Coronavirus India LIVE Updates: Dilli Haat in New Delhi has reopened for public after the lockdown. (Express Photo: Praveen Khanna)
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India’s COVID-19 cases crossed the 7 lakh-mark on Tuesday with 22,252 new cases and 467 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total positive cases stand at 7,19,665 including 20,160 deaths, 2,59,557 active cases, and 4,39,948 people have been treated and discharged so far, according to the Ministry of Health. The country has now overtaken Russia to become the third worst hit nation in the world, only after US and Brazil.
With no let-up in coronavirus cases in India, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development on Monday announced that the final-year exams in universities across the country would be conducted by September-end this year. Opening up possibilities of conducting the examination in multiple mode, the ministry said that universities could conduct these in online, offline or blended mode.
Meanwhile, more than a fortnight before the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) wrote to clinical trial sites that it was “envisaged to launch” the Covid-19 vaccine “for public health use latest by 15th August 2020”, an expert committee of India’s drugs regulator had laid down four specific conditions that the company developing the vaccine candidate would have to meet.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) permitted Phase I and II clinical trials of Covaxin, but a Subject Expert Committee (SEC), which evaluates applications for clinical trials, said that “should submit results of the Phase I clinical trial to the DCGI before initiating the Phase-II study”.
Globally, the total number of coronavirus cases have crossed 11 million while deaths stand at 5.3 lakh, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In each slot, a maximum of 1,500 visitors will be allowed, an official told PTI. A very frail number of visitors were witnessed at the Qutab Minar, after it reopened post-Covid lockdown on Monday.
One of the passengers waves as they walk along the gangway during the boarding prior the first holiday flight of the Corendon Airlines Europe to the Greek destination Rhodos at the airport Erfurt-Weimar in Erfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 2, 2020. The tourist air traffic was interrupted for several months due to the corona pandemic. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
International students will be forced to leave the US or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall, under new guidelines issued Monday by federal immigration authorities.
The guidelines, issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, provide additional pressure for universities to reopen even amid growing concerns about the recent spread of COVID-19 among young adults. Colleges received the guidance the same day that some institutions, including Harvard University, announced that all instruction will be offered remotely.
Hearing a matter on the coronavirus affected children in Juvenile Homes in Tamil Nadu, state government tells Supreme Court that those who were affected are cured and back in facility and that no new cases have been reported. The government also said that there are no children in any juvenile home who are Covid positive.
Total shutdown would be imposed in English Bazar and Old Malda towns for a week, starting Wednesday in the wake of the rising cases of COVID-19, officials said. All shops will remain shut during this period, except those selling essential items, they said. Pharmacies have also been excluded from the purview of the shutdown, officials said. Private vehicles will not be allowed on the roads, they said, adding that state-run buses after leaving the Gour Kanya terminal will stop only at a single point in any of these two towns. Cycle-rickshaws and e-rickshaws will also be not allowed, officials said. However, some rickshaws would be made available at three designated locations for emergency purposes.
Teachers unpaid for months, mounting rent pressure, and pending fees — amidst a Covid-enforced shutdown, several low-cost private schools in the national Capital, catering to children from lower-middle-class and working-class families, are struggling to stay afloat.
Madhuri Aggarwal runs a primary school for children of migrant labourers in Pochanpur, in Southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, charging Rs 600 a month as fees for nursery students, with an incremental hike of Rs 50 for every subsequent class. Read More
As much as $273 million in federal coronavirus aid was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to President Donald Trump's election efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
Many were among the first to be approved for a loan in early April, when the administration was struggling to launch the lending programme. And only eight businesses had to wait until early May before securing the aid, according to the AP's review of data released Monday.
The Trump-connected companies obtained the aid through the Paycheck Protection Programme, which extends a lifeline to small businesses struggling to navigate the pandemic.
Fast-food chains like Muy Brands, oil and gas companies, and white-collar firms were all granted a slice of more than USD 659 billion in low-interest business loans that will be forgiven if the money is used on payroll, rent and similar expenses.
Hours after The Indian Express published a report highlighting the plight of childrenfrom a Mahadalit village in Bhagalpur in the absence of mid-day meals due to the shutdown of schools, the Bihar government issued a statewide order to distribute ration to school children for three months and transfer money to their bank accounts, or to that of their guardians, in lieu of the food scheme.
The order was issued even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognizance of The Indian Express report and issued notices to the Centre and Bihar, seeking a detailed reply within four weeks on what it said was a “serious issue”.
On Monday, The Indian Express reported that children of the Musahari tola of Badbilla village were turning to rag-picking after the mid-day meal scheme, which guaranteed one stable meal a day, came to a standstill following the Covid lockdown.
Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of India’s most eminent medical scientists who played a critical role in the development of the indigenous rotavirus vaccine, has unexpectedly resigned as executive director of the Translational Health Sciences and Technology Institute (THSTI), the prestigious Faridabad-based public health research institute under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology.
The resignation of Prof Kang, the first Indian woman scientist to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), London, came around two months after a committee to look into indigenous Covid-19 drugs and vaccines that she headed, was disbanded.
India's COVID-19 cases crossed the 7 lakh-mark on Tuesday with 22,252 new cases and 467 deaths in the last 24 hours. Total positive cases stand at 7,19,665 including 20,160 deaths, 2,59,557 active cases, and 4,39,948 people have been treated and discharged so far, according to the Ministry of Health. The country has now overtaken Russia to become the third-worst hit nation in the world, only after US and Brazil.
More than a fortnight before the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) wrote to clinical trial sites that it was “envisaged to launch” the Covid-19 vaccine “for public health use latest by 15th August 2020”, an expert committee of India’s drugs regulator had laid down four specific conditions that the company developing the vaccine candidate would have to meet.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) permitted Phase I and II clinical trials of Covaxin, but a Subject Expert Committee (SEC), which evaluates applications for clinical trials, said that “should submit results of the Phase I clinical trial to the DCGI before initiating the Phase-II study”. Read More
The New York Times reported recently that 239 scientists from 32 countrieshave written an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) that the virus causing Covid-19 can remain airborne for a period of time and thus transmit itself. The scientists have “outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendation”. The paper titled ‘It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Covid-19’ is likely to be published in a scientific journal next week. Read more
Gujarat reported 740 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, as the state tally reached 36,931. Surat continued to report the highest single-day rise in the state, with 241 new cases. Seventeen people succumbed to the virus in the state, of which six were in Surat. Read More
After recording more than 6,000 new Covid-19 cases for the last four days, with the highest detected on July 4 at 7,074, Maharashtra recorded a slight dip in the number of fresh infections on Monday. With 5,368 cases reported, the total infection count in the state now stands at 2,11,987. Health officials attributed the fall to an overall dip in testing numbers usually observed during weekends. Read More
Over 60 per cent of Covid-19 cases in Mumbai’s northern suburbs, including Dahisar, Borivali and Kandivali, have been reported from highrises, according to the data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Read More