10.59 am: Maharashtra’s Thane recorded 535 new coronavirus on Thursday, taking the district’s tally to 2,18,000, PTI reports. The total deaths in the district rose to 5,501 after 12 more patients succumbed to the infection.

10.54 am: The mayor of Chicago issued a new stay-at-home advisory on Thursday, AFP reports. The new restrictions come as the United States, already the world’s hardest hit country, experiences its third and worst-by-far surge in coronavirus cases.

Lori Lightfoot called on people of Chicago to go out only for essential tasks or to attend work or school, to scrap Thanksgiving plans and to avoid travel. “Every single one of us needs to step up and ‘Protect Chicago’ right now, or 2020 could go from bad to worse,” said an explanatory note on the city’s website.

10.50 am: Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain says President-elect Joe Biden will appoint a “COVID coordinator” who will lead the United States administration’s pandemic response, AP reports.

Speaking on MSNBC on Thursday night, Klain said the individual will have “direct access” to the president and will brief him daily on the pandemic. They will also have a team of people underneath them, who will coordinate vaccine distribution, address supply chain disruptions and improve access to testing, he added.

10.44 am: With the coronavirus dampening this year’s Christmas cheer, Italian Prime Minister on Thursday assured children of the country that Santa Claus will not be under lockdown as he wears a mask and “can travel the world thanks to a special permit”.

“Father Christmas assured me that he already has an international travel certificate: he can travel everywhere and distribute gifts to all the world’s children,” Conte wrote on Facebook. He was responding to a letter by five-year-old Tommaso who had pleaded with him not to confine “Babbo Natale,” as Santa is known in Italy.

10.39 am: Asian shares have opened lower as rising cases of coronavirus infections in the US, Europe and Asia add to worries that economies will once again be hamstrung by pandemic restrictions on travel and businesses, PTI reports. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 1.0% to 25,254.31. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5% to 6,383.70. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.2% lower to 2,471.26. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.8% to 25,958.49, while the Shanghai Composite dipped 1.3% to 3,294.57.

10.34 am: Japan on Thursday registered a new daily record of 1,661 coronavirus infections, topping the previous high set during a surge in August. AFP reports. While numbers are low in absolute terms compared to many other countries, a sharp rise in infections in northern Japan is leading to concerns cases could spread as winter sets in. Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister overseeing the country’s coronavirus response, said more stringent steps would be needed if infections continued to rise.

9.40 am: India records 44,879 new coronavirus cases and 547 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the country now has 87.28 lakh cases and the toll has risen to 1,28,668.

9.28 am: TS Tirumurti, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has said that the coronavirus pandemic cannot be used as an excuse to not fulfil the commitments of the developed countries or to undermine environmental conventions, reports ANI.

9.20 am: China’s customs office says that it will suspend imports from India’s Basu International firm for a week after detecting the coronavirus on three samples taken from the outer packaging of frozen cuttlefish, reports Reuters.

9.10 am: Delhi on Thursday recorded 104 more fatalities, the highest in a day in over five months, pushing the toll to 7,332. With 7,053 new coronavirus cases, the tally rose to over 4.67 lakh.

9 am: Here are the top updates from Thursday: