India tested a record 8.97 lakh samples for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

8.10 am: Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday.

8.05 am: Here are the top updates from Monday:

  1. Four people at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s residence have tested positive for the coronavirus. “Two people, including a cook, and two security guards at Pawar’s ‘Silver Oak’ residence here have tested positive for coronavirus,” said Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope. He added that Pawar’s test results have come out negative, but he will be asked not to go on any state tour for next some days.
  2. The Supreme Court dismissed a petition to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test and Joint Entrance Examination amid the coronavirus outbreak. The court ruled that the two examinations would be held in September as per the schedule.
  3. A serological survey conducted in five sub-wards in Pune has revealed that 51.5% of those surveyed have antibodies for the coronavirus. These sub-wards have seen the highest incidences of coronavirus cases, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research said on Monday.
  4. Tamil Nadu recorded 5,890 new cases, 120 deaths and 5,667 recoveries on Monday. The state’s tally is now 3,43,945. In total, 2,83,937 people have recovered, and there are 54,122 active cases. Meanwhile, officials said that Punjab’s Covid-19 has almost doubled in 16 days. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he was not averse to taking harsher measures to slow the spread of Covid-19.
  5. Trinamool Congress MLA Samaresh Das, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, died at a hospital in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district. He was 76.
  6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office has denied to give information related to the PM CARES Fund – set up in March– in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic – to a Right to Information activist, saying it would “disproportionately divert the resources”.
  7. The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala opened for prayers, but devotees will not be allowed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The temple will remain open till August 21 and only the usual rituals will be conducted, said the Travancore Devaswom Board.
  8. The number of deaths in the US crossed 1,70,000. The toll now stands at 1,70,052 after 483 people died on Sunday. The country has so far recorded 54.03 lakh cases – a number that experts warn may be lower than the actual figure as America has not yet increased testing.