Coronavirus: Covid hotspots in India down to 129 from 170 in a fortnight

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on the occasion of the holy month of Ramzan and discussed with her the Covid-19 situation and how the two neighbours can collaborate in the fight against the deadly virus. "Spoke to PM Sheikh Hasina to greet her and the people of Bangladesh on the holy month of Ramzan. We discussed Covid-19 situation and ways India and Bangladesh can collaborate in the fight against it," Modi tweeted.

Twitter Inc will grant researchers and software developers access to a real-time data stream of tens of millions of daily public tweets about Covid-19, which they can use to study the spread of the disease or track misinformation, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday. Twitter said that this access could also be used by approved applicants working on crisis management, emergency response or communication within communities, as well as those developing machine learning and data tools to help the scientific community understand COVID-19. Social media platforms have both introduced new policies to curb Covid-19 misinformation and warned that there may be errors due to their reliance on more automated moderation systems during the pandemic. Researchers studying the platforms have argued that the companies must collect data about this period.

Saudis began tentatively returning to shopping malls and open-air markets on Wednesday after authorities relaxed restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Security guards took shoppers' temperatures as a small number of visitors entered upscale malls in central Riyadh. A strong smell of sanitizer wafted through the homewares, cosmetic and clothing stores. Read more

Spokesperson, Ministry of home affairs