Covid-19: Maharashtra records 3,607 new cases; three states ask for railway isolation coaches

10.54 pm: Here are the top updates of the day.

10.39 pm: The Supreme Court will on Friday hear the matters related to the treatment of coronavirus patients and the dignified handling of bodies in hospitals, ANI reports.

10.32 pm: Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana ask the railways to provide isolation coaches for coronavirus patients, PTI reports. Telangana and Delhi request 60 and 10 coaches, respectively, while Uttar Pradesh asks for 240.

10.26 pm: New cases reported on Thursday:

Telangana: 208 new cases, tally rises to 4320; toll at 165.

Madhya Pradesh: 192 new cases, tally rises to 10,241; toll at 431.

Uttarakhand: 18 new cases, tally rises to 1,655; toll at 16.

10.16 pm: Mumbai’s case count rises to 53,985 after 1,540 more people test positive on Thursday. The toll rises to 1,952 with 97 more deaths.

10.12 pm: Maharashtra reports highest one-day increase of 3,607 cases on Thursday, according to ANI. The state’s overall count rises to 97,648. The state reports 152 more deaths, taking toll to 3,590.

8.25 pm: Delhi reports 1,877 new cases and 101 deaths on Thursday. The Capital’s overall count rises to 34,687. The toll reaches 1,085.

8.20 pm: The Supreme Court will on Friday announce its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the Ministry of Home Affairs’ order to pay full salaries to workers during the nationwide lockdown, ANI reports.

8.01 pm: Vistara says it will operate two repatriation flights on the Singapore-Delhi-Amritsar route under the Vande Bharat mission to bring back stranded Indian citizens, PTI reports. The flights are scheduled for June 14 and 15.

7.53 pm: West Bengal reports 440 new coronavirus cases and 10 deaths on Thursday. The state’s overall count rises to 9,768 and the toll reaches 442.

7.49 pm: The World Health Organization warns that the coronavirus pandemic in Africa is “accelerating”, The Associated Press reports. WHO says while it took 98 days for the continent to reach 1 lakh cases, it took just 18 days to get to 2 lakh.

7.42 pm: The Supreme Court Bar Association requests Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to set up a coronavirus testing facility at the top court’s premises, PTI reports. The members cite difficulties in getting tests done.

7.38 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh says his government will consider imposing stricter curbs on travel from Delhi, ANI reports.

7.32 pm: Jammu and Kashmir reports 67 new cases in 24 hours. The union territory’s overall count rises to 4,574 and the toll stands at 52.

7.24 pm: Punjab reports 82 coronavirus cases on Thursday. The state’s overall count rises to 2,887 and the toll stands at 59.

7.20 pm: Thirteen railway board officials in Delhi go into quarantine after their colleague tests positive for the coronavirus, ANI reports.

6.55 pm: The Delhi High Court directs private hospitals in the Capital, treating coronavirus patients and equipped with labs sanctioned by the Indian Council for Medical Research, to test both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients seeking admission for non-Covid-19 related purposes, Live Law reports.

6.50 pm: American biotech company Moderna says it plans to start a trial of its coronavirus vaccine in July as the company enters the final stage of testing, Reuters reports.

6.47 pm: The Uttar Pradesh government asks the railways to provide 240 isolation coaches for coronavirus patients at 24 locations across the state, PTI reports.

6.35 pm: Kerala reports 83 new coronavirus cases on Thursday. The state’s overall count rises to 2,244.

6.22 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 1,857 coronavirus cases and 23 deaths on Thursday. The state’s tally rises to 38,716 and the toll reaches 349.

6.17 pm: The Punjab government says lockdown orders will be stricter on the weekends and public holidays, ANI reports. Only people holding e-passes will be allowed to move about.

6.15 pm: Three people test positive for the coronavirus in Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Thursday, PTI reports. The union territory’s overall count rises to five.

6.09 pm: Delhi has reported more than 32,000 cases of Covid-19 as of June 10 and over the past few days, the Delhi government has hinted that the “community transmission” stage of the epidemic has begun in the city.

Read here: Why has the Delhi government not yet declared community transmission of Covid-19?

6.03 pm: Mumbai’s Dharavi slum reports 20 new cases and two deaths on Thursday, according to ANI. The area’s tally rises to 1,984 and the toll reaches 75.

6.00 pm: A British company uses products made from cardboard to make workplaces safer, Reuters reports.

5.54 pm: The Kerala government retracts its decision to open the Sabarimala Temple to devotees from June 14, when it opens for monthly pujas, PTI reports.

5.48 pm: The European Union urges all its member countries to start lifting travel restrictions on their common borders from next week, saying that the restrictions did not limit the spread of the coronavirus, AP reports.

5.44 pm: A private hospital in Gandhinagar in Gujarat gets a notice from health officials for admitting coronavirus patients depsite not having the authorisation to do so, PTI reports. The Shreeji Hospital, located in Dehgam town has been asked to provide an explanation within two days.

5.40 pm: The Ministry of External Affairs says 1.65 lakh Indian citizens, who were stranded in foreign countries, have been brought back home so far, ANI reports.

5.37 pm: Karnataka reports 204 coronavirus cases in 24 hours.

5.29 pm: Uttar Pradesh reports 478 coronavirus cases and 24 deaths in 24 hours, PTI reports. This the state’s biggest one-day increase in both the number of cases and deaths. The state’s overall count rises to 12,088 and the toll reaches 345.

5.25 pm: Beijing confirms a new coronavirus case today, after nearly two months, Reuters reports.

5.17 pm: Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi says the people of Delhi are suffering because of the “political blame game, bickering and misgovernance” of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government and also the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reports.

Singhvi adds that his party has requested the National Human Rights Commission to intervene and direct the AAP to ensure that the coronavirus-hit areas are kept in containment with realistic and scientific definitions and demarcation.

5.11 pm: Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian says India’s growth has been very low in the current financial year but recovery could happen in the second half or the next year, ANI reports.

5.08 pm: Nepal reports 250 new coronavirus cases today, according to ANI. The country’s overall count rises to 4,614.

5.04 pm: A team from the National Human Rights Commission visits Delhi’s LNJP Hospital to evaluate the situation of beds for coronavirus patients. This came a day after the rights body issued notices to the Delhi government and the Centre on Congress leader Ajay Maken’s complaint.

4.56 pm: The number of coronavirus cases in Assam rises to 3,319 after 34 more cases were reported, ANI reports, quoting Health Minister Himanta Sarma.

4.50 pm: When asked about the discrepancies in the number of deaths reported in Delhi, Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal says that the Centre complies the countrywide toll on the basis of the figures given by the state government. “If a state takes some time to conduct a ‘death audit’ in order to analyse the cause of a death, then a change in numbers arises,” he adds. “But the revised toll is accounted for within two to three days.”

4.32 pm: “We have ramped up testing dramatically and we have very calibrated guidelines for the same,” the ICMR says. “We have the capacity to do up to two lakh tests per day...but currently our full capacity is not being realised.”

4.25 pm: Here are some of the findings of the ICMR’s sero-survey, which were cited at today’s health ministry briefing:

4.23 pm: There is definitely no community transmission of the coronavirus in India, ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava says. “India is such a large country and the prevalence [of Covid-19] is very low,” he adds.

4.20 pm: “Data shows large sections of population still vulnerable so we need to protect high risk groups, maintain social distancing and hand hygiene,” Dr Bhargava adds. “ States cannot lower their guard...they need to maintain surveillance and containment.”

4.18 pm: The Indian Council of Medical research cites its sero survey for Covid-19 and says that about 0.73% of the population in 15 districts where the survey was conducted have shown a prevalence of past exposure to the infection. “It means that the lockdown measures were successful in keeping it low and preventing rapid spread,” Dr Balram Bhargava adds.

4.15 pm: “India’s recovery rate on Thursday is 49.21%,” Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal says at the health ministry briefing. “The number of patients who have recovered presently exceeds the number of active patients.”

4.14 pm: The Indian Council of Medical research claims that India’s coronavirus cases per one lakh of the population is among the lowest in the world.

4.13 pm: The health ministry begins its briefing on the coronavirus situation.

3.43 pm: In a video widely circulated on social media, the body of a 42-year-old man, who collapsed on the road and died, was dumped in the back of a garage van and taken to a police station in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh, NDTV reports. This came after an ambulance present on the spot allegedly refused to touch the body, fearing if the man had died of Covid-19.

3.37 pm: Two more people tested positive for the coronavirus in Nagaland, PTI reports. With this, the total number of infections in the state rises to 130. Both the patients had recently returned to the state and are now under institutional quarantine in Kohima.

3.36 pm: Nine more cases of Covid-19 were detected in Mizoram, taking the state’s total tally of infections to 102, PTI reports.

3.13 pm: Protests at the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad continue for the third day, as junior doctors demand for the decentralisation of Covid-19 treatment in Telangana, The Indian Express reports.

3.11 pm: The number of Covid-19 patients in Chandigarh rises to 332, after four more cases were reported today, ANI reports, quoting the health department’s figures.

2.57 pm: The Delhi High Court observes that the Aam Aadmi Party-led government and the municipal corporations in the Capital have taken adequate steps to ensure the safety of “safai karamchaaris” during the pandemic, PTI reports. A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad add that all World Health Organization guidelines are also being adhered to by the authorities.

2.52 pm: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan offers assistance to India amid the economic fallout of the pandemic. Citing a news report, Khan says that 34% of Indian households will not be able to survive for more than a week without additional assistance. “I am ready to offer help and share our successful cash transfer programme [which is] lauded internationally for its reach and transparency,” he adds.

2.40 pm: Uttarakhand reports 75 more cases of the coronavirus, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 1,637, ANI reports, quoting the state health department’s figures.

2.30 pm: Visuals from a programme organised in Patna on the occasion of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 73rd birthday, show Rashtriya Janata Dal workers breaking all norms of physical distancing, ANI reports.

2.25 pm: The Karnataka government revises its earlier order to extend the ban on online classes for students from Class 5 to Class 7, ANI reports.

2.18 pm: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami dismisses allegations against his government of fudging the number of deaths caused due to Covid-19 in his state, ANI reports. “We do not hide the number of deaths, we won’t gain anything if we do that,” he says.

1.55 pm: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says that he would not be intimidated or give into coercion after China imposed tariffs, reports AFP. The World Health Assembly had last month voted to support an independent review into the pandemic after Australia called for an international investigation into the source and spread of the coronavirus.

“We are an open-trading nation, mate, but I’m never going to trade our values in response to coercion from wherever it comes,” says Morrison.

1.51 pm: Himachal Pradesh reports seven new coronavirus cases, according to PTI. The total number of cases has risen to 459 in the state.

1.44 pm: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami says there is no community transmission of the coronavirus in the state, reports ANI. “Coronavirus has been curtailed in many districts of the state,” he adds. “Since Chennai is densely populated the spread of the virus is more there.”

1.40 pm: Union minister V Muraleedharan says it is a victory for Ayyappa devotees after the decision of the Travancore Devaswom Board to open the Sabarimala temple to devotees during the five-day monthly puja that begins on June 15 and the 10-day annual festival was cancelled. “Pinarayi Vijayan government forced to accept the wish of Ayyappa devotees not to open the Sabarimala temple for darshan amidst the rising Covid-19 cases in Kerala,” he tweets.

1.26 pm: Russia reports 8,779 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing its nationwide tally to 5,02,436, according to Reuters.

1.20 pm: The Aam Aadmi Party has urged the Goa government to postpone the construction of memorial of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar and remove two deputy chief minister posts in the state, as a part of austerity measures to deal with the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, reports PTI.

“In the current financial condition of the government of Goa, every rupee matters, yet the chief minister has chosen to expend crores of rupees on this project which can easily be postponed to a later date,” says AAP Goa spokesperson Valmiki Naik.

1.18 pm: The Kanpur district court in Uttar Pradesh has been sealed for two days after a senior lawyer tested positive for the coronavirus, reports PTI. The court campus is being sanitised.

1.13 pm: A chief medical officer of the Central Reserve Police Force in Delhi has tested positive for the coronavirus, reports ANI. He has been shifted to a private hospital in Okhla. The total number of positive cases in CRPF now stands at 544, of these 353 have recovered and four have died.

1.10 pm: The monsoon session of the Maharashtra legislature will be held from August 3 instead of June 22, as scheduled earlier. It is postponed due to the coronavirus situation in the state.

1.07 pm: The Uttarakhand government will not give increment to employees and stop new recruitments in all departments, except health and police, to offset losses caused by the lockdown, reports PTI.

1 pm: Shehbaz Sharif, chief of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, has tested positive for the coronavirus, reports PTI.

12.58 pm: Sabarimala Temple in Kerala will not open for the devotees and temple festival will also be cancelled, says Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran, according to ANI.

12.52 pm: Manipur reports 31 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s total to 342.

12.48 pm: The Finance Ministry says public sector banks have disbursed Rs 12,200.65 crore till June 9, under the Rs 3-lakh crore emergency credit line guarantee scheme for the MSME sector, which has suffered due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

12.42 pm: India has lifted the export ban on anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, tweets Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Sadananda Gowda. Manufacturers, except export-oriented units and those in special economic zones, would still have to supply 20% of their production to the domestic market, he adds.

12.40 pm: France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Belgium and Denmark have urged the European Union to take a greater role in preparing for any future pandemic, conceding that response to tackle the coronavirus crisis had shortcomings, reports AFP.

12.35 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says only firm resolve and determination can decide the future of India during the coronavirus crisis.

Read more here: India needs to change coronavirus crisis into a turning point, says PM Narendra Modi

12.32 pm: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to allow the family members of the deceased, who are buried, to pay their last respects to those who died due to the coronavirus, reports PTI. “We have been getting requests from the family of coronavirus victims to allow them to be present during the last rites,” an official tells the news agency. “We consulted specialists and have decided to hand over the ashes to them after the cremation.”

12.30 pm: As many as 441 people have been detained in Manipur for not wearing masks and not following physical distancing guidelines in public places amid the coronavirus outbreak, PTI reports, citing the police.

12.28 pm: Andhra Pradesh records 135 fresh coronavirus cases, increasing the state’s total infections to 4,261, according to ANI.

12.25 pm: Meanwhile, clothing retailer Zara will close as many as 1,200 stores around the world as the coronavirus crisis led to losses, reports The Guardian. Staff will be offered roles in other jobs such as dispatching online purchases.

12.22 pm: Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee chain, expects current-quarter operating income to drop by up to $2.2 billion, and sales to decline for the rest of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, reports Reuters.

12.18 pm: The Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of a report that 35 children in a government-run home in Chennai’s Royapuram have tested positive for the coronavirus, reports ANI. It seeks status report from Tamil Nadu government regarding the spread of Covid-19 in shelter homes and steps taken to protect children. The matter will be heard on July 6.

12.12 pm: Bihar reports 109 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s total to 5,807, according to ANI.

12 pm: Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain tells ANI that 42 laboratories are functional in Delhi for the coronavirus testing. However, he adds that seven of them were stopped for two to three days due to delay in giving test results. All labs are required to give test results within 24 hours, says Jain.

11.52 am: The police in Meghalaya register a case against an aid worker from the United States for allegedly assaulting a doctor at a Covid-19 hospital in Shillong. The man, however, has refuted the allegations and claims he was given treatment without a proper diagnosis.

Read here: Case filed against US national for allegedly assaulting doctors in Meghalaya

11.47 am: “In last five to six years India’s goal of self-reliance has been paramount in policy, practice,” he adds. “The coronavirus crisis gave us a lesson on how to speed up efforts.”

11.45 am: Modi reiterates that India should take steps to ensure that products which are imported from elsewhere are manufactured within the country.

11.42 am: Modi says people, planet and profit are all interlinked, adding that they can all flourish and co-exist. “Use of LED bulbs has reduced 4 crore tonnes of CO2 emission, saved electricity bill of about Rs 19,000 crore,” he cites as an example.

11.38 am: The prime minister says India must revive West Bengal’s leadership in the field of manufacturing.

11.35 am: “Atma nirbhar bharat simply means that India should not rely on other countries,” says the prime minister. “The simplest method is to make Indians use their own produce and find market in other countries,” he adds.

11.33 am: Modi says it is not the time for conservative decisions, but time to take bold steps. “Must work towards moving Indian economy out of command and control position to plug and play,” he adds.

11.26 am: “It is time to make every village, district atma-nirbhar [self-reliant],” says Modi. He urges citizens to transform the coronavirus fight, says it is time to be “vocal for local”.

11.22 am: “Every citizen of this country has resolved to turn this crisis into an opportunity,” the prime minister says in his address. “We have to make this a major turning point for this nation. What is that turning point? A self-reliant India...”

11.20 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says courage is the cure for all problems. He says India needs to be self-reliant now.

11.18 am: Modi says our India is not far behind in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. “Since its formation in 1925, the ICC has witnessed the fight for independence, severe famines and has also been a part of India’s growth trajectory,” he adds.

11.15 am: “The world is fighting the coronavirus, India is fighting that too,” says Modi in the annual plenary session of the Indian Chamber of Commerce. “There are other problems too. Flood, locusts, hailstorm, fire in oil well, small earthquakes, two cyclones – we are fighting all of these together.”

11.11 am: Modi says India is facing several challenges, but our willpower will decide our future.

11.08 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses Indian Chamber of Commerce via video conference.

11 am: The Resident Doctors’ Association of the Kasturba Hospital, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, have threatened to resign en masse as they have not received salaries since March, reports PTI. “We are afraid that if we are not paid our salary by June 16, we will have to go for mass resignation,” the RDA president tells the news agency.

10.57 am: Rajasthan reports 51 new coronavirus cases and five deaths. The state now has 11,651 total infections and 264 deaths.

10.52 am: The World Health Organization’s emergencies programme Executive Director Mike Ryan says it is not clear how the arrival of winter in the southern hemisphere will impact the coronavirus, reports Reuters. “We don’t know how the coronavirus is going to be,” Ryan adds. “Right now, we have no data to suggest that the virus will behave more aggressively or transmit more efficiently or not.”

10.40 am: The number of coronavirus deaths in the United Kingdom could have been halved if the government had introduced the lockdown a week earlier, says Neil Ferguson, according to The Guardian. His advice was crucial to the decision to go into lockdown in the country.

10.33 am: The toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Latin America has crossed 70,000, reports AFP. The North and South America remains the epicenter of the global health crisis.

10.22 am: Thailand reports no new coronavirus cases or deaths, keeping the total at 3,125 cases and 58 fatalities, according to Reuters.

10.18 am: As many as 28 Central Reserve Police Force personnel posted in Kashmir have tested positive for the coronavirus, reports PTI. Officials said they detected this during contact tracing after the death of a 44-year-old constable on June 6.

10.15 am: Former Union minister Ashwani Kumar has written to the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of news reports on the undignified treatment and disposal of the bodies of patients who died due to the coronavirus, reports The Hindu. He says these acts amount to a “grave infraction of the citizen’s right to die with dignity”.

10 am: Disneyland plans to reopen its theme park in California on July 17, pending approval from state and local authorities, reports Reuters.

9.59 am: China records 11 confirmed and four new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, according to the National Health Commission. With this, the country now has 83,057 infections and the toll remains unchanged at 4,634.

9.55 am: Most coronavirus deaths in Karnataka have occurred due to delay in reaching hospitals, reports PTI. Munish Moudgil, chief of the coronavirus “war room”, says most of the patients are brought to the designated hospitals at a very late stage and it makes recovery very difficult.

9.49 am: The number of coronavirus cases in Germany rises by 555 to 1,85,416, reports Reuters.

9.40 am: The Indian Council of Medical Research, the country’s nodal body for coronavirus testing, has so far tested 52,13,140 samples till Thursday 9 am.

9.33 am: The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 2,86,579 after 9,996 new infections. This is the highest single-day spikes so far. The toll has jumped to 8,102 after 357 fatalities. Meanwhile, over 1,40,000 people have recovered from the disease.

9.29 am: The Prime Minister’s Office has sought time from the Delhi High Court to submit its response to a petition seeking to declare the PM CARES Fund as a “public authority” under Right to Information Act, reports PTI. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has told Justice Navin Chawla that the PMO will submit a reply explaining why the petition should not be entertained. The case will be heard on August 28.

9.22 am: Pune district in Maharashtra records 435 new cases, taking the total to 10,394, reports PTI. With seven new fatalities, the toll has risen to 449.

9.18 am: The Tamil Nadu government says a committee has been constituted to investigate the discrepancies in coronavirus deaths in Chennai, PTI reported. This came after an inspection done by the state’s Department of Public Health revealed that the Greater Chennai Corporation had recorded at least 236 more Covid-19 deaths in comparison to the state register till Monday.

