AWARE and AWAKE

  The World Health Organization's coronavirus dashboard on Sunday showed a third consecutive daily record high in the number of new confirmed cases. The WHO's complete figures for Saturday showed that 465,319 cases were confirmed to the UN health agency during the day, topping the 449,720 recorded on Friday and the 437,247 logged on Thursday. The WHO has warned that some countries are on a "dangerous track", with too many witnessing an exponential increase in cases. Within each week, the pattern of cases being reported to the WHO tends to spike towards Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and dip around Tuesday and Wednesday.

  The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday confirmed that the finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 will be played in Dubai. The first qualifier of the playoffs stage will also be held at the Dubai International Stadium while the eliminator and second qualifier will be played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. All the playoff matches for the IPL 2020 will be held at 7:30 PM IST. The Women's T20 Challenger Trophy will be held in Sharjah and  all four matches will go ahead at the same venue. For the Women's Challenger Trophy, all the matches will start from 7:30 PM IST except the second match between Velocity and Trailblazers as that will be played from 3:30 IST in the afternoon.

The chain breaks here, in a tiny medical clinic in Burkina Faso that went nearly a year without a working refrigerator. From factory to syringe, the world's most promising coronavirus vaccine candidates need non-stop sterile refrigeration to stay potent and safe. But despite enormous strides in equipping developing countries to maintain the vaccine ``cold chain,'' nearly 3 billion of the world's 7.8 billion people live where temperature-controlled storage is insufficient  or an immunization campaign to bring COVID-19 under control. The result: Poor people around the world who were among the hardest hit by the virus pandemic are also likely to be the last to recover from it. The vaccine cold chain hurdle is just the latest disparity of the pandemic weighted against the poor, who more often live and work in crowded conditions that allow the virus to spread, have little access to medical oxygen that is vital to COVID-19 treatment, and whose h ealth systems lack labs, suppl

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has tested positive for Covid-19, he announced on Twitter late on Sunday. “I have tested COVID-19 positive. Asymptomatic. Feeling very much alright,” Das said on the social media platform. He said he had alerted those who came in contact with him in the last few days, and will continue to work from isolation. Work in RBI will go on normally. I am in touch with all Dy. Govs and other officers through VC and telephone,” he added. On Saturday, the leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis said he had tested positive for Covid-19 virus. The financial capital Mumbai has been one of the worst hit in terms of the number of coronavirus infections. On Saturday, Mumbai reported 1,257 new Covid-19 cases, taking the city’s total tally t0 2,50,061 confirmed cases .. I have tested COVID-19 positive. Asymptomatic.Feeling very much alright.Have alerted those who came in contact in recent days.Will continue to work fr

  The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked all government organisations to identify and implement systemic improvements, an official statement said on Sunday. This is among the initiatives planned by the CVC during the vigilance awareness week that begins from Tuesday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday became the fifth batsman and third Indian to hit 200 sixes in the Indian Premier League. Kohli hit one six and a four in his 43-ball 50 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Dubai International Stadium. Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma (209) and CSK skipper MS Dhoni (216) are the two other Indians on the list. All three of them are below Kohli's RCB team mate AB de Villiers, who is on 231 sixes and his former RCB  team mate Chris Gayle, who sits alone at the top with 336 sixes. Kohli is the highest run scorer of all time in the IPL with 5,827 runs. On Sunday his innings and his 82-run stand with de Villiers was made mostly with singles. The former South Africa captain did not hit a single six in his inn ..