Coronavirus India Live Updates: 97 died while travelling on Shramik Special trains, says Goyal

With more than two dozen MPs testing positive for coronavirus, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu Saturday urged members to wear masks, maintain a safe distance and follow the good hygiene of washing hands frequently. When the House met for the day, Naidu said the COVID-19 testing facility, both rapid antigen test and RT-PCR, will be available in Parliament House everyday throughout the current session. "Members are advised to avail this facility and get their test done," he said. He also added that a good number of oximeters used to check the oxygen saturation level are also available in Parliament House, reported PTI.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan CN tested positive for coronavirus Saturday in Bengaluru. The BJP leader had taken the test which was mandatory for all legislators and attendees of the upcoming State Assembly sessions. “I am asymptomatic and will be under home isolation,” he confirmed. Further, the minister, who is also in charge of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science & Technology, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood portfolios, requested all those who came in contact with him to take necessary precautions.

Due to increased testing, there has been a downward trend in the positivity rate in the national capital and it will lead to good results by next week, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Saturday. “The positivity rate was 6.76 per cent on Friday. It has remained below 7 percent in the last two-three days. Last week, it was around 8 per cent,” he said. The cumulative positivity rate has also dropped below 10 per cent for the first time, he added. “It should lead to good results by next week,” he said.

A member of the Delhi Minorities Commission succumed to Covid, chairman of the panel Zakir Khan said on Saturday. Taking to Twitter, Aam Aadmi Party leader Dilip Pandey condoled the death of Kawaljeet Singh and called him as an old friend. "Singh, around 60 years old, was admitted to Balak Ram hospital over ten days ago after (getting) infected with coronavirus. He died there on Friday," Khan told news agency PTI. Singh became a member of the Delhi Minorities Commission last month.

Three ministers and two BJP MLAs in Sikkim have tested positive for Covid-19, an official said on Saturday. This came after all the legislators and staff of the state legislative assembly were tested, as a precautionary measure, ahead of the proposed one-day assembly session on Monday. Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang has tested negative for the virus, the official said. Those who got infected were Information and Public Relations minister Lok Nath Sharma, Forest and Environment minister Karma Loday Bhutia and Power minister Mingma Norbu Sherpa. Two BJP MLAs Farwanti Tamang and T T Bhutia also tested positive.

The Centre on Saturday informed the Rajya Sabha that 97 people died on board the Shramik Specials, admitting for the first time that migrant labourers lost their lives in the trains which were run to ferry them during the nationwide lockdown. In a written answer to a question posed by TMC MP Derek O'Brien on Friday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal provided the statistics in the Rajya Sabha. "Based on the data provided by State Police, 97 persons have been reported dead till 09.09.2020 while travelling on board Shramik Special Trains during current Covid-19 situation/crisis," the minister said. "The state police registers case under Section 174 of Cr.PC in cases of unnatural deaths and follows further legal process," the minister added. Out of the 97 cases of death, the state police sent dead bodies for post mortem in 87 cases, the minister said.

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), which has, so far, managed to keep its official figures of Covid-19 cases just above 10,000 since the outbreak of the pandemic with 171 deaths recorded officially until Friday, is facing data manipulation allegations. Elected representatives of both the Congress and BJP cited the increasing number of cremations and burials across the city as an indicator of the “concealed” data. Congress corporator Chirag Zaveri and BJP MLA Jitendra Sukhadia on Friday aired their concern, seeking immediate correction in the figures related to the pandemic, even as Mayor Dr Jigeesha Seth said that the numbers of reported cases could be “restricted” to avoid “spread of panic” among people.

Number of new patients decreased but the count of deaths due to coronavirus disease (Covid-19) increased by 28 per cent in the week even as the overall fatality rate continued to be 2.34 per cent in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) jurisdiction. As per the PMC data, as on September 17 the total number of Covid-19 deaths was reported at 2,963 while it was 2,668 on September 10 and 2,401 on September 3. There has been an addition of 295 deaths in the last week while the jump was 267 between September 3 and 10. There has been increase of 11 per cent per week in Covid-19 deaths in the last two weeks. Of the total deaths, 2,015 were patients with comorbid conditions till September 17, with an increase of 164 in a week. Click here to read more.

"In a landmark global achievement", India has overtaken the US to top Covid global recoveries, the health ministry said on Saturday. The country has reported the highest number of recoveries with 42,08,431 patients having recovered from the disease so far, pushing the national recovery rate to nearly 80 per cent, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.61 per cent, the ministry said. "India now accounts for close to 19 per cent of the total global recoveries. This has strongly pushed the national recovery rate to 79.28 per cent," it underlined.

As cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) keep increasing across the district, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday instructed the administration to issue prohibitory orders only after consulting elected representatives of respective areas to check the spread of infection. “There is increase in the spread of Covid-19 as more patients are getting infected. The decision to contain the spread by the way of issuing prohibitory orders to check crowding in the city as well as rural parts of the district should be taken after consulting the elected representatives in the district and mayors in the area of municipal corporation,” said Pawar during the weekly review meeting of Covid-19 situation in the district.