Read here: Tamil Nadu orders inquiry after 236 Chennai deaths were not added to state toll

9.12 am: The United States may record 2,00,000 coronavirus deaths at some point in September, Ashish Jha, the head of Harvard Global Health Institute, tells CNN. “Even if we don’t have increasing cases, even if we keep things flat, it’s reasonable to expect that we’re going to hit 200,000 deaths sometime during the month of September,” Jha says. “And that’s just through September. The pandemic won’t be over in September.”

9.09 am: United States President Donald Trump says that the country is on its way to a “very big comeback” after the crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. “You see what’s going on with NASDAQ,” he adds. “We just broke another record yesterday. Some good news came out of the Federal Reserve today, I think some very good news. We’re really doing a financial comeback. The jobs numbers were fantastic. Now we’ll have some other job numbers come up over the next few weeks, and we’ll see how that goes, but I think it’s really good.”

9.03 am: Thirty-five people in Noida spend three days in the coronavirus ward of a hospital after private labs allegedly gave wrong test results, reports NDTV. The private labs have been sent notice by the Noida administration and one of them has been charged in a first information report filed by the police. The samples of 35 people tested negative when it was sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

9 am: Actor Amitabh Bachchan has arranged four special flights to send around 700 migrant workers to their homes in Uttar Pradesh, reports PTI.

8.15 am: An 82-year-old woman, who was missing for eight days from a government-run hospital at Jalgaon in Maharashtra, was found dead inside a toilet of the facility on Wednesday. The woman, who lived with her daughter-in-law in Bhusawal city, had tested positive for the coronavirus on May 27. She was first admitted to another hospital before she was shifted to the Jalgaon Civil Hospital on June 1.

Read more here:

Coronavirus: 82-year-old, missing for eight days, found dead in hospital toilet in Maharashtra

7.45 am: Several medical professionals at Hyderabad’s Gandhi General Hospital protested outside the facility on Wednesday after relatives of a deceased coronavirus patient allegedly attacked a few junior doctor.

Read more here:

Over 300 doctors protest outside Hyderabad hospital after assault by Covid-19 patient’s kin

7.35 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the coronavirus situation in Delhi. Shah promised “all cooperation”, Kejriwal said.

7.30 am: The toll in Mexico crosses 15,000, AFP reports.

7.25 am: Visuals of malls and restaurants open in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

7.20 am: Pune reports 435 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking the city’s overall tally to 10,394 and the toll to 449.

7.10 am: Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 73.56 lakh people and claimed over 4.16 lakh lives so far, according to the Johns Hopkins University. However, as many as 34.51 lakh people have recovered.

7 am: Here are the top updates from Wednesday:

• India’s coronavirus infections on Wednesday jumped to 2,76,583 after 9,985 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The toll from the disease stood at 7,745. However, the number of recovered coronavirus patients in India exceeded the active cases for the first time today. The number of active cases in the country is at 1,33,632, while 1,35,205 people have recovered and one patient has migrated.
• The Maharashtra government dismissed reports of community transmission of the coronavirus in the state. The state reported 3,254 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking its overall count to 94,041. The toll rose to 3,438 with 149 new deaths. This is the biggest single-day increase in cases for the state.
• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he will implement Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s order on treating coronavirus patients in the city. Baijal had on Monday issued orders to not restrict treatment and admission at both private and state-run city hospitals to only residents and to not limit testing of asymptomatic direct and high risk contacts of confirmed cases. The chief minister said this was not the time for politics or arguments. Delhi reported 1,501 cases and 48 deaths on Wednesday. The Capital’s overall count rose to 32,810 and the toll reached 984.
• The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued notices to the Delhi government and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on a complaint filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken, who alleged that the Arvind Kejriwal-led government was turning coronavirus patients away even though 70% of the hospital beds in the Capital were vacant.
  
• Tamil Nadu reported 1,927 new Covid-19 cases and 19 deaths on Wednesday. The state now has 36,841 cases, including 17,179 active infections, 19,333 discharged, and 326 deaths, according to the state health department.
• Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal directed Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Dev to ensure that all major hospitals, clinics and nursing homes in the national Capital display the availability of beds for both Covid-19 and ordinary patients, on large LED screens outside their entrances.
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator J Anbazhagan died of Covid-19 at a Chennai hospital.
  
• The Punjab government allowed the distribution of prasad at places of worship and said all community kitchens and langars will also be reopened.
  
• Brazil went back to releasing coronavirus numbers, five days after the government took down the website where it had been reporting the figures.