Coronavirus news highlights: UK Delta variant infections high but hospitalisations in check, study finds

Coronavirus News highlights: India recorded 38,949 new COVID-19 cases, which took the infection tally to 3,10,26,829, while the death toll reached 4,12,531 with 542 more fatalities, according to Union health ministry data updated on Friday. The active cases have declined to 4,30,422 and comprise 1.39 percent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate stands at 97.28 percent, the data updated at 8 am showed. It said that a decrease of 1,619 has been recorded in the number of active cases in a span of 24 hours.