1. India’s coronavirus count on Thursday jumped to 38,53,407 after the country reported its highest single-day rise of 83,883 new cases. The toll rose by 1,043 to 67,376. As many 29,70,492 patients have recovered from the infection, pushing the recovery rate to 77.09%. The Union health ministry said the number of recoveries was 3.5 times higher than active cases.
  2. The Centre defended its decision to open up economic activities despite the rise in coronavirus cases. “The Government has adopted a graded approach to unlock and open up various economic activities,” Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at the Centre’s press briefing. “At the end of the day, the Government firmly believes that while lives are important, livelihoods are equally important.”
  3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at the United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum, said that the coronavirus crisis is testing India’s resilience, health system and economic situation. He added that India was among the first countries to step up their fight against the health crisis.
  4. Maharashtra reported its biggest one-day rise of 18,105 coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 8,43,844. The state’s toll rose by 391 to 25,586. Delhi reported 2,737 new cases and 19 deaths. This is the national Capital’s highest rise in cases in over two months and third consecutive day of reporting more than 2,000 cases. Its tally rose to 1,82,306 and the toll reached 4,500. Despite this, bars and restaurants will begin serving alcohol from next week, albeit on a trial basis. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had denied earlier in the day that the Capital was witnessing a second wave of infections.
  5. The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a petition filed by six states, asking it to review its refusal to postpone the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) amid the coronavirus crisis.
  6. The Centre allowed airlines to increase their operating capacity of flights to 60% from the current 45%. The review was done after a total number of flights operated by commercial airlines in India crossed 1,000 flights a day during the month of August.
  7. Researchers from New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology have developed a new method of testing that will give quicker results. This methodology is almost as precise as the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test, which is considered as the gold standard of testing.
  8. The World Health Organization updated its advice on coronavirus treatment to include “strong recommendation” for steroid use in patients who are critically ill, Reuters reported. This came after an analysis of seven international trials, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA, showed that treating critical patients with corticosteroids reduces the risk of death by 20% regardless of which steroid is used.
  9. The Donald Trump administration in United States has urged states to get ready to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine by November 1 – two days before the presidential election.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has infected over 2.6 crore people and caused more than 8.64 lakh deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker. Over 1.73 crore people in the world have recovered from the infection.