Here are the updates from Thursday:

  1. The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic could hit India at the end of August and may not be as dangerous as the second wave, Indian Council of Medical Research Head of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Dr Samiran Panda told NDTV. “There would be a countrywide third wave but that does not mean that it would be as high or as intense as the second wave,” he said.
  2. India recorded 41,806 new coronavirus cases in a span of 24 hours, pushing the tally of infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in January last year to 3,09,87,880. The number was 7.7% higher than Wednesday’s count of 38,792 cases. The toll rose to 4,11,989 as it recorded 581 more deaths in the last day.
  3. The World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee warned that the new and “possibly more dangerous” variants of the coronavirus were likely to spread around the world. “The Committee noted that despite national, regional, and global efforts, the pandemic is nowhere near finished,” the statement said. The world health body’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also warned countries about the third wave of the pandemic.
  4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Uttar Pradesh government for successfully handling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. However, last month, data from the Civil Registration System showed that 24 districts in the state recorded 1,97,000 more deaths between July 2020 and March 2021 than in the corresponding period the previous year. The mortality rate was 110% higher than the same period the previous year. 
  5. Haryana reported 60,397 excess deaths between April 2020 and May this year, showed data from the state’s Civil Registration System. The number is 7.3 times higher than the official Covid-19 toll of 8,303 in Haryana during the same period.
  6. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asked states and Union Territories to conduct a quick gap analysis (a process used to determine optimal resource allocation) for “various infrastructure components” under the Emergency Covid-19 Response Package. The Centre also stressed on establishing effective advance preparations for efficient clinical management of Covid-19.
  7. A study published in the Lancet’s journal EClinicalMedicine has found that long Covid has over 200 symptoms. “We estimated the prevalence of 203 symptoms in 10 organ systems and traced 66 symptoms over seven months,” the study said.
  8. Australia’s Victoria state has initiated coronavirus-induced restrictions after two more cases of Covid-19 were reported, taking the total number of cases in the region to 18, according to BBC. This lockdown, which is the fifth one for Victoria since the pandemic began, will end on July 20.
  9. Argentina has been struggling to control the surge in Covid-19 cases and fatalities, reported Reuters. The country has reported 47,02,657 infections and 1,00,250 deaths so far.
  10. The coronavirus disease has infected over 18.85 crore people and killed over 40.61 lakh in the world since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.