Brothers Kashi Ram 26, and Bal Kishan 21, leave for home after a day’s work in New Delhi. The family hails from Tikamgarh in MP, survived on handout ration during the lockdown, and used their savings of Rs 5000 to get by. Today, they are back to earning their daily wages of Rs 500 per day working at a construction site at the Maulana Azad Medical College.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: Even as the country records a consistent rise in the total number of coronavirus cases, the ICMR has termed the lockdown phases as “successful” in containing the rapid spread of the virus, rejecting there is “community transmission” in India. This, on the day the country saw the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases, pushing the death toll to 8,102 and the nationwide tally to 2,86,579.
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.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will on Friday hear a matter pertaining to alleged harassment of Covid-19 positive patients and mishandling of bodies of those who succumbed to the virus. The bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan took a suo moto cognizance of a letter by former law minister Ashwani Kumar.
Globally, over 74,40,350 people have been infected with the virus and at least 4,18,516 have died. China has reported 16 new cases, including the first confirmed case in Beijing after 56 days. The United State, with over 2 lakh infections and 113,168 deaths, remains the worst-hit country.
The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the coronavirus care centres (Express photo by Arul Horizon)
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 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