With more than 40,000 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, India now has 1.11 million infections. As many as 681 casualties were reported in the country, taking the toll to 27,497. There are over 7 lakh recoveries, while nearly 4 lakh are still active cases. This is the first time that India has reported more than 40,000 infections. 

A parents’ association from the capital wrote to Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Sunday, stating that it does not want schools to re-open in the 2020-2021 academic year until a Covid-19 vaccine is developed.

On July 17, education secretaries of all state governments and Union Territories received a letter from the HRD Ministry, seeking parents’ feedback on whether they would be comfortable with schools reopening in August, September or October. A senior Delhi government official said the state government has not yet responded to this yet. On Sunday, the Delhi Parents’ Association wrote to Pokhriyal, stating, “The order to shut all schools…had been made on March 16 when the number of infected cases were in the hundreds. Now, it has crossed 10 lakh cases… To deliberate upon reopening schools in this situation is in itself laughable.”

On May 29, Delhi Police constable Om Prakash (31) came across a social media post regarding a diabetic patient’s “urgent plasma need” in Kapashera. The post mentioned a phone number and name of the hospital. “I had recovered from Covid-19 in May and realised I was eligible, so I called up the number, and on June 2, I donated plasma for the first time. Thankfully, the patient recovered… We are friends now. He says he will meet me after Covid-19 is over,” said Om Prakash. Read More

Active Covid cases in the city dipped to 16,031 — 13% of the 1,22,793 cases reported so far — on Sunday, while hospital bed occupancy stood at 3,500 of the 15,456 beds available.

The new cases reported Sunday also fell to 1,211 — the first time in several weeks that fewer than 1,300 cases were recorded in Delhi in a day. Read More

After riots broke out in Northeast Delhi in February, 58-year-old Riazuddin had started a food distribution service from his home in North Ghonda. Riot-affected families could simply knock on his door for essential food items. The school principal of an MCD School in Brijpuri, Riazuddin was known for his social work, but his efforts would amplify in the time of a crisis. Covid-19 claimed Riazuddin’s life last month. On Saturday, his son Baqar Riyaz (19) donated plasma with the same thought for “humanity”. Read More

After no fresh strategies for almost a month, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has launched another surveillance campaign apart from aggressively conducting rapid antigen tests.The campaign that began last week to check super-spreaders has widened its reach to hair-cutting salons, which opened as part of the Unlock-1, banks and staff of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). Fine for not wearing mask in public places was raised from Rs 200 to 500, while a penalty of Rs 10,000 was imposed on paan shops if customers were found spitting in public. Read more here

In just over a month, the number of new Covid-19 cases being reported from residential buildings and high-rises has seen 108 per cent increase, while slums and other congested areas have reported 60 per cent increase in cases, data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) state.

With the lockdown relaxed and non-essential movement allowed, the rise in cases have gone back to the buildings like in the initial phase of the pandemic, BMC officials say. Housing societies that were initially keeping their premises locked up, have now let their guard down, with many allowing visitors and house help, they added. Read more here

Former MLA from Karjan Assembly Constituency in Vadodara district, Akshay Patel, who recently joined BJP after resigning from Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls in June, has tested positive for Covid-19. Patel, in a post on Facebook, has said he is asymptomatic and in home isolation.
Patel said his oxygen level is stable, and urged his friends to follow precautions. Last week, former BJP MLA from Karjan, Satish Patel (Nishaliya), had also tested positive and was hospitalised.
The Assembly constituency is due for bypolls in mid-September following Akshay Patel's resignation. Akshay Patel had won the seat on a Congress ticket in the 2017 Assembly polls, defeating Satish Patel. Both leaders are vying for the bypolls ticket. BJP leaders, Cabinet Minister Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja and party state general secretary Shabdasharan Brahmabhatt had held a meeting in Karjan on July 9 to discuss the strategy for the upcoming polls, where they had interacted with party leaders, including both the former MLAs.

The COVID-19 death toll in Jharkhand increased to 49 with one more person succumbing to the disease on Sunday, while 153 fresh cases pushed the tally to 5,552, a government bulletin said. The deceased was from Hazaribag district, it said. Of the total 5,552 COVID-19 cases, 2,785 are active and 2,718 people have recovered from the disease, as per the bulletin. On Sunday, 62 more people recovered from coronavirus, taking the total number of recovered persons to 2,718. The mortality rate is 0.88 per cent while the recovery rate in the state is 48.95 per cent, according to the bulletin. PTI

Tripura Sunday reported 223 COVID-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 2,892. Among these, 1,786 people have been discharged from hospital, leaving 1,106 persons under treatment.

In a late evening Tweet, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb wrote, "Alert! 223 People found COVID-19 POSITIVE out of 4175 samples tested today. 6 flight passengers. 30 were in contact of COVID-19 POSITIVE. 8 were symptomatic. 179 detected POSITIVE in Antigen Test. Among the total 223 COVID-19 POSITIVE, 101 are BSF personnel".

