Restaurants open in Kolkata (Express photo by Partha Paul)
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: On a day in which the restaurants, religious places and shopping malls in most part of the country re-opened their doors for the public, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga announced that his state will go for a total lockdown for two weeks starting from Monday midnight. Apart from this, the quarantine period from now on will be 21 days in the state and home quarantine option will be limited to only extremely unavoidable cases, he tweeted.
India recorded a daily jump of over 9,000 for the fifth straight day, taking the number of total infections to 2,56,611. Of the 2.56 lakh cases, 1,25,381 are active cases, while 1,24,094 patients have been discharged. The death toll crossed the 7,000-mark to stand at 7135. Maharashtra, which is the worst affected state in the country, has now more cases than China. Maharashtra has 85,975 cases compared to China’s 84,191 cases. Globally, there are 7 million cases with 4 lakh deaths. Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has self-isolated himself after developing mild fever and sore throat, an AAP spokesperson said Monday. Kejriwal is also likely to undergo the Covid-19 test, he added.
Amid the surge in cases, India has opened the doors of public places like malls and places of religious significance today. Besides coming up with their lists of dos and don’ts for the people, authorities have ensured that premises of religious places, restaurants and malls have been cleaned and provisions for adherence to social distancing and other protocols been made. Malls, hotels, and restaurants; places of worship; schools and colleges, all have been allowed to open in a phased manner over the next couple of months.
A priest cleans temple bells in Lucknow on Sunday. (Express photo/Vishal Srivastava)
Mizoram CM announced total lockdown of 2 weeks starting from today midnight.
In view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation, ASI monuments having places of worship will remain shut in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir despite nod from the central government to reopen them from Monday, officials said. In an order issued on Sunday, the Union Culture Ministry approved reopening of 820 Archeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monuments which have places of worship from June 8, but allowed local authorities in the states to take the final call depending on the situation on the ground. (PTI)
Restaurants take several measures in Bengaluru as dine-in resumes after nearly three months.
Mosques in Bengaluru prepped up to welcome devotees post-lockdown.
Unlike in 1991, when India had to pledge its gold reserves to stave off a major financial crisis, the country can now depend on its soaring foreign exchange reserves to tackle any crisis on the economic front.
While the situation is gloomy on the economic front with the GDP growth in the contraction mode for the first time in 40 years and manufacturing activity and trade at standstill, there’s still some reason to cheer about amidst the raging Covid-19 pandemic: India’s foreign exchange reserves are rising and are slated to hit the $500 billion mark soon. In the month of May, forex reserves jumped by $12.4 billion to an all-time high of $493.48 billion (around Rs 37.30 lakh crore) for the week ended May 29. Read our explainer by George Mathew
Two prisoners who recently tested positive for coronavirus escaped from a COVID care centre in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, a prison official said on Monday. The duo bent grilles of a window to make space to sneak out and used bed sheets as ropes to climb down from their room at the facility late Sunday night, he said. A prison employee has been suspended and a case has been registered at Begumpura police station, he said. "Teams have been sent out and search for the prisoners is on," a jail official told PTI.
JD(S) corporator Imran Pasha was arrested by Bengaluru Police for allegedly flouting lockdown guidelines in a containment zone after he participated in a welcome procession from a Covid-19 designated hospital till his residence in Padarayanapura. He was earlier booked for violating social distancing norms and refusing to get admitted to a hospital after testing positive for COVID19.
On Sunday afternoon, Pasha’s supporters showered him with flowers and burst fireworks after he was discharged from Victoria Hospital. The Padarayanapura ward corporator stood through his car’s sunroof to wave and greet them as they tailed his white Mercedes on two-wheelers. The procession led to traffic jams in and around Mysuru road.
Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir reported an unusually high number of new cases on Sunday, amidst growing indications that a widespread surge in novel Coronavirus infections in the country might just be around the corner.
These two are not the only states showing signs of a surge, though. In the last week, several states have begun to deviate from their trend-lines and started to report higher numbers. West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Goa, Tripura, Manipur are all showing an increase in their growth rates, not to speak of states like Delhi and Tamil Nadu, which have been growing at a fast rate for quite some time now. Even Uttar Pradesh, which was growing at a very sedate rate, reported 433 new cases on Monday, and has now replaced Rajasthan as the state with the fifth-highest caseload in the country.
