India reported nearly 16,000 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, taking the total to 456,183, an increase of 3.6% according to the Health Ministry. Around 14,476 people have died in the country from Covid-19 so far, with 465 fatalities being recorded on Tuesday alone.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi crossed the 66,000 mark, with the city's biggest single-day spike of 3,947 in fresh infections. The death count in the city mounted to 2,301, of which 68 were reported on Tuesday. In the past 7 days alone, Delhi has added 21,914 cases, or 33% of all its total count.

Yoga guru Ramdev's herbal medicine company Patanjali Ayurved on Tuesday claimed to have discovered a medicine that could cure coronavirus in just seven days — a claim that the AYUSH Ministry scoffed at by asking the company to stop advertisements for the drug until the issue had been examined. The AYUSH Ministry also sought a detailed report on composition, testing and other data of the drug.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said a V-shaped recovery for the economy was possible this year, provided a vaccine was found to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. In the absence of a vaccine, the economic recovery would have to wait until next year, although that too would likely be V-shaped, given the experience after the Spanish flu of 1918, he said.

In a piece of good news, India and the United States (US) are working on a plan to create a travel corridor which will significantly ease travel restrictions between the two countries. This will be the first green corridor India will establish with any country. Besides the US, similar initiatives are being tried with select European countries as well. Senior officials from New Delhi and Washington confirmed that the two countries were in final stages of forming a “travel bubble”, which would completely remove or substantially relax the quarantine measures for flyers.

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