West Bengal on Friday recorded its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 infections with 1894 new cases. (File photo)
Coronavirus India News Live Updates: India has reported 34,884 coronavirus cases and 671 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of infections rose to 10,38,716, including 26,273 deaths, 3,58,692 active cases and 6,53,751 people who have been treated and discharged, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The tally crossed the grim milestone of one million on Friday. This is the third consecutive day when the number of COVID-19 cases increased by more than 30,000. Around 62.94 per cent of patients have recovered so far.
Sudden lockdowns, announced with very little notice by state governments, have begun to hurt industrial activity in plants located both within and outside containment zones. It is creating uncertainty for workers planning to return to work as the economy continues to reopen after multiple phases of lockdown and “unlock”.
No passenger flights will operate to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad between until July 31, the Kolkata airport said as it extended its ban on flights from above-mentioned cities on Friday.
Globally, over 14 million people (14,106,753) have been infected with the virus and 602,656 have died. It has taken just four days to climb to 14 million cases from 13 million recorded on July 13. The United States, with more than 3.6 million confirmed cases, is still seeing huge daily jumps in its first wave of COVID-19 infections.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: States including West Bengal, Assam and Bihar have announced full or partial lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus.
Despite the relaxations being given by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to foreign airlines of France and the US to fly passengers of Indian and non-Indian nationalities on both legs of their India flights, restrictions put in place by the foreign jurisdictions, as well as India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, mean that the situation does not change for most travelers unless these norms are eased up.
Negotiations for air bubbles
Thursday, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said India was in advanced stages of negotiations for setting up of air travel bubbles with various countries and has already allowed American carrier United and French airline Air France to operate flights till the end of this month under an arrangement. While United has been allowed to operate 18 flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Newark between July 17 and 31, Air France will operate flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to Paris between July 18 and August 1.
With a surge in COVID-19 cases in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha, the Union health ministry has asked these states to make renewed efforts to contain transmission of the virus and keep case fatality rate below one per cent. With these states imposing lockdown anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management. In a letter to Principal Secretaries (Health) and Secretary (Health) of these states, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal asked them to ensure that at least 80 per cent of the new cases have their close contacts traced and are in quarantine within 72 hours of case confirmation.
The letter underlined that containment and buffer zones should be suitably delineated based on the mapping of cases and contacts, and a list of NCC volunteers along with other workforce is available on COVID warriors' portal which can be optimally utilised in containment and surveillance effort. "In terms of testing the state should aim to achieve a minimum of 14 tests per one lakh (140 tests per million) per day, while ensuring a positivity rate of less than 10 per cent," the letter to the states read.
This is the third consecutive day when the number of COVID-19 cases increased by more than 30,000. Around 62.94 per cent of patients have recovered so far.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,34,33,742 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to July 17 with 3,61,024 samples being tested on Friday.
Australia's Victoria state saw a marked drop in new COVID-19 infections -- from Friday's record high of 428 to 217 -- a total that Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says was "a relief after yesterday's numbers." The Health Department said Saturday that two more Victorians, a man and a woman both aged in their 80s, had died, taking the state's death toll to 34 and Australia's national total to 118.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the latest numbers were encouraging but warned it was just one day. He says "we'd want to see a pattern where there's stability and then a decrease." He urged residents in metropolitan Melbourne to remain diligent during a six-week lockdown -- ?being bored is much better than being in intensive care.
Complete lockdown on Saturdays and Sundays in Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital except for essential services including operations of industrial units in multiple shifts, agricultural & construction activities, liquor shops, and hotels: Uttarakhand Chief Secretary.
For the past two months, every day for 18-year-old Nathu Kumar has been the same. He squints into his smartphone, reminded every time that he can’t afford a laptop, as a teacher at his coaching centre explains medical concepts over a Zoom call. The teacher often mentions a writing board, but on the tiny screen, the board is even tinier. The connection is patchy, and freezes at several crucial moments. With 20 other students in the call, the teacher can’t wait for any one, and has them all on mute.
Becoming a doctor is the shiniest dream for youths like Kumar in Bhagalpur. He hopes coaching classes like above will suffice for the entrance he takes next year. “If exams are held at all at this rate,” he adds. Read more here
Global coronavirus infections passed 14 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, marking the first time there has been a surge of 1 million cases in under 100 hours.
The first case was reported in China in early January and it took three months to reach 1 million cases. It has taken just four days to climb to 14 million cases from 13 million recorded on July 13.
The United States, with more than 3.6 million confirmed cases, is still seeing huge daily jumps in its first wave of COVID-19 infections. The United States reported a daily global record of more than 77,000 new infections on Thursday, while Sweden has reported 77,281 total cases since the pandemic began.
Around 8 pm on July 13, the Karnataka government ordered a complete lockdown from the following day, and told all industries to close. Companies including automobile manufacturers announced they were shutting; Toyota Kirloskar Motors told employees and vendors that its plant would be closed until July 22, and issued a media statement.
But on July 14 evening, the government issued another circular — saying manufacturing industries were exempt from the lockdown. It was too late — employees of numerous manufacturing plants across the state had already left for their homes in other districts. Read more here
India has reported 34,884 coronavirus cases and 671 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of infections rose to 10,38,716, including 26,273 deaths, 3,58,692 active cases and 6,53,751 people who have been treated and discharged, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The tally crossed the grim milestone of one million on Friday.
