Coronavirus live updates: Covid tally in India crosses 27L-mark

Shops other than those dealing in essential commodities & shopping malls would remain closed on Sundays. Such shops in 3 cities of Ludhiana, Patiala & Jalandhar shall also remain closed on Saturdays till further orders: PR division, Punjab govt

Shops & shopping malls would remain open till 8pm. Restaurants/hotels situated within shopping malls & liquor vends would remain open till 8.30pm: PR division, Punjab govt

Restaurants, hotels & other hospitality units to remain open till 8.30pm: PR division, Punjab govt

Punjab govt has decided to impose additional restrictions in Jalandhar, Ludhiana & Patiala from 18 August, till further orders: PR division, Punjab

Read: When cops in PPE kits seized two churches in Kerala

Following a two-day long coordinated effort by Ernakulam administration and rural police, Marthoman Church at Mulanthuruthy was taken over by the administration at 5am on Monday. Later at 10.30am, district administration took over Onakkoor Sehion Church near Piravom. The early morning exercise was executed after meticulous planning considering the pandemic situation, said police sources.

Spike of 55,079 cases and 876 deaths reported in India, in the last 24 hours: Ministry of health

Total Covid cases in India rise to 2,702,742. The active cases stand at 6,73,166 while discharged cases include 1,977,779. The death toll is at 51,797: Ministry of health

WHO says people in 20s, 30s, 40s increasingly driving pandemic, reports Reuters.

The spread of the coronavirus is being increasingly driven by people aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s and many are not aware that they have been infected, the World Health Organisation's regional director for the Western Pacific said on Tuesday. "This increases the risk of spillovers to the more vulnerable: the elderly, the sick people in long-term care, people who live in densely populated areas and underserved areas," Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing.

3,09,41,264 samples tested up to 17th August. Of these, 8,99,864 samples were tested yesterday: ICMR

The total number of cases rises to 815 in Mizoram, including 372 discharged cases and 443 active cases: Mizoram health department

Pune overtakes Mumbai in number of Covid-19 cases.

Pune has more Covid-19 cases than Mumbai. On Monday, Pune had 1.32 lakh cases while Mumbai had 1.29 lakh infections. However, its death toll is half of Mumbai's. While Pune has reported 3,247 deaths, Mumbai has 7,173 deaths.

Read: Testing up 10-fold but positivity rate seen stable at 8%

Despite the surge in testing, the growth factor in new cases (everyday’s new cases divided by the previous day’s cases) has also remained largely constant at around 1 percentage point while the overall active cases and fatality rate have started declining. Values of less than one are read as a decline. The daily positivity rate on Sunday dropped to 7.9% with 57,981 new cases detected. The cumulative rate has been hovering around 8.8%.

30 States/UTs performed better than the national average: Ministry of health

Focused implementation of Centre-led strategies has ensured prompt identification, timely isolation & effective clinical treatment, leading to reduced case fatality rate: Ministry of health

Even with such a high level of testing, the positivity has remained low, 8.81% compared to the weekly national average, 8.84%: Ministry of health

A new peak of 8.97 lakh Covid-19 tests done in the last 24 hours: Ministry of health

The Covid-19 positivity rate has stabilised at around 8% over the last fortnight even as daily testing has increased by almost 10 times as compared to last month. This has resulted in India crossing a total of over three crore samples tested cumulatively.

For past 10 days, India No. 1 in new Covid cases

Report raises questions over accurate counting of Covid deaths in the country

Less than one in five deaths in India is medically certified to denote cause of death