Coronavirus live updates: Gyms to open, weddings with 50 people allowed in Delhi

Police commissioner S N Shrivastava announced an ambitious project to train and employ as many as 10,000 health workers in preparation for future Covid-19 infections. The top cop also launched an advanced Covid care training simulation lab at Chittaranjan Park on Friday as well as the Yuva Job & Training portal for smooth implementation of the project.

All of the new infections were imported, the National Health Commission said in a statement on Saturday. There were no new deaths.

Rich countries are opening up societies and vaccinating young people who are not at great risk from Covid-19, while the poorest countries cruelly lack doses, the World Health Organization said on Friday, condemning a global failure. The situation in Africa, where new infections and deaths jumped by nearly 40% last week compared to the previous week, is "so dangerous" as the Delta variant spreads globally, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "Our world is failing, as the global community we are failing," he told a news conference.

The banking sector has recorded its highest ever profits of 1,02,252 crore in FY21, a year when the economy was battered by the pandemic. This is a significant turnaround compared to a net loss of nearly 5,000 crore for the industry in FY19. Two banks - HDFC Bank and SBI - contributed half of the industry's profits. Of the total profits, HDFC Bank at 31,116 crore accounted for 30%, an 18% increase over the previous year.

Bracing for a surge in Covid-19 cases brought on by the highly transmissible Delta plus variant, Maharashtra has rolled back relaxations in districts and cities where theatres, malls, multiplexes had opened and private firms were permitted 100% staffing. This includes Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur and Pune. The move came even as the state reported its first death from the variant. The government has effectively done away with the first two levels of unlocking - level 1 and 2 - that offered the most relaxations, citing the potential threat of an "imminent" third wave which is expected to be "more severe", according to an order by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte on Friday.

Even as 48 samples in 11 states have been detected with the new Delta-plus variant (AY.1) of SARS-CoV2, the government said the spread is very localised with 21 cases identified from Maharashtra, which has also seen the maximum transmission of the Covid infection so far. “Delta-plus is present in 12 countries,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Dr Balram Bhargava said. The proportion of cases with VoCs have increased from 10.3% in May to 51% in June. Bhargava, however, said laboratory findings so far show both Covaxin and Covishield are effective against Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variant.

After months of closing temporary hospital spaces as the coronavirus pandemic receded, Mexico announced Friday it will re-open two temporary wards to handle a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.The Mexican Social Security Institute said the two temporary 30- and 40-bed wards will be opened in covered areas in parking lots of hospitals in the state of Baja California Sur.

"In anticipation that children could be affected disproportionately during 3rd wave, we're setting up 20-bedded pediatric ICU ward&high dependency unit,"an officer said

Total number of cases in the state stands at 19,091, discharges at 14,554. The state has 4,448 active cases and the death toll is 89. The current positivity rate is 5.75%.

The US drug regulator on Friday added a warning to the literature that accompanies Pfizer Inc /BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccine shots to indicate the rare risk of heart inflammation after its use. For each vaccine, the fact sheets for healthcare providers have been revised to include a warning that reports of adverse events suggest increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly after the second dose and with onset of symptoms within a few days after vaccination, the FDA said.

The vaccines currently available in India have been found to work against the Delta-plus Covid variant, says a UK public health body report. While the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) has already responded to vaccines including Covishield, health experts were concerned about the Delta-plus (B.1.617.2.1) or AY.1. This variant does not respond to monoclonal antibodies cocktail.

India’s average daily death toll from Covid-19 fell below the 1,000 mark on Friday after 71 days, not counting the fatalities from earlier periods that are being added to the overall tally every day.