TMC's student wing protest against the NEET exam dates in Kolkata on Thursday.
Coronavirus India Updates: The Covid-19 recoveries in India have exceeded the active cases by over 18 lakh as of Friday while there has been a huge reduction in the fatality rate, the Centre, highlighting its ‘test, track and treat’ approach, said today. With more patients recovering and being discharged from home isolation and hospitals, the country’s recoveries is nearing 26 lakh, it added.
“Effective treatment of positive cases has resulted in a progressively dipping Covid case fatality rate, which is pegged at 1.82 per cent as on date,” the Union health ministry said.
With 77,266 cases in 24 hours, the Covid-19 tally in India rose to 3,387,500 earlier in the day with the death toll at 61,529.
Here is a look at the top developments:
Punjab CM goes into self-quarantine after 2 Cong MLAs test COVID-19 positive
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh quarantined himself after two Congress MLAs who met him during the assembly session here on Friday tested positive for COVID-19. The MLAs, Nirmal Singh and Kulbir Singh Zira, got tested for the disease after the one-day monsoon session. The 12th session of the 15th Vidhan Sabha began at 11 am here with strict protocols in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Punjab chief minister @capt_amarinder has decided to go into 7-day self quarantine, as per government protocol and the advise of his doctors, after two MLAs who met him in the Vidhan Sabha tested positive for #COVID19,” tweeted Raveen Thukral, the media advisor to the chief minister.
AP Covid cases swell from 3 to 4 lakh in just 10 days
Andhra Pradesh on Friday went past the grim mark of four lakh COVID-19 cases as over 10,000 were added afresh for the third straight day. It took just 10 days, the shortest span so far, for the number of coronavirus cases to swell from three to four lakh in the state. Going by the pace at which new cases are being added, AP is expected to climb to the second spot, behind Maharashtra, in the overall national tally, surpassing neighbouring Tamil Nadu, which had crossed the four lakh mark on Thursday, in a day or two. As on Friday, the COVID-19 count in AP read 4,03,616 total cases, 3,03,711 recoveries and 3,714 deaths.
Jharkhand extends lockdown till Sept 30
Jharkhand has extended lockdown restrictions in the state till September 30. State Disaster Management has issued new SOPs and restricted all inter state bus services.
The state’s COVID-19 tally rose to 34,676 on Friday as 1,365 more people tested positive for the infection, while 11 more fatalities pushed the state’s coronavirus death toll to 378, a health bulletin said. The fresh infections have taken the number of active coronavirus cases in the state to 10,799, while 23,499 people have recovered so far, it said.
Meals allowed on flights, airlines can put flyers on no-fly list for refusing to wear mask
In its latest set of coronavirus guidelines for flyers, the Centre has allowed airlines to serve pre-packed snacks, meals and beverages on domestic flights depending on the travel time, and hot meals on international flights.
Besides this, the government has also directed passengers who refuse to wear a face mask in a flight to be put on the no-fly list, a senior official of the aviation regulator DGCA said. The airline and its cabin crew are sufficiently empowered under the existing DGCA rules to take action in this regard, the official added.
“Airlines may serve pre-packed snacks/meals/pre-packed beverages on domestic flights depending on the duration of flight,” an order issued by the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Thursday.
Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President Venkiah Naidu takes stock of the seating and house arrangements at Parliament in New Delhi on Thursday.
SC dismisses plea seeking postponement of Bihar polls, says Covid-19 no excuse
The Supreme Court Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking postponement of the Bihar Assembly elections due to the coronavirus pandemic. A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising Justices R S Reddy and M R Shah left it to the Election Commission decide the schedule.
The apex court was hearing a petition filed by one Avinash Thakur, who sought direction to the Chief Election Commissioner to postpone the election till the state was free of Covid-19.
The SC also said the petition was premature, as the EC was yet to announce the schedule for the elections. The poll body, however, has announced a slew of guidelines for holding elections during the pandemic.
NSUI members protest against JEE and NEET exam dates at Balgandharv Chowk in Pune.
Defence ministry to host Aero-India in Bengaluru in February
Notwithstanding the pandemic, the defence ministry has taken an in-principle decision to host the next edition of Aero India, considered Asia’s largest aerospace exhibition, in Bengaluru from February 3-5 next year, officials said.
Sources told news agency PTI that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had already held a number of internal meetings on hosting the mega event.
“It was decided that the event will be hosted while taking maximum precaution against the coronavirus pandemic,” the source was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
A Covid isolation centre in New Delhi.
6 ministers of opposition-ruled states move SC seeking review of order on NEET, JEE
Amid the row over the NEET and JEE entrance exams scheduled for next month, six ministers on Friday moved the Supreme Court, seeking review of its order permitting the Centre to conduct the exams this year.
The review plea was filed by ministers from West Bengal (Moloy Ghatak), Jharkhand (Rameshwar Oraon), Rajasthan (Raghu Sharma), Chhattisgarh (Amarjeet Bhagat), Punjab (B S Sidhu) and Maharashtra (Uday Ravindra Sawant). The plea has been filed through advocate Sunil Fernandes.
A hand sanitisation stand installed inside a MPML city bus at Shivajinagar bus depot.
BJP’s attitude towards students ‘devoid of humanity’: Akhilesh Yadav
Targeting the BJP over the holding of the JEE and NEET exams amid the pandemic, Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said the party’s attitude towards students is “devoid of humanity”.
“Adamant on conducting JEE and NEET examinations, BJP has now clarified why it has changed the name of the Ministry of Human Resources. It is because its attitude towards education and students is devoid of humanity,” the former chief minister tweeted while tagging pictures of the protest by his partymen in the state capital on Thursday.
SC says states can’t promote students without exams, deadline can be altered
The Supreme Court today said that states and universities cannot promote students without holding final year exams. The court, however, added that they can approach the University Grants Commission (UGC) to seek an extension of deadline for holding the exams. Earlier, the UGC guidelines had asked universities to hold the exams by September 30.
States can postpone final year exams under Disaster Management Act but fresh dates have to be fixed in consultation with UGC, it said.