Brothers Kashi Ram 26, and Bal Kishan 21, leave for home after a day’s work in New Delhi.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India reported the single-day spike of 10,956 fresh COVID-19 cases and 396 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of infections in the country rose to 2,97,535, including 1,41,842 active cases, 1,47,194 cured and 8,498 deaths, the health ministry said on Friday. The number of recoveries are more than the active novel coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day. With today’s cases, India has surpassed the United Kingdom in terms of coronavirus cases to become the fourth worst-hit country, according to John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Centre.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday said that no coercive action will be taken against private firms which failed to pay full wages during the lockdown period, adding that industries and labourers need each other and efforts should be made to resolve dispute over wage payments. The court asked states to facilitate settlement between firms and employees over wage payment and submit reports before labour commissioners. It also asked the Centre to file an affidavit within 4 weeks on the legality of March 29 circular that mandated payment of full wages during the lockdown.
The ICMR has termed the lockdown phases as “successful” in containing the rapid spread of the virus. Less than one per cent of 26,400 people, randomly chosen from 65 districts with varied caseloads, were exposed to the coronavirus in the first month of the national lockdown, according to the first phase of a nationwide sampling to check for the pandemic’s spread via testing for antibodies.
The spike in cases has pushed states to seek requisitions of isolation coaches from the Indian Railways to accommodate as beds for Covid positive patients and avoid overwhelming the health infrastructure. The Centre has warned that five most affected states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh — going by current trends, are projected to fall short in terms of ICU beds and ventilators between June and August.
Globally, 7,514,475 people have been infected with the virus and at least 421,458 have died. As many as 3,540,693 people have recovered across the world so far. The United States, with over 2 lakh infections and 113,820 deaths, remains the worst-hit country.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the coronavirus care centres (Express photo by Arul Horizon)
Coronavirus 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 Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
The Supreme Court asked the Centre to address the pay cut of doctors being reported from different parts of the country. "Reports coming from many areas that doctors are not being paid. We saw a report that doctors went on strike. These concerns should have been taken care of and it should not require court intervention. You need to do more and address these," the court said.
Supreme Court seeks a reply from the Ministry of Civil Aviation on petitions seeking a complete refund of airline tickets booked for flights during the lockdown period. Court also asks Centre and airlines to sit together and devise modalities for ways to refund. SC wonders why passengers can’t be allowed to use credit for any route within 2 yrs.
The Supreme Court on Friday said that no coercive action against will be taken against private firms which failed to pay full wages during the lockdown period, adding that industries and labourers need each other and efforts should be made to resolve dispute over wage payments. The Top court asked states to facilitate settlement between firms and employees over wage payment and submit reports before labour commissioners. It also asked the Centre to file affidavit within 4 weeks on legality of March 29 circular that mandated payment of full wages during lockdown.
The junior doctors of Hyderabad’s Gandhi general hospital, who have been on a strike for the last two days, have decided to join back regular duties after members of the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA) called off the strike Friday morning. However, they have given a 15-day deadline for the state government to honour its promises.
The strike, which started on Tuesday evening, was a result of alleged assault on junior doctors at the COVID Acute Medical Care Unit (AMCU) by attendants of a deceased COVID patient. The two attendants were arrested and remanded to judicial custody the next day.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi discusses with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Professor of Diplomacy & International Relations at Harvard, how the COVID crisis is reshaping the world order.
Stocks fell sharply on Wall Street Thursday as coronavirus cases in the US increased once again, deflating recent optimism that the economy could recover quickly from its worst crisis in decades. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 1,800 points and the S&P 500 dropped 5.9%, its worst day since mid-March, when stocks had a number of harrowing falls as the virus lockdowns began.
Many market watchers have been saying that a scorching comeback in the market since late March was overdone and didn’t reflect the dire state of the economy. The S&P 500 rallied 44.5% between late March and Monday.
Cases are rising in nearly half the US’ states as lockdowns are rolled back and people return to work, an Associated Press analysis has found. There is no single reason for the surges. In some cases, more testing has revealed more cases. In others, local outbreaks are big enough to push statewide tallies higher.
But experts think at least some are due to lifting stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the virus.
In Arizona, hospitals have been told to prepare for the worst. Texas has more hospitalised COVID-19 patients than ever before. And the Governor of North Carolina said recent jumps caused him to rethink plans to reopen schools and businesses.
India reported 10,956 new COVID-19 cases and 396 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 2,975,35 and death toll to 8,498.
Mainland China reported seven new confirmed COVID-19 cases and one asymptomatic case on June 11. The National Health Commission said in a statement on Friday that six of the new confirmed patients reported were so-called imported cases involving travellers from overseas.
