Coronavirus India LIVE Updates: 19 symptomatic coronavirus patients get discharged from PGI Chandigarh on Thursday. (Express photo by Jaipal Singh)
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tracker India News Live Updates: In a routine press briefing on the coronavirus situation in the country, the Health Ministry Friday said that 3,234 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours. A total of 48,534 COVID-19 patients, which is about 41 per cent of total cases, have recovered so far, the ministry added. Even by a simple model, at least 14-29 lakh coronavirus cases and between 37,000 and 71,000 deaths have been averted, said the Centre Friday, highlighting how India has been able to contain the virus through early implementation of nationwide lockdown. Meanwhile, member of NITI Aayog Dr V K Paul said that the growth rate of the virus was controlled by India. “You can imagine how it would have been if growth had continued at 22 per cent. The doubling time has come down from 3.5 days to 13.5 days because of the lockdown,” said Dr Paul.
India reported 6,088 fresh cases in the last 24 hours taking the total number of coronavirus infections to 118,447. The death toll due to the coronavirus pandemic rose to 3,583 on Friday and of the total tally, as many as 48,533 people have been treated and discharged so far. India has the 11th highest cases across the world. Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 41,642 active cases. Apart from the infection, West Bengal and Odisha are now also
Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das Friday said that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Friday unanimously decided to slash the repo rate by another 40 basis points from 4.4 per cent to 4 per cent. The announcement came following a three-day off-cycle meeting of the MPC, held between May 20 and 22.
A section of the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders stranded abroad would now be able to travel back to India as the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday relaxed the travel restrictions for certain categories of these OCIs specified by the ministry. The Home Ministry Thursday also issued a statement to states, saying guidelines for lockdown 4.0 are not being implemented properly. The ministry asked the states to delineate zones properly along its directions and emphasized the need for night curfew. Also, the Civil Aviation Ministry Thursday said that only one-third flight services will be resumed on May 25 and passengers with only web check-in will be allowed to travel.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation will share standard operating procedures with all airports and airlines. (File Photo)
Students, IT proffesionals and labourers at the first special train to Kashmir that left from Pune amid lockdown 4.0
The Karnataka government Friday decided to bear the travel cost of migrant workers in the state going back to their home towns in Shramik Special trains till May 31.
“The Government has considered the plea of migrant workers who were unable to bear the travel expenditure to go back to their hometown. The government considers migrant workers, who have come from far-flung parts of our country, as our own people and it is my firm belief that they too must be supported by the State,” Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said in a tweet.
Welcoming the move, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar said, “Thank you CM Yediyurappa for favourably considering the Congress party’s demands to take up the cause of our nation builders.”
More than 10,200 people — including children between the ages of five and 12 and adults over 70 — will be enrolled for the second phase of clinical trials to develop a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, the University of Oxford has said in a statement.
The first phase of trials was initiated in April and involved 1,000 healthy adults aged 55 and under. While a trial of the vaccine on monkeys was allegedly successfully completed, the scientists behind the vaccine have said that this does not confirm whether it will work on humans.
The second phase of the study aims to assess the immune response to the vaccine in people of different age groups. The third phase will judge the effectiveness of the vaccine in a large number of people over the age of 18, researchers at the University of Oxford have said.
SSLC students residing in containment zones will be considered as fresh candidates for the exam later. They will not be allowed to appear for the exam scheduled to start from June 25, Karnataka Education Minister S.Suresh Kumar said.
A section of the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders stranded abroad would now be able to travel back to India as the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday relaxed the travel restrictions for certain categories of these OCIs specified by the ministry.
According to the MHA notification, the categories of the cardholders who would be permitted to travel to India are:
A total of 597 people have recovered from Covid-19 infection in Karnataka so far. With 138 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the number of positive cases has risen to 1,743.
Twelve people tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Friday, taking the number of cases in the state to 165, officials said here. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 102. Fifty-three of these are from Hamirpur, 28 from Kangra, five each from Solan and Bilaspur, four from Mandi, two each from Sirmaur, Una and Chamba, and one from Kullu, the officials said. Four patients were also discharged in Kangra during the day, taking the number of those who have recovered from the disease so far to 59, they added. -- PTI
Five more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar on Friday, taking the number of cases in the district to 307, officials said. Also, five people, including an 80-year-old woman, were discharged from hospitals after recovery from COVID-9, the officials said.
