A medic collects swab sample of a suspected Covid-19 patient for testing at Rajiv Gandhi Super hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express photo/Amit Mehra)
Coronavirus India LIVE news updates: 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.
Addressing the nation on the occasion of the 95th Annual Day of Indian Chamber of Commerce, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today the country must resolve to “turn this crisis into an opportunity”. “We have to make this a major turning point for this nation. What is that turning point? A self-reliant India,” he said.
For the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, the number of ‘recovered’ cases exceeded the number of ‘active’ cases on Wednesday. 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)
For the second consecutive day, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest single-day jump in the number of coronavirus-linked deaths on Wednesday, prompting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to direct officials to ensure reduction of Covid-linked death rate in the state and provide immediate medical treatment to patients with mild symptoms. At least 20 people infected with coronavirus died in the last 24 hours, taking the total toll in the state to 321. On Tuesday, the state had reported 18 deaths, and close to 100 people have died in the last seven days. The total coronavirus cases also rose to 11,610 with 275 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. At the review meeting on the Covid situation, the Chief Minister said that while the death rate in UP is low in terms of population as compared to other states, efforts should be on to reduce it further.
"At this time we have to take the Indian economy out of 'command and control' and push it towards 'plug and play'. This isn't the time for conservative approach. It's time for bold decisions and bold investments. It's time to prepare a globally competitive domestic supply chain," the Prime Minister said.
Continuing his address, PM Modi said: "Decades ago Swami Vivekananda wrote, 'The simplest method to be worked upon at present is to induce Indians to use their own produce and get markets for Indian artware in other countries'. This path shown by Swami Vivekananda is an inspiration for India in post-COVID world."
PM Modi added: "Every citizen of this country has resolved to turn this crisis into an opportunity. We have to make this a major turning point for this nation. What is that turning point? A self-reliant India."
Addressing the nation on the occasion of 95th Annual Day of Indian Chamber of Commerce, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said: "The world is fighting coronavirus, India is fighting that too. But there are other issues also - flood, locusts, hailstorm, fire in oil well, small earthquakes, two cyclones - we are fighting all of these together."
A special flight arranged by actor Amitabh Bachchan to ferry 180 migrants from Mumbai landed at the Lucknow airport on Thursday morning. On arrival, the migrants hailing from Unnao, Gonda, Lucknow and other districts of the state thanked the Bollywood star for helping them reach home. Airport Director, AK Sharma, said 180 passengers have arrived by the special flight. Stepping in to help stranded migrants reach their villages, Bachchan had arranged for four special flights to send about 700 people to their homes in Uttar Pradesh. Sources close to Bachchan had said that he wanted to book a train for the migrants but the logistics did not work out.
The number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 disease is now more than those who are currently sick. But besides being an interesting milestone, this statistic has little significance as of now. This is neither the beginning of the end of the epidemic nor the arrival of the ‘peak’. It does not mean that the number of cases would be declining from now on. In fact, once we bring in the number of deaths into the equation, 7,745 at last count, it becomes clear that the number of recoveries is still below 50 per cent of the people who have so far been infected.
An Indian-origin husband-wife doctor couple have launched judicial review proceedings against the UK government over what they say is a refusal to address safety issues around personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic, PTI reported. Dr Nishant Joshi and his pregnant wife, Dr Meenal Viz, had initiated the legal action in April with a pre-action letter seeking answers from the UK's Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England. They decided to push ahead with the case in the High Court in London on Wednesday because they feel they are "no longer willing to wait". "We don't want to be doing this. We didn't plan on doing this. We're doctors in a pandemic. We want to focus on saving lives and stitching this country back together," the couple said in a statement. "But we have been pushed into taking action by the government's refusal to address the issues we have raised," they said.
A new modelling study led by the University of Cambridge suggests that if facemasks are used across a population, it keeps the coronavirus ‘reproduction number’ under 1.0. When combined with lockdowns, widespread facemask use prevents further waves of the virus, according to the study, led by the University of Cambridge and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. The research suggests that lockdowns alone will not stop the resurgence of SARS-CoV-2. However, even homemade masks with limited effectiveness can dramatically reduce transmission rates if worn by enough people, regardless of whether they show symptoms.
What holds for the jobs market as the economy contracts after the unlockdown. Watch this E-xplained session with Manish Sabharwal, Chairman & Co-Founder, TeamLease Services Ltd and Director, Central Board of RBI.
