Here are the top updates from Monday:

  1. Karnataka announced a mandatory seven-day institutional quarantine for visitors from Kerala, where Covid-19 cases are on the rise, News18 reported. Kerala reported 19,622 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 40,27,030. There are 2,09,439 active cases in the state.
  2. India recorded 42,909 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s total cases to 3,27,37,939 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The toll rose by 380 to 4,38,210. The active caseload rose to 3,76,324. As many as 3,19,23,405 people have recovered from the disease so far.
  3. Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya reopened schools for students of Classes 9-12 on Monday. In most states, only half the students will be allowed to attend the classes physically. States have also introduced compulsory thermal screening and staggered schedules to reduce risks.
  4. COVAX – a United Nations-backed global initiative for equitable vaccine distribution – said that it was hoping for India to resume vaccine exports soon, Reuters reported. In February, WHO had thanked India for exporting vaccines that helped 60 countries. However, the supply had faltered when India struggled to meet its vaccination needs during the second wave of the pandemic. 
  5. The Maharashtra government prohibited all public gatherings, including human pyramids, a traditional sport, during the Dahi Handi festival, the Hindustan Times reported. The state’s home department asked Dahi Handi festival organisers to hold symbolic events and broadcast them through local cable television networks and online platforms.
  6. A new variant of coronavirus that was recently detected in South Africa could strike down the protection offered by vaccines, PTI reported, based on a study from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The C.1.2 variant was first discovered in May and since then has been found in Mauritius, England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
  7. As many as 2.36 lakh more people could die of coronavirus in Europe by December 1, the World Health Organization’s director for the continent, Hans Kluge, said. Last week, there was an 11% increase in the number of deaths in Europe. Meanwhile, WHO and Unicef in a joint statement urged countries to vaccinate teachers and other school staff on priority. “[It] is vital that classroom-based learning continues uninterrupted,” the agencies said.
  8. Japan suspended around 10 lakh more doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after foreign substances were found in some batches. With this, more than 26 lakh Moderna doses have been suspended in Japan till date. On August 26, the country had withheld 16.3 lakh doses of the vaccine after foreign materials were found in 5.6 lakh vials.
  9. France President Emmanuel Macron said that the country will provide one crore doses of  AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to African nations over the next three months, The Guardian reported.
  10. Covid-19 has infected more than 21.63 crore people and led to over 45 lakh deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.