Here are the updates from Saturday:

  1. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that the lockdown in the state will be extended till June 9. Meanwhile, Goa extended its lockdown till 7 am on June 7.
  2. India reported 1,73,790 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Saturday morning, taking the overall tally to 2,77,29,247 since the pandemic first broke out in January 2020. This is the lowest number of new infections recorded in a single day in 45 days. The toll rose by 3,617 to 3,22,512, while the active caseload stood at 22,28,724.
  3. Vietnam Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long announced that authorities in the Southeast Asian country have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the strains first identified in India and the United Kingdom. He warned that the new variant was more transmissible than the previously known ones and spreads faster by air.
  4. The Centre said it will discontinue allocating antiviral drug remdesivir to states as India has ramped up its production by ten times since April. The supply has now surpassed the demand, Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya said.
  5. The Centre announced a scheme to help children who have been orphaned because of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to children who have lost both their parents due to Covid-19.
  6. India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Friday held talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken about Covid-19 vaccines and coordination amid the pandemic.
  7. Meanwhile, European Union health regulator European Medicines Agency approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those in the 12 to 15 age group.
  8. The Kerala government on Friday decided to allow an early second dose of Covishield for those travelling abroad. Those going abroad will be allowed to take the second shot within four to six weeks after the first one, Kerala’s health department said. The Maharashtra government is also planning to vaccinate students who have received confirmation of admission in foreign universities.
  9. Delhi reported 956 cases and 122 deaths in a day. The Capital now has a total of 14,24,646 infections, while the toll is 24,073. The positivity rate is 1.19%.This is the first time that the daily cases have gone below since 1,000 since March 22, according to PTI. On that day, Delhi had reported 888 infections.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus has now infected over 16.95 crore people and killed over 35.25 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.