As educational institutes reopen and offices turn away WFH, India has started maintaining an upward trajectory over the past 1 week.

India reported 47,029 coronavirus cases and 509 deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8 AM on Thursday. With this the country’s overall caseload rose to 3.28 crore (3,28,57,937) and the death toll increased to 4.39 lakh (4,39,529).

The total number of active cases presently stands at 3.89 lakh (3,89,583). Out of the new cases and deaths reported, Kerala reported 32,803 fresh cases and 173 deaths yesterday.

As per the Centre's data, 81,09,244 people got vaccinated against Covid-19 in 24 hours. Cumulatively, 66,30,37,334 have been inoculated against Covid-19 to date.

Schools and Colleges have started opening in almost all the states or have given a notice regarding the reopening which even has resulted ina spike of cases of infections in young population who is reportedly the main sensitive target during the third wave and are yet to be vaccinated.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that it is closely monitoring a new coronavirus “variant of interest” named Mu, warning that the new variant shows signs of possible resistance to vaccines, PTI reported. The new variant was first identified in Colombia in January 2021, and since then, there have been “sporadic reports” of cases and some larger outbreaks in South America and Europe.

Amid the rise in Covid-19 cases, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission to Hyderabad-based Biological E Limited to conduct Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for its anti-COVID shots called Corbevax on children between 5 and 18 years.

Biological E, if passes the trial, would become the third coronavirus vaccine for children after Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D which is expected to be released in October.

Meanwhile, the trials of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine for phases 2 and 3 for children are underway, and its result is expected in September. The government has made an advance payment of ₹1,500 crore to Biological E for 30 crore vaccines.