Coronavirus wrap August 19 | Hong Kong bars AI flights till August-end; Iran surpasses 20,000 COVID-19 deaths

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India's has recorded 27.67 cases of COVID-19 with 52,889 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry's latest update.

The country saw 64,531 new cases and 1,092 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Of the total COVID-19 cases, over 6.76 lakh are active cases, while more than 20.37 lakh have recovered.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of infections, followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The health ministry updates its numbers a day after states release their data.

Globally, more than 2.2 crore infections and over 7.74 lakh deaths have been reported due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are all the latest updates:

>> Serum Institute of India (SII) initiated phase two and three clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine to evaluate its safety and immune response on healthy Indian adults.

>> Hong Kong barred Air India flights till August-end after passengers tested positive for COVID-19.

>> Arunachal Pradesh reported its highest-single day spike in COVID-19 cases as 133 people, including 29 security personnel, tested positive for the infection.

>> Although COVID-19 patients may lose their sense of smell, they can breathe freely, do not tend to have a runny or blocked nose, and cannot detect bitter or sweet tastes, a study has said.

>> Iran surpassed 20,000 confirmed deaths from the coronavirus on August 19, the country's health ministry said - the highest death toll for any West Asian country so far in the pandemic.

>> The UK government announced a significant expansion of its coronavirus testing programme with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) planning to test 1,50,000 people every fortnight by October from the current 28,000 tests in that period.