In Goa, the government has now decided to do away with thermal guns and instead use thermal scanners to test people entering the state through train, flight, or roads. Only people having fever will be tested for the virus
All religious places, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants will continue to remain closed in Odisha till June 30 in view of the COVID-19 scenario, the state government has said in a notification. Home delivery from hotels and restaurants, including food aggregator services, are allowed, the notification said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has mild fever and cough. The AAP leader has self-isolated himself and will likely undergo COVID-19 test, a party spokesperson told The Indian Express.
In mid-march, as Randy Juan Muller, a Ghanian footballer playing Kerala’s popular seven-a-side circuit, prepared to leave Thrissur for Mumbai by train to take the flight home, he appeared tense. “Maybe, it was the fear of travelling during the pandemic. We consoled him, saying he would reach home soon. He said goodbye with the promise of meeting next year and becoming famous,” recalls Faizal, the goalkeeper of Muller’s club ORPC Kechery.
It’s been over two months and Faizal hasn’t reached home, but he is already under the spotlight. With help from Mumbai Police, CISF and the airport authority, the 24-year-old made a park outside the terminal his home for 73 days — until two days ago, when Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray, and later the Ghana Embassy, intervened and he was moved to a suburban hotel. “They have promised to put me on the first flight home. Home is closer now,” he says.
The Coronavirus pandemic has brought economic activity across the country to a near halt. Having taken over as the president of industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last week, Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank told The Indian Express that he believes that India needs to be competitive and engaged with the world and government intervention is only justified in cases of unfair competition. He also said that there is an opportunity to rebalance rural and urban and that the state needs to work towards the aspect of providing a social security net to not only migrants but also businesses across the board. Read the excerpts from interview, here
Forum mall in Koramangala, Bengaluru reopened today after over two months of lockdown. Disinfectant tunnels, thermal scanners and sanitiser dispensers have been placed at the entry gates. “Those visiting the mall should wear masks and have the Aarogya Setu application installed on their mobile phones,” mall officials.
Pakistan's number of coronavirus cases has surpassed the 100,000-mark after 4,728 new infections were identified in the last 24 hours, while the death toll reached 2,067 with 65 fresh fatalities, health officials said on Monday. Out of the total 103,671 cases, Punjab has registered 38,903, Sindh 38,108, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 13,487, Balochistan 6,516, Islamabad 5,329, Gilgit-Baltistan 932 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 396 cases, the Ministry of National Health Services reported. So far, 34,355 patients have fully recovered. (PTI)
Private offices in Mumbai are set to reopen on Monday with 10 per cent strength, if required, with the remaining employees working from home, as part of the Maharashtra government’s ‘Mission Begin Again’. Mumbai Traffic Police have prepared for a surge in vehicular traffic on roads considering the state’s phased easing of the lockdown. Several offices have adopted a wait-and-watch approach before allowing employees to function, even as some offices in the business districts of Bandra Kurla Complex and Nariman Point spruced up their premises for the limited opening.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday she was confident New Zealand has halted the spread of the coronavirus after the last known infected person in the country recovered. It has been 17 days since the last new case was reported, while 40,000 have been tested in that time. And Monday also marked the first time since late February that there have been no active cases. “We almost certainly will see cases here again, and that is not a sign that we have failed, it is a reality of this virus. But if and when that occurs we have to make sure and we are, that we are prepared," the PM said.
Delhi borders, which were sealed last week, were opened for inter-state movement from today. With rising coronavirus figures in the city, the chief minister had last week sealed its borders, restricting the inter-state movement of non-Delhi residents while permitting only the operation of essential services.
In the last two weeks, 79 government doctors have tested positive for COVID in Hyderabad, said a Resident Doctors Association. Healthcare workers at top government medical colleges and hospitals blame the government for exposing them to the coronavirus by not testing enough.
Telangana government’s daily bulletins do not talk about the samples tested on the day or to date. The total number of COVID cases from Telangana stood at 3496 as of Sunday.
“Telangana High Court has directed the state government to submit testing figures but it has not done so far. We will file a contempt petition against the Telangana Government. As the state has not conducted enough tests it is not revealing the figures,” said Professor P L Vishweshwara Rao who filed a petition seeking testing figures.