A health worker checks a man’s temperature before taking his swab for COVID-19 test, in New Delhi, Saturday.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India Tuesday reported 14,933 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 312 deaths. This takes the country’s Covid-19 tally to 4,40,215, including 1,78,014 active cases, 2,48,190 recoveries and 14,011 deaths.
Maharashtra has the most infections (1,35,796). Delhi has overtaken Tamil Nadu to become the second worst-hit state with 62,655 cases against the latter’s 62,087.
The government has shifted its focus to keeping the country’s fatality rate under control. A top government functionary told The Indian Express that in order to do this, the Centre and states must deliberate on three aspects of the clinical management of patients: the time taken for patients to reach the hospital and the call refusal rate of ambulances; the average time the positive patient spends in the triage area before being assigned a bed; and the response of the hospitals in providing non-invasive oxygen to patients.
In other news, the Trump administration has suspended some work visas, including the H-1B and H-2B visas, till the end of the year. It has also decided to restrict Air India’s repatriation flights citing “unfair and discriminatory practices”.
Globally, the infections are inching towards the 9 million-mark. Over 8.9 infections have been reported worldwide, while the virus has killed at least 4.6 lakh people.
A civil defence worker hands over a pulse oximeter to two people in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)
Doubling rate in Dharavi slum now longest in Mumbai. (Express Photo)
The US administration on Tuesday said it was extending the 60-day ban on immigration and non-immigrant worker visas till the end of 2020. Popular work visas including the much-coveted H-1B and H-2B, and certain categories of H-4, J, and L visas shall also remain remain suspended until December 31, the White House said in a press note. Read our explainer on the order, the reason behind the decision and who will be impacted
India Tuesday reported 14,933 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 312 deaths. This takes the country’s Covid-19 tally to 4,40,215, including 1,78,014 active cases, 2,48,190 recoveries and 14,011 deaths. Maharashtra has the most infections (1,35,796). Delhi has overtaken Tamil Nadu to become the second worst-hit state with 62,655 cases against the latter’s 62,087.
According to the World Health Organization’s latest count, 13 experimental vaccines are being tested in humans and more than 120 others are in earlier stages of development even as the infections near nine million, including 468,484 deaths. Read our explainer on the progress of Covid-19 vaccines
The US government has said it will restrict flights from India amid the coronavirus pandemic. Air India has been operating repatriation flights to bring back stranded Indian nationals from that country. The US government, according to a Bloomberg report, accused India of "unfair and discriminatory practices" as US airlines are prohibited from flying to India due to the pandemic.
"The charters go beyond true repatriations, and it appears that Air India may be using repatriation charters as a way of circumventing" that nation's flight restrictions, the US Transportation Department was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend by three months the supply of 5 kilogram of free food grains to members of “priority households” and migrant workers to address what she called “the hunger crisis” faced by some of the most “vulnerable people” in the country.
“Nearly three months since the country went into a strict lockdown, millions of Indians are at risk of slipping into poverty. The adverse impact on livelihoods has led to chronic food insecurity for both our urban and rural poor. In light of the current situation, food entitlements must be expanded to address the hunger crisis facing some of the most vulnerable people in the country,” she wrote in a letter to the Prime Minister.
According to mortality statistics in the UK, fewer deaths were recorded from December 2019 to March 2020, the initial phase of the pandemic, in comparison to the previous five years. This finding has been noted in a study published in the Journal of International Medical Research. Read more here
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump has issued a proclamation to suspend H-1B visas till the end of the year. The order will help Americans who have lost their jobs due to the current economic crisis. H-1B visas are popular among Indian IT professionals. Other foreign work visas will be suspended as well.
For the second consecutive day, the number of active Covid-19 patients in the state dropped with a surge in the number of people recovering. In the last three days, the number of active cases has dropped from a high of 6,237 on Saturday to 6,152 on Monday. Read More
Ahmedabad saw a trend reversal for the third consecutive day when the number of patients discharged — 401 — exceeded the number of new Covid-19 patients in the district — 314 — even as Gujarat reported a total of 563 new cases on Monday. With this, the total number of cases reported in the state, so far, has neared 28,000. Read More
Maharashtra on Monday recorded 3,721 new Covid-19 cases, taking its overall tally to 1.35 lakh. While 113 deaths were added to the toll, only 62 people had succumbed to the virus in the last 48 hours, health officials said. The state has reported 6,283 deaths so far. Read More
“I am leading the fight against Covid-19, I had to get it no?” Dr Sanjay Oak, chairman of the government-appointed task force for Covid-19 treatment, says on a light note. Oak was hospitalised last week after testing positive. He is now recovering, has been discharged and continues to work for around four hours every day. Read More
The BMC on Monday sealed an entire building on Nepean Sea Road after 21 Covid-19 cases were reported from the society in the last seven days.