As many as 441 people have been detained in Manipur for not wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing in public places amid the Covid-19 outbreak, police said. A total of 467 vehicles were also seized from their possession, they said. The accused were produced before courts on Wednesday and a total fine of Rs 71,300 was imposed on them, a release issued by Additional Director General of Police, L Kailun said. Those violating the safety norms will face legal action under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005, it added. A total of 311 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Manipur till Wednesday, of which 248 are active.
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director-general, Dr Balram Bhargava, on Wednesday said that there has been a revision in the treatment protocol for clinical management of Covid-19 patients. “We will put up details on the (ICMR’s) website on Thursday,” Dr Bhargava told The Indian Express. ICMR, the country’s apex health research institution, has been mulling over the use of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug that has shown improvement in coronavirus patients in formal clinical trials. The drug is at present allowed for emergency/compassionate use in treating severely ill Covid-19 patients and is likely to be part of the protocol.
With nearly 10,000 fresh cases registered within a span of 24 hours, the Covid-19 tally in India rose to 2,86,579 on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The Tamil Nadu government has ordered a Covid death audit in Chennai after it came to light that “not less than” 200 fatalities suspected to be linked to the infection did not make it to the state’s official toll, a senior health official told The Indian Express. The estimate is based on a “preliminary assessment” of the city corporation’s records, the official said. Tamil Nadu had reported 326 Covid deaths till Wednesday evening, including 260 within Chennai city limits alone. Officials blamed the “mismatch” on a “procedural lapse” since there was no system of reporting deaths recorded in the Chennai corporation’s registry to the government on a daily basis.
More than 67 lakh migrants returned to 116 districts in six states from urban centres. Of these, about 44 lakh, or about two-third, returned to 53 districts. And, Bihar topped the six states with 23.6 lakh returning to 32 districts, followed by UP with 17.48 lakh to 31 districts. These are the key pointers from preliminary data compiled by the Union Skill Development Ministry on the return of migrant workers since the Covid lockdown was imposed in March. Sources told The Indian Express that the final numbers would be much more as the data available so far does not include West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, two major destinations for returning migrants. Besides, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and states to facilitate the return of migrants to their home states within the next 15 days.
For the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 in India, the number of ‘recovered’ cases exceeded the number of ‘active’ cases on Wednesday. “As many as 5,991 patients were cured of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. This takes the total number of patients recovered to 1,35,205, while the total number of active cases is now 1,33,632. For the first time, the total number of recovered patients has exceeded the active cases. The recovery rate now stands at 48.88%,” the health ministry said in a statement. An analysis of the 1,42,950 ‘closed cases’ shows that while 1,35,205 have recovered (94.5%), 7,745 have died.
Different quarantine rules in various states for incoming passengers has led to “confusion and uncertainty” that has prevented demand for air travel from being fully realised and led to an uptick in cancellations by the few business travellers that airlines are banking on, aviation sector players told The Indian Express. Kapil Kaul, CEO & director at aviation consultancy firm CAPA South Asia, said, “Demand is lower than expected largely due to the confusion and uncertainty at the state level regarding resumption, quarantine rules and continuing escalation in the infections. The expected pent-up demand has not been fully realised largely due to the confusion — which may be settling now.”
India’s Central Drug Authority on Tuesday permitted the Maharashtra government to undertake convalescent plasma therapy trials in severe Covid-19 patients at 21 government medical college hospitals (GMCHs).
Earlier, Dr Sushant Meshram, Dean, Government Medical College, Nagpur, and the trial’s principal investigator, had sought the drug authority’s permission for conducting multi-centric plasma trials in severe Covid-19 cases in a randomised control format. Read more here
As per the revised estimate that the AAP government is citing now, Delhi will have 5.5 lakh coronavirus patients by July end, and will need 1.5 lakh beds. As of now, the Capital has 9,179 beds — 4,929 occupied and 4,250 vacant — and 582 ICU beds set aside for treatment of Covid patients.
The gap is a factor of many things, including faultlines between the Delhi government and private hospitals, pending procurement of oxygen concentrators and ventilators, insufficient clarity on facilities where additional beds can be set up, and resistance from hotels meant to be attached to hospitals. Read more here
AS MUMBAI crosses the 50,000-patient mark, an estimated 40 per cent of the city’s population now stays in containment zones and sealed buildings as of June 9, shows data released by the BMC.
The data also shows that while close to 42 lakh people are living in 798 containment zones, more than eight lakh are residing in 4,538 sealed buildings as of June 9. This means, out of the city’s 1.25 crore population, more than 50 lakh people are in containment zones and sealed buildings. Read more here