Here are the top updates from Monday:

  1. Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to administer both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to more than 1 crore people, The Indian Express reported, citing the state’s Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Pradeep Vyas. Uttar Pradesh leads the country in terms of the total number of vaccine doses administered, while more than 72 lakh people have received more than two doses in the state.
  2. India registered 39,361 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours on Monday morning as the country’s tally rose to 3,14,11,262 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The new cases were 0.95% fewer than the 39,742 cases reported on Sunday.
  3. The Delta variant is the most formidable version of the coronavirus seen till now, and poses the biggest risk to the world, Reuters has quoted experts as saying. There is increasing evidence that the variant is capable of infecting fully vaccinated people at a greater rate than previous versions, the experts have said.
  4. Delhi recorded 39 fresh Covid-19 cases and one more death, and the positivity rate stood at 0.07%. The Capital now has 537 active cases, which is the lowest number registered this year, India Today reported.
  5. The Kerala government said it was facing a severe shortage of vaccines and does not have enough doses to inoculate its citizens on Tuesday, PTI reported. “There is a severe shortage of vaccines in the state due to non-availability of adequate doses and we have been repeatedly requesting the Union government to provide us enough doses,” Health Minister Veena George said.
  6. West Bengal recorded 1,20,227 excess deaths from April 2020 to May this year. This number is about 11.1 times the official Covid-19 toll of 10,787 for the same period.
  7. Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Biological E is expected to launch its Covid-19 vaccine Corbevax in India by the end of September, ANI reported, citing sources. The firm will reportedly apply for an Emergency Use Licence by the end of August and will supply 300 million [30 crore] doses to the Centre by December 2021.
  8. China reported 76 new COVID-19 cases on July 25, its highest daily total since January, Reuters reported. The eastern city of Nanjing, which has reported a surge in new infections, has started a second round of mass testing and banned taxis from leaving to curb the outbreak.
  9. Iran has recorded 12,180 Covid infections over the past 24 hours, AFP quoted the country’s health ministry as saying. This was the highest number detected in a single day so far in the pandemic.
  10. Globally, Covid-19 has infected 19.43 crore people and caused 41.63 lakh deaths in the world since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.