Coronavirus LIVE Updates: After unlock 1.0, worker sanitising the salon while preparing for wor at a salon in Sector 9 of Chandigarh after salon reopened on Tuesday.
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.
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
The Karnataka excise department has allowed liquor shops to remain open from 9 am to 9 pm and permitted microbreweries to brew fresh beer. The department has also allowed bars and restaurants to procure stock for liquor sale, subject to existing conditions related to the lockdown.
“Permission is hereby accorded to microbreweries for fresh brewing/production and sale of beer as takeaway in glass, ceramic or stainless steel container (up to 2 litre) till 30-06-2020, or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” the Excise Commissioner said in a letter to Deputy Excise Commissioners of all districts.
The officer who had prepared the list of products meant to be banned for sale through canteens of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) is likely to be removed from his post and repatriated to his parent cadre, sources told The Indian Express. The list was withdrawn by the government on Monday amid uproar over items of various Indian companies being included in it.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), sources said, is now working with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the nodal ministry responsible for the Make in India initiative, to prepare a new list of items to be classified as “purely imported”. These will be kept off CAPF canteen shelves.
With the lockdown sending lakhs of migrant labourers back to their villages, over 2.19 crore households utilised the rural job guarantee scheme in May, which is the highest for the month in the last eight years, according to official data.
An analysis of data in this category — available currently from 2013-14 on the MGNREGA portal — shows that the number of households that worked in May was 7.10 lakh higher than the 2.12 crore during the same month last year. Sources in the Ministry of Rural Development told The Indian Express that jobs adding up to over 41 crore person-days were generated in May 2020 as against about 36.95 crore in the same month last year.
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, including 5,815 deaths and 1,00,302 cured/ discharged. As many as 217 people have died in the last 24 hours across the country.
Faced with the challenge of ensuring physical distancing in crowded hostels upon reopening, the IITs have sought a year’s extension to the 2021 deadline set by the government to add new seats for accommodating the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota, The Indian Express has learnt. The 23 premier engineering institutes collectively approached the Centre with the request last month, citing the COVID lockdown.
Government sources said the HRD Ministry will refer the request to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which had moved the EWS quota proposal that was later approved by the Union Cabinet early last year. Read More
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. Viral load refers to the quantity of a virus in an organism and is a reflection of how quickly the virus is replicating. These are new findings by ICMR’s National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Ahmedabad, based on a study of over 1,000 samples collected in the state in April and May. The results will be submitted to ICMR’s Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) this week and underline the need to include viral load figures in Covid test reports.
With 8,171 new cases and 204 deaths being reported yesterday, the total case count is now 1,98,706, including 5,598 deaths and 95,526 cured/ discharged.
As the total Covid-19 case count nears the 2-lakh mark, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientist Dr Nivedita Gupta said on Tuesday 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.
As the Covid count increases across the country, touching the 2-lakh figure Tuesday, a small silver lining has emerged. 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. This trend may not endure as the spread gets wider but it is significant. For, the rate in Maharashtra has been declining for over two weeks now. And because the state accounts for more than a third of the national caseload in the country, this has slowed down the national growth rate as well.
With the return of migrant labourers to West Bengal and the subsequent spike in coronavirus cases, the state government has decided to set up 15 more Covid-19 hospitals across the state, an official said on Tuesday.
The decision was taken even as the state health department announced 10 more Covid-19 deaths and the highest single-day increase in positive cases, with 396 new cases of infection. Read more here
Two more Mumbai policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/two-more-mumbai-policemen-die-of-covid-toll-climbs-to-18-6439883/(ASI), died due to Covid-19 on Tuesday, taking the total number of police personnel having succumbed to the viral infection in Mumbai to 18 and the state to 28.
So far, more than 1,500 Mumbai policemen have tested positive for the infection of whom 533 have recovered and 1,758 others have been asked to observe home quarantine. Read more here
Strongly objecting to an order of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allowing the Popular Front of India (PFI) to facilitate the burial of Muslim victims of Covid-19, former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday sought to know the Uddhav Thackeray government’s stand on the decision.
Fadnavis also tweeted the BMC order entrusting the PFI with the task, which states, “Whenever there is a suspected Covid-19 death of a Muslim person all hospitals should inform the coordinators of the PFI. Task force team of the PFI will facilitate burial of Muslim dead bodies.” Read more here
Ganesh Kumar had just enough time Tuesday to pack some essentials before his family of four was shifted to the St Mary’s School building at Dahanu in Palghar district along with other villagers on Tuesday. For the next 40 hours, they have to stay put inside the building, a concrete safe house, as ‘Cyclone Nisarga’ surges through the western coastline of the state — a first in this part of the coast. Read more here
In a decision set to speed up Covid-19 testing, BMC on Tuesday decided to remove the compulsion of producing a doctor’s prescription for high-risk contacts – even asymptomatic – to undergo tests.
Until now, BMC’s testing guidelines allowed a person showing symptoms to undergo Covid-19 swab test if the person had a doctor’s prescription recommending it. Read more here