A healthcare worker collects a swab sample in Mumbai on Sunday. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty)Coronavirus India Live Updates: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday urged people to embrace yoga as an essential party of daily life to fight the pandemic better. “We all should make Pranayam and Yoga an essential part of our daily life and together we should spread it in the society. With this, we will not only be able to face the disaster brought by this pandemic, but also will be successful in building a healthy society and nation,” Kovind wrote on Twitter.
India, in the last 24 hours, reported 50,040 new Covid-19 cases, according to data from the Union Health Ministry — a rise from its spike of 48,698 new cases a day ago. Kerala reported 12,118 new cases, while Maharashtra recorded 9,812.
As many as 1,258 new fatalities were also recorded in the same duration. The number of active Covid-19 cases in India has declined to 5,95,565 or 2.03% of the total cases. As many as 2,91,93,085 patients have been cured of Covid-19 till now, with 64,818 of them being discharged in the last 24 hours alone.
Delta Plus variant of coronavirus, which several experts say is more infectious, needs to be addressed with vaccination and safety measures such as wearing face masks, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic has said. “Vaccination plus masks, because just a vaccine is not enough with ‘Delta.’ We need to make an effort over a short period of time, otherwise there would be a lockdown,” Vujnovic said on the live YouTube show, according to news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed satisfaction at an increased pace of Covid vaccination this week and said that it was important to keep this up and also underlined a need to involve NGOs and other organisations in order to expand the drive, PTI reported. PM Modi, while taking stock of the progress of immunisation programme, also directed the officials to work closely with states to ensure that the speed of testing does not go down as testing remains a very important tool to track and contain rising infections in any region.
Crowds are back in Manali as lockdown restrictions are lifted. (Photo: PTI)
Hours after PM Narendra Modi spoke in his monthly radio programme, 'Mann ki Baat', Rahul Gandhi took a dig at him saying, there is only one 'Kaam ki Baat' (important topic to talk about) and that is 'stop the shortage of vaccines', while everything else is are tricks to distract attention.
Delhi reports 89 new Covid-19 cases, 285 recoveries and 4 deaths in the last 24 hours. Active cases: 1,568 Total recoveries: 14,07,401 Death toll: 24,965 Positivity rate: 0.12%.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday urged people to embrace yoga as an essential party of daily life to fight the pandemic better. “We all should make Pranayam and Yoga an essential part of our daily life and together we should spread it in the society. With this, we will not only be able to face the disaster brought by this pandemic, but also will be successful in building a healthy society and nation,” Kovind wrote on Twitter.
Haryana government issues order to extend lockdown till July 5 with some relaxations in the state.
Delta Plus variant of coronavirus, which several experts say is more infectious, needs to be addressed with vaccination and safety measures such as wearing face masks, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative to Russia Melita Vujnovic has said. “Vaccination plus masks, because just a vaccine is not enough with ‘Delta.’ We need to make an effort over a short period of time, otherwise there would be a lockdown,” Vujnovic said on the live YouTube show, according to news agency ANI. (See Photo Gallery here)
The Indo-Japanese partnership during the Covid-19 crisis is more relevant for global stability and prosperity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday. The PM was speaking after virtually inaugurating a Japanese Zen garden and Kaizen Academy set up at the premises of the Ahmedabad Management Association.
Modi in his address via video conference said the opening of the Zen garden and the Kaizen Academy in Ahmedabad will deepen ties between the two countries. "The current Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, is a very straight-forward person. PM Suga and I believe during this Covid-19 pandemic crisis, the Indo-Japanese friendship and our partnership has become even more relevant for global stability and prosperity. Today, when we are facing several global challenges, it is the need of the time that our friendship and relationship get stronger day by day," Modi said. (PTI)
In a first-of-its-kind exercise in Karnataka, a month-long extensive health check-up drive for children below 16 years has been launched across Haveri district as part of the preparation to face a possible third wave of Covid-19, state Home Minister Basavaraj S Bommai said. "Haveri has become the first district in the State to start a first-of-its-kind health check-up drive exclusively for children. We are making sure that no child is malnourished," Bommai, an MLA from Shiggaon in the district, told PTI.
