1. India’s coronavirus tally rose to 27,67,273 on Wednesday morning as the country reported 64,531 new cases in 24 hours. The toll increased by 1,092 to 52,889. India reported a record 60,091 recoveries in a day, taking the total number of discharged cases to 20,37,870. The Union health ministry put India’s recovery rate at 73.64%. The death rate fell to 1.91%. The Centre said more than eight lakh samples were tested for the second consecutive day.
  2. Maharashtra reported its biggest single-day rise of 13,165 coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 6,28,642. The toll rose by 346 to 21,033. Andhra Pradesh recorded 9,742 new coronavirus cases and 86 deaths in the evening. With this, the state’s tally rose to 3,16,003 and the toll stood at 2,906.
  3. The Supreme Court said it will begin limited physical hearings in about two weeks on an “experimental basis”. A seven-judge committee led by Justice NV Ramana has asked court officials to ready three big courtrooms within a week, strictly adhering to the “prescribed distancing and other norms”.
  4. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority allowed the reopening of hotels and weekly markets in the Capital. Gymnasiums, however, will continue to remain closed. The decision was taken in a meeting of DDMA, which was also attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal through video conference.
  5. Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s health deteriorated as he developed a lung infection, the Army’s Research and Referral hospital in Delhi said. Mukherjee was admitted to the hospital on August 10 for an operation to remove a clot in his brain. He had also tested positive for coronavirus the same day.
  6. The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations, or PM-CARES, Fund has received over Rs 2,105 crore from 38 government firms since March, records accessed by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act showed. As of March 31, the fund that was set up to tackle the coronavirus crisis had a corpus of Rs 3,076.62 crore, of which Rs 3,075.85 crore was listed as “voluntary contributions” in its official website. Meanwhile, Congress leader P Chidambaram asked if those who donated more than Rs 3,000 crore in five days of March to fund were Chinese companies.
  7. The Centre allowed entry of foreign journalists and their dependents to India if they possess a valid visa, and also relaxed norms for entry of foreign visitors.
  8. A court in New Zealand ruled that the first nine days of the coronavirus lockdown in the country (from March 26 to April 3) were justified, but unlawful. The court noted that stay-at-home orders were not passed by the government till April 3, so the liberties of people were “unlawfully limited” for those days.
  9. Brazil’s coronavirus count crossed 34 lakh. The country reported 47,784 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to 34,07,354. Brazil’s toll rose by 1,352 to 1,09,888.
  10. The global coronavirus tally rose to 2,21,48,472 while the toll crossed 7.81 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. More than 1.4 crore people have recovered from the infection so far.