The Jharkhand government on Friday issued an order making it mandatory for every person coming in or going out of the state by air, rail and road from Monday to furnish their personal details on a designated government portal. The order states that if the travellers fail to comply with the directions, they will be liable to be proceeded against legal action.
In addition to compulsory registration, the order also directed individuals coming/returning from Jharkhand to stay in home quarantine for 14 days and observe health protocols. The order, issued by Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh, said the registration of personal details on www.jharkhandtravel.nic.in shall preferably be done before his/her departure for Jharkhand and in any case not later than the day of arrival in the state.
This order shall come into effect from July 20, it said.(PTI)
A 90-year-old woman has successfully recovered from Covid-19 in Goa. She was discharged on Friday from a Covid-hospital where she was admitted in a critical condition 23 days ago.
West Bengal recorded its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 infections with 1894 new cases.
According to data provided by the West Bengal government, as of July 17, there are presently 14,709 active cases. The total number of COVID-19 cases as of today is 38,011. In the last 24 hours, the state has recorded 26 deaths. Of these numbers, 563 new COVID-19 cases and 12 new deaths have been recorded in Kolkata alone.
The total number of COVID-19 related deaths in state as of July 17 is 1,049. The Bengal government states that 838 patients have been discharged and 13,240 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours.
The Kerala government Friday confirmed the community spread of coronavirus in two coastal areas in Thiruvananthapuram district. The development, which is indicative of the vulnerability of coastal areas to the virus, comes even as nearly 800 new cases were reported in the state in the last 24 hours with total Covid-19 count surging past 11,000.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, at the daily briefing, said community transmission of the coronavirus is observed to have taken place in the coastal neighbourhoods of Pulluvila and Poonthura in the capital district. He also indicated that a complete lockdown is likely to be imposed in Thiruvananthapuram’s coastal areas.
“Three zones will be demarcated. The first zone will be from Anchuthengu to Perumathura. The second zone is from Perumathura to Vizhinjam and the third zone from Vizhinjam to Urambu. A special police mechanism has been designed to bring the situation in these areas under control,” the CM said.
The tough measures are being enforced citing high case positivity rate, especially in the coastal areas where the density of population is higher and social distancing measures impractical. More details here.
No passenger flights will operate to Kolkata from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad between until July 31, the Kolkata airport extended its ban on Friday.
A 92-year-old male patient of coronavirus recovered from the infection in Indore, one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the country, an official said on Friday. The nonagenarian, a resident of neighbouring Mhow town, had been admitted to a private hospital in Indore after he tested COVID-19 positive, the official said. The man was discharged from the hospital following his recovery, he said. Earlier, a 95-year-old woman had also recovered from this deadly infection in the district. (PTI)
Amid the rising number of novel coronavirus cases in Bihar, the state opposition parties Friday urged the Election Commission to ensure “substantial public participation and level playing field in 2020 Bihar polls”. They also urged the poll body to assure voters that the upcoming polls do not become a “super spreader event” amid the pandemic.
The parties including Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Loktantrik Janata Dal submitted a memorandum to the poll panel drawing its attention to the coronavirus situation in the state.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the state badly. In the capital city, Patna, as many as 89 containment zones and over 16 districts have been put under lockdown for another fifteen days with effect from 16th July,” the memorandum said.
As many as 791 new Covid-19 positive cases, 133 recoveries and one death have been reported in Kerala today, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said during the media briefing.
As Kerala reports 791 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day hike so far, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan during a media briefing admitted to community spread in certain coastal areas of Thiruvanathapuram such as Poonthura and Pulluvila.
The COVID-19 lockdown-led reduction in air pollution levels across five Indian cities in India, including Delhi and Mumbai, may have prevented about 630 premature deaths, and saved USD 690 million in health costs in the country, a new study claims.
Scientists, including those from the University of Surrey in the UK, assessed the levels of harmful fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from vehicles and other sources in five Indian cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad -- since the beginning of the lockdown period.
The study, published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society, compared these lockdown PM2.5 figures from 25 March up until 11 May, with those from similar periods of the preceding five years, and found that the measure reduced pollution levels in all these places, news agency PTI reported.
According to the scientists, during this period, the levels of these harmful air pollutants reduced by 10 per cent in Mumbai, and by up to 54 per cent in Delhi.
"The percentage reduction for the other cities ranged from 24 to 32 per cent, which were slightly smaller than the measured values for Delhi and Mumbai," the scientists noted in the study.
In the initial days of India’s first lockdown in March, consumers responded to the Covid-19 crisis with anxiety and fear, leading to panic buying of staples and hygiene products. As cases continue to increase and the economy shrinks, the consumer is adapting.
A recent report on the impact of Covid-19 on consumer sentiment and behaviour by Mckinsey & Co, published on July 8, after conducting weekly, bi-weekly and monthly surveys in 12 countries, said that 91 per cent Indians changed their shopping behaviour due to the crisis. Many urban consumers, increasingly working from home and reluctant to deal with crowded public places, are moving online for their shopping needs. If demonetisation compelled people to shift toward cashless payments, Covid-19 has made them adopt online shopping.
There has been more than 10 per cent growth in online shopping across categories during the pandemic globally, according to Mckinsey, and it is expected that consumers will continue with this practice even if brick-and-mortar stores reopen. Globally, one in five consumers who ordered their last groceries online did so for the first time. For consumers aged 56 years and above, this figure was one in three, said Accenture, in a similar research report published in April. These days, people are buying larger pack-size products or multiple units at once. Click here to read our explainer.