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India reported 13,313 fresh Covid-19 cases and 38 deaths in the 24 hours ending at 8 am on Thursday, The Indian Express reported.

The new cases marked an increase from the previous day’s nearly 12,000 new cases, while the daily positivity rate saw a dip from 3.94 per cent to 2.03 per cent, data released by the Ministry of Health showed.

The active cases in the country stood at 83,990.

Delhi reported 928 new Covid-19 cases (lowest since June 13) and 3 pandemic related deaths on Wednesday. There are 5,054 active cases in Delhi while the city’s positivity rate stands at 7.08%. A total of 26,453 people got vaccinated in the capital in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile Mumbai recorded 1,648 new Covid cases on Wednesday and the total number of active cases in the city stands at 13,501, according to The Indian Express.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray  tested positive for Covid-19on Wednesday. Their diagnosis comes at a time when the state is in the midst of a political crisis. The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi government is facing the threat of being toppled after Shiv Sena leader Eknath Khadse and 40 other rebel MLAs have left the state, and are currently camping in Assam’s Guwahati.

An earthquake measuring 4.1 ML on the Richter scale shook Gorkha district on Thursday.

According to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center, the tremor was felt at 3: 56 am local time with its epicenter near Dhampus of Machhapuchhare Rural Municipality.

The jolt was felt in Parbat, Myagdi and Baglung of Gangaki Province and also in Tanahun.

Two persons died when a tipper hit a motorbike they were riding on at Adarsha Chok in Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur on Wednesday.

The identities of the deceased are yet to be established.

Critically injured in the incident, they breathed their last during the course of treatment at the Bhaktapur Hospital at around 3 am today, police said.

The tipper (Ba 4 Kha 5298) heading towards Jagadi hit the motorbike (Ba 89 Pa 7876) coming from the opposite direction last night.

Police said that they have impounded the tipper and arrested its driver for investigation.

A powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, flattening stone and mud-brick homes and killing at least 1,000 people, Associated Press reported.

The disaster posed a new test for Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and relief agencies already struggling with the country’s multiple humanitarian crises.

The quake was Afghanistan’s deadliest in two decades, and officials said the toll could rise. An estimated 1,500 others were reported injured, the state-run news agency said. 

The disaster inflicted by the 6.1-magnitude quake heaps more misery on a country where millions face increasing hunger and povertyand the health system has been crumbling since the Taliban retook power nearly 10 months ago amid the U.S. and NATO withdrawal. The takeover led to a cutoff of vital international financing, and most of the world has shunned the Taliban government. 

In a rare move, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzadah, who almost never appears in public, pleaded with the international community and humanitarian organizations “to help the Afghan people affected by this great tragedy and to spare no effort.”

Residents in the remote area near the Pakistani border searched for victims dead or alive by digging with their bare hands through the rubble, according to footage shown by the Bakhtar news agency. It was not immediately clear if heavy rescue equipment was being sent, or if it could even reach the area.

At least 2,000 homes were destroyed in the region, where on average every household has seven or eight people living in it, said Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN deputy special representative to Afghanistan, according to Associated Press.

The full extent of the destruction among the villages tucked in the mountains was slow in coming to light. The roads, which are rutted and difficult to travel in the best of circumstances, may have been badly damaged, and landslides from recent rains made access even more difficult. 

Rescuers rushed in by helicopter, but the relief effort could be hindered by the exodus of many international aid agencies from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover last August. Moreover, most governments are wary of dealing directly with the Taliban.

In a sign of the muddled workings between the Taliban and the rest of the world, Alakbarov said the Taliban had not formally requested that the UN mobilize international search-and-rescue teams or obtain equipment from neighboring countries to supplement the few dozen ambulances and several helicopters sent in by Afghan authorities. Still, officials from multiple UN agencies said the Taliban were giving them full access to the area.

The quake was centered in Paktika province, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the city of Khost, according to neighboring Pakistan’s Meteorological Department. Experts put its depth at just 10 kilometers (6 miles). Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage, Associated Press reported.