Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Migrant workers going home in Jharkhand from Delhi on Wednesday. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With India reporting 8,908 cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus infections in India crossed the 2 lakh-mark to reach 2,07,614 on Wednesday. This includes 5,815 deaths and 1,00,302 cured/ discharged. As many as 217 people have died in the last 24 hours across the country. Also, for the first time in nearly two months, the growth rate of infections in Maharashtra has slowed to fall below that of the country as a whole. The seven-day compounded daily growth rate (CDGR) for Maharashtra has remained below the national average for three consecutive days now.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientist Dr Nivedita Gupta has said that the country is still “very far away from the peak”. In an infectious disease, a peak signifies the point at which the daily case count will start to fall. Over the last few days, over 8,000 new cases have been reported from across the country daily. “We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures have been very effective. We are in a much better position vis-a-vis other countries and you will see the data soon,” Dr Gupta said.
Also, according to the new findings by ICMR’s National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, only seven per cent of coronavirus samples have a “high viral load” — meaning these people would, on average, transmit the infection to 6.25 other people. The vast majority (84%) have a low infectiousness, transmitting to only 0.8 persons on average. Nine per cent have a moderate viral load.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been of senior citizens who constitute 10 per cent of the total population, while 73 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the country are of people with comorbidities.
India is currently on the 7th spot on the global list of countries worst-hit by Covid-19. Globally, over 6,378,239 cases have been reported, while 3,80,250 people have succumbed to the infection. The United States continues to be the worst-affected nation with 1,831,821 cases and 1,06,180 deaths.
Coronavirus India LIVE news updates: As relaxations under Unlock 1.0 were announced in Gujarat, state transport buses started their operations on Monday.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: Migrant workers from Hardoi of UP resides at Jawaddi in Ludhiana wait for the confirmation of their ticket to Shramik train.
The number of coronavirus cases in the state surged to 8,361 byTuesday evening, with an addition of 296 cases in the past 24 hours. For the second consecutive day, Noida recorded the highest number of cases in UP at 27, taking the number of active cases there to 194 — the highest in the state. Most of the news cases reported are by are inter-state migrants coming back from Delhi, Mumbai, Surat.
Tripura crossed 500 mark of coronavirus patients on Wednesday as forty-nine more people tested positive. Most of them had recent travel history or they were in close contact with those affected by the virus earlier. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb Tweeted about the new cases and wrote, "Out of 821 samples tested today, 49 people found COVID-19 #POSITIVE. Most of them have travel history and contact's. #TripuraCOVID19Count". Tripura now has 521 cumulative coronavirus patients, out of which 173 have 'recovered' and were discharged from hospital.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday imposed Rs 10,000 as cost on a runaway couple for not wearing masks at the time of the marriage ceremony. The couple from Punjab had married against the wishes of their families and approached the High Court for protection against the threats to separate them.
While directing the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gurdaspur, take appropriate remedial measures regarding their threat perception and ordering the officer to pass a necessary order to ensure that no harm is caused to their life and liberty, the court also took note of the photographs attached with the petition which showed the couple and other attending persons were not wearing masks at the time of marriage ceremony. The masks are otherwise mandatory in Punjab in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here
A homoeopathic drug, Arsenicum album 30, has become a subject of debate after several states recommended it for prophylactic (preventive) use against Covid-19. This was after the Ministry of AYUSH listed the drug among “preventive and prophylactic simple remedies” against Covid-19. The debate stems from the fact that there is no scientific evidence that the drug works against Covid-19, a fact stressed not only by medical scientists but also by some homoeopathic practitioners themselves.
Arsenicum album 30 has been recommended by the state governments in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. While the Maharashtra government is yet to take a formal decision, Mumbai civic authorities have been distributing the drug to high-risk populations in at least two wards. The Haryana prisons department and Mumbai police too are also distributing the drug to prisoners and officers respectively.
As states began phased reopening of most activities on Monday, tto track prevalence of infection in the community.
