Here are the top updates from Thursday:
- Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that even though there is a decline in the weekly Covid-19 positivity rate in India, the second wave is not yet over. Meanwhile, Indian Council of Medical Research chief Balram Bhargava said mass gatherings during festivals should clearly be discouraged. But he added that if it was absolutely essential for a person to attend a limited gathering, they need to be fully vaccinated.
- The government has made it mandatory for travellers from South Africa, China, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Botswana, Mauritius and Zimbabwe to produce negative RT-PCR reports before boarding their flights. They must take a second test after landing in India. The decision came amid concerns about the detection of a new variant called C.1.2.
- India recorded 47,092 new coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally in the country to 3,28,57,937 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The toll rose by 509 to…