The Patna High Court has asked the Bihar government to look for ways beyond online teaching for the nearly 1.19 crore children who are unable to attend classes in the current Covid crisis that has forced closure of schools. The court order on Friday was in response to a suo motu cognisance it took of a June 7 story by The Indian Express, highlighting how children in Bhagalpur district had taken to selling scrap due to discontinuation of mid-day meal scheme after schools closed because of the pandemic. A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar asked the state government to “continue schemes like the Mid-Day Meal and the Sarwa Shiksha Scheme to provide meals or ration as feasible along with textbooks and notebooks to government school students".

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) on Friday launched the ‘My family, my responsibility’ campaign to conduct health examination of residents at their doorsteps, in order to check the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The civic body has formed 1,500 teams for the mission. “Each team has three members, including volunteers. They have been asked to go to the doorsteps of residents, check their temperature, oxygen level and find out about any comorbid conditions. They will also advise residents to get treated at nearby hospitals or help them get treated. If anyone is found with Covid-19 symptoms, we will conduct their rapid antigen tests at our nearest centre,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said, adding that the campaign will continue till October 15.

Telangana added 2,123 new virus cases, pushing the total infection count to 1,69,169, while death toll rose to 1,025 with nine more fatalities, a bulletin by the state government said on Friday. The cumulative recovered cases stood at 1,37,508, while 30,636 were under treatment. The bulletin said 54,459 samples were tested on September 18. Cumulatively, the number of samples tested stood at 24,34,409.

Schools in Delhi will continue to remain closed for students of all classes till October 5, as per the latest directions issued by Delhi government’s Directorate of Education. The Union Ministry for Health and Welfare had allowed for schools outside containment zones to reopen from September 21 for students of classes IX to XII, stating that they may attend voluntarily if they want guidance from their teachers. Choosing not to take up this option for schools in the state, the education department on Friday released a circular, stating, “…it is informed that all schools will remain closed for all the students till 5.10.2020. However, online classes and teaching learning activities will continue as usual and HOSs are authorised to call teachers/staff (as per requirement) for smooth conduct of online classes, teaching learning activities and any other work.”

Jharkhand's coronavirus tally rose to 68,578 on Saturday as 1,478 more people tested positive for the infection, while 12 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 602, a health official told PTI. The fresh infections have taken the number of active cases in the state to 13,924, while 54,052 people have been cured of the disease so far, he said. The state has tested 25,962 samples for Covid in the last 24 hours, the official added.

Since the pandemic hit the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has collected over Rs 1 crore in fine from people not wearing mask in public places. Nearly 30 per cent of the fine — Rs 30 lakh — was collected in the last three days. The violation attracts Rs 200 in fine. BMC has offered its staff incentive of 10 per cent of the total fine they collect each day. Ajitkumar Ambi, assistant commissioner of N Ward that covers Ghatkopar, said, “Earlier 10-20 people would be fined in a day or two, which has now risen to 60-70. Our officials visit common areas where people are found violating norms — outside hotels, grocery stores, delivery joints and industrial areas.”

The India trials of a vaccine candidate being developed by American company Novavax is likely to begin in late October, the government said in Lok Sabha on Friday. The Novavax vaccine candidate is currently undergoing phase-2 clinical trials in South Africa. Global phase-3 trials are expected to begin next month. In India, Novavax has entered into an agreement with Pune-based Serum Institute of India for production of 100 million doses of the vaccine. It is expected that at least 50 per cent of this would be meant for supplies within India. “ICMR and SII (Serum Institute of India) have partnered for clinical development of a glycol-protein sub-unit nanoparticle adjuvanted vaccine developed by Novavax from USA. The trial will be initiated in the second half of October after the vaccine is manufactured by Serum Institute. The trial is led by ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said in Parliament. Click here to read more.

While the Covid-19 pandemic epicentre in South Bengal comprising the five districts of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, and Hooghly have continued to contribute to a bulk of the cases and deaths in September, authorities are as concerned about the situation in districts such as Bankura, Purulia, Paschim Bardhaman, and Alipurduar. “We have some assumptions about the increase in cases this month. One is obviously the total samples tested have increased and random antigen tests were introduced across the state, which lead to an increase in the tally. On the other hand, after Unlock 4.0 more and more people have taken to the streets in search of income, which also caused the infection to spread,” said a government official.

With strict Covid-19 protocols, all parks, garden and botanical gardens in West Bengal will reopen from September 23, and zoos, national parks and sanctuaries from October 2 after a gap of more than six months. The Forest Department, in a notification on Friday, issued guidelines for visitors on precautions required to be taken against the coronanvirus. The notification said, “While the effect of the pandemic is still being felt, in view of the graded unlocking and requirement to restart economic and related activities thereby mitigating avoidable hardships to various stakeholders, it has been decided to allow public to access various establishments of the Forest Department with appropriate restrictions in view of the pandemic.”