Coronavirus LIVE updates: Delhi overtook Tamil Nadu on Sunday to become the state with the second largest number of cases.
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: With India reporting 465 deaths and 1,59,68 fresh cases in the last 24 hrs, the total number of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday crossed the 4.5 lakh-mark to reach 4,56,183 including 14,476 casualties, 1,83,022 active cases and 2,58,685 people who have been treated and discharged. Even as there has been a consistent surge in the number of coronavirus cases, the number of recoveries continues to be higher than active cases by a margin of 75,662 today.
Delhi, with 62,655 cases, is growing at the fastest rate among the top ten states. At this rate, within a couple of days, it is likely to overtake Mumbai as the city with the maximum caseload. The national capital overtook Tamil Nadu on Sunday to become the state with the second largest number of cases. Telangana, on the other hand, is likely to emerge as one of the biggest trouble spots in the country in the next few days, with the state discovering almost 3,500 cases in the last one week, as it ramped up testing.
Globally, over 91 lakh people are infected with the virus and 4,73,849 have died, with the United States recording the maximum number of cases (23,28,562), followed by Brazil (11,06,470), Russia (5,98,878) and India at 4,40,215 cases. Meanwhile, US top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said he believes “it will be when and not if” there will be a COVID-19 vaccine and that he remains “cautiously optimistic” that some will be ready at the end of the year.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: Migrant workers from other states wait to board trains to their home states at the Secunderabad Railway station in Hyderabad. (AP)
Senior TMC MLA Tamonash Ghosh, who was a 3-time MLA from Falta in West Bengal, passed away on Wednesday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to express her condolences. 'Very, very sad. Tamonash Ghosh, 3-time MLA from Falta & party treasurer since 1998 had to leave us today. Been with us for over 35 years, he was dedicated to the cause of the people & party. He contributed much through his social work. He has left a void that will be difficult to fill. On behalf of all of us, heartfelt condolences to his wife Jharna, his two daughters, friends and well wishers,' the CM tweeted.
Ghosh, his two daughters and his three aides had tested positive on Wednesday.
With India reporting 465 deaths and 1,59,68 fresh cases in the last 24 hrs, the total number of COVID-19 infections on Wednesday crossed the 4.5 lakh-mark to reach 4,56,183 including 14,476 casualties, 1,83,022 active cases and 2,58,685 people who have been treated and discharged. The number of recoveries continues to be higher than active cases by a margin of 75,662 today.
A Brazilian judge ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a mask in public after the right-wing populist attended political rallies without one in the middle of the world’s second-worst coronavirus outbreak.
Federal Judge Renato Borelli ruled in a decision made public on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was subject to a fine of 2,000 reais ($387) a day if he continued to disobey a local ordinance in the federal district meant to slow the pandemic. Brazil’s solicitor general, which argues the government’s legal interests, said in a statement that it was studying ways to reverse the decision.
The United Nations chief criticised the total lack of international coordination in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and warned that the go-it-alone policy of many countries will not defeat the coronavirus. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that what needs to be done is to make countries understand that by acting in isolation “they are creating the situation that is getting out of control” — and that global coordination is key.
COVID-19 started in China, moved to Europe, then to North America and now to South America, Africa and India, he said, and some people are now talking about second waves coming at any moment.
The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is yet to come in South Africa, warned top epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim in wake of the country’s coronavirus tally crossing the 1 lakh-mark and death toll nearing 2,000. The infections and deaths have doubled in the past fortnight after lockdown regulations introduced three months ago were further eased to allow more businesses to open to save the faltering economy address rising unemployment.
But the internationally-acclaimed epidemiologist who heads the government’s COVID-19 ministerial advisory committee said the country was still “in a pretty good position” compared to other countries, largely due to the early implementation of a total lockdown — three months ago — that gave time to South Africa to prepare itself.
Yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd on Tuesday launched what they claimed was the first Ayurvedic medicine to cure Covid-19. However, the AYUSH Ministry has sought details about the medicine and has directed Patanjali and Ramdev to stop advertising such claims.
