With 59,92,532 total cases, India is the second worst-affected country by the coronavirus pandemic, second only to the United States which has more than 72 lakh cases. Global coronavirus infections have soared past 3.3 crore.

The national daily positivity rate (or the percentage of tests that are positive) increased to 8.9 from yesterday’s 6.3 per cent. The recovery rate has inched up to 82.1 per cent. The national mortality rate has remained at 1.5 per cent; more than 1,000 people a day have died due to coronavirus since September 2.

Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu reported the highest one-day increases of any state in the past 24 hours. Together these five states reported 49,176 new cases, or around 55 per cent of all new cases.

While Maharashtra – the worst-hit state in the country with a tally of 13.21 lakh – recorded 20,419 new cases in the last 24 hours, the others reported between 7,000-9,000 new infections, barring Tamil Nadu which saw a surge of 5,647 new cases.

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh – the five worst-affected states in the country – also reported the highest deaths – 430, 57, 86, 85, 67, respectively. These account for 64.5 per cent of all deaths in India.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday expressed apprehensions of a “second wave” of coronavirus transmission as more people are moving out for work, and called for stricter compliance with norms. He especially expressed concern about asymptomatic patients not isolating strictly and spreading the infection.

In West Bengal, cinema halls are set to reopen from October 1. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also said musical, dance and magic shows with 50 participants or less would be permitted subject to compliance with Covid safety protocols.

The Karnataka government has reduced the cost of RT- PCR tests for COVID-19 to a maximum of Rs 1,200, while private samples will cost Rs 1,600. Karnataka plans to increase daily COVID-19 testing from 65,000 to one lakh, of which 60,000 will be RT-PCR.

After complaints of hoarding and shortages, the Central government said it was capping the price of liquid oxygen – used to treat patients of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases – at Rs 15.22 per cubic metre.

At the United Nations General Assembly, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would help in bringing the world out of the coronavirus crisis with mass vaccine distribution once all trials are completed successfully, the CEO of the Serum Institute of India – the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume – tweeted if “Government of India have 80,000 crores available over the next one year?…This is the next concerning challenge we need to tackle.”