Workers who returned to West Bengal go their homes in buses arranged by the administration.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India will get back its growth after the coronavirus lockdown and is already on that path with ‘Unlock phase-1’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today, addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Session 2020. Stressing on the need for self-reliance, PM Modi said, “World is looking for a trusted, reliable partner; India has potential, strength, ability. India now needs to manufacture products that are ‘made in India’ but ‘made for the world’.” He said that strengthening the economy is one of the top priorities alongside fighting coronavirus.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also launched a mobile app for information on the availability of beds and ventilators in the city’s COVID designated hospitals. Called ‘Delhi Corona’, the CM said, the app will help in reducing the ‘information gap’ in the capital.
Coronavirus infections neared the 2 lakh-mark on Tuesday. Of the 1,98,706 infections, 97,581 are active cases, while 5598 deaths have been reported. Over 95,000 patients have been discharged. India is currently on the 7th spot on the global list of countries worst-hit by Covid-19. Globally, over 6.2 million cases have been reported, while 3.75 lakh people have succumbed to the infection. The United States continues to be the worst-affected nation.
As relaxations under Unlock 1.0 were announced in Gujarat, state transport buses started their operations on Monday.
Delhi-Noida border saw huge traffic on Monday.
Indian RNA extraction kits are now available in good number, RT-PCR kits by 11-12 indigenous vendors are now being used, we are now in a comfortable position as reg. testing, due to identification and hand-holding of domestic players: Nivedita Gupta, ICMR.
Asked about the Delhi government's decision to close its borders, Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said, "We have asked all states to analyse the trajectory of the cases in their respective states. If a state thinks that it needs to set up temporary Covid-19 care centres then it must do so."
Lav Agarwal: At least 1.20 lakh samples are being tested for Covid-19 on an average per day. At present, there are 476 government, 205 private labs testing for virus.
In a press briefing, Luv Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry said:
* Till now, 95,527 Covid-19 patients have recovered. The recovery rate is now 48.07 per cent.
* At least 10 per cent of India's population accounts for 50 per cent of India's Covid-19 linked deaths.
* At least 73 per cent of Covid-19 deaths in India are people with co-morbidities.
Forty-one more people tested positive for Covid-19 in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, taking the total positive cases in the state to 999, news agency PTI reported.
The highest number of 26 cases were reported from Dehradun district, 11 from Tehri, three from Chamoli and one from Haridwar district, a state heath department bulletin here said.
There are 746 active cases in the hill state, while 243 people have recovered from the infection, it said.
Seven people have died due to coronavirus in Uttarakhand so far and three patients migrated to other states.
After a gap of three months, Delhi’s famous shopping place, Sarojini Nagar reopened in the ‘Unlock 1’ phase.
Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu violated social distancing norms by holding a grand procession in Chitradurga district. The minister was welcomed by his followers with a huge apple garland and flowers.
Nagaland reported six more Covid-19 positive cases on Tuesday, all from Dimapur district, the commercial hub of the state. The total number of positive and active cases in the state stands at 49.
S Pangnyu Phom, Nagaland Health Minister tweeted that all the six cases who have tested positive had returned from Chennai.
On May 22, the first special train carrying around 1477 stranded state natives arrived in Dimapur railway station from Chennai.
The app, ‘Delhi Corona’, can be downloaded from Google Play Store. It is currently available only for Android users. The app is not available for Apple users as of now. The information on the app has also been made available on the portal delhifightscorona.in/beds. The information will also be shared via SMS with those dialling the helpline number 1031, Kejriwal said. He also issued the WhatsApp number (8800007722) for this purpose. “If you are denied admission in any hospital despite the app saying beds are available, call up 1031 to lodge your grievance and the special secretary of the Health Department will ensure beds are made available to you,” the CM said.
The aggregate number of coronavirus cases touched 3,791 in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday as the upward spiral continued with 115 additions in the last 24 hours. The latest government health bulletin said no fresh deaths due to the virus were reported in the last 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday while 40 patients were discharged from hospitals upon recovery. The overall Covid-19 toll in the state so far is 64. Of the new cases, 82 were residents of the state and the remaining 33 came from other states, the bulletin said.
