Covid update: India vaccine progress; another minister infected; IMF on economy

Covid update: India vaccine progress; another minister infected; IMF on economy

From another minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet testing positive for infection, to the progress report of India's indigenously-developed vaccine candidates - here are the top news updates on the Covid-19 pandemic.

Union minister of petroleum and natural gas, and steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, tested positive days after Union Home minister Amit Shah confirmed his positive diagnosis.

Meanwhile, other members of the Union cabinet, like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Babul Supriyo, are quarantining themselves as a precaution.

On the medical front, India's two vaccine candidates have completed phase 1 of human clinical trials.

The vaccines have been developed by Bharat Biotech, ICMR and Zydus Cadila.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has decided to allow all places of worship to reopen from August 16.

Earlier, the authorities had decided to cancel the annual Amarnath Yatra due to the Covid pandemic.

In economic news, the International Monetary Fund has said that Covid might exacerbate the narrowing of global current account imbalances which was happening due to trade slowdown in 2019.

Watch the full video for the other updates on the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.