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Coronavirus India news summary: Sunday 5 July 2020

Update:
Man selling masks in Bhopal (India), 04/07/2020.

Coronavirus live India: latest Covid-19 news - Sunday 5 July

This live Covid-19 blog is now closed. For all the latest developments relating to the pandemic in India, please follow the new 6 July live coverage here.

Kerala announced lockdown in state capital, Thiruvananthapuram

Taj Mahal

India delays Taj Mahal reopening for Covid-19 risks

India has withdrawn a planned reopening of the Taj Mahal, citing the risk of new coronavirus infections spreading in the northern city of Agra from visitors flocking to see the 17th century monument to love.

Local authorities issued a new advisory late on Sunday ordering an extension of lockdown curbs on monuments in and around Agra. The government order did not specify the duration of the lockdown for monuments that have been closed since March.

"In the interest of the public, it has been decided that opening monuments in Agra will not be advisable as of now", the district authorities said in a notice published in Hindi. Agra, one of India's first big clusters of the virus, remains the worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state. 

India's coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest pace in three months. On Sunday, the health ministry reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and more than 600 deaths. That pushed India's overall tally to 673,165 cases, closing in on Russia, the third-most affected country globally. 

Wet team

Indian health workers wearing personal protective equipment arrive to carry medical checkup of the residents of a 'containment zones' during heavy rains in Mumbai, India, 05 July 2020.

According to media reports, the state government of Maharashtra extended the lockdown till 31 July, with some relaxation in the ongoing lockdown. (Photo: EFE/EPA/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI)

Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020

Heavy rain adding to the problems

Inmates at Ludhiana Central Jail test positive

Opportunities out of adversity

Robots use UV rays to kill virus that causes Covid-19

But before a vaccine is ready, many tech experts have pooled their resources and knowledge together to find solutions to at least destroy the Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19.

Prominent among them is Amazon which launched a robot which claims to eliminate the virus using ultaviolet rays. The robot was unveiled in May this year across retail businesses, airports and hospitals to which require frequent cleaning.

Tamil Nadu lockdown tokens update

New hospital visit

India to reopen Taj Mahal with social distancing, masks

Visitors to the Taj Mahal will have to wear masks at all times, keep their distance and not touch its glistening marble surfaces when India's 17th-century monument to love reopens on Monday after a three-month Covid-19 shutdown.

Only 5,000 tourists will be allowed in a day, split into two groups, a far cry from peak levels of 80,000 a day who would swarm the mausoleum built in the northern city of Agra by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife, in a 22-year effort. 'All centrally protected monuments & sites shall be bound by the protocols like sanitization, social distancing & other health protocols,' the federal tourism ministry said in a tweet.

Authorities are reopening the Taj and other monuments, such as New Delhi's historic Red Fort, just as India's coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest pace in three months.

Trending upwards

India was poised to overtake Russia and become the country with the third-largest caseload in the world, as another day’s surge in the southern states took India’s novel Coronavirus numbers to a new peak on Saturday.

Another unwanted record set

Catch up

Here are some of the stories related to coronavirus that have been making the headlines over the last 24 hours:

- Goa records highest single-day spike - 108 new Covid-19 cases

- WHO team in China next week to investigate coronavirus origins

- Tiruchy ramp up Covid-19 testing to 1000 per day

- WHO halts hydroxychloroquine, HIV drugs in Covid-19 trials

- Zimbabwe president sends thank you message to India

- 26-year-old junior doctor, Abhishek Bhayana, shows Covid-19 symptoms, tests negative twice, then dies

India Covid-19 update: 12:30 IST on Sunday 5 July (09:00 CEST)

According to the latest figures published by John Hopkins University11,271,021 cases have been detected worldwide, with 530,858 deaths and 6,064,394 people recovered.

In India, there have been 673,165 cases confirmed, 19,268 people have died and 409,083 people have recovered from the virus.

Coronavirus live India updates: welcome

Hello and welcome to our live, India-focused coverage of the coronavirus crisis, which has already seen over 11.2 million cases and more than 530,000 deaths registered worldwide, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.