An 80-year-old who works as a porter at the Lucknow railway station is being widely praised on social media after a video report emerged of him helping workers who are headed home for free. After the government started Shramik Special trains to transport workers to their home states, Mujibullah Rehman has been helping travellers with their luggage for free at the Charbagh railway station. According to news agency ANI, Rehman works at the station for around 8-10 hours daily. Read here
Throughout January, the World Health Organisation publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus and thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus “immediately.”
But in fact, Chinese officials sat on releasing the genetic map, or genome, of the deadly virus for over a week after multiple government labs had fully decoded it, not sharing details key to designing tests, drugs and vaccines. Strict controls on information and competition within the Chinese public health system were largely to blame, The Associated Press has found from internal documents, emails and dozens of interviews.
Health officials only released the genome after a Chinese lab published it ahead of authorities on a virology website on Jan 11. Even then, China stalled for at least two weeks more on giving WHO the details it needed, according to recordings of multiple internal meetings held by the U.N. health agency in January, all at a time when the outbreak arguably might have been dramatically slowed.
Nearly 700 Indians, mostly hailing from Tamil Nadu arrived in Tuticorin on Tuesday by naval warship 'INS Jalashwa' from Sri Lanka, where they were stranded due to COVID-19 linked international travel restrictions. As soon as the passengers disembarked, they were thermal screened and their baggage disinfected by health workers in protective gear, V O Chidambaranar Port Trust and district police authorities said. A chunk of the returnees were stranded tourists, some fishermen and workers and there were others under categories like "... short term visa holders faced with expiry of visas," according to the port. A senior police official said returnees were being sent to their respective districts in Tamil Nadu through specially arranged government buses and they have been advised to remain in home quarantine for two weeks.
A day after Raj Bhavan in Bhopal was declared ‘containment free’, one more case of the coronavirus infection was reported on Tuesday. Sources in the Raj Bhavan confirmed to The Indian Express that a labourer has tested positive, taking the number of infected persons to 11 on the sprawling campus.
Last week, ten persons, including a peon, a cleaner and their family members living in nearby houses, had tested positive. The Raj Bhavan administration had restricted movements on the campus after parts of it were declared containment zone. The Governor’s house and office, located some distance from the employees’ quarters, were declared an inner zone.
"No. of cases in Delhi are increasing, but there's no need to worry about medical care for COVID-19 patients as we've done sufficient arrangements. If any member of your family tests positive, then they'll get the required medical services. We are four steps ahead of coronavirus. Cases of coronavirus are increasing in Delhi but we have made all the arrangements for beds, ICUs and ventilators," Kejriwal said, adding that all information is now available at the click of a button. However, he also added that the hospitals will decide if the patient requires admission or if home isolation would suffice.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is addressing the media. "We have made arrangements for sufficient beds, oxygen cylinders, ventilators. From the experiences of other countries, we have realised that most of them are falling short of hospital infrastructure. Despite having enough arrangements as of now, we get calls about inadequate beds, oxygen cylinders. There's an information gap. This is why we have come up with this app to provide you with information regarding hospitals in Delhi."
In this episode of Three Things podcast, Apurva Vishwanath talks about how Indian courts are functioning right now, the challenges they are facing, and the role of the judiciary in a crisis like this. Also on the podcast is why some prominent public health and medicine experts have criticised the government’s handling of the pandemic
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Annual Session 2020 on Tuesday, where he assured India Inc that the economy would soon grow with the ‘Unlock 1’ already in place. The prime minister said that strengthening the economy is one of the top priorities alongside fighting coronavirus. Here's a look at some of his important quotes from the address
Indian cricketer Mohammad Shami came forward to distribute food packets and masks to those headed home on buses and by road in Uttar Pradesh. In a video, the 29-year old fast bowler was seen distributing water to those waiting for buses to start. He distributed food and bananas to around 200 people and also helped put up tents along the highway near Amroha in Uttar Pradesh to distribute food and water.
Sharing a video, BCCI wrote, “As #IndiaFightsCorona, @MdShami11 comes forward to help people trying to reach home by distributing food packets & masks on National Highway No. 24 in Uttar Pradesh. He has also set up food distribution centres near his house in Sahaspur. We are in this together.”
As completion of one year of the Modi government’s second term coincided with the country engaged in battling the coronavirus outbreak and subsequently the migrants crisis, Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry, spoke to Ravish Tiwari and Avishek G Dastidar on what the government has done so far and what lies ahead. Read the entire interview here