Coronavirus live updates: Lockdown in UP from 10pm on July 10 till 5am on July 13

Desperate to solve the deadly conundrum of Covid-19, the world is clamoring for fast answers and solutions from a research system not built for haste. The ironic, and perhaps tragic, result: Scientific shortcuts have slowed understanding of the disease and delayed the ability to find out which drugs help, hurt or have no effect at all. As deaths from the coronavirus relentlessly mounted into the hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands of doctors and patients rushed to use drugs before they could be proved safe or effective. A slew of low-quality studies clouded the picture even more.

Pakistan on Wednesday reported 2,980 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 237,489, the health ministry said. According to the Ministry of National Health Services, the death toll from the virus reached 4,922 after 83 more deaths were reported from the country. Another 2,236 patients were in critical condition. The recovery rate in the country is getting better and so far 140,965 people have fully recovered, the ministry added.

Jobless and broke, Sudanese electrician Hatem is stranded in limbo in Riyadh like countless other illegal workers, but he hopes the fast-spreading coronavirus will offer a chance for escape. While coronavirus drives a huge exodus of expatriates, campaigners say potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal workers remain stranded in Saudi Arabia, complicating efforts to fight the disease. The pandemic has laid bare what activists call systemic injustices roiling the lives of blue-collar foreign workers in Saudi Arabia - overcrowded housing, exploitative employers and a lack of effective recourse.

India has reported a spike of 22,752 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country's coronavirus tally to 7,42,417 on Wednesday, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of the total cases reported, 4,56,830 patients have been cured/discharged from the disease while one patient has been migrated, the Health Ministry informed.