Municipal authorities conducting fever and testing camps at various coronavirus hotspots in Mumbai.
Coronavirus India LIVE news updates: 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. Meanwhile, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who had been fighting Covid-19 since last week tested negative for the virus on Friday. He had tested Covid positive last Wednesday.
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.
Following a spurt in Covid-19 cases in Assam, a 12-hour night curfew will be imposed across the northeastern state from Friday 7 pm and a 14-day complete lockdown in Kamrup district, which includes the Guwahati city, from Sunday midnight. Out of 762 coronavirus cases recorded in Guwahati since June 15, 677 have no travel history, though many had come in contact with returnees from other states, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
With India registering 407 deaths and 17,296 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of infections crossed the 4.9 lakh-mark to reach 4,90,401 including 15,301 fatalities, 1,89,463 active cases, and 2,85,636 people who have been treated and discharged so far. On Thursday, the number of recoveries was 96,173 more than the number of active cases.
Globally, the infections soared to 9,588,717 on Thursday and the death toll rose to 488,842. Also, as many as 4,822,067 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)
Delhi health minister Satyendar jain tested negative for Covid-19 on Friday.
West Bengal Friday relaxed its night curfew hours. Now the restrictions are from 10 pm to 5 am during extended coronavirus lockdown till July 31, said CM Mamata Banerjee. She added that the government wants the Metro Rail services in Kolkata to resume from July 1.
Three months after they were directed to close down amid the Covid outbreak, malls in Gurgaon are likely to re-open next week, said officials from the district administration today. They are be expected to follow SOPs issued by the Central government for the purpose, said officials.“The State Government had already given directions for reopening of malls but, keeping in mind the situation in Gurgaon, the move had been delayed in the district for some time. Now it has been decided that malls can reopen in the coming one week as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued for reopening of malls by the Central Government,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).“Officials of the administration will ensure that SOPs are being followed at these and, if it is found that any establishment is not following the SOPs, directions will be given to again close down that shop or mall,” he added. - Sakshi Dayal reports from Gurgaon
The Bombay High Court on Friday granted an interim stay on a Maharashtra government resolution that directed all the educational institutions in the state to not hike their fees for the academic year 2020-21 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On May 8, 2020, the state government had issued the resolution saying that no educational institution in the state shall hike their fees for the academic year 2020-21. The resolution also directed all the institutions to not collect any balance fees of the year 2019-20 or fees for the year 2020-21 at one go, but give parents an option to deposit it monthly or quarterly. (PTI)
Alternate seats marked-off, luggage sanitised, information boards and awareness messages set across Mysuru airport.
Following a spurt in Covid-19 cases in Assam, a 12-hour night curfew will be imposed across the northeastern state 7 pm onwards on Friday and a 14-day complete lockdown in Kamrup district, which includes the Guwahati city, from Sunday midnight. Out of 762 coronavirus cases recorded in Guwahati since June 15, 677 have no travel history, though many had come in contact with returnees from other states, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Of the 276 cases reported in Assam Thursday, 133 were from Guwahati, he said. "We are now left with no choice but to impose a complete lockdown for 14 days from June 28 midnight, and this time it will be very strict as no grocery shops will be allowed to open or supply of vegetables and other essentials will be permitted for the first seven days," PTI quotes Sarma as saying.
The ruling MVA constituents are working together in the battle against COVID-19 in Maharashtra and the Congress and NCP are fully supportive of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar has said.
In an interview to a TV channel, Pawar said that the government formed by the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress – in November last year – will absolutely complete its five-year run. He exuded confidence that a similar political situation will prevail in the state if the three parties contest the next Assembly election together. The veteran leader rejected suggestions that he is remote-controlling the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, in which his party is the second largest constituent.
Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa holds meeting with MPs, MLAs of various constituencies in Bengaluru. Discussions are on to formulate a revised strategy to contain Contain-19 in Bengaluru
A 60-year-old woman who tested positive for coronavirus in Bengaluru killed herself in a designated hospital on Thursday, police confirmed.
According to the police, the woman hung herself in the restroom of K C General Hospital. "She had gone to the restroom at around 2 am on Wednesday. However, as she did not return for a long while, her daughter-in-law went to check on her when she found her hanging dead," the police said.
It can be recalled that a head constable, attached to the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) had killed himself on his way to C V Raman Hospital in Indiranagar on Monday.
As Covid-19 cases in Bengaluru continue to rise rapidly — with 113 fresh cases — Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa convened an all-party meet Friday to discuss the strategy to contain the same.
