1. The Centre on Wednesday raised concerns about the surge in coronavirus cases in nine states. This includes Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Kerala, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, Tripura and Sikkim. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan asked these states to focus on testing and vaccination.
  2. India on Wednesday morning recorded 43,733 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the country’s overall count since the pandemic broke out in January 2020 to 3,06,63,665. This is a 26% increase from the daily infections count recorded on Tuesday.
  3. No deaths were reported due to the coronavirus disease in Gujarat in the past 24 hours. This came after a gap of nearly four months. The toll stood at 10,072. The state reported 65 new coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 8,24,029 since the pandemic broke out last year.
  4. The Uttarakhand High Court directed the state government to review its decision to relax Covid-19 restrictions. A bench of Chief Justice RS Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma said that the tourists may spread the Delta plus variant of the coronavirus in the state.
  5. The Uttar Pradesh government will allow holding the annual Kanwar Yatra in the state from July 25. The decision comes despite the fact that other such pilgrimage visits have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  6. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee demanded a high-level independent investigation into the alleged drastic under-counting of Covid deaths in the state.
  7. The Andhra Pradesh government decided to reopen schools in the state from August 16 as daily infections reduced. Audimulapu Suresh, the state education minister, said that online classes would start from July 12.
  8. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called Narendra Modi a “shameless prime minister” and alleged that the Centre failed to meet the Covid-19 vaccine requirements of the state.
  9. Indonesia expanded nationwide coronavirus restrictions till July 20 amid the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus. Authorities have warned that cases can increase to more than 50,000 a day.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 18.45 crore people and killed more than 39.91 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.