From construction workers to agricultural labourers, and vegetable vendors to shopkeepers, there are 15 categories of people who will be tested every day in each district as part of the sentinel surveillance, the state Health Medical and Family Welfare Department has ordered.
The Rajasthan government Tuesday imposed a surcharge of up to Rs 30 on Liquor to mop up the revenue amid the coronavirus crisis.The state finance department said the decision has been taken to mitigate natural or man-made calamities like floods, epidemic etc
Similarly, the surcharge on Indian-made Foreign Liquor will be Rs 5 for 180 ml and 375 ml bottles, breezers, miniature and other packaging, while it will be Rs 10 on 750 ml bottles.
Voters navigated curfews and health concerns in a slate of primary contests on Tuesday that tested the nation’s ability to host elections amid dueling crises and moved Joe Biden closer to formally clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.
In all, nine states and the District of Columbia held primary elections to decide a series of state and federal contests, including the 2020 presidential race . With no real competition, Biden and President Donald Trump easily won their respective primary elections in Indiana, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Mexico, Montana and the night’s biggest prize: Pennsylvania. Biden also won South Dakota. Read More
Haryana witnessed the highest single-day spike with 296 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, with the maximum cases again recorded in Gurgaon district (160), followed by Faridabad (26) and Sonipat (21). With the total number of cases reaching 2,652 Tuesday, the case-doubling rate in the state also reached six days.
Haryana ACS (Health) Rajiv Arora issued notices to various private laboratories in Gurgaon for not sharing proper data of testing samples with the state government. Sources said Arora had also written to ICMR and the Union government apprising them that as many as 20 private laboratories in Gurgaon were not sharing any testing samples’ reports with the state government. He wrote that samples from Delhi were also being tested in Gurgaon’s labs.
With Bihar deciding to do away with mandatory quarantine for migrants returning to the state, the centres will be closed on June 15 after the last batch of registered migrants finish their period. While staying cooped up indoors could get pretty monotonous and difficult to pass time, a video of migrants dancing at a quarantine centre while maintaining social distance has gone viral on social media.
Tweeted by Uttar Pradesh police officer Rahul Srivastav, the video shows residents of Juafar Quarantine Centre in Siwan, Bihar, standing in five rows and trying to match the steps of an instructor who is seen dancing to the tunes of ‘Sandese Aate Hai’ from the 1997 war-action film Border.
Business activity across India’s service sector fell drastically during May as the unfavourable economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic impaired business operations, restricted consumer footfall and led demand to collapse, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index stood at 12.6 in May. Although the headline figure rose from April’s unprecedented low of 5.4, it remained at a level which, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, was unparalleled in over 14 years of data collection and pointed to an extreme drop in services activity across India, the survey noted.
Business conditions in the Arab world’s three largest economies deteriorated at a slower pace in May as governments began to lift some lockdown restrictions while companies adjusted by slimming down staff and cutting salaries.
Following a pandemic-driven plunge, non-oil private sector activity improved in Saudi, Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, according to Purchasing Managers’ Index surveys compiled by IHS Markit. The gauge in each country still remained below the threshold of 50 that separates growth from contraction. Read More
Delhi govt has formed a five-member committee to assess the overall preparedness of the city for COVID19. This is the second committee to be formed by the government in the last two months. The committee has been asked to submit its report by June 6.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said on Wednesday he would use the air tickets he is entitled to as an MP to help stranded migrant workers reach Patna from Delhi by flights. He would take migrant workers on two flights to Patna on Thursday. In a tweet, Singh said that he will use 34 flight tickets received by an MP during the year to send migrants to Patna with the help of colleagues and voluntary organisations. An MP is entitled to 34 business class tickets in domestic flights annually.
The decision was praised by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who said it would be an inspiration for everyone. "Everyone will be inspired by this unique initiative of Sanjay ji. Those whom God has given means, it is their responsibility to put their resources in the service of others. Sanjay ji deserves to be congratulated," Kejriwal said in a tweet.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appealed to the Centre to give one-time assistance of Rs 10,000 each to migrant workers amid the COVID-19 crisis.