District Surveillance Officer Sunil Dohare said 62 test results were obtained from the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and 10 from the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) on Thursday, while others were from private labs.
"All results from GIMS were negative. One from NIB was found positive, while five from private laboratories were also found positive," he said. -- PTI
Even by a simple model, at least 14-29 lakh coronavirus cases and between 37,000 and 71,000 deaths have been averted, said the Centre Friday, highlighting how India has been able to contain the virus through early implementation of nationwide lockdown.
In a routine press briefing to apprise media about the coronavirus situation in the country, Praveen Srivastava, a senior officer with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), said the government has shared publicly available data with independent experts to model the impact of lockdown, adding that “in pandemic like this there are no parallels to compare”.
“Two independent economists have estimated that we have averted 23 lakh cases and 68,000 deaths. According to some retired scientists about 15.9 lakh cases and 51,000 deaths have been avoided, my ministry worked with Indian Statistical Institute and found 20 lakh cases were averted,” said Srivastava. “The way we are opening up economy, the way people are sensitised, it will have significant impact,” he added.
Lockdown cannot go on forever, its meant for a purpose which we have achieved to a very large extent. Now we have to make things difficult for the virus, said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. "It is unethical, immoral to stigmatise the disease, please ensure early care seeking, handwashing etc. This is a long haul not of weeks and months. Goal will be to stop the spread with minimum deaths, he added.
Aarogya Setu is our kavach to save ourselves, do disease surveillance fight the virus. Over 10 crore people have downloaded it, said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul.
In less than two months we have 1,093 facilities with 1,85,306 beds; 2402 facilities with 1,38652 beds with oxygen facility. "It has been used only in some places but preparation is national", said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. He added there are 6.5 lakh beds in the facilities where patients are just kept for observation. Seven companies have started production of testing kits. "Our indigenous kit production capacity is going to become 5 lakh per day in the coming days, Dr Paul added.
"Globally 80% of cases in 5 countries and 90% in ten countries. We have limited the virus by the Union govt, state govt and people; 60% of our cases in five cities, 70% in ten cities", said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. He added that there is a big gain made in the preparations that we have made in the lockdown period for the future.
The growth rate of COVID19 cases has witnessed a steady fall from April 3, 2020 when the lockdown was able to put a brake on the speed of growth. The number of cases today would have been much higher, had lockdown not been implemented, said VK Paul, Chairman of Empowered Group 1.
In today's evening briefing, the Union Health Ministry said that 3,234 patients have recovered in last 24 hours. 48,534 COVID-19 patients, which is about 41 per cent of total cases, have recovered so far.
According to Boston Consulting Group, cases could have been 36 lakh-70 lakh without the lockdown, the Public health Foundation of India shows 78,183 deaths have been avoided, said Praveen Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. He added that two independent economists have estimated that we have averted 23 lakh cases and 68,000 deaths. Even by a simple model, 14-29 lakh cases have been averted, deaths averted vary between 37,000 and 71,000, he said.
Doubling time has slowed down from 3.5 days to 13.5 days because of the lockdown, said Niti Aayog's Dr V K Paul. He added that the growth rate of the virus was controlled by the country. "You can imagine how it would have been if growth had continued at 22%", he said. The effect of Lockdown 2 was visible till May 15; deaths were increasing at a faster rate. There is clear difference between pre and post lockdown, he added.
Key points from the presser:
Key points from the presser:
Karnataka government will bear the travel cost of all migrant workers and stranded people to their respective states in Shramik Special Trains up to May 31.
Two women tested positive for COVID 19 on Friday pushing the tally of the number of active cases up to 19, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said.
One woman (43) had returned to Puducherry from Chennai and been admitted to the Indira Gandhi Government medical college hospital after she tested positive for the pandemic, the Minister told reporters. The other woman (46) was now in quarantine in Chennai after she tested positive for the infection. Although she is in Chennai she is enlisted as a patient in the number of cases of Puducherry region.
With this the number of active cases in the union territory has risen to 15. -- PTI