China’s national health commission reported 11 confirmed cases, all of which were imported, and seven asymptomatic cases a day earlier. The total number of COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 83,064, while the death toll remains unchanged at 4,634. China does not count asymptomatic patients, who are infected with the virus but symptomless, as confirmed cases.
The global cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection touched 7,500,777 Friday, with the US reporting the highest number of infections (2,022,488), followed by Brazil (802,828), Russia (501,800), and the United Kingdom (292,860). The worldwide death toll due to the infection rose to 4,20,993, with more than 3.5 million recoveries. The US reported the highest deaths (1,13,803), followed by the UK (41,364), Brazil (40,919), and Italy (34,167), according to John Hopkins University. The highest rate of recoveries is also reported from the US (5,38,645). Follow all global updates on coronavirus here
Less than one per cent of 26,400 people, randomly chosen from 65 districts with varied caseloads, were exposed to the coronavirus in the first month of the national lockdown, according to the first phase of a nationwide sampling to check for the pandemic’s spread via testing for antibodies. Niti Ayog member Dr V K Paul said that the sampling was done in the third week of May, and the results reflect the national situation till April 30 as it takes time for the antibodies to develop. “This shows that the lockdown has been successful,” ICMR chief Dr Balram Bhargava said while presenting the results Thursday. The second phase of the survey is being carried out in containment zones. Read More
From glaring shortfalls in hospital inventory to a steady surge in confirmation rate (percentage of samples tested returning positive) and testing bottlenecks, the Centre Thursday raised red flags in the country’s battle against the pandemic. It said although the national Case Fatality Rate (CFR) remains stable, 69 districts have high CFR. It warned the five most affected states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh — that going by current trends, they are projected to fall short in terms of ICU beds and ventilators between June and August.
For the second consecutive day this week, Gujarat reported more than 500 positive cases making it nearly 2,000 cases since Monday. The state crossed 22,000-mark on Thursday with a positivity rate hovering around 7.6 per cent of samples tested. Morbi district which has reported only six cases so far, reported its first death. Thirty-eight deaths were reported across the state on Thursday.
Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, a condition in which a person faces breathing difficulties, has been seen to be the biggest risk for COVID-19 patients in Karnataka. The risk increases if the person also happens to be over 60 years of age, an analysis of COVID19 deaths in the state shows.
A very small proportion of the COVID-19 patients in the state had severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), just 75 out of the 6,275 positive cases till now. But amongst those who had, the mortality is very high.
Of the 72 COVID-19 patients who have died in the state so far, at least 30 were also suffering from SARI, which has been found to be the most common co-morbid condition amongst the deceased. More details here.
Three months after registering its first Covid-19 case on March 9, Maharashtra is close to touching the one lakh-mark with the overall count reaching 97,648 on Thursday. Of these, 22,771 cases had been reported in the last seven days.
On Tuesday, for the second day running, Maharashtra registered its highest single-day toll — 152 deaths — as well as the highest single-day cases — 3,607. While the total case load is just over 2,000 cases short of the one-lakh mark, in all, 3,590 people have scummed to the virus in the state. Read more here
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Thursday held a coronavirus review meeting with the Maharashtra government and the state’s district officials, urging them to carry out vulnerability mapping in densely populated zones and put containment strategies in place.“Also, rise in case fatality rate should be looked into along with tests done per million population,” said Vardhan. Read more here
Insisting that India is not in the community transmission stage, the government on Thursday said the country’s first sero-survey on Covid-19 spread has found that lockdown and containment measures were successful in controlling a rapid rise of infections, but a large proportion of the population still remains susceptible.
“India is not in community transmission. We have to continue with our strategy of testing, tracing, tracking, quarantine and containment measures; we should not give up our guard on these,” Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General Balram Bhargava said while addressing a media briefing. More details here.
The Covid-19 death toll in the capital crossed the 1,000-mark Thursday, with 65 new deaths being reported in the last 24 hours. The city also saw its highest single-day spike, with 1,877 people testing positive. The total confirmed cases is now 34,687 while total deaths are 1,085. The health department cleared its backlog and added 101 fatalities Thursday.
Since June 1, the death count in Delhi has gone up by 107% while cases increased by 66.5%. The city had reported 523 deaths and 20,834 cases till June 1. This rose to 1,085 deaths and 34,687 cases till Thursday. As of Thursday, the death rate in the city rose from 2.5% to 3.1%.
A day after the body of a 82-year-old Covid-19 patient, who went missing on June 2, was found inside a toilet at the Jalgaon Civil Hospital, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday promised action against those responsible while maintaining that the government has taken a serious note of the incident.
“A few people have already been booked for this criminal offence. Stern action is being taken against the people responsible for this inhuman act and a probe is also being conducted,” Deshmukh told mediapersons. Read more here