Only 1.5 per cent of the whole population of Africa has been vaccinated against Covid-19, and the continent might not even reach 10 per cent coverage by December 2021, although the World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to cross that threshold by September of this year, WHO officials warned on Friday.

A new study of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows the Delta variant produced similar amounts of virus in vaccinated and unvaccinated people if they get infected.

The study, published by the CDC on Friday, focused on 469 Covid-19 cases identified among Massachusetts residents who had travelled to Barnstable County, a summer vacation destination, during July 3 to 17, the Xinhua news agency reported.

For the fourth straight day, Kerala on Friday logged over 20,000 cases of COVID-19. Kerala logged 20,772 COVID cases and 116 deaths from coronavirus. The high test positivity rate (TPR) in Kerala stands at 13.61 percent.

This comes as weekend lockdown in the southern state comes in effect from today. Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala has imposed a complete lockdown in the state for the weekend, July 31 and August 1, to check the spread of coronavirus.

Global hunger will surge by about a third this year, driven by lingering income losses from the pandemic, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

The department’s annual assessment of food security in 76 middle- and low-income nations that are past or current recipients of US food aid estimates an additional 291 million people in those countries won’t have enough to eat in 2021.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 196.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.19 million and vaccinations soared to over 3.99 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll stood and vaccination tally stood at 196,543,425, 4,196,442 and 3,993,341,219, respectively.

International community came forward with offers of solidarity and assistance for specific medicines and equipment that were not immediately available in the country during the second wave of COVID-19 and material from 52 countries have been received till date, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said in a written reply that India has imported 31.5 lakh units of Sputnik Component 1 and 4.5 lakh units of Sputnik Component 2 vaccine till date.

The price of 10 gm of 22-carat gold went up on Friday to trade at Rs 47,070: a change of Rs 230 compared to yesterday’s prices. Silver gained Rs 800 over yesterday’s prices to sell at Rs 67,200 per kg, according to the website Good Returns.

Gold jewellery price varies across India, the second-largest consumer of the metal, due to excise duty, state taxes, and making charges.

Shares of Tech Mahindra surged 8.5 per cent to Rs 1,224, also its new high, on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Friday after the IT major reported a 39.17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,353 crore for the April-June period of financial year 2021-22 (Q1FY22) as against Rs 972-crore profit posted in the corresponding quarter last year. On quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, the profit rose by 25.13 per cent.

The consolidated revenue from operations in Q1FY22 grew 11.98 per cent YoY at Rs 10,198 crore.

Israel's prime minister on Thursday announced that the country would offer a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who have already been vaccinated.

The announcement by Naftali Bennett makes Israel the first country to offer a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday wrote to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging the Centre to extend the moratorium on repayment of short-term crop loans of farmers to December 31.

The former Congress Chief also asked the Centre to waive all penal interest on such loans.

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