Highlights: 365 fresh cases push Uttarakhand’s Covid-19 tally to nearly 50,000

Congress leader RPN Singh on Thursday tweeted that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and requested everyone who came into his contact to take all appropriate medical precautions.

Have tested corona positive after my return from Jharkhand. Request everyone who has come into contact with me recently to take all appropriate medical precautions

— RPN Singh (@SinghRPN) October 1, 2020

The next serological survey to check for the prevalence of antibodies against the novel coronavirus among people will start in Delhi within a fortnight, health minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday, reports PTI.

The Covid-19 death toll in Uttarakhand rose to 625 on Thursday with 14 more fatalities, while 365 fresh cases pushed the infection tally in the state to 49,248, a health department bulletin said, reports PTI.

The rate of positive coronavirus tests in 20 New York "hot spot" zip codes rose to 6.5% from 5.5% the day before, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Thursday. The overall rate in the state was 1.27%, or 1,382 positive tests out of the 109,218 reported on Wednesday, Cuomo added, reports Reuters.

Gujarat reported 1351 new Covid-19 cases, 1334 discharges and10 deaths on Thursday. Total cases in the state rise to 138,745, including 118,565 discharges and 3463 deaths. Active cases stand at 16,717, the state's health department said, reports ANI.

A total of 1,031 tested positive for coronavirus in Nagpur, raising the district's caseload to 79,043 on Thursday, an official said. Apart from this, the district also recorded 36 casualties that rose the toll to 2,546, the official said, reports PTI.

With 3,037 fresh coronavirus cases, Delhi's case tally crossed the 282,000-mark, while 41 fresh fatalities took the death toll to 5,401 on Thursday, authorities said.

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 17 more Covid-19 fatalities and 1,093 new cases on Thursday, taking the death toll to 1,198 and the infection tally to 76,163 in the Union Territory, officials said.

France called for 25,000 adult volunteers on Thursday to enrol in a series of large-scale clinical trials aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of several Covid-19 vaccine candidates, reports Reuters.

Andhra Pradesh on Thursday crossed another grim milestone of 700,000 coronavirus cases though the spread of the pandemic has been on a declining trend over the past few days. It took 14 days for the state to add one lakh cases from six to seven whereas the previous four lakhs came in a 10-day span each, reports PTI.

The Congress on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he would still hold a 'Namaste Trump' event in honour of US President Donald Trump after he questioned India's Covid-19 numbers and accused it of concealing figures during the presidential debate. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel questioned the government if it would answer the allegations made by President Trump, reports PTI.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday ordered a slew of relaxations amid Covid-19 outbreak, including lifting of night curfew and Sunday lockdown, while directing the DGP to strictly enforce wearing of masks and other safety norms, reports PTI.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Thursday said that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and has gone into self isolation.

Mizoram's Covid-19 tally on Thursday crossed the 2,000 mark as 31 more people, including 23 security personnel tested positive for the virus, a health department official said, reports PTI.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte has said he would propose to parliament to extend Covid-19 state of emergency till January end.