10.47 pm: West Bengal records 2,984 new cases and 55 deaths. The total number of cases are now 1,71,681 and the number of deaths is 3,394.

10.33 pm: Rajasthan has reported a record 1,553 cases in a day, according to PTI. Fourteen people have died today. The total number of cases is now 86,227, the fatalities 1,095. Over 70,000 people have been discharged so far.

10.22 pm: Pune reports 1,580 new cases of the coronavirus, according to its municipal corporation.

10 pm: Himachal Pradesh now has a total of 6,615 cases, ANI reports. The number of active and recovered cases is 1,708 and 4,818. The toll is 48.

9.48 pm: Mumbai reports 1,526 new cases of the coronavirus, while 859 patients recover today. The total number of active cases in the city has risen to 21,442. As many as 37 patients died today.

9.35 pm: “Aatamanirbhar Bharat is about transforming India from being just a passive market to an active manufacturing hub at the heart of global value chains,” Modi adds.

9.32 pm: Modi speaks about the Centre’s ‘aatma nirbhar Bharat’ vision. “Aatamanirbhar Bharat merges the local with the global,” he says. It ensures India’s strengths act as a global force multiplier. Time and time again, India has shown that our goal is global good.”

9.28 pm: The prime minister says that the struggles in 2020 have made India stronger. “We have battled floods and cyclones in addition to the coronavirus,” he says. “This has made us stronger.”

9.26 pm: Modi says that the pandemic has not affected the aspirations of Indians. “The pandemic has impacted several things but it has not impacted the aspirations and of ambitions of 1.3 billion Indians,” he says.

9.18 pm: The prime minister adds that the coronavirus crisis is testing India’s resilience and economic situation. “When 2020 began, did anyone imagine how it would turn out?” he says, according to ANI. “A global pandemic has impacted everyone. It’s testing our resilience, public health system and economic system. The current situation demands fresh mindset where the approach to development is human-centric.”

9.16 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins his address at the US-India forum. “India was among the first in creating a responsive system of lockdowns,” he says. “India was among the first to advocate the use of masks and face covering as a public health measure. We are also among the earliest to create public awareness campaigns about social distancing.”

9.11 pm: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at the Centre’s press briefing on Thursday that both the lives of people and livelihoods are equally important.“The Government has adopted a graded approach to unlock and open up various economic activities,” he said. “Prior to this, the Government has ensured all the pre-requisites are in place. At the end of the day, the Government firmly believes that while lives are important, livelihoods are equally important.”

8.54 pm: Goa also reports a record 713 new cases, taking its tally to 19,355, according to PTI. The state’s toll rises by eight to 212.

8.50 pm: Maharashtra reports its biggest one-day rise of 18,105 new cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 8,43,844. The state’s toll rises by 391 to 25,586.

8.06 pm: Karnataka records 8,865 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 3,70,206. The state’s toll rises by 104 to 6,054.

7.26 pm: Delhi records 2,737 new cases and 19 deaths on Thursday. The Capital’s tally rises to 1,82,306 and its toll reaches 4,500.

7.14 pm: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a review petition filed by six states against the its judgement earlier this month, which rejected a plea for the postponement of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) amid the coronavirus crisis, Live Law reports.

6.47 pm: Deepak Punia, two other wrestlers test positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports, citing the Sports Authority of India.

6.32 pm: The Delhi government will allow bars and pubs to open from September 9, say reports.

6.25 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 5,892 new cases and 92 deaths on Thursday. The state’s tally rises to 4,45,851 and the toll reaches 7,608.

6.23 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 10,199 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 4,65,730. The state’s toll rises by by 75 to 4,200.

4.55 pm: The toll from the coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh rises to 3,691 on Thursday, with 75 more fatalities reported in 24 hours, PTI reports. The tally of infections rises by 5,622 to 2,47,101.

4.50 pm: During its press briefing, the health ministry said that in the past three weeks, there has been an increase in case fatality trajectory in Karnataka and Delhi . “There has been a sudden spike in number of active cases and deaths in Delhi,” Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan adds. “We are actively working with the Delhi government to take fresh measures, there have been meetings at the lieutenant-governor level as well.”

4.47 pm: Bihar recorded 1,992 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the state’s count of active cases to 18,029, ANI reports.

4.22 pm: Bhushan says that the number of Covid-19 deaths per million population in India is 49 compared to the global average of 111.

4.17 pm: There has been progressive increase in the number of recovered cases,” the health secretary says at the daily press briefing. “The exact number of recovered cases are 29,70,492, the active cases are 8,15,538,” he adds. “The recovered cases are 3.5 times higher than the current active cases.”

4.15 pm: The health ministry adds that a total of five states account for 70% of total deaths in the country. These are Maharashtra (37.9%), Tamil Nadu (11.16%), Karnataka (8.83%), Delhi (6.65%) and Andhra Pradesh (6.12%).

4.14 pm: Five states account for 62% of the total active cases, Bhushan says. They include Maharashtra (24.77%); Andhra Pradesh (12.64%); Karnataka (11.58%); Uttar Pradesh (6.92%) and Tamil Nadu (6.42%).

4.13 pm: Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan says that more than 4.5 crore tests have been conducted so far. “Over 11 lakh tests done in the past 24 hours,” he adds. “The number of recovered patients is now about 29.70 lakh, the highest single day recovery was 68,584, which was recorded yesterday [Wednesday].”

4.12 pm: The Union health ministry briefs the media about the coronavirus situation.

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3.37 pm: Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has issued orders permitting the operation of Hyderabad metro in a graded manner from September 7, reports The Indian Express.