However, the Karnataka government on Thursday ruled out the possibility of reimposition of a lockdown in Bengaluru amid rising Covid-19 cases and growing pressure on healthcare, but announced a wait and watch policy to take a final call on forced social distancing in the city.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announces total lockdown in Guwahati city from Sunday midnight for 14 days till July 12. This applies to the entire Kamrup Metro district. He said it’s a stringent lockdown, almost like a curfew. Nothing — apart from pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals — will be open.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says, "A major issue with Corona is that oxygen level of patient drops suddenly. The oxygen level should be 95. If it drops below 90 then consider it dangerous, if it drops below 85 then consider it very serious. You will face difficulty in breathing if it drops to 90 or 85. There are some patients whose oxygen level became very low but they showed no symptoms, it dropped suddenly and they died suddenly. So we have provided oxymeter to asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms who are under home isolation."
Kejriwal also says, "We have permission to conduct plasma therapy at LNJP and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospitals. Since the start of plasma therapy at LNJP hospital, the number of deaths has reduced to less than half as compared to earlier. It may be difficult to save very serious patients using plasma therapy, but it can help moderate patients by not letting their condition worsen. This is what we have found till now."
Kejriwal says, "Number of COVID-19 cases in Delhi is high but the situation is under control and there is no need to worry. We've increased testing by three times but positive cases have increased by around 3000 per day only. Out of the total COVID19 patients,approx 45,000 people have recovered. In the last one week, the number of beds occupied has been around 6,000 despite almost 3,000 new cases daily as they do not require hospitalisation. COVID19 cases in Delhi are mild and most of them don't require hospitalisation. Right now, we have over 13,000 beds ready."
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that Delhi has reported 74,000 COVID-19 cases so far, but situation is under control. "We have increased COVID-19 testing in Delhi; hence, cases are rising. Delhi govt has set up 3,500 beds for COVID-19 patients in hotels in last 10 days."
The surge is coming mainly from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, though on Thursday, Maharashtra too seems to have joined in. Maharashtra, the state with the highest caseload in the country, had been consistently showing a declining growth rate, but on Thursday reported 4,841 new cases, an unusually high number considering the recent trends. Health officials said the higher number could be the result of an increased number of tests. For the last ten days, the state has been testing an average of more than 17,000 samples every day, which is slightly more than the 13,000 to 14,000 samples it was testing earlier. On Thursday, the state tested more than 24,000 samples.
With more than 17,000 new cases of novel Coronavirus on Thursday, India moved closer to half the million mark, which is expected to be crossed on Friday itself. Only three countries, United States, Brazil and Russia, have a higher caseload.
On Thursday, India’s confirmed infections were more than 4.9 lakh, and with an average of more than 15,000 new cases being detected every day in the last one week, the half a million mark is almost certain to be crossed today. If that happens, India would have added the last one lakh cases in just about a week. In fact, this month had started with less than two lakh cases, and by the time it ends, more than three lakh cases would have been added, possibly even four lakh.
The growth rate of total infections has begun to rise again in the last four days, after showing a declining trend for more than a month. It had dropped to an all-time low of 3.59 per cent (7-day compounded daily growth rate) on June 21, before beginning to rise. On Thursday, it had climbed up to 3.67 per cent. Consequently, the doubling time of cases have declined from just over 20 days to about 19.63 days now.
As the Uttar Pradesh government nears the end of its massive exercise to profile the skills of over 30 lakh migrant workers who have returned following the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, analysis of the data has revealed the extent both of their contribution to the economies of other states and the challenge before the UP government to provide them with employment within the state.
Almost half of this labour pool is unskilled, and a significant percentage have got work under MNREGA. To connect the skilled workers to industry, the state has formed a labour commission, and is developing a web portal with skills data. Read More
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he might have contracted the novel coronavirus previously and he may do another test for the disease, having already tested negative for the virus multiple times weeks earlier.Bolsonaro had said he tested negative twice but fought a court battle to stop the release of the hospital test results, raising questions over whether he may have been infected or not.
The CEOs of major U.S. airlines are set to hold a meeting Friday to discuss several coronavirus-related travel issues, including a push to convince the federal government to mandate temperature checks for passengers, three people briefed on the matter said. The meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and other senior U.S. officials is expected to include the chief executive officers of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and JetBlue Airways Corp, the sources said. The White House confirmed Pence would meet with airline executives Friday afternoon, but did not identify the companies.