Coronavirus: Tamil Nadu records 5,890 new cases, 120 deaths and 5,667 recoveries

10.50 pm: Here are the top updates from Monday.

10.44 pm: According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 753 new infections have been detected in Mumbai today, 833 persons have recovered, while 40 have died. The total number of infections is now 1,29,479, of which 17,707 are active cases. The number of deaths has risen to 7,170.

10.40 pm: Pune has reported 1,829 new infections, according to ANI. As many as 82 people have died.

10.37 pm: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands report 46 new cases, according to ANI. The total number of cases in the Union Territory is now 2,445, including 1,091 active cases and 1,325 recovered cases.

10.22 pm: All members have to carry a negative Covid-19 test report and download Aarogya Setu app, says Haryana Assembly Speaker GC Gupta. “Social distancing norms will be followed while allotment of seats to the members.”

10.18 pm: Madhya Pradesh reports 930 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of infections to 46,385, including 10,232 active cases and 35,025 recoveries, according to ANI.

10.01 pm: Himachal Pradesh’s Covid-19 tally rises to 4,174, including 1,281 active cases, 2,834 recoveries and 17 deaths, reports ANI, citing the state government’s bulletin.

9.42 pm: Goa’s coronavirus case count rises to 11,994, with 355 new infections, reports ANI. There are 3,825 active cases in the state and 8,058 recoveries.

9.37 pm: Meghalaya’s Covid-19 case count rises to 1,418 after the state records 44 new infections, reports PTI.

9.29 pm: West Bengal’s coronavirus case count goes over 1.19 lakh, with 3,088 new infections, reports PTI, citing the state’s health department. The state’s toll rises by 45 to 2,473.

9.26 pm: Twenty Uttar Pradesh Assembly employees test positive for Covid-19 ahead of session, reports PTI, citing the Speaker.

8.31 pm: Gujarat registers 1,033 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, taking its tally to 79,816, PTI reports. The toll rises by 15 to 2,802.

8.26 pm: Punjab MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali says he has tested positive for Covid-19, PTI reports. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal announced he was going into self-quarantine, after he came into contact with the Bathinda district police chief, who has been infected with the virus.

8.25 pm: Maharashtra’s coronavirus tally breaches the six-lakh mark after 8,493 new infections were reported on Monday, PTI reports. With 228 more fatalities, the toll rises to 20,625. The state now has 6,04,358 cases, including 11,391 recoveries.

8.21 pm: Punjab registers 1,492 coronavirus cases and 51 deaths on Monday, ANI reports. With this, the state’s tally of infections rises to 32,695 and the toll stands at 862.

8.19 pm: Delhi records 787 new coronavirus cases, 740 recoveries and 18 deaths on Monday, ANI reports, quoting the daily health bulletin. The tally of infections in the Capital stands at 1,53,267 and the toll is 4,214. As many as 1,38,301 people have recovered.

7.55 pm: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh says he was not averse to taking harsher measures to slow the spread of Covid-19, as the state has recorded a spike in cases in the last few weeks, PTI reports. However, he adds that economic activities will not be impacted by these measures.

7.44 pm: The Covid-19 pandemic has given a chance to revisit and structurally re-imagine a robust public health infrastructure for the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says. Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day Confederation of Indian Industry Public Health Conference virtually, Vardhan expresses hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of a tuberculosis-free India by 2025 would be achieved.

7.33 pm: Jammu and Kashmir has reported 422 new cases, taking the tally to 28,892, PTI reports. As many as six patients have died on Monday in the Union Territory, taking the toll to 548. All six were from the Kashmir region.

7.28 pm: Officials in Chandigarh say that the number of infections and toll in Punjab have nearly doubled in the last 16 days, PTI reports. Four districts – Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala – account for 55% of the state’s total cases and 65% of its deaths. The state’s coronavirus tally nearly doubled to 31,206 on Sunday evening, when compared to 16,119 on July 31, they say. According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Punjab has reported 10,963 active cases and 812 deaths.

7.25 pm: Tamil Nadu on Monday records 5,890 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the tally to 3,43,945, PTI reports. As many as 120 people have died today, taking the toll to 5,886. As many as 5,667 patients have been discharged from various hospitals. In total, 2,83,937 people have recovered, and there are 54,122 active cases.

