India on Tuesday registered 25,166 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 3,22,50,679 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. This was the lowest daily number in 154 days, according to PTI.

The new infections were 30.87% lower than Monday’s count of 32,937 infections

The country’s toll rose to 4,32,079 with 437 more deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, while the number of active cases declined by 12,101 to 3,69,846. As many as 3,14,48,754 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

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Meanwhile, India administered 88.13 lakh vaccine doses to beneficiaries in the past 24 hours, which was the highest figure since the country began the inoculation drive in January, according to the health ministry.

On Tuesday morning,the ministry said that a total of 55,47,30,609 doses have been administered till now.

(Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare)

Other updates

  • The United States on Monday relaxed its travel advisory restrictions for those visiting India. Both the US State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now put India in Level 2, which is considered as safe for travel.
  • The Maharashtra government has deferred its decision to partially reopen schools in the state from Tuesday due to objection from Covid-19 task forces, the Hindustan Times reported. Earlier, it was decided to resume physical classes for students between Classes 5 to 8 in rural areas and for Classed 8 to 12 in urban areas.
  • The Delhi government will form “rapid response teams” to deal with new variants of interest of the Covid-19 infection, The Hindu reported. The teams will comprise of a microbiologist or virologist and a clinician. They will collect data on new variants and will closely monitor the areas in which they were reported.
  • The Assam government has announced that it will lift restrictions on inter-district movement of vehicles from August 18, the Hindustan Times reported. However, the relaxation does not apply to the Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, which includes Guwahati.

Global updates

  • Covid-19 cases are set to “rise substantially” in Sydney in Australia in the coming weeks despite a prolonged lockdown, Reuters reported, citing the local authorities.
  • The Joe Biden administration is planning to begin booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans by mid or late September, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified source.
  • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed a nationwide lockdown for three days after one Covid-19 case was reported in Auckland city, Reuters reported. This was the first coronavirus case in the country in six months.
  • Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 20.78 crore people and led to over 43.71 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.