This is the third round of major spread of coronavirus among the ranks of Border Security Force (BSF) in Tripura, with several cases detected among the border guards yesterday.

Assam BJP MLA Nabanita Handique has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an official said on Sunday. Handique, who represents Sonari in the Assam legislative assembly, is the fourth legislator in the state to test positive for COVID-19, the official said. The legislator's son, driver and a personal assistant had earlier tested positive while her test results came positive on Sunday, an official of the Charaideo district administration said. The MLA is currently in her constituency in the district. The first legislator to test positive was BJP's Patharkandi MLA Krishnendu Paul followed by Naryan Deka of Borkhetry. Both have recovered from COVID-19 and have been released from hospital. BJP's Sadiya MLA Bolin Chetia was the third legislator to test COVID-19 positive. Chetia was admitted to the Tinsukia Civil Hospital. Another prominent politician of the state to test positive was All India Mahila Congress president and former Silchar MP Sushmita Dev. She was admitted to the Silchar Medical College Hospital on July 8. Dev was released from the hospital on Sunday after she tested negative for COVID-19. (PTI)

The strict lockdown in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram has been extended till July 28 after the city reported 222 cases of novel coronavirus infection on Sunday.

The Emirates airlines on Sunday said it will operate repatriation flights from four additional Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata to Dubai till July 26. The Dubai-based airline had on July 11 announced that it would be operating special repatriation flights from Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between July 12 and July 26.

The airline will now be operating repatriation flights to Dubai from a total of nine Indian cities till July 26. In a press release on Sunday, the airline clarified that the repatriation flights between Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Dubai are permitted to carry eligible passengers on both the directions.

However, the flights from Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata to Dubai "will carry passengers only outbound from India", the airline said. (PTI)

• Online brokerages see growth in new investors - Online brokerage houses such as Zerodha, Upstox and 5paisa.com have seen a spurt in the addition of investors and trading activities during the March-June period amid coronavirus pandemic. Apart from these, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas also witnessed a growth in onboarding of new clients and trading activities. Interestingly, a substantial number of these new investors are from smaller towns and the average age of such investors is between 25 years and 30 years, according to brokerages.
• Corona Kavach health insurance policy evokes good response: Insurers - Amid spurt in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Corona Kavach health insurance policy has evoked a good response within days of its launch by almost all insurers. Corona Kavach, which was launched on July 10 and is being offered by both general and health insurers, is a standard health insurance policy created to meet the treatment requirements for coronavirus. The term of the policy ranges from three-and-a-half months to nine-and-a-half months, with maximum insured amount at Rs 5 lakh. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has given a green signal to all general and health insurers to launch Corona Kavach policy to cover medical expenses of COVID-19 patients.
• Demand for Kadaknath chicken surges amid pandemic in Madhya Pradesh - The demand for Kadaknath, a protein-rich breed of chicken from tribal-dominated Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, has shot up significantly amid the COVID-19 outbreak, an official said on Sunday. The supply of this chicken had been affected due to the lockdown, but ever since the restrictions were eased, its demand has gone up. Talking to PTI, Chief of Jhabua’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Dr I S Tomar, said that the supply of Kadaknath chicken was affected as transportation facilities were not available during the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown. But after the lockdown was eased, the demand has increased, he said. KVK works for preserving and promoting this black- coloured variety of chicken through its hatchery.
• Video of pigs roaming inside govt hospital in Karnataka causes outrage - A video of a herd of pigs roaming freely inside a COVID-19 hospital in Kalaburagi district has triggered outrage on social media, with people questioning the 'negligence' of authorities, PTI reported. The video shows pigs roaming freely in the corridors of the hospital, as people and hospital staff go about their regular activities. Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu has in a tweet said the incident was three days old. He said as soon as he was informed of it, he instructed authorities to take necessary action. "The owners of the pigs were called, and the pigs around the hospital were caught and shifted," he said.

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A staggering 5,041 Covid-19 cases, the single largest number in a day so far, were registered in Andhra Pradesh as the overall aggregate inched closer to the 50,000 mark on Sunday. Also, the state saw the highest spike in deaths in a day as 56 coronavirus patients succumbed, pushing the toll to 642, a government bulletin said. It took three months for the state to register the first 5,000 coronavirus cases, from March 12 when the first one was reported. (PTI)

West Bengal on Sunday reported 2,278 new cases of COVID-19 and 36 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest recorded by the state in a single day. As of July 19, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the state are 1,112. According to figures provided by the West Bengal government, as of July 19, there are 42,487 cases in total and 16,492 active cases. In the last 24 hours, 1,344 people have been discharged and the discharge rate is 58.56%.

Gujarat on Sunday recorded the highest single-day spike of 965 coronavirus cases in the state. This takes the state tally to 48,441. With a fresh fatality number of 20, the death toll in the state stands at 2,147.

Maharashtra on Sunday recorded the highest one-day spike of 9,518 coronavirus cases in the state. This takes the state tally to 3,10,455, with fresh 258 fresh fatalities being reported, the state health department said.