Covid update: Ayodhya priest worried; South Korea on India, vaccines; gym rules

From another Ayodhya priest testing positive days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, to the government issuing guidelines for gymnasiums and yoga centres ahead of their reopening from August 5 - here are the top news updates on the Covid-19 pandemic. The World Health Organisation has reportedly completed the groundwork in China for an investigation into the origin of the virus which causes the Covid-19 illness. WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also warned the world that although there is hope of development of an effective vaccine, there is also the possibility that we might never have a 'silver bullet' against the disease. Meanwhile, South Korean envoy to India, Shin Bong-kil, said that India has always been important when it comes to vaccines and the country also has a strong pharmaceutical industry. A controversy has broken out over the admission of Union Home minister Amit Shah to a private hospital in Gurugram after he tested positive for Covid infection. Congress' Shashi Tharoor said that patronage of the powerful is important to maintain public faith in government institutions. India also crossed a milestone in its fight against the virus. The country passed the landmark of 2 crore total tests on August 2. Watch the full video for the other updates regarding the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.

COVID update: India to start late stage trials of Oxford vaccine, Shivraj tests positive again

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given approval to Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, to conduct Phase II and III clinical trials of Oxford University. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a number of vaccines are now in phase-3 clinical trials. Meanwhile, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan on August 03 again tested positive for COVID-19 on the 10th day of his admission to hospital. Today, Andhra Pradesh reported 7,822 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state 1,66,586. Uttar Pradesh reported 4,473 new COVID-19 cases and 50 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 40,191 and death toll to 1,778. Tamil Nadu reported 5,609 new COVID-19 cases and 109 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking total cases to 2,63,222 including 2,02,283 discharges and 4,241 deaths.

There may never be a 'silver bullet' for COVID-19: WHO

Despite vaccines in development, the head of the World Health Organization cautioned that the treatments had yet to prove effective and might only convey protection for a short time. This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

COVID-19: India reports single-day spike of 52,050 cases

India reported a single-day spike of 52,050 in last 24 hours taking the country's tally to 18,55,746. So far, the country has 5, 86, 298 active cases. With 803 new deaths, the death toll rises to 38938 deaths. The Indian Council of Medical Research reported the total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to 3rd August is 2,08,64,750. 6,61,182 samples were tested on August 03.