For its first prayer service since the lockdown, the Protestant church came up with a concept of ‘Worship on Wheels (WOW)’, a drive-in Mass where people could take part in the service while in their cars or on their bikes. Rev Johnson V, pastor-in-charge of BAGCIWC, said that while the church live-streamed daily prayers and the Sunday Mass throughout the lockdown period, they decided to come up with an alternative arrangement once the church reopened its doors. (Ralph Alex Arakal reports)

Hundreds attend 'Worship on Wheels', a drive-in Sunday prayer service that took place in Bethel AG Church International Worship Centre, Hebbal, Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/H94PlJdygX

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) June 14, 2020

Heavy pre-monsoon showers in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district led to flooding of the ground floor of the COVID-19 hospital, forcing its staff to shift patients to upper floors in midnight, an official said on Sunday. The city in north Maharashtra started receiving downpour on Saturday late night which continued for at least two hours, said an official from the Godavari Medical College where COVID-19 patients were being treated. The patients were on the ground floor as many of them and their relatives are more than 50-year old, he said. (PTI)

#WATCH Maharashtra: Rainwater entered the emergency ward of Dr Ulhas Patil Medical College and Hospital in Jalgaon yesterday. According to hospital authorities, 7-8 patients who were admitted in the ward were safely evacuated. pic.twitter.com/rUml6qZfVJ

— ANI (@ANI) June 15, 2020

Desperation for a way to keep economies from collapsing under the weight of Covid-19 could mean settling for a vaccine that prevents people from getting really sick or dying but doesn’t stop them from catching the coronavirus. As countries emerge warily from lockdowns, leaders are looking to a preventive shot as the route to return to pre-pandemic life. Fueled by billions of dollars in government investment, vaccines from little-known companies like China’s CanSino Biologics Inc. and giants like Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc are in development. Read this Bloomberg report

A day after it declared all nursing homes in the Capital with capacities of 10-49 beds as Covid-only, the Delhi government withdrew the order amid red flags from owners of such establishments, as well as apprehensions raised during a meeting on Sunday morning between Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Highly placed sources said it was suggested to the Delhi government during Sunday’s meeting that it should reconsider the order since it could lead to mixing of Covid patients with existing non-Covid patients at these nursing homes. Besides, such a move would also call for an upgradation of existing infrastructure at these facilities. Shivam Patel reports

Fitness junkies locked out of gyms, commuters fearful of public transit, and families going stir crazy inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic have created a boom in bicycle sales unseen in decades. Bicycle sales over the past two months saw their biggest spike in the US since the oil crisis of the 1970s, said Jay Townley, who analyses cycling industry trends at Human Powered Solutions.

The trend is mirrored around the globe, as cities better known for car-clogged streets, like Manila and Rome, install bike lanes to accommodate surging interest in cycling while public transport remains curtailed. In London, municipal authorities plan to go further by banning cars from some central thoroughfares. (AP)

Starting Monday, booking windows at select suburban railway stations in Mumbai are set to reopen as both the Central and Western Railway will run train services for the first time since March 23, but only for the 1.25 lakh commuters identified by the state government as essential service workers. The train services will not be available for the general public, a joint press release from Western and Central Railways late on Sunday said.

Mumbai: Western Railway(WR) resumes its selected suburban services from today only for movement of essential staff as identified by state govt. 60 pairs of WR's 12 car suburban services b/w Churchgate&Dahanu Road to ply for essential staff. Visuals from Churchgate railway station pic.twitter.com/10szOOVncD

— ANI (@ANI) June 15, 2020

Restaurants and shopping malls opened last week after a gap of over two months. But there was no rush of people flocking to these places even after having been bottled up inside their homes and localities for so long. Just use the parking index – the ease with which you get a spot near your shopping destination will tell you the story of public confidence or the lack of it. A fortnight into Unlock 1.0, these places bear the telltale signs of the continuing uncertainty in the public mind. Two weeks (since the unlockdown began) is a short time – but enough to serve as an indicator. There is visible reluctance in the public to go full-on into the pre-lockdown life. Read this week's ExplainSpeaking column by Ravish Tiwari here

With over 11,500 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, the COVID infections in India on Monday rose to 3.32 lakh. The death toll also crossed the 9,500-mak to stand at 9520 deaths. While nearly 1.7 lakh people have recovered, there are over 1.5 lakh active infections in the country. Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, has over 1 lakh cases, followed by Tamil Nadu and Delhi. India is the fourth country worst-hit by coronavirus, after the United States, Brazil, and Russia.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has now approved the use of antigen testing kits in containment zones and healthcare settings. The results from these tests will be out within 30 minutes and no confirmatory RTPCR tests are needed. Recently, ICMR had also approved ELISA test kits for Covid-19. Tabassum Barnagarwala explains the testing options before India and which is used when.

