10.40 pm: Assam records 1,307 new infections, taking the state’s tally to 1,90,209. The toll stands at 785.

10.34 pm: Jharkhand releases guidelines for religious places set to reopen from October 8, reports ANI.

10.16 pm: Jharkhand reports 829 new cases, and 10 deaths on Wednesday, reports ANI. The total cases in the state rises to 89,702, and toll to 767.

10 pm: Karnataka reports 10,947 new cases, and 113 deaths today, taking tally to 6,68,652, and toll to 9,574, reports ANI, citing a state health department bulletin.

9.45 pm: Maharashtra’s Covid-19 tally rises to 14,80,489 with 14,578 new infections, reports ANI. There are 2,44,527 active cases in the state, 11,96,441 recoveries, and the toll stands at 39,072.

9.14 pm: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi tweets that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

9.10 pm: Kerala Higher Education Minister KT Jaleel tests positive for Covid-19, ANI reports. He is in home quarantine.

9 pm: Mumbai reports 2,848 new cases, and 2,257 recoveries, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The total number of active cases is 24,783. Forty-six people have died today, taking the toll to 9,245.

8.09 pm: Punjab’s tally goes over 1.20 lakh with 852 new cases, reports PTI. The toll stands at 3,712.

8.09 pm: Jammu and Kashmir reports 14 more deaths, and 621 new Covid-19 cases. The Union Territory’s infection tally rises to 81,097, toll to 1,282, reports PTI.

8.07 pm: Kerala’s one-day rise crosses 10,000-mark for the first time. The state’s total count goes over 2.5 lakh, according to PTI.

8.06 pm: Nagaland reports 53 new cases, infection tally rises to 6,715, reports PTI. The state’s number of active cases stands at 1,194.

8.03 pm: Gujarat’s case count stands at 1,46,673 after a reported rise of 1,311 new cases, reports ANI. The toll goes up to 3,531 with nine more fatalities.

8.02 pm: Uttar Pradesh’s Covid-19 tally rises to 4,24,326 with 3,561 new cases, ANI reports. The toll rises by 47 to 6,200.

8 pm: Tamil Nadu records 5,447 new cases, taking the state’s total count to 6,35,855, according to ANI. The toll in the state stands at 9,984.

7.59 pm: Andhra Pradesh registers 5,120 new Covid-19 cases and 34 deaths, taking the state tally to 7,34,427. The overall count includes 49,513 active cases, 6,78,828 recoveries and 6,086 deaths, reports ANI.

7.41 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announces that all the weekly markets will be opened. “Till now only two markets per zone were allowed,” he tweets. “The poor will get a lot of relief from this. Cinema halls of Delhi will also be opened from October 15. They have to follow all the guidelines issued by the central government.”

7.39 pm: India’s recovered cases go beyond the number of active cases by more than 48 lakh. Recovery rate crosses 85%.

6.03 pm: United Nations High Commissioner for the UN Refugee Agency Filippo Grandi says he has tested positive for Covid-19. “I am engaging with UNHCR’s Executive Committee from home as I have to isolate after testing positive to Covid-19,” he tweets. “I only have mild symptoms and hope to recover soon. A reminder of the importance of washing hands, keeping distances and wearing masks!”

5.55 pm: The Meghalaya government announces that Covid-19 tests will no longer be free of cost from next week as the Indian Council of Medical Research is withdrawing subsidy on kits, reports PTI, citing Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong.

5.48 pm: Iran says it has hit its highest number of daily fatalities due to Covid-19, with 239 new deaths, reports Associated Press, citing state media.

4.25 pm: The Karnataka government reduces the fine for not wearing masks from Rs 1,000 to Rs 250 in urban areas and to Rs 100 from Rs 500 in rural areas, reports ANI.

4.20 pm: Union minister Prakash Javadekar says the government is launching an awareness campaign from Thursday on measures people need to take to check the spread of the coronavirus, reports PTI. He says people need to wear masks, maintain physical distance and sanitise their hands to stop the spread of the infection and till a a vaccine is available.

4.17 pm: Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj tests positive for the coronavirus, according to PTI. He is the third minister and ninth MLA in the state to get infected.

4.14 pm: Maharashtra government officials say that Mumbai’s dabbawalas and staff of foreign consulates and high commissions have been allowed to travel in local trains, PTI reports. The service was till now only being run only for essential services staff.

4.10 pm: The number of containment zones in the Delhi falls to 2,697 after rising steadily for over 40 days, according to official data, PTI reports.

4.01 pm: A health bulletin released by the Delhi government on the coronavirus shows that the positivity rate in the Capital has fallen below 5%, the lowest in more than 100 days, The Hindu reports. The overall positivity rate is 8.7%.

3.49 pm: The World Bank praises the efforts to check the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai’s Dharavi area, which is one of the world’s largest slums, according to PTI. It says that the success stemmed from a combination of community involvement, customised solutions and perseverance.

3.40 pm: An experts panel on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on human rights issues detailed advisories to states and Union territory administrations on the rights of informal workers and seeks action-taken reports from them showing compliance in each area, reports The Times of India. The panel is formed by the National Human Rights Commission.