At the launch in Haridwar, Ramdev claimed that ‘Coronil tablet’, ‘Swasari Vati’ and ‘Anu Taila’ had shown “100 per cent favourable results” during clinical trials on Covid-19 patients. He claimed that a clinical controlled study was done in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Meerut and other cities. During the trial, he claimed, 69 per cent patients recovered in 3 days, while the recovery rate over a period of seven days was 100 per cent.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to chair an all-party meeting in Kolkata today, over the coronavirus pandemic. (ANI)
The governor of Washington state on Tuesday ordered residents to wear face masks in public as officials across the country sought new means to control the coronavirus pandemic while easing clamp-downs on residents and reopening the economy.
The move by Washington Governor Jay Inslee came as Arizona, California, Mississippi and Nevada reported record numbers of new cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Texas set a record on Monday. Washington state, site of one of the first known outbreaks of COVID-19, saw its positive tests rise by 35 percent last week.
WITH ONLY 6 per cent of the total 50,000 ‘Made in India’ ventilators under PM-CARES fund manufactured so far, the race to secure the machines for the country’s Covid-19 response has exposed a handicap in the component production ecosystem for medical equipment.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra and DRDO Chairman Dr Satheesh Reddy acknowledged this challenge in India at a government-industry interaction, which was also attended by Principal Scientific Advisor D Vijayaraghavan, on June 11, according to sources. The e-conference, organised under the chairmanship of Kant, also saw participation from senior officials, representatives of ventilator and component manufacturers, and start-ups.
THE INDIAN Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Tuesday revised its Covid-19 testing strategy to include “all symptomatic individuals in every part of the country”. The strategy, as of May 18, advised testing symptomatic individuals, but restricted it to those in hospitals, containment zones and hotspots, contacts of a confirmed Covid-19 case, healthcare and frontline workers, and those with history of international travel.
A member of the epidemiology and surveillance task force under ICMR told The Indian Express this was the first time that testing was advised for symptomatic individuals “without any qualifiers.”
The Covid-19 death toll in Gujarat crossed 1,700 with 25 more patients succumbing to the infection on Tuesday, including one from Devbhoomi Dwarka district, which reported its first Covid-19 death. Meanwhile, the state tally neared 28,500 after 548 persons across the state tested positive. Read More
A 35-year-old man employed as a guard at GTB hospital was hit on the head with a brick, allegedly by a neighbour, who reprimanded him for “spreading coronavirus in the colony by standing on the terrace of his house”.
An FIR was registered against the accused at Northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar police station, and he has been arrested, said DCP (Northeast) Ved Prakash Surya.
The incident took place on the evening of June 19 when Vijay Kumar was taking a stroll on the terrace of his house in Harsh Vihar before leaving for his night shift at the hospital. His mother, Usha Devi, told The Indian Express, “Vikas, who lives in the lane behind ours, was on his terrace when he saw my son, and asked him why he was out in the open since he works in a hospital where coronavirus patients are admitted. The two got into a verbal spat and my son told him that the virus won’t reach his terrace from ours.”
Maharashtra on Tuesday recorded 3,214 new cases, taking the total number of Covid-19 infections to 1,39,010 on the 105th day since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state. Mumbai recorded 824 cases reaching the 68,410 mark. Read More
The northern suburbs of Mumbai, including Dahisar, Borivali and Kandivali, which saw fewer novel coronavirus cases initially, has witnessed a substantial rise in the numbers in June.
R-North ward, which covers Dahisar and parts of Borivali West, has seen the sharpest spike in cases in June, civic officials said. Till June 2, when the lockdown was partially relaxed in the city, the administrative ward had only reported 486 cases. Twenty days later the number of cases rose by 193 per cent to 1,425 cases, data provided by the civic body said. Read more here
An increasing number of Christian families are finding it hard to undertake traditional funeral rites of Covid-19 victims due to the absence of grave diggers in Mumbai. Many are shelling out extra money to get grave diggers from outside to bury their loved ones. Read more here