Morning Digest: COVID-19 second wave still raging in the country, says Health Ministry; India’s Neeraj Chopra qualifies for javelin throw final in Tokyo Olympics, and more

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is “still raging” in the country and is far from over, Lav Aggarwal joint secretary, Health Ministry, told a press conference on Tuesday. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Karnataka, Puducherry and Kerala have registered a rise in the Reproduction Number (Rt ), which was a cause of concern, he said.

India’s bright medal contender Neeraj Chopra on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, qualified for the final of the javelin throw event at the Olympic Games with a stunning first attempt of 86.65m, here.

The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Maharashtra ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021), was an estimated 2,12,589 which is 2.8 times the official reported figure of 75,877 deaths for the same period.

In her bid to become the first Indian boxer to reach an Olympics title clash, Lovlina Borgohain will face World champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey in a women’s 69kg semifinal bout on Wednesday.

Most children who develop symptoms of COVID-19 get better after six days and the number who experience symptoms beyond four weeks is low, according to a new study conducted in the U.K. and published on Tuesday in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would test its entire population for COVID-19 after the central Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who this week joined the Opposition in demanding a probe into the Pegasus snooping row and a caste-based census in the State, has appeared combative against the BJP, an alliance partner at the Center and in the State.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the Governor of a State can pardon prisoners, including death row ones, even before they have served a minimum 14 years of prison sentence.

Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane on Tuesday said the procurement process had not kept pace with the requirements of time. Many procedural lacunae have crept into the acquisition process due to “overbearing nature of our rules and regulations leading a zero error syndrome”, he noted and stressed the need for a “revolution in bureaucratic affairs.”

Direct transfer of money into bank accounts of informal workers and an urban employment guarantee scheme were among the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour in its report on the impact of the pandemic on rising unemployment and job loss.

An officer died after being stabbed Tuesday during a burst of violence at a transit station outside the Pentagon, and a suspect in the incident was shot by law enforcement and died at the scene, officials said.