Maharashtra has placed orders for the procurement of life-saving experimental COVID-19 medicines, including Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, to halt black marketing of the drugs amid a steady rise of coronavirus cases.

Eighteen out of the nearly 100 coronavirus positive children admitted to Mumbai’s Wadia hospital have shown symptoms of Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a Kawasaki disease-type ailment, in a major cause of worry for doctors.

Human trials of the indigenously developed coronavirus vaccine, COVAXIN, began on Monday, AIIMS-Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria said, adding that it would take at least three months for researchers to arrive at the first set of data.

“It (starting trials) is heartening because it’s an indigenous vaccine; making a new vaccine is an achievement. Even if a vaccine is first developed somewhere else in the world, India will be mass producing it. We are good at it,” Mr Guleria said.

There is no coronavirus lockdown, outside of containment zones, in Bengaluru from today, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said on Tuesday, stressing that his government was working “day and night” to contain the virus.

Karnataka’s COVID-19 task force on Tuesday decided that the state government will regulate the supply of Remdesivir to private hospitals to check black marketing and hoarding.

After a dip to under a thousand cases in a day on Monday, Delhi on Tuesday recorded 1,349 coronavirus cases as against Monday’s 954. Tuesday’s cases takes the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,25,096. With 27 deaths in the last 24 hours till Tuesday, total fatalities now stand at 3,690.

Delhi is the third worst-hit state in India behind Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Delhi has 689 containment zones. After a large number of cases were detected in these zones, they were sealed and residents were tested. A large number of districts in the city are in “red zones” which are places with more than 10 COVID-19 cases.

Scientists have known for several months the new coronavirus can become suspended in microdroplets expelled by patients when they speak and breathe, but until now there was no proof that these tiny particles are infectious. A new study by scientists at the University of Nebraska has shown for the first time that SARS-CoV-2 taken from microdroplets, defined as under five microns, can replicate in lab conditions, news agency AFP reported.

All passengers arriving by international flights at the Delhi Airport will have to undergo seven days of institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by a week of home quarantine.