7.12 pm: The total number of cases in Chandigarh has risen to 2,216, including 1,183 discharged patients and 30 deaths, the health department says.

7 pm: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police says 161 patients have been discharged from the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre and Hospital today, ANI reports.

6.48 pm: Uttar Pradesh has reported 4,186 new coronavirus cases and 69 deaths today. However, 4,376 people have recovered from the disease.

6.40 pm: As many as 118 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Manipur, including 24 personnel of the Central Armed Police Force. The total number of cases in the state stands at 4,687, including 1,216 central security personnel. The recovery rate is 58.33%.

6.28 pm: Singer SP Balasubrahmanyam continues to be on life support, MGM Hospital in Chennai says according to ANI. His condition remains critical.

6.05 pm: Kerala reports 1,725 new cases of the coronavirus. The total numbers of active and recovered cases are now 15,890 and 30,009.

5.37 pm: Odisha’s minister Susanta Singh says he has tested positive for Covid-19. He is reportedly the first minister from the state to have contracted the infection, according to PTI. “I have tested positive for corona[virus] and I am stable now,” he tweets. “Those who have come in contact with me recently are requested to stay isolated and get tested.”

3.10 pm: The number of coronavirus cases in Andaman and Nicobar Island rises to 2,399 with 93 more people testing positive today, reports PTI. All the new cases were detected during contact tracing, an official tells PTI.

3.03 pm: The Bihar government has extended the restrictions imposed in the state to tackle the coronavirus outbreak till September 6.

1.59 pm: Australia on Monday recorded its highest count in daily Covid-19 deaths with 25 fatalities, taking the countrywide toll to 421, PTI reports. With 282 new cases, the country’s tally of infections rises to 23,576.

1.48 pm: Nobel laureate Peter Charles Doherty says his biggest worry about the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia is if there could be refusals for other vaccines, in case doubts about the Russian vaccine’s safety standards, turn out to be true, PTI reports.

“The main concern is if any major safety issues emerge... My bet is that they won’t, but that’s a guess and, if there is a safety issue, the big worry is that this could cause more vaccination refusal for other vaccines that are made using very different approaches,” Doherty tells the news agency.

Doherty, who is a researcher in the field of medicine, adds that he believes India – with its “great track record in low cost drug manufacturing” – can be a major player in the developement of a Covid-19 vaccine.

1.46 pm: Puducherry records 302 new Covid-19 cases, 184 recoveries and four deaths on Monday, ANI reports. With this, the tally of infections in the Union Territory rises to 8,029, including 114 deaths and 4,627 recoveries.

12.45 pm: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope says four people at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar’s residence have tested positive for the coronavirus, reports PTI. “Two people, including a cook, and two security guards at Pawar’s ‘Silver Oak’ residence here have tested positive for coronavirus,” the minister tells reporters.

Tope says Pawar’s test results have come out negative, but he will be asked not to go on any state tour for next some days.

12.35 pm: Himachal Pradesh reports two new cases, taking the state’s total to 4,158, according to ANI.

12.40 pm: Odisha’s coronavirus tally rises to 62,294 with 2,244 new cases, reports PTI. With 10 more fatalities, the toll jumped to 353.

12.38 pm: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief MK Stalin urges the Tamil Nadu government not to open state-run liquor stores from tomorrow, saying it would lead to further spread of the coronavirus, reports PTI. He says liquor shops had a “big role” in increasing the spread of the infection.

12.33 pm: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition to postpone the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test and Joint Entrance Examination amid the coronavirus outbreak, reports ANI. The court rules that the two examinations would be held in September as per the schedule.

11.33 am: Trinamool Congress MLA Samaresh Das, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, has died at a hospital in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district, reports PTI. Das was 76.

10.28 am: The Rajasthan High Court has suspended all work starting Monday after Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty tested positive, reports NDTV.

“ln view of recent results of Covid-19 tests conducted at the Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court, it is notified that court and office work at the Rajasthan High Court (Jaipur Bench) shall remain suspended from August 17 to 19 for Covid-19 testing,” reads a notice issued by the registrar general.

10.25 am: The Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala has opened today for prayers, but devotees will not be allowed due to the coronavirus outbreak, reports PTI. The temple will remain open till August 21 and only the usual rituals will be conducted, says the Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the hill shrine.