3.34 pm: Malaysia has added at least nine more countries, including the United States, Britain and France, to its list of long-term immigration pass holders barred from entering the country, according to news wire Bernama.

3.16 pm: All passengers coming to Kerala from other states will have to register on the government’s coronavirus portal, ANI reports.

3.11 pm: Karnataka Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhu Swamy says all MPs will be tested for the coronavirus on every fifth day of the functioning of the Monsoon session, starting from September 21, ANI reports.

1.01 pm: India conducts over 11.7 lakh Covid-19 tests in 24 hours, taking the number of overall tests done to 4.5 crore, says Centre.

1 pm: The Delhi High Court allows breath analyser test through tube process for air traffic controllers after it was suspended due to the pandemic, reports PTI.

12.57 pm: Odisha’s coronavirus tally rises to 1,13,411 with 3,631 new infections, reports ANI. The toll in the state goes up by eight to 522.

12.56 pm: Rajasthan reports 705 new cases and seven deaths till 10:30 am on Thursday, reports ANI, citing the health department’s bulletin. The total number of cases now at 85,379, including 13,421 active cases and 1,088 deaths.

12.54 pm: The Uttarakhand Secretariat’s Association has asked the chief secretary to completely shut down the Secretariat for a week after some staffers tested positive, reports ANI.

12.52 pm: Treating critically ill coronavirus patients with corticosteroid drugs curbs the risk of mortality by 20%, an analysis of seven international trials found on Wednesday, prompting the World Health Organisation to revise its advice on the treatment, reports Reuters.

12.50 pm: China on Wednesday said it will resume direct flights from eight countries, including Thailand, Denmark, Cambodia, Greece, Sweden and Canada from September 3, reports Reuters.

12.47 pm: Eleven teams of Indian and American scientists will soon begin jointly looking for “out of the box” Covid-19 solutions, reports ANI.

12.44 pm: The Civil Aviation ministry on Wednesday announced increasing the domestic flight operations from 45% to 60%, reported Hindustan Times.

12.42 pm: Researchers from New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology have developed a new method of testing that gives quicker results and is almost as precise as the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (or RT-PCR) test, reports Hindustan Times.

12.39 pm: International travellers, who have to take connecting domestic flights after reaching India, will get the option to get themselves tested for Covid-19 at the entry airports, the Civil Aviation ministry said on Wednesday, reported PTI.

12.31 pm: Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendar Jain says protocols are being formulated to resume metro services, reports ANI. “Dry run is also being done so that it can be ensured that social distancing is maintained, people wear mask and clean their hands – that they follow a Covid-19 appropriate behaviour,” he adds.

12.28 pm: The Delhi Metro begins preparations resume services, reports ANI.

9.38 am: India reports 83,883 new coronavirus cases and 1,043 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to health ministry data. With this, the country now has 38,53,407 cases and the toll has risen to 67,376. This is the highest rise in cases so far.

9.35 am: Telangana reports 2,817 new coronavirus cases and 10 deaths on Wednesday. The state now has 1,33,406 cases and the toll has risen to 856.

9.17 am: A total of 11,72,179 samples were tested on Wednesday, says the Indian Council of Medical Research.

8.01 am: Actor Dilip Kumar’s younger brother dies, ANI reports citing Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital. Ehsan Khan had tested positive for Covid-19 and was suffering from heart disease, hypertension and alzheimers.

7.39 am: China’s aviation regulator says it will resume direct flights to Beijing from eight countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Greece, Denmark, Sweden and Canada from September 3 amid the coronavirus crisis, reports Reuters.

7.37 am: The Civil Aviation Ministry has said that international passengers who have to take connecting domestic flights after landing in India will be able to get themselves tested for the coronavirus at the entry points, reports PTI.

7.35 am: The Donald Trump administration in US has urged states to get ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine by November 1 – two days before the presidential election, reports AFP. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has states to consider waiving requirements that would “prevent these facilities from becoming fully operational by November 1, 2020.”

7.30 am: Here are the top updates from Wednesday:

  • India’s coronavirus count touched 37,69,523 with 78,357 new cases. The toll rose by 1,045 to 66,333. As many as 29,01,908 patients have recovered from the infection in the country, pushing the recovery rate to 76.98%. The fatality rate has declined to 1.76%. There are 8,01,282, active cases in the country, comprising 21.26% of the total caseload.
  • Maharashtra registered its biggest-single day rise of 17,433 new cases, taking the state’s tally to 8,25,739. The toll rose to 25,195 with 292 more fatalities recorded in 24 hours. Andhra Pradesh’s tally of coronavirus cases crossed 4.5 lakh, after 10,392 new cases were recorded in 24 hours. The state now has 4,55,531 infections and the toll is 4,125. Tamil Nadu reported 5,990 new cases and 98 deaths, taking the state’s overall count of infections to 4,39,959. The toll stood at 7,516.
  • The Centre released Standard Operating Procedures to be followed while conducting examinations and for the resumption of metro rail services during the coronavirus outbreak.
  • The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or PM CARES, received Rs 3,076 crore in donations in five days between March 27 and March 31, according to an audit statement the government has made public. The statement, made for the financial year 2019-’20, deals with donations only from the time the fund was set up (March 27) to the closing of the accounting year (March 31).
  • Opposition leaders criticised the Narendra Modi government’s decision to cancel the Question Hour during the Parliament session that will start on September 14 amid the coronavirus crisis. The Question Hour, the first hour in the House, allows members to question the government. This will be the first since the coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed in March.