The Covid-19 care center at CWG Village in New Delhi, on Friday, July 10, 2020. (Express Photo by Abhinav Saha)
Coronavirus India Updates: India’s coronavirus tally rose by 28,367 on Sunday, taking the total number of cases to 8,49,553. And the death toll climbed to 22,674, with 551 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours, data from the Health Ministry showed. There are around 2,92,258 active cases in the country, while 5,34,620 have recovered from the infection.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), nearly 1,15,87,153 samples have been tested so far with 2,50,151 samples tested on Saturday. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 2,46,000 followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,34,226 and Delhi at 1,10,921.
UP announces complete lockdown on weekends
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to implement strict lockdown on weekends in order to stop the spread of coronavirus, PTI quoted a senior official as saying.
“The lockdown on weekends will be implemented from coming Saturday and Sunday especially in crowded areas. The markets and offices will remain closed on these days. However, the banks will remain open,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Awasthi said.
The lockdown will remain effective in both urban and rural areas of the state.
On a day when Uttar Pradesh recorded another peak in the daily new cases of novel coronavirus with 1,403 new infection, capital Lucknow recorded 202 new cases – the highest in the state. With this, the state’s caseload has gone up to 35,092. In the past 24 hours, 25 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have died, taking the state’s Covid toll to 913.
Lucknow Chief Medical Officer Dr Narendra Agarwal said that the fresh cases in the district have been reported from 41 different spots. “Of these highest 14 are from the Gomti Nagar area, 10 from the district Cantonment area, eight from the DG office, six from Mandi Samiti on Sitapur road, three from the police headquarters in Mahanagar, two from the homeguards headquarter and the other three are doctors of the King George’s Medical University (KGMU).”
Rajasthan reports 153 new Covid-19 cases
Rajasthan on Sunday reported four more Covid-19 deaths and 153 new cases, taking the total tally of coronavirus cases in the state to 23,901, PTI reported.
Of the new cases, 42 were reported from Alwar, 31 from Jaipur, 25 from Ajmer, 14 in Kota, 13 in Sirohi, eight in Karauli, seven in Barmer, four each in Bundi and Jhunjhunu and two in Banswara.
There are as many as 5,492 active cases at present, and 17,902 people have recovered.
Union minister G Kishan Reddy visits Covid-19 hospital in Hyderabad
Union Minister G Kishan Reddy Sunday visited the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad and assured doctors and others of the Centre’s support in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, PTI reported.
The minister interacted with doctors, paramedical staff and patients in the state-run hospital and enquired about the facilities being provided and measures being taken to handle the pandemic, an official release said.
Telangana has around 33,402 cases of Covid-19, with 348 deaths.
Need to sanitise buses to check coronavirus spread: Goa Health Minister
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane Sunday said that public transport buses and bus stands in the state need to be sanitised in view of the rising number of coronavirus cases, PTI reported.
Goa reported 117 new cases on Saturday, taking the total tally to 2,368.
“It is the need of the hour to fumigate bus stands and buses which are used for public transport. It will be discussed with the chief minister. Whatever activities we need to outsource to other agencies will also be discussed with the chief secretary and state health secretary,” he said.
Covid-19 cases in Bhubhaneswar rising due to violation of safety norms: Official
Work is underway to disinfect a multi-storey building near Bidhan Nagar. (Express photo by Shashi Ghosh)
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) found that the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the city was mainly due to violation of social distancing norms, PTI quoted an official as saying. 317 Covid-19 cases have been reported in the first ten days of July.
The spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases was witnessed after people started coming here from hotspot districts with restrictions being eased and many patients from outside the state capital are being admitted to city hospitals, BMC Commissioner PC Chaudhury said.
As many as 640 coronavirus cases have been reported from the state capital and 317 out of them are active, the BMC Commissioner said.
Delhi records 691 deaths in past 2 weeks, 7 under home isolation
Shopkeepers sit outside their shops looking for customers at Chandni Chowk market in Old Delhi on Friday. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)
In what would further bolster the Delhi government’s faith in its home isolation set-up, seven of the 691 people who died of Covid in the last fortnight were under home isolation, while the rest were already in hospitals. This, officials say, is indicative of the fact that home isolation for very mild and asymptomatic patients is a relatively safe approach — contrary to apprehensions raised by the Centre recently that keeping Covid patients at home is risky since they may not reach hospitals on time if their condition deteriorates.
The data emerged days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought detailed information about those who had died of the disease in the capital recently.
It was made public on a day when the capital reported1,781 Covid cases — the second time in the past two weeks that the number has dipped below 2,000.
With cases hovering around the 2,000 mark over the past two weeks, down from 3,000 or higher mid-June, the number of active cases in the city also fell to 19,895, as 2,998 people recovered.
Delhi has recorded 3,334 deaths and 1,10,921 cases so far — a fatality rate of 3%.
Meanwhile, restaurants across the city are grappling with decreased sales, staff shortages and few dine-in customers, after reopening a month ago after the coronavirus lockdown, PTI reported.
Many restaurants have not started dine-in facilities and are relying on takeaways to drive their business.
Lite Bite Foods director Rohit Aggarwal said the situation has not been “very motivating, walk-in numbers are extremely low and the operational cost is soaring.”
He added that people are still apprehensive of stepping out and going to confined public places such as malls and restaurants.
Maharashtra death toll surpasses 10,000
Huge crowd seen at the wholesale market at Raviwarpeth in Pune on Friday morning. (Express photo by Ashish Kale)
As Maharashtra completes 116 days after it recorded the first coronavirus death, the state crossed 10,000 deaths with an addition of 223 deaths on Saturday. The death toll now stands at 10,116. Besides this, the overall count also bypassed all previous records with 8,139 new cases yesterday. The state recorded 71,836 cases in only 11 days of July.
A 57-year-old Assistant Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) succumbed to Covid-19 on Saturday evening. Ashok Khairnar was handling H-east ward (Bandra east), one of the worst-hit Covid-19 hotspots which also has the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.