In a tweet, she said financial aid should also be provided to those engaged in the unorganised sector to help them cope with the ongoing economic crisis arising out of the lockdown. Banerjee suggested that a portion of the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) could be used for the purpose. "People have been facing economic hardship of unimaginable proportions bcz of the ongoing pandemic. I appeal to Central Govt to transfer Rs 10,000 each as one-time assistance to migrant labourers including people in unorganised sector. A portion of PM-CARES could be used for this," she tweeted.
Sitting on the verandah at her home in Begusarai’s “vegetable village” of Chhapki, Rupam Kumari, a class V student at a private school, is busy solving a mathematics problem as her mother watches from a corner. She said she has to rely on self-learning these days as there are hardly any online classes at her school.
Nearly all the villagers grow vegetables in Chhapki, which has a population of around 1,300 and nearly 400 school-going children.
Over 350 children are enrolled at the only middle school in the village, but most of them either don’t take classes or are admitted to private schools at the same time. While the average income of a vegetable farmer is anywhere around Rs 10,000-15,000, 90 per cent of families have enrolled their children in private schools. Read More
STATE
TOTAL POSITIVE
NEW CASES
TOTAL RECOVERIES
DEATHS
Maharashtra
72,300
2,287
31,333
2,474
Tamil Nadu
24,586
1,091
13,706
197
Delhi
22,132
1,298
9,243
556
Gujarat
17,632
415
11,894
1,092
Rajasthan
9,260
273
6,330
203
Uttar Pradesh
8,729
368
5,176
229
Madhya Pradesh
8,420
137
5,221
364
West Bengal
6,168
396
2,410
335
Bihar
4,096
151
1,803
24
Andhra Pradesh
3,906
230
2,209
64
While the number of novel Coronavirus cases in the country has been rising steadily, between eight and nine thousand a day these days, the growth rate has been coming down, nationally as well as in most of the states with major caseloads.
At the start of May, the compounded daily growth rate of cases in India was around 6.2 per cent. It rose to about 7 per cent before starting a decline that has continued since then. On Tuesday, the national growth rate was 4.67 per cent. Read More
The clinical administration of the blood component plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to those severely affected by the disease could be a safe option without adverse side effects, according to a study which may lead to better treatment protocols against novel coronavirus infection. On March 28, researchers from the Houston Methodist Hospital in the US, began clinical trials to transfuse plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients into critically ill patients, they noted in a statement. In the study, published in The American Journal of Pathology, the scientists described the clinical outcomes of the convalescent plasma transfusion trial, showing 19 out of 25 patients improving with the treatment, and 11 discharged from the hospital. -- PTI
Flying in the times of a pandemic, which has already affected more than two lakh Indians, is easier said than done. Following fervent calls from my panic-stricken parents to return to Kolkata after seeing the rising Covid-19 cases in Delhi, where I work, I managed to shore up my confidence to make the over 1500-km journey.
With West Bengal opening its airport three days after the DGCA allowed domestic flight operations to resume, I managed to book a ticket for June 2 as fares for the initial days showed anywhere between Rs 9000 and Rs 11,000 — this despite the aviation regulator capping prices for the Delhi to Kolkata route between Rs 3000 and Rs 10,000.
The next task at hand was akin to a student preparing for his school exams. With the DGCA issuing a host of guidelines for both airports and in-flight, every procedure had been modified as I geared up to take my first flight in a post-COVID world. Read More
With asymptomatic people getting tested for Covid-19 and then insisting on getting admitted to hospitals, the Delhi government is learnt to have conveyed to several private labs and hospitals to keep ICMR guidelines in mind while testing. “Some letters have been sent to a few private labs since they were not following ICMR guidelines. A meeting regarding this was also held last week,” a government spokesperson told The Indian Express.
According to sources, the meeting was called by the Delhi government’s health department last week, and several private lab owners and representatives were asked about the nature of patients visiting the facilities. Read more