11.01 pm: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says there are signs that a vaccine would be secured for COVID-19 but he warns that it could not be taken for granted, Reuters reports.

10.44 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh says his government is in favour of opening up the Kartarpur Corridor but the decision must be made by the Centre, in view of the coronavirus crisis and security situation, ANI reports.

9.20 pm: Haryana reports 1,066 new cases, taking the total count in the state to 1,43,221.

9.17 pm: Himachal Pradesh’s tally rises to 17,578 with 144 new cases in the last 24 hours.

8.59 pm: Mumbai reports 1,620 new cases of coronavirus, taking the city’s count to 2,31,070.

8.57 pm: The West Bengal Cabinet decides to increase the number of beds in government hospitals by 50% and cut down the charge for coronavirus tests in private health establishments, reports PTI.

8.56 pm: Senior Nagaland minister CM Chang dies of Covid-19, reports PTI. He is the first MLA to succumb to the infection.

8.55 pm: Delhi records 40 more deaths, taking toll to 5,809. The Capital’s tally climbs to 3.11 lakh with 1,849 fresh cases.

8.26 pm: Maharashtra’s coronavirus tally rises to 15,35,315 as it reports 7,089 new cases on Monday. The state’s toll rises by 165 to 40,514.

8.24 pm: Thailand agrees to manufacture and supply AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reports.

8.21 pm: Four members of the Vatican Swiss Guards test positive for the coronavirus, Reuters reports. The elite group protects the pope.

8.17 pm: Goa reports 308 coronavirus cases on Monday, PTI reports. The state’s tally reaches 38,674. Four more deaths push the state’s toll to 511.

8.14 pm: The authorities at the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir will allow 7,000 pilgrims to visit the shrine per day from October 15, PTI reports.

8.12 pm: Tamil Nadu’s coronavirus tally rises to 6,61,264 on Monday, as the state reports 4,879 new cases. Tamil Nadu’s toll rises by 62 to 10,314.

8.07 pm: Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran says the government will allow select places to open in a phased manner amid the coronavirus crisis, ANI reports. Tourist boats will be allowed but beaches will be accessible only from November 1. The state has seen a huge increase in coronavirus cases over the past two weeks.

8.05 pm: Karnataka reports 7,606 new coronavirus cases on Monday, taking its tally to 7,17,915. The state’s toll rises by 70 to 10,036.

6.36 pm: Jammu and Kashmir begins giving influenza vaccines to healthcare professionals caring for coronavirus patients, PTI reports.

6.14 pm: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu tests negative for the coronavirus.

6.08 pm: Kerala records 5,930 new coronavirus cases on Monday, taking its count of active infections to 94,388. The state’s recovered cases stand at 1,99,634.

4.22 pm: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says the active coronavirus caseload in the country remained below 9 lakh for the fourth consecutive day. The ministry says the caseload was only 12.10% of the total infections.

4.12 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee says there are instances of airborne transmission and community spread of the coronavirus in the state, reports The Times of India.

4.06 pm: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says 85% of the 816 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours were concentrated in 10 states and Union territories, ANI reports. The ministry adds that 309 or 37% of the deaths reported were from Maharashtra.

3.57 pm: Odisha reports 2,423 new Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 2,54,662, says the state health department, according to PTI.

3.53 pm: The tally of coronavirus cases in Puducherry rises to 31,737 after 189 more people test positive, reports ANI. The number of active cases in the Union territory stands at 4,617 and the toll is 565.

3.48 pm: The Chinese city of Qingdao will test all its 9 million (90 lakh) residents for the coronavirus over a period of five days, reports BBC. A dozen infections were reported from a hospital treating Covid-19 patients coming from abroad.

3.44 pm: The World Bank says the prolonged closure of schools in India may cause the country to lose $400 billion (over 29 lakh crore) in future earnings, reports PTI. In a report, the bank claims South Asia is set to fall into its worst-ever recession in 2020 because of the impact of the coronavirus.

3.38 pm: Bihar reports 732 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the tally of the state to 11,829, says a health department official, according to ANI.

3.35 pm: Mizoram reports nine coronavirus cases, including a one-year-old child, taking the state’s tally to 2,184, reports PTI, citing a government official. It now has 174 active cases.

3.32 pm: The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai launches a drive against those not wearing masks and says it will penalise nearly 20,000 such offenders each day, reports PTI.

3.16 pm: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur tests positive for the coronavirus. The chief minister says he is isolating at his official residence.

12.24 pm: Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who is in hospital with Covid-19, may have to undergo invasive medical procedures to tackle non-coronavirus related complications that have flared up and are impacting his health, NDTV reports. Chatterjee was admitted to Kolkata’s Belle Vue Clinic on Tuesday. The 85-year-old is “confused, restless, agitated, barely arousable with involuntary limb movements,” a medical report shared by the hospital said on Sunday evening.

12.23 pm: Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said on Sunday that an advertisement aired by Donald Trump’s re-election campaign was edited to make him seem to endorse the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports. “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci said in a statement.

12.18 pm: More than half of the nurses in France are at the cusp of burning out, according to a survey of nearly 60,000 of them published on Sunday, AFP reports. The survey, carried out by the national French nursing union, found they were struggling with cancelled holidays and increased work due to coronavirus. It said that about 57% of respondents reported being in a “state of professional exhaustion”, up from 33% before the global Covid-19 pandemic struck France earlier this year.

