UK reports nearly 400 virus-linked deaths; German chancellor calls for mandatory jabs – as it happened

UK reports 129,587 new positive Covid-19 cases and 398 more deaths; Germany should make vaccinations mandatory for adults, says Olaf Scholz

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India is reporting almost 200,000 new Covid infections in a single day.

The Asian nation recorded 194,720 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the most since late May, health ministry data shows.

We cannot directly rule out that the virus is imported directly, because the spread of virus is not only through humans, but it can be spread via objects or environmental [contamination].

We are still investigating other possibilities for the virus to be imported to Tianjin directly...There is another option - would it be possible that it is not imported but came from other areas [in China] and spread to Tianjin? We are tracing this simultaneously and we have found some clues already."