Coronavirus live updates: Nearly 2 crore people in Karnataka were Covid-19 infected

South African pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare said it has entered into an agreement with 'Johnson & Johnson' (J&J) for the technical transfer and proposed commercial manufacturing of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate. The vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2-S is currently undergoing clinical trials.

An addition of 518 fresh cases of coronavirus has taken the tally in Maharashtra's Thane district to 2,12,647, an official said on Tuesday. Apart from the latest cases detected on Monday, the district also reported 19 deaths that raised the toll to 5,371, the official said. With over 1.98 lakh recoveries, the recovery rate in the district stands at 93.26 per cent, while the mortality rate is 2.53 per cent, he said.

The social distancing restrictions that expire on Thursday will be extended for another week because the epidemic situation in Hong Kong has not seen a better turn, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam said. Reopening the customs between Hong Kong and the mainland without quarantine is technically ready, but it can only happen when the epidemic situation in Hong Kong is under control, Lam said at a press briefing prior to the Executive Council meeting.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported in India in a span of 24 hours dropped below 40,000, taking the country's Covid-19 tally to 82.67 lakh, while the total recoveries crossed the 76 lakh-mark, according to the Union health ministry's data updated on Tuesday. India's Covid-19 caseload mounted to 82,67,623 with 38,310 fresh infections, while the death toll reached 1,23,097 after 490 new fatalities were reported, the data updated at 8 am showed.

A brief report by researchers assesses expert-perceived pressures from Covid-19 on global inland fisheries and relates these data to three use indicators including reported inland fish catch, human development index, and fishery provisioning value.