Coronavirus live updates: Offices, shops to remain shut in Haryana on weekends

The total cases of coronavirus infections mounted to 28,36,925, while the death toll climbed to 53,866 with 977 new fatalities being reported in a day, the data updated at 8am showed. Case fatality rate has declined to 1.90 per cent.

"You don't want to mandate and try and force anyone to take a vaccine. We've never done that," said Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, during a video talk organized by George Washington University. "You can mandate for certain groups of people like health workers, but for the general population you can't" he added, citing the example of the National Institutes of Health, where health workers can't treat patients without a flu shot.

Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are not the only states tracing contacts of Covid positive patients with the help of their call detail records (CDRs). At least six other states are using or have taken this route earlier to contain the spread, while some are mulling using this method. Other states are using it for various reasons — from tracing contacts of patients not willing to reveal contact history to those who went missing after testing positive.

Covid-19 in children is mostly asymptomatic or mild. Less than five per cent of the children who test positive for the novel coronavirus require ICU care. Paediatricians from AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh and other top medical institutions in the country confirmed this on Wednesday while sharing their experiences on treating children suffering from Covid-19 over the past few months.

India is staring at a protracted slowdown as coronavirus cases reach its countryside, with signs of recovery in the rural economy hailed by PM Modi "at best a mitigating factor", government officials and analysts said. The world's No.5 economy reports first-quarter GDP data on August 31 and, according to a Reuters poll, it is likely to have contracted 20% over April-June. It is forecast to shrink 5.1% in the year to March 2021, the weakest since 1979.

“The insurance industry has come up with 500 health insurance products in the last 20 years. Since March 2020, we have approved 130 new products. Health is already bigger than motor insurance and at the current rate will increase the gap by leaps and bounds by the end of the year,” said T L Alamelu, member, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) at a FICCI health online insurance conference on Wednesday.

The Chinese Super League is planning to allow a very limited number of spectators into a high-profile match on Saturday, the first time fans can attend a game since the coronavirus pandemic. It is a major step towards normalising football in China, where the virus was first detected last year, and could pave the way for some fans to attend future fixtures. The CSL kicked off on July 25 behind closed doors, at neutral venues in Suzhou and Dalian, and five months late because of the health crisis.

India registered a record number of fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, crossing the 70,000-mark for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. With 70,101 new cases, the country’s tally crossed the 28-lakh mark at 28,33,015. With 978 fresh deaths, the country’s cumulative toll reached 53,929.