Telangana and Delhi have requested for 60 and 10 coaches respectively. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)
Coronavirus India LIVE news updates: As coronavirus cases across India show a steep rise, states have put forward their requisitions of isolation coaches from the Indian Railways. While Telangana and Delhi have requested for 60 and 10 coaches respectively, Uttar Pradesh has asked for a total of 240 coaches at 24 locations across the state.
The ICMR on Thursday said with Covid-19 prevalence as low as less than 1% in small districts in a large country like India, the nation is “definitely” not in the community transmission phase. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal too put to rest questions on community transmission in Delhi saying, “If we get caught in grammar and let go of field action, we will suffer.” With nearly 10,000 fresh cases registered within a span of 24 hours, the Covid-19 tally in India rose to 286,579 on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. India continued to remain the fifth worst-affected country after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK.
Globally, as many as 7,357,794 people have been infected while 416,116 have died so far. The United States is by far the hardest-hit country, in terms of both confirmed infections and deaths. The total death toll in the country could hit the grim figure of 200,000 by September and expecting a dramatic decrease in positive cases will be a “wishful thinking”, an eminent Indian-American professor has warned.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: A boy at Delhi's Sarojini market after the easing of lockdown restrictions (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: Community transmission or spread is said to be taking place when the source of the contagion is not known. In pic: Cops get their temperature tested
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: A lab technician extracts portions of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate during testing at the Chula Vaccine Research Center, run by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. (AP)
Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of issues arising out of treatment of Covid patients and disposal of dead bodies. Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan to hear matter tomorrow.
A 57-year-old inspector with Gurgaon Police's Summons Branch died due to Coronavirus last night. Officials say he was due to retire next month. The district has recorded 6 covid deaths today, and 191 cases. 2,737 people have tested positive so far, 19 have succumbed.
Bengaluru now has 113 active containment zones. 17 fresh Covid cases were confirmed in the city today. Total active cases: 258
West Bengal on Thursday reported 440 fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the total to 9,768, the state health department said in its daily bulletin. Ten people died due to the infection during the day in different districts, raising the toll to 442, it said. Of the total fresh cases reported on Thursday, 117 were from Kolkata, it added.
Nine of the total deaths during the day happened due to co-morbidities, the health department said, adding that the state has so far witnessed 297 such fatalities. The active cases now stand at 5,338, it said. Since Wednesday, 209 people have been discharged from different hospitals in the state. (PTI)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Thursday ordered stricter lockdown on weekends and public holidays, even as his state mulls stringent curbs, including mandatory testing certification, for those coming from Delhi. The decision to tighten the curbs on weekends and holidays has been taken amid apprehensions of COVID-19 reaching the community spread stage in Punjab and projections indicating that the peak in the state was still two months away. (PTI)
Surgeons led by an Indian-origin doctor have performed a double-lung transplant on a patient whose lungs were damaged by COVID-19, a surgery believed to be the first of its kind in the US since the pandemic began. Northwestern Medicine in Chicago said the recipient is a Hispanic woman in her 20s. The patient spent six weeks in the COVID ICU on a ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a life support machine that does the work of the heart and lungs, the hospital said. By early June, the patient's lungs showed irreversible damage. The lung transplant team listed her for a double-lung transplant, and 48 hours later, performed the life-saving procedure a the hospital. (PTI)
Delhi records 1,877 cases in a single day.
Three more persons tested positive for novel coronavirus in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, taking the total count of confirmed cases in the Union Territory to five on Thursday, officials said. The newly infected persons are family members of the returnee from Chennai by a flight on June 7, who had tested positive four days back. They have been admitted to G B Pant hospital here, where the man is undergoing treatment, the sources said. (PTI)
Nepal on Thursday reported 250 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total count to 4,614. According to the Ministry of Health, the new cases include 20 women. However, 187 infected people, including 8 women, have been discharged after successful treatment. With this, only 63 active corona patients have been added in the country in a single day, it said. There are currently 3,738 active COVID-19 patients undergoing treatment at different hospitals across the country. Till date, 15 people have died of coronavirus in Nepal. (PTI)
New York City announces schemes to boost economy, especially for the small producers hit hard by the pandemic.
As coronavirus cases across India show a steep rise, states have put forward their requisitions of isolation coaches from the Indian Railways. While Telangana and Delhi have requested for 60 and 10 coaches respectively, Uttar Pradesh has asked for a total of 240 coaches at 24 locations across the state.
Himachal Pradesh has reported 458 COVID-19 positive cases till now including 179 active cases, 262 recoveries, and 6 deaths, said State Health Department.
India's tour to Sri Lanka, which was scheduled to take place later this month, has become the latest series to be postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said International Cricket Council.
All private hospitals equipped with labs to test COVID-19 should be permitted to test all its patients, Delhi High Court said on Thursday.
A total of 83 people tested positive for COVID-19 today. The total number of cases in Kerala is now at 2,244, including 1,258 active cases. There are 133 hotspots in the state, said Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala Chief Minister.
Vadodara Covid-19 tally at 1,447
Four days after places of worship reponed in the Capital, the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid has decided that no congregational prayers will be held inside till June 30 due to the spike in #COVID19 numbers. At 8 pm today, it'll be shut down again.
A team of the National Humans Rights Commission (NHRC), led by its member Jyotika Kalra, is slated to visit the LNJP Hospital on Thursday for an on-spot inspection in the wake of allegations of mismanagement in handling the COVID-19 situation in Delhi. Lok Naik Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital is a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the Delhi government. Read more here
"We will not allow will of the virus in this nation," Dr V K Paul, member, NITI Aayog said. "If we get caught in grammar and let go of field action we will suffer," said Lav Agarwal JS, MoHFW on questions about community transmission in Delhi.
For such a large country, prevalence is so low, less than 1% in smaller districts slightly higher in cities and containment zones. So India is definitely not in community transmission stage, said ICMR. Prof Bhargava also said, "We have ramped up testing and we hve very calibrated guidelines. We hve capacity to do up to 2 lakh tests a day."