As many as 9,851 fresh cases were registered since Thursday evening, according to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (Express photo: Gurmeet Singh)
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With seven frontline workers from the health department testing positive for COVID-19 in Goa, there is a fear that the viral infection might travel to the interiors of the state, news agency PTI reported.
The Covid-19 tally in India rose to 2,26,770 on Friday even as the Centre prepared to reopen malls, restaurants and religious places as part of the plan to gradually reopen the country. As many as 9,851 fresh cases were registered since Thursday evening, according to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
On Thursday, the government issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for reopening of malls, religious places, restaurants and hotels. Restaurant and food courts in malls will operate at 50 per cent seating capacity with a mandatory distance of six feet between tables. No common prayer mats, physical offerings like prasad, or sprinkling of holy water, will be permitted in places of worship. Age and health-based restrictions will also be in place for stepping out of home.
Globally, over 6,430,705 cases have been reported, 3,85,947 people have succumbed to the infection and 2,804,982 have recovered. The United States continues to be the worst-affected nation with 1,872,660 cases and 1,08,211 deaths.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: Family members of Charan Singh at Delhi border, who came to Delhi by train from Gujarat's Palampur village and going to Kalyanpur village in Kasganj UP. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: Poaching of hares, among other small mammals, has shown an increase. (Source: WWF-India)
Epidemiologists at the state-run Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University has predicted, based on mathematical projections, that Chennai city may witness 1.5 lakh Covid-19 cases and up to 1,600 deaths by July second week at the current rate of growth. The university controls medical education and medical colleges in the state, and its projections are used by the government for active surveillance and preparedness.
The Kerala government is betting on its tried-and-tested model of home quarantine aided by strict grassroot-level monitoring for its expats coming from abroad at a time when coronavirus infections are surging in the state.
Revising its earlier guideline, which mandated seven days of institutional quarantine followed by seven days of home quarantine, the government has now stated that all expatriates returning from abroad can directly go for a 14-day quarantine period at their homes without spending a day at the government’s institutional facilities. Those who don’t have adequate facilities at their homes for quarantine can choose to stay at institutional premises arranged by the government.
Commencing hearing on the plight of stranded migrant workers due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the Supreme Court Friday said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and states for transporting all such labourers to their native places. “What we intend to do is give you and states 15 days time to transport all migrants. States should bring on record how they will provide employment and other kinds of relief to migrants who returned. There should be a registration of migrants,” Justice Ashok Bhushan told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. More details here.
With seven frontline workers from the health department testing positive for COVID-19 in Goa, there is a fear that the viral infection might travel to the interiors of the state, news agency PTI reported. State Health authorities had confirmed Thursday that seven personnel from an urban health centre posted at Mangor Hill in Vasco had contracted the deadly infection. Mangor Hill was declared a COVID-19 containment zone after over 40 cases were detected in the area since early this week.
Tripura Police Friday said that it has so far arrested 4,751 people and booked over 40 others for purportedly violating lockdown restrictions in the state.
A senior official of the state government said that since lockdown was first imposed on March 25 this year, the state police has slapped a fine of Rs 100 on 3,900 people for failing to sport a face mask. Sharing statistics, police also said that it has resolved 7,973 public calls for information and assistance, booked 192 black marketers, visited 28,008 people placed under home quarantine and assisted nearly 1,870 senior citizens during the lockdown period.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in Tripura are at 647, the second-highest in the northeast after Assam. Among them, 173 have recovered and were discharged from the hospital. The state has also reported one death.
In a reminder of George Floyd’s case, a video of a police constable pinning a man on the ground and kneeling on his neck in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur has gone viral on social media. Jodhpur DCP (West) Priti Chandra said the policeman had acted in self-defence to prevent the man from attacking him. The incident took place Thursday when Mukesh Kumar Prajapat was caught roaming without a mask by two police constables. The policemen alleged that Prajapat began slapping and hitting them when they confronted him for violation of the norms. Click here to watch the video.
Mumbai, the city that accounts for 20 per cent of all novel Coronavirus infections in India, has come under scrutiny for its stagnating testing numbers. The city has been testing around 4,000 samples every day and this number has not increased for over a month now. This, despite the fact that it has the capacity to carry out about 10,000 tests per day, and the number of positive cases that it discovers each day has been on a steady rise. The debate on testing has been going on since the outbreak started in India at the beginning of March. The conventional wisdom is that the more tests are carried out, the more are the chances of finding positive patients.
The last three coronavirus patients in Wuhan, the first epicentre of the COVID-19, have been discharged and the central Chinese city has recorded zero cases of the virus after mass testing of about 10 million people, state media reported on Friday. According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), five imported cases, including four in Shanghai and one in Sichuan Province, were reported in China on Thursday.