Nineteen of the 21 patients were domestic helps, drivers and security staff. “The domestic helps work in different flats in the building and may have spread the infection. The entire building had to be sealed to break the chain,” said Assistant Municipal Commissioner (D Ward) Prashant Gaikwad. Read more
Days after the Ministry of Home Affairs capped charges of RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 at Rs 2,400 in Delhi, several top private labs have stopped home collection of samples. The move could impact the number of RT-PCR tests being performed in the city and add to the hassles of people who don’t want to or are unable to visit collection centres. The test used to earlier cost Rs 4,500.
At present, Delhi carries out 20,247 tests per million population.
On Monday, The Indian Express spoke to several private labs who confirmed they are no longer taking samples from home. “Lifting a sample from a patient’s home requires a separate PPE kit, gown, goggles, mask, gloves, vial transport medium, etc. All this is spent on a single person who is risking his life to attend to a suspected patient, but the rates fixed by the government are not at all cost-effective. We have completely stopped home collection services and are requesting patients to visit the collection centre,” said a private lab owner, who did not wish to be named. Read more here
In a bid to identify more Covid-19 patients and get faster test results, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to tie up with private laboratories that can test samples sent by the civic body. It has also decided to revise the containment zones in the city every week instead of once in 15 days. Read more
Eight cadets at INS Shivaji have tested positive for Covid-19 at the Indian Navy’s training campus located in Lonavala. Now, the district administration and INS Shivaji authorities have decided to test all the 150 cadets in the same batch as the eight cadets. Read more
With three more Covid-19 patients discharged today, Mizoram's total coronavirus tally now rests at 142. The new recoveries have taken the state's recovery graph to twelve, who were discharged from isolation centres, most of them from Zoram Medical College in Aizawl. The Department of Information and Public Relations today said that the three recoveries include two from Aizawl and one from Mamit district.
Sixteen more people were tested positive for Covid-19 in Tripura on Monday. All the new patients have recent travel history while one of them is a driver for other state currently stuck in Tripura. With these new cases, Tripura's tally now rests at 1,241, out of which 482 are active. So far, 759 coronavirus patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals and the state has one Covid casualty so far.
Telangana health minister has appointed Dr Vimala Thomas, a professor in the Department of Community Medicine at Gandhi Medical College, to helm the newly-conceptualized Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) in Hyderabad. The 1500-bed hospital, a dedicated COVID-19 center in Gachibowli, was expected to start treating patients from the third week of May.
Health minister Eatala Rajender Monday asked health department officials to get TIMS ready in a week. He directed the entire staff to be divided into two batches which will work on alternate weeks, and work in three shifts. He said that the state has a testing capacity of 2290 tests a day, and the same is being increased to handle another 4,310 samples a day, taking the overall capacity to 6,600 samples a day. With inputs from Rahul V Pisharody
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan (GKRA), a scheme to boost livelihood and employment opportunities for migrant workers who have returned to villages from metro cities due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown. The scheme for migrant workers’ welfare, however, leaves inter-district migrants completely out of its purview, focussing only on 116 districts across six states which see high inter-state migration.
GKRA is a programme to provide livelihood opportunities to returning migrant workers by employing them under 25 government schemes. The works include laying of gas pipelines, water supply, internet set up, building housing for the rural poor, waste management infrastructure, rural roads and work on Anganwadis, among others, under 12 different Union ministries.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the districts chosen for the scheme are those where more than 25,000 migrant workers have returned in the last few months. These districts are estimated to cover about 66 per cent of such migrant workers. Read more here
Even as the Covid-19 pandemic has set off an unprecedented response among the global scientific community to find a vaccine, the race is set to kick up a notch from next month as three candidates — the ones developed by Moderna Inc, China’s Sinovac Biotech and UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca — are set to enter late-stage trials.
According to the World Health Organization’s latest count, 13 experimental vaccines are being tested in humans and more than 120 others are in earlier stages of development even as the infections near nine million, including 468,484 deaths. China has six candidates undergoing human trials, the maximum.
If all goes well, we may have a vaccine for emergency use by November even though experts have said getting regulatory approval followed by mass production and supply chain issues may push the development into next year. Click here to read our Explainer.
