Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Tamil Nadu Registers Highest Daily Toll of 127 Deaths and 5,860 New Case

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: The Manipur government has extended complete lockdown in the state till August 31, according to latest bulletin issued on Saturday.

With an increase of about 65,000 cases in 24 hours, India's Covid-19 tally crossed the 25-lakh mark on Saturday. Close to 1,000 deaths were also reported within the span of a day. There are now total 25,26,196 cases in the country, including 6,68,220 active cases, 18,08,937 discharged/migrated and 49,036 deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the nation on Independence Day, said that the country's scientists were working day in and out - "like Rishi, Munis' - to develop a vaccine against Covid-19.

US scientists are developing a strain of the coronavirus that could be used to deliberately infect volunteers in so-called "challenge studies," a government agency said Friday. The work is preliminary and the government is continuing to prioritize randomized clinical trials of vaccine candidates, the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said. Several of these have entered their final stages, including the vaccines developed by Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. But NIAID has nonetheless "begun efforts to manufacture a strain that could be used to develop a human challenge model, if needed," it said in a statement.

Here are the LIVE Updates on Coronavirus:

◑ The Delhi High Court decided to restrict its functioning as well as that of the district courts only to urgent matters till August 31 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The court also directed that subject to complete availability of public transport and the situation in Delhi remaining stable, a plan be evolved for a gradual opening of physical courts from September 1 onwards.

◑ Maha Minister Balasaheb Patil Tests Positive: Maharashtra Cooperation Minister and NCP leader Balasaheb Patil has tested positive for coronavirus and has been admitted to Krushna Hospital in Karad. Patil has urged people who had come in contact with him recently to get themselves tested and remain in isolation for at least a week, the statement issued by his office said.

◑ Cases rise in Assam: Assam's COVID-19 tally rose to 74,501 with 2,706 people testing positive on Friday, while six more persons succumbed to the disease taking the death toll to 175, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The state at present has 22,630 active novel coronavirus patients, who are under treatment in various hospitals and Covid Care Centres (CCC), Sarma tweeted.

◑ Fee Cuts in Assam Private Schools: The Assam government on Friday has asked all the private schools to slash 25 per cent fee from pre-school to Class XII standard from May till the schools open, Education and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

◑ Cases Rise in Himachal Pradesh: The COVID-19 infection tally reached 3,875 in Himachal Pradesh on Friday with 58 more persons testing positive for the disease. There are 1,270 active cases in the state, while a total of 2,551 patients have recovered from the disease, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said. Eighteen patients have died due to COVID-19 and 34 migrated out of the state.

◑ California Passes 60,000 Cases: California became the first US state to surpass 600,000 cases of COVID-19 on Friday and the Midwest saw several record one-day rises as some states struggled to contain the pandemic even as a few welcomed students back to school campuses. California went over 603,000 novel coronavirus cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, although Governor Gavin Newsom said he was encouraged to see that hospitalizations have declined 20% over the past two weeks and admissions to ICU wards were down 14% in the same period.

◑ New Zealand Faces Fresh Bout of Infection: Meanwhile, New Zealand on Saturday reported seven cases of the new coronavirus for the last 24 hours as a lockdown in the country's biggest city, Auckland, was extended on Friday in response to the country's first coronavirus outbreak in months. Six of the seven new cases have been linked to the cluster responsible for all the previous community cases, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a media briefing in Wellington.