10.22 am: Chinese company CanSino Biologics Inc has won a patent approval from Beijing for its coronavirus candidate Ad5-nCOV, reports Reuters, citing state media. This is the first vaccine patent granted by China.

9.20 am: The number of deaths in India crossed the 50,000-mark on Monday after 941 people died in 24 hours. The toll is now 50,921.

India also reported 57,981 cases in 24 hours, taking the total count to 26,47,663. There are now 6,76,900 active cases, while as many as 19,19,842 people have recovered.

8.54 am: India has so far tested 3,00,41,400 samples, the Indian Council of Medical Research says. Of this, 7,31,697 samples were tested on Sunday alone.

8.52 am: Japan’s economy shrank at annual rate of 27.8% in April-June amid the coronavirus crisis, PTI reports, citing government data. Local media reports that this is the country’s worst drop since World War II.

8.20 am: India has conducted more than 3 crore tests, the Ministry of Health says. “Enhanced and timely testing is not only keeping the Positivity Rate low but also the Fatality Rate low,” the ministry says, according to ANI.

8.10 am: The number of deaths in the US crosses 1,70,000, Reuters reports. The toll now stands at 1,70,052 after 483 people died on Sunday. The country has so far recorded 54.03 lakh cases – a number that experts warn may be lower than the actual figure as America has not yet increased testing.

8 am: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defers the upcoming elections by four weeks to October 17, after coronavirus cases re-emerged in the country. Voting was originally expected to take place on September 19 but the reporting of a case in Auckland last week, after 102 days without community transmission, sent the back into lockdown, according to AFP.

“This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead,” she says.

Four new cases of the coronavirus with no known source were found in a household in Auckland on August 11. There are now 49 confirmed cases. Since the pandemic began in January, New Zealand has reported just 1,631 cases of the coronavirus and 22 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

7.55 am: Assam’s Covid-19 infections on Sunday rose to 76,875 with 1,317 new cases, PTI reports. The toll now stands at 189.

7.50 am: Globally, the coronavirus has infected 2.15 crore people and claimed over 7,73,934 lives, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. More than 1.36 crore people have recovered so far.

7.45 am: Government-run liquor shops in Chennai were on Sunday allowed to reopen from August 18 between 10 am and 7 pm. The TASMAC shops were earlier reopened in other parts of the state. Tamil Nadu reported 5,950 new cases and 125 deaths on Sunday. With this the state’s tally rose to 3.38 lakh.

7.40 am: Veteran playback singer SP Balasubrahmanyam continues to be on life support in the Intensive Care Unit. “He remains stable and the doctors are closely monitoring his clinical parameters,” said a statement by Assistant Director (Medical Services) Anuradha Baskaran of MGM Healthcare in Chennai. The veteran musician had tested positive for the coronavirus on August 5.

7.30 am: Here are the top updates from Sunday:

• India on Sunday reported 63,489 new coronavirus cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health. The toll was up by 944 to 49,980. This took the total number of cases in the country to 25,89,682. The health ministry said India’s Case Fatality Rate is one of the lowest in the world and stood at 1.93% as of Sunday.
• Maharashtra’s toll crossed the 20,000-mark on Sunday after 288 patients died from the infection. The state reported 11,111 new cases, taking the tally to 5,95,865.
• Punjab reported the biggest single-day rise of 1,165 new cases and 41 deaths. With this, the state’s tally rose to 31,206 and the toll to 812.
• Andhra Pradesh, on the other hand, registered over 8,000 fresh infections and 88 additional fatalities in the last 24 hours. The state’s total count climbed up to 2.89 lakh.
  
• Former India opener Chetan Chauhan died on Sunday due to Covid-19 related complications after being put on life support for nearly 36 hours.
• Rajya Sabha Chairperson Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said the Parliament House should be fully prepared to start the Monsoon session from the third week of August.
• The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday resumed pilgrimages to the Vaishno Devi temple nearly five months after it was suspended in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The gates of the shrine reopened around 6 am. In the first week of the pilgrimage, only 2,000 devotees will be allowed of which, 1,900 will be from Jammu and Kashmir and 100 will be from outside the Union Territory. Only online registrations were allowed for the pilgrimage.
• The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use of a saliva-based test for detecting the coronavirus.