A Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus being sanitised before commencement of inter-district services. (Express Photo: Ashish Kale)Coronavirus India News Live Updates: Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Saturday wrote to all the state governments reiterating that inter-state movement of people and goods cannot be stopped as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 as it is creating problems. The Union Home Ministry has sent multiple such reminders to the states in recent past.
With India reporting 69,878 cases and 945 deaths in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus infections in the country rose to 29,75,702 and the death toll reached 55,794 on Saturday. Currently, India has 6,97,330 active cases while 22,22,578 people have been treated and discharged. The recovery rate has soared past 74.69 per cent and the case fatality rate has also dropped further to 1.87 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said. Also, a cumulative total of 3,44,91,073 samples have been tested up to August 21 with 10,23,836 samples being tested on Friday, the highest done in a day so far.
Globally, 22,949,234 people have been infected with the virus so far, including over 7.9 lakh who died. The United States continued to be worst affected followed by Brazil and India. China, where the virus was first reported in December last year, has announced that people living in Beijing are no longer required to wear masks outdoors, a second such announcement since May when it was reversed after a recurrence of coronavirus cases in the city. Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organisation said he hopes the world can end the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years.
Coronavirus India LIVE updates: A man sanitises a pandal ahead of celebrations for Ganesh Chathurthi (Reuters)
Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Saturday wrote to all the state governments reiterating that inter-state movement of people and goods cannot be stopped as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19 as it is creating problems. The Union Home Ministry has sent multiple such reminders to the states in recent past.
Former Jharkhand CM and JMM president Shibu Soren and his wife Roopi tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, official sources confirmed to PTI.
The Indian Council of Medical Research reported more than one million diagnostic tests for novel Coronavirus on Friday, a major milestone in the country’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease. Simultaneously, India also overtook Russia in terms of total number of samples tested till now. With 34.5 million tests having conducted till now, India ranks third in the world. Only China (90.4 million) and the United States (74.7 million) more, but they are far ahead of India.
Lok Sabha MP and ruling BJD leader Manjulata Mandal on Saturday said she has tested positive for COVID-19, and was undergoing home quarantine. Taking to Twitter, the Bhadrak MP requested people who recently came in contact with her to get themselves tested.
India on Friday tested more than 10 lakh people in a day. The cumulative number of testing stands at 3,44,91,073.
Graph source: MoHFW, ICMR
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation revised its home isolation guidelines again Friday to allow coronavirus-afflicted patients aged above 50 years to observe quarantine at home or opt for government or private hospitals. Civic officials said they will only “counsel” patients from the age group to seek institutional isolation at Covid Care Centres, but not make it mandatory.
On Wednesday, BMC’s executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare had issued guidelines to all assistant commissioners stating “no home isolation should be allowed” for Covid-19 patients aged above 50 years, irrespective of their symptoms and co-morbidities.
“A lot of people said there will be fear in getting tested if institutional quarantine is made compulsory. We have changed the wordings of the guidelines. Our health workers will try and counsel patients for institutional quarantine,” Gomare said Friday.
A top official of the Food and Drug Administration, which acts as the drug regulator in the United States, has said he would resign if there was any attempt to push through an unsafe or ineffective novel Coronavirus vaccine for political reasons, Reuters has reported.
Peter Marks, director of FDA’s Centre for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told Reuters that he had not come across any political pressure to fast-track the approval of any vaccine, but if this did happen, he would prefer to resign.
“I could not stand by and see something that was unsafe or ineffective that was being put through. You have to decide where your red line is, and that’s my red line. I would feel obligated (to resign) because in doing so, I would indicate to the American public that there is something wrong,” Marks was quoted as saying.
“Like Shah Jahan, I will have to keep staring at the Burj Khalifa building outside my balcony for the next seven days,” says a cricketer after checking into his hotel room in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the players will be based for the next 82 days to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
For the first week, they will have no human contact, as they will be quarantined in their respective bio-secure rooms. They will have to wait a minute after the bell rings, before going to collect food or toiletries left outside the door.
No contact with other players, or even the housekeeping staff, is allowed in the first week — at the end of which they will be tested for Covid-19. Only after that will they be able to meet their teammates, and start training.
India’s exports to China have jumped 31 per cent to $7.29 billion during April-July 2020, despite a slump in the economy. While overall exports have registered a negative growth of 29.99 per cent in the first four months (April-July) of 2020-21, exports to China have increased by 30.71 per cent, shows an analysis of the monthly trade data available on the Commerce Ministry’s portal.
It shows during April-July this year, exports to China increased to $7.29 billion — 30.71 per cent up from $5.57 billion in the same period of the last year. However, in this period, the country’s overall exports contracted by 29.99 per cent to $75.01 billion from $107.14 billion in the same period last year.
With India reporting 69,878 cases and 945 deaths in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus infections in the country rose to 29,75,702 and the death toll reached 55,794 on Saturday. Currently, India has 6,97,330 active cases while 22,22,578 people ahve been treated and discharged.
Every year on Ganesh Chaturthi, when ‘Mumbai cha Raja’ is brought to Ganesh Gully, in Mumbai’s Lalbaug area, the idol is welcomed by huge crowds of the faithful and deep-throated chants of “Ganpati Bappa Morya”. Not this year.
On Friday, a day ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival that kicks off the 10-day Ganeshotsav celebrations, the pandal is almost deserted, except for a few volunteers and workers milling around in masks. Adwait Pedhamkar, joint treasurer of the Lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal, which manages the pandal, admits this has to be among the most subdued celebrations.
As the city’s Covid count climbs steadily, the Ganesh pandals, a defining feature of Mumbai’s streets around this time of the year, are bracing for low-key celebrations.
THE Covid-19 pandemic has forced Indian students to rethink their higher education choices abroad, with 61 per cent of them deciding to defer their course of study by a year, 8 per cent choosing to study in a different country and another 7 per cent cancelling their plans altogether, a survey by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British agency that brings out the World University Rankings every year, has found.
The findings are part of an ongoing survey by QS of prospective international students and how the Covid crisis has impacted their study plans. As of August 11, the survey had 66,959 responses, of which 11,310 are Indians.
Citing the increasing number of Covid-19 patients in rural parts of Pune, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday directed the district administration to give special attention to check the spread of infection in both rural and urban parts of the district. Read More
Acting on complaints of inflated bills of Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has deducted a total of Rs 25.69 lakh in the last seven days after inspecting bills of 48 patients. Read More
The committee appointed by the state government to look into the alleged inflated bill given to Covid-19 patients has asked the Aditya Birla Hospital to refund Rs 5 lakh to 25 patients who underwent treatment at the hospital. Read More
One hundred and sixteen new Covid-19 positive cases and two deaths were reported in the UT on Friday, taking the total tally of cases in Chandigarh to 2,631, with 1,170 active cases and 33 deaths. While 78 people tested positive by RT-PCR, 38 positive cases by Rapid-Antigen tests were also reported, with the total number of patients tested being 24,064. As many as 36 people were discharged from various facilities of Chandigarh on Friday. Read More
Keeping in view the heightened rush at the covid flu corner at civil hospital, and in an attempt to further increase sampling, the district health administration has decided to run 19 facilities which will collect samples from all walk-in patients and has even invited private labs to set base in the city at community centres et al. Read More
A day after ordering weekend and night curfew in all cities of the state, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh Friday ordered imposition of Section 144 to prohibit all gatherings of more than 5 persons, other than marriage and bhog ceremonies. Read more here