1. India’s tally on Wednesday rose to 32,34,474 with 67,151 new cases in the last 24 hours. The country’s toll rose by 1,059 to 59,449. As many as 24,67,758 people have recovered from the infection in the country.
  2. Maharashtra recorded its highest single-day increase of 14,888 new coronavirus cases in the evening, pushing its tally to 7,18,711. The state also reported 295 more deaths, taking its toll to 23,089. Meanwhile, Delhi witnessed the highest number of daily new cases in August after 1,693 cases were reported. The total number of cases in the city stood at 1,65,764. Uttar Pradesh also recorded highest single-day rise of 5,898 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s tally to 2,03,020. With 82 deaths, the toll rose to 3,141.
  3. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said flights from six coronavirus-hotspot states will resume from next month. To tackle the health crisis, the state government had imposed a ban till August 31 on passenger flights to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur and Ahmedabad. Banerjee also announced that the bi-weekly complete lockdown in the state would would be observed on September 7, 11 and 12.
  4. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi attacked the Narendra Modi government for not clearing Goods and Service Tax compensation dues that it owes to states, leading to financial crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic. “This refusal to compensate the states is nothing short of betrayal on the part of the Modi government, betrayal of state governments and the people of India,” Gandhi said at a virtual meeting of chief ministers.
  5. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged Opposition leaders to together move the Supreme Court against the Centre’s decision to go ahead with the national-level Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) amid rising coronavirus cases in India. She said the decision was inflicting “mental agony” on students.
  6. Twenty-three of the 117 MLAs in Punjab have tested positive for the coronavirus two days ahead of Friday’s Assembly session, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said. The state is testing all its MLAs ahead of the one-day session. Haryana Agriculture Minister JP Dalal and former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also tested positive for the coronavirus.
  7. Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender said that two cases of coronavirus reinfection have been reported in the state, raising concerns about people’s immunity to the disease. Director of Public Health Doctor G Srinivasa Rao said the two patients were asymptomatic, adding that the state government was trying to figure out if they were exposed to a new strain of the virus. On Monday, Hong Kong researchers said that a 33-year-old man became reinfected with the coronavirus four months after his first bout.
  8. Indian Medical Association General Secretary RV Asokan said the toll from the coronavirus among doctors has risen from 196 to 273 in the two weeks since the medical body wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to provide adequate healthcare to frontline workers. However, the doctors are yet to receive a response from the central government, he said.
  9. At least five members of the Great Andamanese tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have tested positive for the coronavirus, human rights organisation Survival International said. Of the five, two have been admitted to hospital, it added.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.39 crore people and killed 8,20,835, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. Over 1.56 crore people across the world have recovered from the infection.