India witnessed another grim record with 4,329 deaths linked to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours even as daily cases dropped to 2.63 lakh. This is the second consecutive day that the country reported less than 3 lakh cases; Nearly 69 per cent of India's COVID-19 cases are limited to only eight states, Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry, said today; Days after floating corpses washed up on the banks of the Ganga at Bihar's Buxar, the Patna High Court has slammed glaring discrepancies in the number of dead reported by different official agencies; Amid vaccine crisis in states, people struggle to book slots. Some states like Telangana have no vaccines for 4th consecutive day; After a historic win in the recent Kerala election, the CPM has decided to drop all previous ministers, including KK Shailaja or "Shailaja Teacher", who won global recognition for her work in Covid management; and other top news of the day.