The Supreme Court today said it intends to give 15 days to the Centre and states for transporting all stranded migrant workers to their native places, commencing hearing on their plight during the lockdown period. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah was informed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that till June 3, over 4,200 "Shramik Special' trains have been deployed to transport migrant workers to their native places. Mehta said that till now over one crore migrant workers have been transported to their destinations and most of the trains ended up in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. He said state governments can tell as to how many more migrant workers need to be shifted and how many trains are required for that purpose. The hearing in the case, which has been taken cognizance on its own by the top court, is underway.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai today said that the Delhi government will run a special campaign to promote medicinal and herbal plants in the next one year in view of the coronavirus threat. These medicinal and herbal plants will be given free at the forest department's nurseries in the city. These include curry leaves, gooseberry, neem, bahera, jamun, guava, arjun, sahjan, wood apple and lemon, the minister said on the occasion of World Environment Day. "These plants help boost immunity which is crucial in view of the coronavirus outbreak. Anyone can get them for free from the forest department's nurseries. Pamphlets listing the benefits of the plants will also be given to the people," the minister told PTI. A campaign will be run to make people aware about the benefits of these plants, he said.
No new scheme/sub-schemes will be initiated in 2020-21, except the proposals announced under the PM Gareeb Kalyan Package, Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Package and other special package, the Finance Ministry said today. "The in-principle approval for such schemes will not be given this financial year. The initiation of new schemes already appraised/approved will remain suspended for one year till March 31, 2021, or till further orders, whichever is earlier," it added.
Inder Singh Yadav went the extra mile to hand over a milk pouch to a woman and her child. A constable at the railway protection force, he went out of the station to get milk and ran along a moving train to deliver the item. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has announced a cash award for him.
With a daily surge in Covid-19 cases, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said there is a "need to dynamically contain new emerging areas".
Twenty Delhi Metro staff, staying in Delhi-NCR, have tested positive for coronavirus till date, sources told news agency PTI. Many Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials have been coming to office or to station premises to ensure smooth resumption of services, whenever the orders come from the government. The DMRC on Thursday also put out a tweet, saying, "Along with the rest of the country, DMRC is also fighting the battle against Covid-19. Delhi Metro's employees have shown exemplary resilience in reporting back to their duties to keep the Metro system in all readiness for eventual resumption of services. #DMRCFightsCOVID". The tweet carried a poster showing the Metro girl, DMRC's mascot, wearing a mask and a pair of gloves.
A 67-year-old nurse at a maternity centre in West Delhi died Wednesday, four days after she tested positive for Covid-19. Rajamma worked at Shivaji Maternity Centre, a two-bed clinic, in Tagore Garden for over two decades. Around 10 days ago, she returned home from work and complained of bodyache and cough, said her daughter Divya Madhusudan (29). “She stopped going to work, and developed fever and severe cough. Last Friday, we got her test done, and on Sunday, the result came positive. By then, she had developed breathing issues,” said Divya. Soon after, she was moved to the ICU, and around 1.30 am Wednesday, she passed away. Her daughter said Rajamma was diabetic. As of now, Divya is under home quarantine and is unwell, while her father Madhusudan (68) is also in home quarantine and has displayed no symptoms so far.
Rituals in view of Rath Yatra are underway at Jagannath Temple in Puri. The district magistrate has said that no devotees have been allowed inside the temple.
The Supreme Court today sought the Centre's response on a PIL seeking capping of treatment cost of infected patients in private hospitals. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan issued notice to the Centre on the PIL filed by Avishek Goenka for fixing an upper limit of cost for Covid-19 treatment by private hospitals. The court said that the copy of the PIL be served on Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who would take instruction on the issue and reply in a week. The plea has also sought increasing the number of private quarantine facilities and hospitals with an option to the infected people for availing such facilities on payment basis and said that currently such an option is not given to patients. It also said that the government be asked to fix indicative rates of treatment for similar standards of such facilities. There should be a time-bound settlement of mediclaim by insurance companies and cashless treatment facilities be extended to all insured patients, the plea said.
A 19-year-old migrant woman, who was returning home in Odisha after being stuck in Telangana due to the lockdown, gave birth to a baby on a 'Shramik Special' train on Friday, railway officials said. The woman, identified as Meena Kumbhar of Thodibahal in Balangir district, was travelling in the Balangir-bound 'Shramik Special' train from Lingampali in Telangana when she complained of labour pain in the morning, an East Coast Railway (ECoR) spokesperson told news agency PTI. As per information received from Titilagarh, the woman delivered a baby boy on the train. A railway doctor in Titilagarh attended and examined the woman and the baby and found them to be in good condition, he said. Subsequently, the woman and her baby were shifted to the government hospital at Titilagarh on the advice of the medical authorities of Balangir district, he added.
A farmer was found hanging from a tree in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh with the authorities suspecting that he committed suicide fearing failure to sell his sugarcane produce due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, police said on Friday. According to the police, Ompal Singh, a resident of Sisoli village in the Bhorakala police station area, had left home for his fields on Thursday and later in the day, his body was found hanged from a tree. His family told the police that he had been depressed over inability to sell his sugarcane produce due to the lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus. Police have sent the body for post-mortem and begun a probe.
Three authors of the paper, “Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis”, have retracted their study that was published in The Lancet on May 22. According to the retraction notice that was published today in The Lancet, they were unable to complete an independent audit of the data underpinning their analysis. As a result, they have concluded that they “can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources..”