Now a third test - @ICMRDELHI approves use of antigen testing kits in containment zones and healthcare settings @IndianExpress #COVID19India pic.twitter.com/9hmfDaf5Bz

— abantika ghosh (@abantika77) June 15, 2020

China is racing to control a new outbreak in Beijing that reached nearly 100 infections over the weekend as it faces the biggest test of its coronavirus containment strategy yet. Officials are fanning out over housing compounds, knocking on doors to question residents on whether they’ve had contact with the city’s largest fruit and vegetable market, Xinfadi, where the new outbreak is believed to have originated. Beijing locked down 10 residential compounds in northwestern Haidian district on Monday, after finding coronavirus cases at nearby Yuquandong market, Li Junjie, executive vice head of Haidian district, said at a city government briefing.

Hours after meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called a meeting of all political parties in Delhi today to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the national capital. BJP, Congress, AAP and BSP have been invited for the meeting that will be held at 11 am.

In a notice, the Home Ministry said, “Honourable Union Home Minister will hold an All-Party meeting to review the management of Covid situation in the National Capital Territory of Delhi at 1100 hours on 15th June, 2020 (Monday) in Room No. 119, North Block, New Delhi. Addressees are requested to kindly make it convenient to attend the meeting.”

Samples collected in Gurgaon are likely to be tested faster with the district now having its own laboratory for Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing at the Civil Hospital in Sector 10. According to officials, until now, samples were being sent for testing either to PGIMS, Rohtak, or to one of the six private laboratories authorised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct the tests in the district.

Officials said samples of only “indoor patients” – those who were symptomatic – and of the deceased were sent to private labs, while all other samples were being sent to PGIMS, Rohtak. The results took 3-4 days to come.

Some months ago, when the novel coronavirus epidemic was still emerging in India, it was hoped that rising temperature in the summer months would weaken the potency of the virus and slow down its spread. That did not happen. Now that the monsoon season is here, the likely impact of rain on the virus, and its transmission, is the subject of discussion.

Since it is a new virus, scientists are not yet sure how the rain might affect its behaviour. So the effort is to look for clues in the way other similar viruses behave during the rainy season. Rain brings with it several vector borne diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya. In the case of dengue, some studies have shown that excessive rains could disrupt the mosquito’s reproductive cycle and flush out its breeding sites.

The total number of Covid-19 positive cases in West Bengal crossed the 11,000-mark on Sunday with 389 fresh cases being reported in the last 24 hours, while 12 people succumbed to the virus. According to the state health bulletin, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the state stood at 11,087, and the death figure at 475. Read more

The recent spurt in coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh is being attributed to increased movement of people following the unlocking of the economy since June 1. On Sunday, the total Covid-19 count in the state rose to 13,615 with the addition of 497 cases. Since the unlocking of the economy on June 1, the state has reported 5,540 cases with an average of 5 per cent growth in its caseload — as high as Delhi and Tamil Nadu. Read more here

An auto-rickshaw ferrying three people stopped outside North MCD’s Hindu Rao Hospital earlier this week, one of the occupants a woman in her 30s crying out in pain. The two others, her relatives, paused momentarily at the gate before going inside to get a stretcher to carry the woman, Gulabi Kumari, to the casualty ward. On the way, her mask came off, and one of them struggled to adjust it while balancing the stretcher.

The 980-bed hospital, the biggest under the MCD with a staff of 600 doctors, 350 nurses and 300 allied workers, was turned into a Covid facility on Sunday. The MCD hospital was shut in April for a day after a nurse tested positive. Since then, 61 healthcare workers have contracted the virus. Amid claims of lack of PPE kits and salaries delayed for three months, hospital staff have an uphill road ahead

None of the critically ill Covid-19 patients who were put on ventilator at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital of Government Medical College in Amritsar since the pandemic outbreak could survive, with the health care facility authorities blaming the deaths on extremely late arrival of patients there. As of Saturday morning, the hospital had reported 21 such deaths. Read more

Delhi plans to hold door-to-door surveys in all containment zones and increase its Covid testing capacity to 10,000 per day in the next two days. The Delhi Chief Secretary held a meeting with district health and administration officers on Sunday after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah directed that Delhi’s testing capacity be ramped up in the city in the coming week.

At present, Delhi can test 8,600 samples a day. According to the Delhi health bulletin, Delhi tested 7,353 samples between Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, 2,224 new cases and 56 deaths were reported.

Three more deaths were reported from Punjab on Sunday, taking the total count of Covid-19 deaths in the state to 69 as health authorities said death of a woman in Amritsar was counted twice, on June 10 and 12, and that the 55-year-old deceased policeman who had tested positive in Tarn Taran was later declared as having tested negative after he was referred to Government Medical College, Amritsar. Read more