Live news from Coronavirus: EU countries must debate vaccine passports; Olympic torch audience asked not to cheer World News

India on Thursday reported 16,738 new coronavirus infections, according to data from the Ministry of Health on Thursday for the highest daily jump since January 29, according to a Reuters version.

More than half come from the western state of Maharashtra, the richest in India and home to its financial capital Mumbai, which reported a record high of 8,807 cases on Wednesday.

India’s count of 11.05 million infections is the second highest in the world after the United States, and daily numbers are rising again after a lull in the last few months.

In England, an ad flash was launched to encourage people to stay home despite falling coronavirus transmission rates, the success of vaccine vaccinations and the launch of the government’s roadmap outside the closure, reports PA Media .

The campaign calls on people to continue with behavioral changes, including wearing masks, social distance and hand washing.

The television advertisement will be shown on ITV for the first time on Wednesday evening, but the campaign will also be presented on radio, billboards and social media:

Australia continued its downward trend in Covid business on Thursday, fueling hopes of a faster return to normal, Reuters reported.

Victoria, the country’s second most populous state, has not recorded any cases for almost a week, indicating that the most recent outbreak in Melbourne has been prevented, prompting authorities to indicate more restrictions soon.

“With six days of zero cases, with the number of active cases falling every day … we can be very positive about tomorrow’s announcement,” Prime Minister Andrew Andrew told reporters when asked about the removal of curbs during gatherings.

The state of Queensland has said it will open its borders to Melbourne residents from Saturday, to South Australia planning to lift its border restrictions from Friday.

New South Wales has not reported any new local affairs for the 39th day in a row, as it looks like the curbs will be relaxed during the dance at weddings, from Friday at indoor venues and home gatherings.

Singapore on Tuesday received its first batch of Covid vaccine made by Chinese Sinovac Biotech, the health ministry said, although the shot is still awaiting approval for use in the city-state, Reuters reported.

Sinovac has begun submitting initial data, but the Health Sciences Authority is currently awaiting all necessary information to conduct a thorough assessment, the ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

Singapore is the only affluent country considering the use of the Sinovac vaccine, of which there is an efficacy rate of around 50% to 90% in studies.

The city-state has been implementing its Covid vaccination program for the past two months. This approved photos from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Podcast: Please no sex, we are British. Dating in a pandemic

Lockdown rules have left little chance for people who do not yet live with a partner, to pursue romantic relationships, Zoe Williams explains:

In other news from Australia:

Australian athletes in Australia will not be expected to have a Covid-19 vaccination, but will be encouraged to do so when planning for the delayed Tokyo Games begins in July, reports the Australian Associated Press .

IOC Vice President and AOC President John Coates said the planning had reached the end of the show, which would begin one year later than originally planned on July 23:

China is continuing with two more Covid vaccines in the regulatory process, one from state-owned company Sinopharm and one from a private company CanSino, reports AP.

Both vaccines were submitted to regulators this week for approval.

CanSino said Chinese regulators are reviewing the application for its Covid vaccine in a stock filed Wednesday.

Sinopharm’s subsidiary, the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, announced on Wednesday that it had submitted an application on Sunday and that regulators were reviewing it.

China has already approved two vaccines it used in a mass vaccination campaign. One of them is also from Sinopharm, but it was developed by its subsidiary in Beijing. The other is the Sinovac vaccine.

The Wuhan shot from Sinopharm is 72.51% effective, the company said. Both shots from Sinopharm rely on inactivated viruses, a traditional technology.

CanSino’s vaccine is a single shot that relies on a harmless cold virus, called an adenovirus, to deliver the spike gene from the virus into the body. The technology is similar to the vaccines of Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which are dependent on different adenoviruses.

The CanSino vaccine is 65.28% effective, the company said Wednesday. None of the companies have yet published their trial data in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics will give the promotion of gender equality as high a priority as efforts to ensure a coronavirus-free game, their principal said on Wednesday.

Reuters: Seiko Hashimoto, acknowledging that the Covid epidemic has left many people worried on the way to the Games, said organizers plan to release detailed coronavirus guidelines for the torch relay beginning in late March on Thursday.

Hashimoto was named president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee last week as a replacement for 83-year-old former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, who resigned after sparking outrage with sexist remarks.

Hashimoto said the organizing committee had set up a team to promote gender equality and reiterated a goal to increase the number of women on the council to 40%.

“Even with limited time until the Games, we will work hard so that people can look back and say that this is a major turning point for Japan,” Hashimoto told reporters, referring to the new equality team.

She spoke after a meeting with the International Olympic Committee’s board, and because the minister overseeing Japan’s vaccination program said in a separate event that the Games were not part of his planning, the minister overseeing about the public concern about the Olympics, said.

About 1,000 Game volunteers have quit since the beginning of this month, while four torchbearers have resigned, according to the organizing team so far.