12.48 pm: The Uttar Pradesh Police have registered a case against an Aam Aadmi Party legislator under the Epidemic Diseases Act for visiting Hathras even after testing positive for coronavirus, reports NDTV. On September 29, Kuldeep Kumar announced that he has tested positive for coronavirus and that he will be in home isolation. Five days later, he posted videos of him in Hathras.

12.45 pm: The number of people recovered has exceeded those with active infection by more than 48 lakh, says the Union Health Ministry. “The national recovery rate has jumped past 85% today with the continuous streak of high number of recovered cases being reported in the past few weeks,” says the ministry in a statement. “The recovered cases have exceeded the new confirmed again during the past 24 hours.”

12.44 pm: Maharashtra’s Thane district registers 1,166 new cases, tally goes up to 1,83,942, reports PTI.

12.43 pm: Ten states and Union Territories account for 83% of the deaths in the last 24 hours, says the health ministry.

12.42 pm: Odisha’s tally rises to 2.40 lakh with 2,995 new cases, report ANI citing the state health deparment.

12.40 pm: In Himachal Pradesh, 186 people recovered from coronavirus since 9 pm on Tuesday. The state’s tally now stands at 16,283.

10.37 am: Andaman and Nicobar Islands reports 13 new cases, taking the tally to 3,912.

10.36 am: Jharkhand’s tally goes up to 88,873 as 847 more people test positive. Ten more patients succumbed to the infection, taking the state’s toll to 757.

10.35 am: The US military’s joint chiefs of staff have gone into self-quarantine after the Coast Guard’s vice commandant tested positive, reports Reuters.

10.33 am: Telangana registers 2,154 new coronavirus cases and eight additional deaths. With this, the state’s count rises to 2.04 lakh and toll stands at 1,189.

9.21 am: India’s coronavirus tally rises to 67,57,131 with 72,048 new cases. The country’s toll now stands at 1,04,555 after 986 additional deaths in the last 24 hours. India’s recovery and fatality rates are 85.02% and 1.55%, respectively.

9.03 am: Mizoram’s tally rises to 2,148 with 20 fresh infections.

9.02 am: Ladakh reports 79 new cases in the last 24 hours.

9.01 am: As many as 8,22,71,654 samples were tested in India on Tuesday, says the Indian Council of Medical Research.

8.57 am: Donald Trump criticises FDA vaccine rules.

8.56 am: Brazil registers 41,906 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number for a single day since September 11, says the health ministry.

8.55 am: Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden says he is against participating in his second debate with Donald Trump if the president still suffers from coronavirus. The first of the three presidential debates between Biden and Trump was held on September 29. The second debate is scheduled for October 15 in Miami and the final one on October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.

8.54 am: Stephen Miller, a top aide to US President Donald Trump, tested positive. “Over the last five days I have been working remotely and self-isolating, testing negative every day through yesterday,” reads Miller’s statement. “Today, I tested positive for Covid-19 and am in quarantine.”

With this, at least 10 White House staffers have been infected by the virus.

8.52 am: A tweet by United States President Donald Trump was once again red-flagged as he downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus and compared it with the flu. Twitter put a warning on the tweet, saying it included potentially misleading information.

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8.51 am: Bengaluru on Tuesday reported over 5,000 cases in a day for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, reports The Indian Express. The capital city also has nearly half of the total active cases in Karnataka. The state government issued making testing stricter. “All individuals who are identified for Covid-19 test by the government shall get tested so that the spread of the disease can be contained and lives can be said,” read the order.

8.45 am: Here are the top updates from Tuesday

  1. India’s coronavirus count rose to 66,85,083 with 61,267 new cases on Tuesday. The toll increased by 884 to 1,03,569. So far, more than 55 lakh people have recovered from the infection. The Union health ministrysaid at a press briefing that the number of new recoveries have been more than new cases over the last two weeks.
  2. The Union health ministry released guidelines for festive celebrations amid the coronavirus crisis. The events are permitted only outside containment zones. The guidelines also mandate the provision of ambulances at venues. Earlier in the day, the guidelines for cinema halls and multiplexes, which are scheduled to open from October 15, were released. The halls are permitted to operate at 50% capacity so as to adhere to physical distancing norms.
  3. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid that a vaccine against the coronavirus may be ready by the end of this year. “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine,” he said, according to Reuters. “There is hope.”
  4. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that scientists believe smaller droplets and particles from coronavirus-positive patients can infect others in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation even when a six-feet distance is maintained. The health body added that Covid-19 can spread through the virus lingering in the air, sometimes for hours, acknowledging experts’ concerns about airborne transmission.
  5. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid that the Capital is past the peak of the second wave of Covid-19, and said the situation has been controlled to a large extent.     
  6. Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said he has tested positive for the coronavirus. “My Covid-19 report has come back positive,” he said in a video on Twitter. “I don’t have any symptoms such as fever, but since the report is positive, I am self-isolating. I advise those who have met me in the last to get themselves tested.” Meanwhile, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu also tested positive for the infection. On Monday, he shared a stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, state ministers and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh at a rally at Sangrur, Punjab.    
  7. The global coronavirus count crossed 3.55 crore and the toll rose to 10,45,390, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of recoveries crossed 2.47 crore.