3.45 pm: European Union countries approve common guidelines for travel amid the coronavirus pandemic, AP reports. The members agree to provide coronavirus data to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which will sort regions according to the seriousness of coronavirus outbreaks and publish a weekly map.

3.42 pm: Coronavirus patients and voters above the age of 80 will be provided postal ballot facility for Maharashtra Legislative Council’s graduates constituency election in Marathwada division, according to PTI.

3.35 pm: Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner KV Rajendra tests positive for coronavirus, PTI reports.

3.30 pm: The coronavirus toll of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city crosses 1,000, PTI reports. The city’s tally stands at 35,442.

2.22 pm: Telangana registers 1,708 new coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 2,14,792, says the state health department, according to ANI. The state’s toll rises by 5 to 1,233.

2.18 pm: Russia reports 13,868 new Covid-19 infections, the highest daily cases since the outbreak, reports Reuters. The country’s tally was 13,26,178.

2.14 pm: Iran reports 272 deaths due to the Covid-19 infection in the past 24 hours, pushing the toll to 28,816, reports Reuters, citing the country’s health ministry. Its coronavirus tally was 5,00,075.

2.10 pm: South Korea reports 102 new Covid-19 cases as of Monday, according to Reuters. The country crossed the triple-digit for the first time in six days.

2.05 pm: British Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick says the government may have to impose stricter restrictions if the second wave of the coronavirus accelerates in high-risk areas, reports Reuters.

1.58 pm: The Takeda Pharmaceutical-led group, developing a blood plasma treatment for Covid-19, has started the manufacturing process for the cure, says Chief Executive Officer Christophe Weber, according to Reuters. The late-stage trial to determine if the treatment would work is ongoing, he adds.

1.54 pm: Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma says Durga Puja committee will have to get priests tested on Panchami, the fifth day of the festival, and also on the day of idol immersion, reports ANI.

1.48 pm: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says India’s active Covid-19 caseload has been less than 10 lakh for the past 14 days, reports ANI. He says that the country has the highest recovery rate at 87%.

1.42 pm: The coronavirus tally in Odisha rises to 2,56,937 after 2,275 people tested positive for the infection, reports PTI. The toll rises to 1,057 with 17 new fatalities.

1.40 pm: The health condition of actor Soumitra Chatterjee remains “critical” and the doctors are planning to put him on invasive ventilation, reports PTI. The actor was admitted to the hospital on October 6 after he tested positive for the coronavirus.

11.25 am: Mizoram reports 18 new Covid-19 cases, pushing its tally to 2,202, reports ANI. The number of active cases was 156 while 2,046 people have been discharged so far.

11.22 am: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says India was expecting to have a vaccine by early next year likely from more than one source, reports ANI. “Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country,” the health minister says at a Group of Ministers meeting.

10.58 am: The coronavirus tally in Telangana rises to 2,14,792 after the state reports 1,708 new cases, says the health department, according to ANI. The department says 1,89,351 have recovered so far and 1,233 people have died due to the infection.

10.54 am: The Indian Council of Medical Research says it has tested 8,89,45,107 samples till Monday. It says it conducted 10,73,014 tests on October 12.

10.49 am: Arunachal Pradesh reports 220 new coronavirus cases, including two health workers and five security personnel, taking the state’s tally to 12,367, reports PTI, citing a health official.

09.18 am: India’s Covid-19 rises to to 71,75,880 as the country reported 55,342 new infections in 24 hours. The country’s toll rises by 706 to 1,09,856. India’s active cases stood at 8,38,729, while the number of recoveries rose to 62,27295. The country’s recovery rate is 86.78%, while the death rate stood at 1.53%.

9.14 am: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that life will get back to normal only when a second generation of Covid-19 vaccine become available, the Hindustan Times reports.

9.12 am: The economy of the United Kingdom cannot be “fully protected” as slower growth and higher borrowing leave it with record levels of debt, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a British think tank said, BBC reports. It said that the UK government’s borrowing this year will hit a level never seen in peacetime due to the pandemic.

9.11 am: Peru has opened the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu for a single Japanese tourist who had waited almost seven months to visit the world heritage site, BBC reports. Jesse Takayama was due to visit Machu Picchu in March, but couldn’t because of the coronavirus. Culture Minister Alejandro Neyra said Takayama was granted access after submitting a special request.

9.10 am: A man in the United States got reinfected with the coronavirus, with the second infection becoming far more dangerous than the first, doctors report, BBC reports. The 25-year-old needed hospital treatment after his lungs could not get enough oxygen into his body.

9.08 am: The Gujarat Election Commission has postponed the municipal and panchayat elections by three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, PTI reports. The elections for local bodies of self-governance including six municipal corporations, 55 municipalities, 31 district and 231 taluka panchayats were scheduled to be held in November.

8.45 am: Sikkim reported seven new Covid-19 cases, taking state tally to 3,366, reports PTI. One more fatality pushes toll to 57.

8.40 am: Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India have managed to collate thousands of fauna samples from 16 regions of the country even during Covid-19 restrictions, reports PTI, citing a top official of the organisation.

8.35 am: United States President Donald Trump has tested negative for Covid-19, White House physician Sean Conley has said, according to AFP.

8.30 am: Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson on Monday said it had halted the advanced clinical trial of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine due to an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers.

Here are the top updates from Monday: