NEW YORK: The global tally of coronavirus cases stands at 48,387,339. While 34,633,159 have recovered, 1,229,542 have died so far. The US, the worst-hit country, has 9,794,741 cases, and 239,780 have died from the disease there. It is followed by India, which has 8,364,086 cases, Brazil (5,590,941) and Russia (1,693,454).

India has reported 50,465 fresh Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,364,086. The country's death toll has mounted to 124,354. Delhi recorded its highest single-day spike of 6,842 new coronavirus cases and its total count of cases hit 409,000. Kerala's tally now stands at 448,000 with 8,516 fresh cases being detected.

A safe and effective vaccine against novel coronavirus may be available in India by January 2021 if approvals from regulatory bodies are in place in time, says Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer (CEO), Serum Institute of India. SII has joined hands with AstraZeneca to produce the coronavirus vaccine for low-and-middle income countries, developed by University of Oxford.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a three-week nationwide lockdown on Thursday as part of measures to contain the further spread of the novel coronavirus.

"I opt to take drastic measures sooner rather than later. I will not put the lives of our citizens at risk," the Greek prime minister stated in an address broadcast live on public broadcaster ERT, Xinhua news agency reported.

He explained that he took this decision due to the exponential growth of Covid-19 cases in the last week.