11.20 am: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan attacks Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after he raises questions about lack of coronavirus vaccines in the country.

“July has come, the vaccine has not arrived,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

Hitting back at him, Vardhan says he had written about vaccine availability for the month of July. “Just yesterday [Thursday], I put out facts,” the health minister says. “What is Rahul Gandhi ji’s problem? Does he not read? Does he not understand? There is no vaccine for the virus of arrogance and ignorance!! Congress must think of a leadership overhaul!”

10.05 am: Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has criticised the attacks on doctors amid the coronavirus crisis, reports The Hindu. He also points out Indian Medical Association’s data that over 798 doctors have died during the second wave of the pandemic.

“Why is it that the medical professionals are at the receiving end for someone else’s failure?” he says. “Issues such as insufficient number of medical professionals, infrastructure, medicines, outdated technologies, and government not giving priory to medical sector are issues of immediate concern.”

10 am: The United Arab Emirates has banned its citizens from travelling to several countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, due to the coronavirus situation, reports ANI.

9.59 am: Opposition parties in Kerala are demanding that the state government review the death tally, reports The Indian Express.

State Health Minister Veena George, however, claims that the government has nothing to hide. “We have a decentralised Covid-19 death reporting system,” she adds.

9.55 am: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the coronavirus cases in the United States rose 10% this week because of the Delta variant, reports NBC News.

“I expect that we are going to see the number of cases around the country going up as the delta variant spreads,” says Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC. “The reason for that is that a significant number of people in America are still not vaccinated.”

9.50 am: Nagaland MLA Toshi Wungtung, who was being treated for the coronavirus disease at a hospital in Delhi, died on Thursday, reports PTI. He was also the advisor to the government for Information and Public Relations and the second legislator from Nagaland after CM Chang to have died due to the infection.

9.27 am: India reports 46,617 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking its tally since the pandemic broke out in January 2020 to 3,04,58,251. The toll rises by 853 to 4,00,312. As many as 2,95,48,302 people have recovered from the infection so far. The active caseload has dropped to 5,09,637.

9.22 am: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has informed the Bombay High Court that it has formulated draft guidelines to prevent fake Covid vaccination camps in the city, reports PTI.

The civic body says it has decided to appoint nodal officers, who will be responsible for monitoring the vaccination drive at private housing societies, offices, educational institutions and other premises.

9.20 am: US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson says that its single-shot coronavirus vaccine neutralises the Delta variant of the virus, which was reported in India and has been spreading across the world, reports Bloomberg.

A look at the developments from Thursday: