Coronavirus LIVE updates: A medics collect samples for Covid-19 swab tests at a testing center in a government school in New Delhi.
Coronavirus (Covid-19) India updates: Registering 15,413 new cases in the past 24 hours, India now has over 4.10 lakh confirmed infections. Of these, 1,69,451 are active cases, while 2,27,755 patients have already been discharged. With 306 deaths, the toll now stands at 13,254.
For the first time since it was instituted on June 21, 2015, Yoga Day celebrations will be held virtually due to coronavirus. This year’s theme is “Yoga at Home and Yoga with Family”. Addressing the nation, on the occasion of International Yoga Day, Prime Minister Modi emphasized on the need to build immunity in defeating the disease and said that the world is feeling the need for yoga more seriously than ever due to the corona pandemic. “If we can fine-tune our chords of health and hope, the day is not far away when the world will witness the success of healthy and happy humanity. Yoga can definitely help us make this happen,” he said.
Globally, over 8.7 lakh cases have been reported, while the virus that has killed at least 4.6 lakh people. While the World Health Organisation has warned that the pandemic is “accelerating”, it expressed optimism that vaccines could be available before the end of this year.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: The share of the top four states in the total caseload of the country has remained almost unchanged in more than a month.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: People walk through a downtown shopping district in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (AP)
Five days after a 62-year-old inmate of Delhi’s Mandoli Jail passed away, his Covid-19 result has come positive. This is the first case of a Delhi prison inmate succumbing to the virus.
Delhi Prisons DG Sandeep Goel said, “The inmate died of no apparent cause on June 15 in the evening hours, apparently while sleeping. Inquest proceedings were conducted and the Covid-19 test was also conducted on the dead body, the result of which came as positive on June 20.”
The inmate was convicted and sentenced for life in a murder case in Aman Vihar area in 2016. The DG said that the deceased had been at Mandoli Jail since July 2018.
Even as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in north Mumbai areas like Malad, Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar, the police and the BMC are not on the same page on imposing a restriction-heavy lockdown to contain the outbreak, officials admitted. While the police wants a total lockdown to be enforced in the region to stem the rise in cases, a senior BMC official on Sunday said the proposal was "disastrous" as the civic body was tracking the virus spread and taking measures to contain it.
He said new cases are coming in from high-rises in the region rather than slums and the civic body was aware of the situation.
The country’s top drug regulatory body, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation’s (CDSCO), on Saturday granted emergency use approval to two Indian drugmakers for generics of Gilead Science’s remdesivir, The Indian Express has learnt. These approvals will allow Cipla and Hetero Drugs to manufacture and supply the injectible medicine for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 “with severe disease”, ending weeks of uncertainty over where they can access the drug from.
Drug Controller General of India Dr VG Somani approved these applications late on Saturday, said a senior Health Ministry official on condition of anonymity. The companies will have to follow the same conditions set out by the DCGI for Gilead when its remdesivir was approved at the beginning of the month.
Equipped with handheld showers, mosquito nets, bio-toilets, power sockets, oxygen cylinders and more, the Railways' COVID-care coaches have it all to keep patients comfortable but only if they can withstand the summer heat trapped inside the metal boxes'.
In an effort to augment the government's efforts to build infrastructure to deal with the spread of COVID-19, the Railways has converted 5,321 non-AC sleeper class ICF (older design) coaches and developed them into COVID Care Level 1 centres for patients with mild symptoms or those suspected to have the infection. Suspected and confirmed cases will be kept in separate coaches, officials said, adding that 960 coaches in five states have already been deployed. These include 503 coaches in Delhi and 372 in Uttar Pradesh. --PTI
Even as the Covid-19 pandemic has set off an unprecedented response from the global scientific community to find a vaccine, according the World Health Organization’s latest count, 13 experimental jabs are being tested in humans and more than 120 others are in earlier stages of development.
Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc, have been ramping up production and promising supplies of millions of doses of their experimental vaccines before the year end. Meanwhile, a sixth Covid-19 vaccine from China has begun human trials while German company CureVac said the first results of its vaccine could be available in September or October.
WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said she expected hundreds of millions of doses of a Covid-19 vaccine this year and 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. “At the moment we do not have a proven vaccine but if we are lucky, there will be one of two successful candidates before the end of this year and 2 billion doses by the end of next year,” she said while addressing the media from Geneva. Read more here
The task force set up by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended launching a biobank or repository of test samples to understand clinical patterns in coronavirus cases, expedite test kit validation, and study the immune response to the virus.
While samples are being discarded currently, the task force members overseeing diagnostics and biomarkers said the agency has selected at least nine ICMR laboratories with easy access to COVID hospitals, where they can store positive and negative throat, nasal, and blood samples for research purposes. They added that the standard operating procedures for the project is being laid out. “We can record clinical, demographic, social factors with the samples and use it for cutting-edge research, including genome sequencing,” said a task force member.
The world is feeling the need for yoga more than ever due to the coronavirus pandemic and the ancient Indian practice is helping a large number of COVID-19 patients across the globe in defeating the disease, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday. The coronavirus specifically attacks the respiratory system and 'pranayama' or breathing exercise helps in strengthening the respiratory system the most, Modi said in his message on the sixth International Day of Yoga.
In his nearly 15-minute address early Sunday morning, Modi said that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world is feeling the need for yoga more than ever. 'If our immunity is strong, it is of great help in defeating this disease. For boosting immunity, there are several methods in yoga, various 'asanas' are there. These asanas are such that they increase the strength of the body and also strengthen our metabolism,' he said.
Delhi recorded its highest single-day spike in new cases, with over 3,600 Covid-19 cases being reported in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases in the national capital rose to over 56,000, while the death toll stood at 2,112. The Delhi health bulletin stated that as many as 31,294 patients have recovered, with 23,340 active cases. The number of containment zones in the city stood at 249. Delhi health minster Satyendar Jain, who is undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at a private hospital, was administered plasma therapy on Saturday.
The task force set up by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended launching a biobank or repository of test samples to understand clinical patterns in coronavirus cases, expedite test kit validation, and study the immune response to the virus. While samples are being discarded currently, the task force members overseeing diagnostics and biomarkers said the agency has selected at least nine ICMR laboratories with easy access to COVID hospitals, where they can store positive and negative throat, nasal, and blood samples for research purposes. They added that the standard operating procedures for the project is being laid out.
Brazil records nearly 50,000 coronavirus deaths so far as the crisis deepened in the Latin American country. The country reported 1,022 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. A total of 49,976 people have officially died from COVID-19 in Brazil, according to the ministry, with a total of 1,067,579 confirmed cases. The actual toll is believed to be much higher.
Serbians go to polls today to elect a new parliament in Europe’s first national election since coronavirus lockdowns took effect some 3 months back.
As precautionary measures, polling stations will be equipped with facemasks and hand sanitisers. Serbia, which has a population of 7.2 million, has so far reported 12,803 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 260 deaths. It was among the first European countries to start opening its borders on May 22 and all lockdown curbs have since been lifted.
With nearly three in every four cases registered for violation of lockdown norms over the past week reported from the northern suburbs and a subsequent increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, the Mumbai Police at a joint review meeting with senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials on Friday proposed that a complete lockdown should be re-imposed in four areas extending from Goregaon to Dahisar. Civic officials, however, have maintained enforcing a lockdown was not feasible.
Dahisar, which falls in the R-North civic ward, has recorded the worst doubling rate of the novel coronavirus disease at 16 days among the 24 administrative wards. On Friday, the total number of cases in the ward were recorded at 1,318. The neighbouring R-Central ward, including Borivali West, recorded the second-worst doubling rate at 18 days with 1,882 cases, till Friday. As of Saturday, Mumbai’s doubling rate is 34 days.
On Saturday, more than 15,000 new cases of novel Coronvirus infections were detected throughout the country, making it four consecutive days of new peaks in daily numbers. On Wednesday, the new cases crossed 12,000 for the first time, then 13,000 on Thursday, and 14,000 on Friday. The last time we saw four consecutive peaks was at the start of this month.
The recent surge in numbers are mainly due to the consistent rise in Delhi, which on Saturday, reported 3,630 cases, just a shade below Maharashtra, whose daily numbers till now have been way ahead of the second-placed state. Tamil Nadu has also been reporting increasing number of new cases in the last few days. Read more
The dream of seeing all the Kollywood superstars together in a single frame may have well remained a distant dream hadn’t it been for Madurai-based animator, Kathir Kumaran. Fans have seen them on celluloid risk their lives to battle bad guys, but in the animation video made by the 24-year-old, they swoop in to defeat an invisible enemy — Covid-19.
With over a million views on YouTube, the 11-minute video begins with Thalapathy Vijay single-handedly taking on the COVID-19 monsters before requesting his celebrity friends for backup. Soon, Tamil superstars Rajinikanth, Ajith, Suriya, Vikram, Karthi, and Dhanush join the fight. The plot twist towards the end has left viewers wanting for more.
They threw caution to the winds, giving up salaried jobs in metros to start what they call ‘immersive travel’ in the Northeast. Hit by the pandemic, these young men and women are now trying to rethink travel in COVID-19 times.
For many, things started going downhill last year itself when unprecedented protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) brought life in Assam — essentially the gateway to the other northeastern states — to a standstill. Followed by curfews in Meghalaya — again related to the CAA — in February, and finally COVID-19, the entrepreneurs have realised the need to strategies. Read more
Australia's second most populous state Victoria on Sunday extended its state of emergency for four more weeks to July 19, as it battles a spike in coronavirus infections with a pick-up in community transmission. The move came a day after the state announced it would reimpose restrictions capping visitors to households to five people and outdoor gatherings to 10, starting Monday. The limits had been relaxed on June 1 to allow up to 20 people in households and public gatherings. Victoria reported 19 new infections on Sunday, the fifth day of double digit-rises. The state has now had 1,836 total confirmed cases, or a quarter of the cases in Australia, since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.
While a stringent two-month lockdown signalled economic gloom, the beauty industry has been resilient even when eyebrows have been continually raised over its long-term viability. Despite the need to save money and spending only on ‘bare-essentials’ while being confined indoors, spending on beauty hasn’t really fallen behind yet. The question is, why? As the restrictions uplift, our ‘new normal’ consists of wearing masks every time we step out, with half our faces covered. But will that deter makeup aficionados?
President Donald Trump called the coronavirus “Kung flu” during a rally in Oklahoma, employing a slang term that’s been criticized as racist while claiming increased diagnostic testing has driven up US case totals. Trump last said the term “Kung Flu,” a pun on the Chinese martial art, at a White House news conference March 18, after a reporter asked whether it was true that an unnamed White House official had used the phrase, and if Trump thought it was wrong.
“No, not at all,” Trump said at the time. But he ceased using the terms “Chinese virus” or “Kung flu” for a time after criticism, resuming only recently as he has sought to pin blame for the U.S. outbreak on the government in Beijing. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has used the term “Wuhan virus” in remarks.
The principal of a private school in Khammam is running a food cart, trying to sell idli, dosa and vada. A Social Science teacher in Ranchi is working on his paddy field. And an English teacher in Nalgonda has started selling insurance policies.
The sweeping economic distress triggered by the Covid pandemic and lockdown has pushed countless out of jobs, set off one of the biggest reverse migrations in recent times and pushed millions of small businesses to the edge. One of the hardest hit has been private education. In cities and small towns across the country where private schools were seen as a passport to aspiration, teachers are on their knees, with parents unable to pay fees and managements left without money to pay salaries. Read more
The Philippines may see about 214,000 babies born from unplanned pregnancies next year as the lockdown to stem the virus outbreak also impeded access to birth control, the Star reported. An initial study by the University of the Philippines’ Population Institute showed that strict quarantine measures imposed across most of the nation for at least two months from mid-March also prevented a third of health workers from reporting to health centers that provide family planning services, according to the report.