LIVE: West Bengal reports biggest single-day spike in Covid-19 infection

Gargled water samples may be viable alternative to swabs for detection of Covid-19, enabling easy self-collection and removing the need for trained healthcare workers for sample collection, according to a study published in the ICMR's Indian Journal of Medical Research.

African governments should accelerate the reopening of schools, the World Health Organisation has urged, saying that the continent's youths will suffer from prolonged closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, reports Associated Press.

Northern Ireland tightened restrictions on the number of people allowed to meet indoors and outdoors on Thursday, as it struggles to rein in a surge in new cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Outdoor gatherings are now limited to 15 people, reduced from 30, while indoor gatherings in private dwellings are now limited to 6 individuals from 2 households, from 10 previously, Health Minister Robin Swann said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

The Covid-19 death toll in Bihar rose to 574 with six fatalities in the past 24 hours, while 2,451 fresh infections took the states coronavirus count to 1,15,209, a health department official said on Thursday, PTI reports.

Mumbai reported 1,275 new Covid-19 cases, 976 recoveries and 46 deaths reported on Thursday. Total number of positive cases has now increased to 1,32,817 in Mumbai, including 18,170 active cases, 1,0,7033 recovered cases and 7,311 deaths till date: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)

West Bengal reported a biggest single-day spike of 3,197 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, which pushed the state tally to 1,29,119. The death toll jumped to 2,634 after recording 53 fresh fatalities, the state health department said.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Karnataka climbed to 2,56,975 after the state recorded 7,385 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, the state health department said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 102 others lost their lives, pushing the death toll to 4,429.

Authorities in Kathmandu reimposed lockdown in the valley after witnessing a spike in Covid-19 infection.

In the last seven days, the Nepal's capital has reported 1,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 infection.

The lockdown will stay in effect till August 26.

As many as 411 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Uttarakhand today and 301 others have been recovered, state authorities informed.

The state now has 13,636 total cases including including 187 deaths and 9,433 recovered patients. Active cases stand at 3,966, the authorities also said.

Amid rising coronavirus cases, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered a series of emergency measures, including extension of weekend lockdown, with daily night curfew from 7 pm to 5 am in all 167 cities and towns in the state from August 21.

Total confirmed coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh reached 3.25 lakh after 9,393 more people tested positive for the infection. Andhra Pradesh is the only state after Maharashtra, which is reporting a large number of Covid-19 cases daily, sometimes close to 10,000, over the past few days, reports PTI.

More than 1,960 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in Kerala in the last 24 hours, state health department said.

Tamil Nadu reported as many as 5,986 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the state health department said in its daily health bulletin.

While 116 others lost their lives and 5,742 more have recovered.

In hopeful sign for Africa, average daily cases of Covid-19 fell last week, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.

The continent-wide daily average was 10,300 last week, down from 11,000 the week before, Dr John Nkengasong said at a press briefing, adding that officials were greeting the news with "cautious optimism".

Delhi recorded 1,215 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. The number of people succumbing to the disease was at 22 in the same period. While 1,059 others recovered, state health department said.