Municipal authorities conducting fever and testing camps at various coronavirus hotspots in Mumbai.
Coronavirus India LIVE news updates: With India reporting 18,552 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of Covid-19 infections crossed the 5 lakh-mark to reach 5,08,953 on Saturday including 1,97,387 active cases and 2,95,881 recoveries. Also, as many as 384 deaths in a day pushed the total fatalities to 15,685.
The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in Maharashtra has been declining for over a fortnight now, government data analysed by The Indian Express show. This declining trend contrasts with the continuing rising trend in the number of daily new Covid cases, and could indicate the impact of several relatively recent policy interventions in the battle against the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand became the second state after West Bengal to extend the lockdown till July 31. “Considering the seriousness of the situation, the state government has decided to extend the lockdown till 31 July,” Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted.
Three months after they closed down following the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the malls in Gurgaon are likely to re-open next week. At a press conference on Friday, the officials said that directions to this effect would soon be issued. West Bengal Bengal Chief Minister too relaxed its night curfew to 10 pm-5 am and said that the government wants the Metro Rail services in Kolkata to resume from July 1.
Globally, the infections soared to 9,778,674 on Thursday and the death toll rose to 4,93,674. Also, as many as 4,932,392 people have recovered across the world.
Coronavirus LIVE updates: The Shenai Banquet opposite LNJP hospital in New Delhi has been turned into an isolation facility and will start operations from Thursday. (Express photo/Tashi Tobgyal)
Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on #COVID19, is underway, through video conferencing. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also present.
Doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital in North Delhi hold a protest on the day hospital was to be converted into COVID facility. Their demands — proper ACs, proper donning and doffing area, timely salary, quality PPEs. A day before, paramedical staff held a similar protest.
The Centre with two decisions Friday has moved further in the direction of fully resuming flight operations in the country. One, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), while extending the international flight suspension to July 15, said international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes on case-to-case basis. Two, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has allowed airlines to operate up to 45 per cent of their pre-lockdown scheduled capacity on domestic routes, compared with 30-35 per cent earlier.
R T Arasu, the DMK MLA from Cheyyur has tested positive for Covid-19. He is the third legislator from DMK after the late J Anbazhagan and Vasantham K Karthikeyan to contract the infection.
With India's COVID-19 cases crossing the five lakh-mark, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the government has no plan to defeat the pandemic and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surrendered as he refuses to fight coronavirus.
"Covid19 is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country. The Government Of India has no plan to defeat it. Training his guns on Modi, he said, "PM is silent. He has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic," Gandhi tweeted.
He also tagged a report that claimed the government had "retreated" as no meeting of the ICMR panel or the Group of Ministers had taken place and neither had the Health Ministry held its briefings on the pandemic.
Nearly four weeks after making an announcement to provide employment to labourers who returned after March 1 due to the COVID 19 pandemic, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led the state government on Friday constituted Madhya Pradesh State Migrant Labour Commission that promises the same.
The commission will have a tenure of two years and its term could be extended. The government will soon name the chairman and two members. While the chairman could be anyone with not less than 10 year of experience in labour welfare or a retired bureaucrat of the rank of secretary or above. It will have two members with minimum experience of five years in labour welfare.
Britain will ditch a 14-day quarantine period for people arriving from countries it deems to be lower risk for COVID-19, the government said on Friday. Official travel advice against all but essential travel outside Britain will also be eased for some countries and regions. Taken together, these changes will make it easier for Britons to travel abroad for summer holidays. The relaxations are the latest taken by the government to unwind emergency measures put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, as ministers look to limit the economic damage caused by the virus. An expert panel will put nations into three categories: green, amber and red. Passengers arriving from green and amber countries will no longer have to quarantine themselves for 14 days after their arrival.
Top US airline executives met on Friday with Vice President Mike Pence and other senior administration officials but did not come away with any commitments from the White House on mandating temperature checks for airline passengers. Pence met with the chief executives of United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, JetBlue Airways and the president of Southwest Airlines at the White House alongside Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Mark Redfield, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and other officials. Airlines want the U.S. government to administer temperature checks to all passengers in a bid to reassure the public.
Mexico's health ministry reported on Friday 5,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 719 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths. The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
The United States recorded 45,242 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the largest single-day increase of the pandemic, according to a Reuters tally, bringing the total number of Americans who have tested positive to at least 2.48 million. The new record for positive COVID-19 tests comes as several states at the center of a new surge in infections took steps back from efforts to ease restrictions on businesses. COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus. Governor Greg Abbott ordered bars across Texas to close by mid-day and required restaurants to limit indoor seating capacity to 50%, while Florida state officials told bars to immediately stop serving alcohol on their premises. Abbot's announcement stunned Texas bar owners, who said the governor, a Republican in his second term, had given them little notice.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that the total number of 79,96,707 samples has been tested till June 26 and the number of samples tested on June 26 was 2,20,479.
A two-pronged strategy of aggressive testing and screening the elderly as part of a special campaign has seen Rajasthan report the highest recovery rate for Covid-19 patients among the top 10 states with most cases in India.
As on Friday morning, Rajasthan’s recovery rate stood at 79.24 per cent, while that of India was 58.25 per cent. Madhya Pradesh followed close behind with a recovery rate of 76.37 per cent, ahead of Gujarat (72.83 per cent), as per Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data. According to health officials in Rajasthan, aggressive testing was a key factor in the success.
With India reporting 18,552 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of Covid-19 infections crossed the 5 lakh-mark to reach 5,08,953 on Saturday including 1,97,387 active cases and 2,95,881 recoveries. Also, as many as 384 deaths in a day pushed the total fatalities to 15,685.
The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in Maharashtra has been declining for over a fortnight now, government data analysed by The Indian Express show. This declining trend contrasts with the continuing rising trend in the number of daily new Covid cases, and could indicate the impact of several relatively recent policy interventions in the battle against the pandemic.
The availability of larger numbers of oxygen-equipped beds, early testing, requisitioning of more beds in private hospitals, use of newer drugs, and prompt medical intervention overall, could all be reasons for the dip in daily fatalities, experts said. Maharashtra carries India’s heaviest Covid case load and death toll, having reported close to 1.52 lakh cases and 7,106 deaths until Friday. The first case in the state was reported on March 9.
Developing a vaccine against Covid-19 is the most pressing challenge and by the current estimates, funding to the tune of $18.1 billion will be required to deliver two billion doses by the end of 2021, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist of World Health Organisation, said on Friday.
Over 200 vaccine candidates are at different stages of development and 15 are in human clinical trials. “There is a hope that we can have a vaccine in 12-18 months' time,” Dr Swaminathan said while addressing a virtual media conference on Friday. Read more here
The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in Maharashtra has been declining for over a fortnight now, government data analysed by The Indian Express show.
This declining trend contrasts with the continuing rising trend in the number of daily new Covid cases, and could indicate the impact of several relatively recent policy interventions in the battle against the pandemic. Read more here
For the first time since the state reported its first Covid-19 case on March 9, Maharashtra on Friday recorded 5,024 infections – the highest-ever count reported in a single day till now.
With this, the state has recorded 1,52,765 cases. The high number of cases are being attributed to increased testing by the state government. In the last 24 hours, 23,849 people have been tested for Covid-19. Read more here
Watch | Top developments on coronavirus across India and world
Jharkhand’s Education Department issued an order Thursday that all private unaided accredited schools will not charge any kind of transportation, annual fees from the students till the time schools reopen. In a letter written by the state’s Education and Literacy Department to the heads of all private unaided accredited schools stated that failing to adhere to all these instructions may lead to stringent action such as NOC being cancelled.
Education Minister Jagarnath Mahato took to Twitter and posted the order and said: “…All private schools shall abide by it. Also, there won't be any reduction in teacher's salaries.”
The order stated: “The economic condition has deteriorated due to COVID-19. It has also affected parents of the students…Many parents are not receiving salaries on time and some employment and they are facing problems in paying the full fees in private schools. Due to the same reason, the private schools are also facing trouble managing the schools.” - Abhishek Angad reports from Ranchi
Tripura law minister Ratan Lal Nath Friday claimed the state ranks second across India in terms of COVID-19 recoveries so far. Speaking to reporters this evening, Nath said 81.47 per cent COVID-19 patients in Tripura have recovered, second highest recovery rate in the country after Meghalaya, which has 89 per cent recovery rate. The national average of COVID recovery is 58.18 per cent.
Tripura has tested 60,164 people for coronavirus till date, out of which 1,295 turned out positive. Among them, 1,055 have recovered and only 232 are current active patients. However, 6,707 people are still under surveillance for coronavirus in the state, including 651 in different quarantine centres and 6,056 placed under home quarantine.