12.14 pm: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that the government will soon roll out the “FELUDA paper strip” test for the coronavirus, The Hindu reports. Vardhan said the test showed 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity. The strip was developed by CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India for a commercial launch, he said.

12.08 pm: The Kerala government announced it would open up hill destinations, adventure tourism centres and backwaters for tourists from October 12, The Indian Express reports. Popular beach destinations would be open for visitors from next month onwards. The decision comes amid a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the state.

10.58 am: The tally of coronavirus cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands rises to 4,005, after 13 more people tested positive on Monday, ANI reports. The toll from the disease is 55.

10.55 am: United States President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that he was “immune” to the coronavirus after recovering completely from Covid-19. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he felt “fantastically” and was ready to “get out of the basement”. Trump is expected to make his first public appearance on the campaign trail since his diagnosis at a rally in Florida on Monday.

Also read:

Donald Trump claims he is ‘immune’ to coronavirus ahead of Florida rally

10.52 am: The coronavirus can survive on items such as banknotes and phones for up to 28 days in cool, dark conditions, according to a study by Australia’s national science agency, AFP reports.

The scientists found that at 20 degrees Celsius, SARS-CoV-2 was “extremely robust” on smooth surfaces like mobile phone screens, surviving for 28 days on glass, steel and plastic banknotes. At 30 degrees Celsius, the survival rate dropped to seven days and plunged to just 24 hours at 40 degrees Celsius.

In comparison, the virus survived for shorter periods on porous surfaces such as cotton – up to 14 days at the lowest temperatures and less than 16 hours at the highest – the researchers said.

10.23 am: China aims to test more than nine million (90 lakh) residents in the city Qingdao within five days following a minor outbreak of the coronavirus, AFP reports. Five districts will be tested “within three days” and the whole city “within five days”, city authorities said.

On Sunday six cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Qingdao, which has a population of 9.4 million, originating in a hospital, the city’s municipal health commission said in a statement on Monday.

10.22 am: The Indian Council of Medical Research says a total of 8,78,72,093 samples have been tested for the coronavirus so far and out of these, 9,94,581 were tested on Sunday.

10.20 am: Jharkhand registers 574 new coronavirus cases on Monday, pushing the state’s tally to 92,525, PTI reports. The toll rises by three to 787.

9.30 am: India’s case count goes up to 71,20,538 as the country reports 66,732 new infections in 24 hours. The country’s toll rises by 816 to 1,09,150. There are 8,61,853 active cases in the country, while the number of recoveries goes up to 61,49,535.

9 am: The five top states in terms of percentage of active cases, case fatality rate and recovery rate are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. The Union health ministry tweets a graphic showing gradual improvement in their performance.

8.50 am: Assam on Sunday reported its lowest coronavirus figures in four months – 396 new cases and five deaths – state Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said, according to PTI.

8.48 am: India is open to the option of introducing more than one Covid-19 vaccine, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. “Considering the large population size of India, one vaccine or vaccine manufacturer will not be able to fulfil the requirements of vaccinating the whole country,” he said during a briefing. “Therefore, we are open to assessing the feasibility of introducing several Covid-19 vaccines in the country as per their availability for the Indian population.”

8.45 am: Nine new Covid-19 cases in Mizoram, takes the tally to 2,184, reports ANI. The number of active cases is 174, while 2,010 people have been discharged so far.

8.30 am: Nagaland’s coronavirus tally breached the 7,000-mark on Sunday after 70 more people tested positive, reported OTI, citing Health Minister S Pangnyu Phom.

Here are the top updates from Sunday:

  1. India’s coronavirus tally rose to 70,53,806 on Sunday as the country reported 74,383 new cases in 24 hours. The country’s toll rose by 918 to 1,08,334. India’s active cases stood at 8,67,496, while the number of recoveries rose to 60,77,976. The country’s recovery rate is 86.17%, while the death rate reached 1.54%.
  2. India has tested 8.68 crore more samples for the coronavirus so far. More than 10.78 lakh tests were done on Saturday alone.
  3. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that it is possible that the number of coronavirus cases could surge during the winter. “SARS CoV-2 is a respiratory virus and the transmission of respiratory viruses is known to increase during the colder weather,” Vardhan said. “Respiratory viruses thrive better in cold weather and low humidity conditions.”
  4. Delhi’s Covid-19 case count rose to 3.09 lakh on Sunday, with 2,780 new cases. Meanwhile, 29 deaths took the toll to 5,769. This is the tenth consecutive day that Delhi has reported less than 3,000 daily cases.
  5. Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja Sunday said that though the state has seen an increase in the number of cases, it has kept the mortality rate in check. “We could contain cases when there was lockdown,” she said. “But now measures are eased. We can’t blame the government for easing restrictions because people need to work and earn or else they will starve to death. But people need to follow all precautions.”
  6. Pakistan has imposed “mini smart” lockdowns in several cities after a surge in the case positivity rate, a minister said on Sunday, amid fears of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. Pakistan reported 666 new cases on Sunday, taking the total number of infections to 318,932, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.
  7. The global coronavirus count crossed 3.71 crore, while the toll rose to 10,71,308, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The number of recoveries crossed 2.57 crore.