1. India reported a record increase of 95,735 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking its tally to 44,65,864. The country’s toll rose by 1,172 to 75,063. As many as 34,717,83 people have recovered from the infection. India’s recovery rate is currently 77.74%, while the mortality rate is 1.68%.
  2. Doctors at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences said that patients who have recovered from Covid-19 are at risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis – scarring of the lungs that causes fatigue and shortness of breath. Dr Randeep Guleria, AIIMS director and pulmonologist, said data showed that around 60% to 80% of recovered patients may have a condition caused by another disease.
  3. The Serum Institute of India said that it will stop phase three trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and review the situation till they begin again in the United Kingdom.
  4. The Union health ministry directed all states and Union territories to mandatorily conduct reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR test on symptomatic people who test negative for the coronavirus in rapid antigen tests. The latter has a high rate of false negative results.
  5. Delhi on Thursday registered the highest one-day jump in infections with 4,308 new Covid-19 cases, taking the Capital’s overall count to more than 2.5 lakh. The toll rose to 4,666 after 28 more deaths. Punjab and Haryana also recorded the highest single-day spike of 2,464 and 2,591 infections, respectively.
  6. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her administration has lifted the lockdown order for September 12 (Saturday) so that students can attend the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test examination on September 13 (Sunday). She said in a tweet that the government had received several requests from students to lift the lockdown on September 12.
  7. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that the government will continue to use convalescent plasma therapy for severely-ill coronavirus patients. His remark came a day after a study funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research showed that the procedure does not help reduce the risk of death or slow down the progress of the infection.
  8. Russia started inoculating volunteers with the “Sputnik V” vaccine against the coronavirus in Moscow. This came as 26 scientists issued an open letter to medical journal The Lancet, raising questions on the accuracy of data from the vaccine’s early-stage trials, saying it looked “highly unlikely”.
  9. China on Wednesday approved for trials its first nasal spray vaccine against the coronavirus.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 2.79 crore people and killed 9,05,181, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The number of worldwide recoveries has crossed 1.88 crore.