Modi said India has taken an important step forward in protecting its youth population against the disease.
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee has been fielded from Chunchura and another MP Nishit Parmanik from Dinhata. Also, a number of film personalities have been nominated as candidates in the high-stakes battle for West Bengal.
The economies of states and union territories such as Puducherry, Kerala, Goa, etc and some North-eastern states are heavily dependent on tourism and hospitality, which is yet to get relaxation from lockdown restrictions.
Most of those who tested positive either recently arrived from African countries or were in contact with such people.
With 78,877 people having recuperated from COVID-19 in a span of 24 hours, India's total recoveries surged to 53,52,078 pushing the recovery rate to 83.70 per cent, according to data updated at 8 am.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 53,946, while 34,108 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
Rahul is scheduled to address a rally of the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance on Tuesday at Karaikal in Puducherry.
Veteran Karnataka medium pacer R Vinay Kumar, who also represented India and led his state team to successive Ranji Trophy titles, on Friday announced his retirement from international and first-class cricket.
Despite Gaikward's brilliance, Maharashtra could not qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days