Health volunteers performing temperature scanning for covid-19 symptoms at Gul Mohammed Chawl in Dharavi (File)
Maharashtra, Mumbai, Pune Coronavirus News Live Updates: Even as the state continues to remain the worst-affected in terms of Covid tally in the country, Dharavi, the densely populated slum in Mumbai, reported just one fresh case of novel coronavirus Tuesday, for the first time in three months. The last time Dharavi had recorded a single new coronavirus case was on April 5. According to the BMC, Dharavi has only 352 active COVID-19 cases as 1,735 patients have been discharged from hospitals upon recovery. Some 6.5 lakh people are estimated to live in Asia’s biggest slum which is spread over 2.5 square kilometres.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 5,134 fresh cases and 224 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 2,17,121 cases including 9,250 deaths. Taking on the Cenre, the Shiv Sena said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed confidence that the battle against COVID-19 would be won in 21 days, but it has been over 100 days and the crisis still persists.
Further relaxing the lockdown restrictions, the state government decided to allow markets and shops to remain open for additional two hours from July 9. Markets and shops can now remain open from 9 am to 7 pm, an extension of two hours from the existing closing deadline of 5 pm, in non-containment zones.
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Corona Screening camp in Mankhud Transit Camp (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)
The Covid-19 death toll in Mumbai crossed the 5,000 mark on Tuesday with 64 deaths recorded in the city. As many as 224 deaths were recorded across Maharashtra — highest in a fortnight. The last highest death toll was on June 23 when the state reported 248 deaths.
While the deaths were high on Tuesday, Mumbai recorded only 785 new Covid-19 cases, lowest since June 30 when 893 cases were recorded. The total tally has touched 86,509. Across the state, 5,134 new cases were diagnosed, with the total count now at 2.17 lakh.
While 12 hospitals chosen to conduct clinical trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin prepare to enrol participants this month, samples of the vaccine are still undergoing quality and safety tests at a government facility, The Indian Express has learnt. The tests, which began last Friday, are expected to be completed by the end of next week and cannot be rushed as they are expected to ensure the vaccines are safe to use in humans, said senior officials. Read More
India has reported 482 deaths and 22,752 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of casualties to 20,642 and total number of infections to 7,42,417 which includes 2,64,944 active cases, and 4,56,831 people who have been treated and discharged so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The number of recovered cases exceeded that of the active cases by 1,91,886 on Tuesday.
After delivering over one lakh face shields to police and medical personnel in Pune and other cities since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the city-based Venture Centre has now come up with its own version of N95 face masks.
After successfully testing the masks on users at hospitals, the Centre began manufacturing them on Tuesday. Called MH12, the designing and manufacturing process of the mask was completed within two months. These masks will be donated to government hospitals and police, on priority. V Premnath, director of Venture Centre, said these efforts are directed towards delivering the benefits of science and technology to people.
Former Pune Mayor and Kasba Peth MLA Mukta Tilak has decided to opt for home quarantine after she tested positive for Covid-19. Last week, Tilak’s father Vasant Limaye had succumbed to the infection. He was 85. Tilak and her mother also tested positive for the infection.
Meanwhile, current Mayor Murlidhar Mohol, who tested positive for the infection on Saturday, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital after he reported symptoms of fever. Some of his family members have also tested positive for the infection.
The World Health Organization on Tuesday acknowledged “evidence emerging” of the airborne spread of the novel coronavirus, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease passes between people. “We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of COVID-19,” Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on the COVID-19 pandemic at the WHO, told a news briefing.
The WHO has previously said the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person that quickly sink to the ground. Read our explainer
With hotels set to reopen from Wednesday, the organised sector is finding ways to balance hospitality and safety of their guests and staff in the times of Covid-19 pandemic. While many have started putting in place elaborate safety measures to handle the flow of customers, hoteliers are sceptical whether they would do much business in the initial days, as people are still tepid about stepping out. Read more, here
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and state government to respond to a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought directions to allow lawyers to travel by suburban local trains running during the Covid-19 pandemic as they provide essential services.
A Division Bench of Justices A A Sayed and M S Karnik Tuesday heard through video conference the PIL that claimed many lawyers do not own a private vehicle and it becomes difficult for them to commute to the court and so they should be included in the list of persons entitled to travel in special local trains and declare that services rendered by lawyer is essential service.
Currently, only government employees and essential services providers are allowed to use local trains after its services were resumed following suspension during the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
A simple visit to a toilet is not that easy for Covid-19 patients. In four months, doctors have noted multiple ‘fall episodes’, in some cases leading to fractures, as patients try to walk a few steps to the toilet.
Low oxygen saturation levels, acute weakness, no relatives at side, and hesitance of nursing staff to come to prompt aid in isolation wards have increased incidents of “fall” in hospitals in the last four months. ‘Fall episodes’, when a patient falls off bed or falls while walking to a toilet, are carefully recorded and registered as medico-legal cases. In the public sector with huge patient load, doctors say they inform casualty medical officers but the frequent incidents recently have made it difficult to report each case. “At most we record in the patient's case paper,” a doctor in Bhabha Bandra hospital said. Read more here
The state government will recruit 10,000 additional police personnel in order to relieve the load on a stretched force battling the Covid-19 pandemic.
Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Tuesday that in light of the law and order situation created by the pandemic and the lockdown, the state police needs additional personnel. Read more here
The Covid-19 death toll in Mumbai crossed the 5,000 mark on Tuesday with 64 deaths recorded in the city. As many as 224 deaths were recorded across Maharashtra — highest in a fortnight. The last highest death toll was on June 23 when the state reported 248 deaths. Read more here