Coronavirus live updates: SC seeks Centre's reply on capping cost of Covid treatment

Baby born on 'Shramik Special' train in Odisha, reports PTI.

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.

SC says it is not asking free treatment of Covid patients by all private hospitals but to those private/charitable hospitals who have got land free or at nominal cost.

"We cannot direct all private hospitals but only those who have got land free," SC said.

A floor of DRDO headquarters in Delhi closed for a day for sanitisation after an employee tested positive, reports ANI quoting sources.

"All protocols are being followed to disinfect the building," sources said.

Read: Covid-19 underlines necessity to prioritise needs of poor through digital solutions, says India at UN

"It is hard to imagine how the world would have coped with such a disruption by Covid-19 without the digital tools that we possess today. Hence, technology and digital people-centric solutions should become a critical component of our development paradigm," Tirumurti said at the 2020 Annual Session of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Executive Board on Thursday. "Prioritising the needs of the poor and vulnerable will have to receive the highest priority with respect to digital initiatives," he said.

The Centre has already filed an affidavit saying it did not have statutory power to direct private hospitals to treat Covid patients free of cost.

In a similar matter, the court had asked Centre whether private/charitable hospitals, which got land free from government, could be asked to treat Covid patients free of cost.

The matter is listed before a bench headed by CJI S A Bobde today.

SC bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, M R Shah and V Ramasubramanian asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to file Centre's response on putting an upper limit on fees to be charged by private hospitals for treating Covid patients.

SC seeks reply within a week from Centre in a PIL seeking a cap on fees to be charged by private hospitals in treating Covid patients.

Petitioner Avishek Goenka told the court that private hospitals are charging exorbitant fees from Covid patients, making it inaccessible to most of them.

35 migrants injured as bus falls into ditch in UP, reports PTI.

The incident took place on Thursday at about 11 pm when the bus driver lost control and the vehicle fell into a roadside ditch, Circle officer, Massa Singh, said. Hearing screams of passengers, villagers rushed to the scene and pulled them out.

Read: At 14,500, Delhi is now second only to Maharashtra in terms of active Covid-19 cases

According to the data shared by states, while Maharashtra has 39,935 active cases, the corresponding figure for Delhi is 14,456. It is much higher than the number of active cases in Tamil Nadu (12,135) and Gujarat (4,779), two other states that are most affected by the Covid-19 crisis.

Total number of positive cases in Jharkhand stands at 843, including 447 active cases, 390 recovered and 6 deaths.

Total 43,86,376 samples have been tested till now, of which 1,43,661 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours: ICMR

Read: Genes may leave some people more vulnerable to severe Covid-19

A study by European scientists has found a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50% increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

Read: Japan's pandemic deaths low, but future success uncertain

Authorities were criticized for bungling a cruise ship quarantine and were slow to close Japan's borders. They have conducted only a fraction of the tests needed to find and isolate patients and let businesses operate almost as usual, even under a pandemic state of emergency.

India reports 9,851 new Covid-19 cases and 273 deaths in the last 24 hours: Union health ministry