1. India reported 49,931 new coronavirus cases on Monday, taking its overall tally to 14,35,453. This is the highest single-day surge in fresh infections. The toll rose by 708 to 32,771. More than 9.17 lakh people have recovered.
  2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “high-throughput” testing facilities in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata via video conferencing on Monday. At the launch via videoconference, Modi said India was in a much better position than other countries in fight against the pandemic.
  3. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that India’s coronavirus recovery rate was constantly improving while the death rate was declining, even amid an alarming increase in the number of cases.
  4. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the “Delhi model” of combating the coronavirus was now being discussed in India as well as abroad. He said that Delhi, which was the second-worst affected state in June, had now gone to the 10th position. Delhi recorded 613 coronavirus cases on Monday, the lowest in two months, and its recovery rate jumped to 88%. With this, the total tally of infections in the Capital rose to 1,31,219. The toll climbed to 3,853.
  5. The Supreme Court reserved its order in a public interest litigation seeking transfer of all funds from the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Relief Fund to help the fight against the novel coronavirus.
  6. The White House said that United States President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not at risk of exposure after National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien tested positive. “He has mild symptoms and has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site,” the White House said. “The work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted.”
  7. A study conducted by researchers at Stanford University in California has shown that there is a huge disparity in the way different states in India are presenting data related to the coronavirus. The study, published as a preprint on medRxiv last week, ranked Karnataka as the best state in terms of coronavirus reporting while Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were placed last.
  8. Google on Monday said it would soon allow most employees to work from home until June next year amid the uncertainty around how the coronavirus crisis will evolve. The move is likely to affect most of the 2,00,000 full-time and contract employees across Google and parent Alphabet Inc, including in India.
  9. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus pandemic “continues to accelerate”, as the number of cases have doubled over the last six weeks. “Covid-19 has changed our world,” he told reporters. “It has brought people, communities and nations together– and driven them apart.”
  10. The global coronavirus count has now gone up to 1.63 crore while the toll has crossed 6.49 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 94.38 lakh people have recovered.