Coronavirus live updates: India expected to have Covid vaccine in next few months, says Harsh Vardhan

Lalbazar has advised the Puja organizers not to allow more than 15 to 25 people at a time during specific rituals inside the pandal like ‘anjali’, ‘sandhi puja’ and ‘sindur khela’. This decision was taken following the state advisory of not allowing crowding at Puja pandals and ensuring rituals take place in batches. At all other times, a maximum of 30 to 50 persons will be allowed inside the pandals at a time. No one will be allowed to wait in front of the pandal.

Assam's strategy to test, trace and isolate the virus seemed to have really paid off as the state’s positivity rate has dipped to less than 2%. The state has crossed the 3 lakh-mark for Covid tests in three days on Wednesday — a feat that they have achieved twice in 15 days.

The Chinese city of Qingdao in eastern Shandong province said on Thursday that it has suspended the head of the city's municipal health commission after a resurgence of Covid-19 cases. The city reported 13 COVID-19 cases, which appear to be linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, where infected travellers arriving from overseas have been treated in an isolated area.

Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his wife Sadhna Gupta tested positive for the covid-19 pandemic infection on Wednesday. Earlier, in July, Sadhna Gupta was suspected to be suffering with the pandemic infection but was found negative in the RT-PCR test.

Nearly seven months after they were asked to shut down when the lockdown was announced, cinema halls and theatres in the city are all set to open from Thursday. The owners of various multiplexes had called upon chief minister Arvind Kejriwal a day earlier demanding that they be allowed to operate 24x7. Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), which had reviewed the Covid-19 situation, decided to allow them to start operations with 50% seat occupancy.

The crisis over pending salaries of doctors of North Corporation-run hospitals deepened on Wednesday as an association of permanent medics threatened that its members will go on an indefinite strike from October 19 if their demands are not met.

The Group of 20 nations, representing the world's biggest economies, say they have agreed to extend the suspension of debt payments by an additional six months to support the most vulnerable countries in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member P L Punia, who has tested positive for Covid-19, was admitted to a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district on Wednesday.