1. India’s coronavirus tally rose to 68,35,655 on Thursday morning after 78,524 new cases were reported in 24 hours. The country’s toll went up to 1,05,526 after 971 additional deaths. India’s recovery and fatality rates are 85.25% and 1.54%.
  2. Delhi reported 2,726 fresh cases, taking its tally beyond the three-lakh mark. The toll due to the disease mounted to 5,653, with 37 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.
  3. The Union health ministry said that India had performed “remarkably” on following the World Health Organization’s advice to do 140 coronavirus tests per day per million population. The national average of tests per day per million population stood at 865, it said.
  4. A study by researchers from the University College London has shown that nearly 86% of people who tested positive for Covid-19 during the lockdown in the United Kingdom did not have any of the known symptoms such as cough, fever and loss of taste or smell.
  5. The World Bank said that India’s Gross Domestic Product is likely to contract by 9.6% in the 2020-’21 financial year, amid the coronavirus pandemic. India had registered a negative growth rate of 23.9% for the first quarter of the financial year.  
  6. United States President Donald Trump said he will not participate in a virtual debate with his Democratic Party opponent Joe Biden for the presidential elections. The Commission on Presidential Debates had announced earlier in the day that the second debate will be held virtually on October 15, as Trump has Covid-19.
  7. The Election Commission reduced the maximum number of “star campaigners” for recognised parties in the Bihar elections from 40 to 30. For unrecognised registered political parties, the maximum number of such campaigners was slashed from 20 to 15.  
  8. India on Wednesday declined a proposal from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to conduct a large study on the effectiveness of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus. An expert panel of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation observed that there was not enough data available on the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine from early-stage trials abroad. The panel also pointed out that no inputs were available about Indian participants.
  9. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that trucks and lorries coming from other states might be the carriers of the coronavirus. She said that it was necessary to conduct forensic tests on the tyres of the trucks to check if they are infected or not.
  10. The global coronavirus count crossed 3.62 crore and the toll rose to 10,57,043, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of recoveries crossed 2.52 crore.