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.
Meanwhile, senior Trinamool MLA Tamonash Ghosh (60), who had tested positive for Covid-19 in the last week of May, passed away in a hospital in West Bengal on Wednesday.
In other news, 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.
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 92 lakh people are infected with the virus and 477,584 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. As many as 4,630,391 people have recovered globally. 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)
In a significant ruling, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted transit anticipatory bail for six weeks to three applicants including two senior citizens, permanent residents of Mumbai, who were booked for cheating and breach of trust at a Police Station in Haryana’s Rewari and observed that in view of Covid-19 pandemic, they cannot travel to Haryana immediately to seek pre-arrest bail before the competent court in Rewari.
The Court granted six-week time to applicants to approach the Court in Haryana for seeking pre-arrest bail. Meanwhile, in the event of arrest, the Court said that applicants be released on furnishing personal bonds of Rs 25,000 along with sureties.
Balvir Chand has built his life around being a doppelganger of Sachin Tendulkar for the last three decades, but like many others, his life has fallen apart during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Having been a regular on Indian television as Tendulkar’s double in several advertisements during the maestro’s playing days, Balvir Chand had since then been employed as the brand ambassador of a fast food chain in Mumbai. He lost his job in the lockdown and returned to his village in Punjab earlier this month, only to find on reaching there that he had contracted the virus.
“They (Goli Vada Pav No 1, Chand’s employers) lost business after the lockdown and let go of a lot of staff. I too was asked to leave; they said they would hire me back when things improve,” Chand was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
Delhi on Tuesday reported close to 4,000 new cases of novel Coronavirus, more than any state in India has done on any single day. Even Maharashtra, which has more than double the number of cases in Delhi, has never reported these many new infections. Delhi, whose caseload is currently growing at almost twice the national growth rate, now has a total of 66,602 cases, and could potentially overtake Mumbai as early as today. Mumbai, which has 68,410 cases, is growing much slowly, and on Tuesday added only 842 new cases.
A major reason for the surge in Delhi has been number of samples the city has been testing these days. This number has almost doubled in the last one week, the same period in which there has been a sharp increase in numbers. On Tuesday, Delhi tested almost 17,000 samples. Just a week back, the city was testing between 5,000 and 7,000 samples a day, at which time it was reporting between 1,500 to 2,000 new cases. In contrast, the testing numbers in Mumbai has remained stagnant at around 4,500 for a very long time.
Bengaluru now has 458 active containment zones as notified by local civic body the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). According to BBMP War Room statistics, the areas with most active cases include Padarayanapura (70), VV Puram (45), SK Garden (23), Dharmarayaswamy Temple (22), Mangammanapalya (16), and KR Market (14) among others.
Meanwhile, as the number of fresh cases and casualties linked to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to increase on a daily basis in Bengaluru, Health Minister B Sriramulu has hinted of a complete lockdown in the city soon, if the need arises. “The number of cases in the city are on the rise in the last few days. If the same situation continues, Bengaluru might be put under lockdown yet again,” he said after visiting KC General Hospital in the city on Tuesday.
With the lockdown in Madurai having commenced from today, over 1400 corporation officials in the district will carry out door-to-door surveys for 300 households each, to identify residents with symptoms of COVID-19 and help detect the virus early. Over 100 mobile fever clinics have been set up in each zones to carry out tests, while contact tracing teams have been deployed to collect details of patients and their primary and secondary contacts
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu recorded 2,516 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state tally to 64,603. Among these, Chennai reported 1,380 positive cases, bringing the city’s total to 44,205. Tamil Nadu recorded 39 deaths on Tuesday, putting the state toll at 833. Thirty six of them had succumbed due to comorbidities. As of Tuesday, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu touched 28,428. Follow Tamil Nadu Coronavirus Live Updates here
The virus might have been new, but for Yuko Koizumi the work was still the same. In Kawasaki, a city just south of Tokyo, nearly 300 people had tested positive for the coronavirus by early June. But Koizumi was unperturbed. As head of infectious disease response for the city’s network of seven public health centers, she was able to draw on a familiar strategy used in past pandemics and seasonal outbreaks: trace infection routes via close contacts, check on recuperating patients, and arrange treatment where needed.
It’s a playbook that may have made all the difference in Japan’s unorthodox, though largely successful, virus response. Read More here
Days before 57 girls of a government-run or novel coronavirus, the district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) had flagged the issue of overcrowding several times. The latest alert was sounded on June 11. Among the 57 Covid-positive girls, five are pregnant.
“We have regularly been raising the issue of overcrowding at the shelter home in Kanpur with the director of the Women Welfare Department and the district probation officer. The last time we raised the issue was on June 11 after an inspection,” said Rajendra Kumar, a member of Kanpur’s CWC.
Kanpur District Magistrate Brahma Deo Ram Tiwari said he too had alerted the government about the shelter home running beyond its capacity, but efforts to decongest it were stalled due to the nationwide lockdown that began in the last week of March.
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.
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