Here are the top updates from Tuesday:

  1. The Union health ministry said that people must assimilate Covid-appropriate behaviour into their lives as the new normal. The government added that Indians were taking warnings about the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic casually and treating them like weather updates.
  2. India registered 32,906 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday morning, pushing the infection tally in the country to 3,09,07,282, since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The toll rose sharply by 2,020 to 4,10,784 as Madhya Pradesh added 1,478 backlog deaths from the second wave of the pandemic till June 30 to its existing record.
  3. The Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine will be produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India from September, manufacturers of the shot, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said. The RDIF said that they plan to produce 30 crore doses of the vaccine annually at facilities of the Serum Institute of India.
  4. The Uttarakhand government cancelled the 2021 Kanwar Yatra amid fears of a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. However, Uttar Pradesh will allow the pilgrimage from July 25.
  5. Kerala, which has been reporting the highest number of daily cases among all states, recorded 14,539 new infections on Tuesday, according to Mathrubhumi.
  6. Maharashtra recorded 7,243 new coronavirus cases and 196 deaths on Tuesday, PTI reported. Its tally of infections rose to 61,72,645 and the toll went up to 1,26,220.
  7. A medical student from Kerala’s Thrissur district, who was the first Indian to test positive for the coronavirus disease last year, has once again contracted the infection.
  8. World Trade Organization Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that the United Nations-led Covax vaccine-sharing programme has struggled to meet delivery targets as some countries bid more to get shots which were already scant in supply, Reuters reported.
  9. Deputy Director of the United States’ Centers for Disease Control Jay Butler said that the country was reviewing if an additional booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine could raise the risk of serious side effects, Reuters reported.
  10. Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 18.74 crore people and killed over 40.43 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University