During the camp, which started on June 25 and will conclude on July 30, 2.75 lakh children under the age of 16 in the district will be screened, he said, adding, teachers and parents will also be subjected to check-up and vaccinated. The district Incharge Minister said the drive was started keeping in view the report furnished by the Technical Advisory Committee to the State government, saying that the potential third wave may affect children. "Since it has not been decided yet to vaccinate children, it is important to take care of the health of the children and protect them from malnutrition," the Minister said. (PTI)
The roll-out of Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V at various private hospitals in the Delhi-NCR region has been delayed again, officials said on Sunday. "We do not have a clarity on the dates of the vaccine roll-out," a spokesman of Apollo Hospitals said. Indraprastha Apollo here had earlier said that it would tentatively start administering the two-dose vaccine by June 25. An official of Madhukar Rainbow Children's Hospital said the facility has also not received Sputnik V doses so far from Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Laboratories, the marketing partner for the vaccine in the country.
"There is a delay on the part of the suppliers. They have not shared any specific reason for it. I think it could be related to the supply of both the doses together," he said. Sputnik V uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans. The two doses, given 21 days apart, are different and not interchangeable. Fortis Healthcare, which had said that it would make Sputnik V available at its Gurgaon and Mohali hospitals, has also not started administering the Russian vaccine to people so far. (PTI)
Mizoram's Covid-19 tally rose to 19,324 on Sunday as 233 more people, including 62 children, tested positive for the infection, while two fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 91, a health official said. Aizawl district registered the highest number of new cases at 127, followed by Kolasib (41) and Lunglei (15), he said.
Only five new patients have travel history, while 228 fresh infections were detected during contact tracing, the official said. Mizoram now has 4,370 active cases, while 14,863 people have recovered from the infection thus far, including 309 on Saturday. The recovery rate among the Covid-19 patients in the state stands at 76.91 per cent, while the mortality rate is at 0.47 per cent. (PTI)
Puducherry added 231 fresh Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking the tally to 1,16,645, while three more fatalities pushed the toll to 1,744. Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 331 people being discharged from hospitals, taking the active cases to 2,672. In all, 1,12,229 people have recovered from the disease so far.
Puducherry accounted for two deaths, both of whom were 70 year-old women and another person in Karaikal, Health and Family Welfare Services Director S Mohan Kumar said in a release. The Union Territory reported the maximum number of 170 cases, followed by Karaikal 31, Mahe 22 and Yanam 8, he said A total of 8,148 samples were tested in the last 24 hours ending at 10 am, taking the cumulative number of speciemens examined so far to 12,84,089. The positivity rate stood at 2.84 per cent. (PTI)
Odisha's Covid-19 tally surpassed the 9 lakh-mark on Sunday as 3,408 more people tested positive for the infection, while 39 fresh fatalities pushed the state's coronavirus death toll to 3,887, a health official said. The fresh infections recorded in all the 30 districts took the state's caseload to 9,00,470. As many as 1,943 new cases were reported in quarantine centres, while 1,465 fresh infections were detected during contact tracing, he said.
Khurda district, of which Bhubaneswar is a part, registered the highest number of new cases at 582, followed by Cuttack (553) and Jajpur (258). Khurda also recorded the highest number of fresh fatalities at nine, followed by five each in Bargarh, Cuttack and Nayagarh, and three each in Sambalpur and Sundargarh. Fifty-three other coronavirus patients have died due to comorbidities thus far. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today encouraged people to overcome vaccine hesitancy, underlining that even his nonagenarian mother has taken anti-Covid shots as he urged people not to believe in negative rumours relating to the vaccine.
"I urge you all - trust science. Trust our scientists. So many people have taken the vaccine. I have taken both doses. My Mother is almost hundred years old, she has taken both vaccines too. Please do not believe any negative rumours relating to vaccines. Let us never believe in negative rumours relating to the vaccine," PM Modi said as he addressed the nation on the 78th edition of his monthly radio address, "Mann Ki Baat".
As the national capital lifts lockdown restrictions, Delhi Police on Sunday said they have penalised over 1.3 lakh people in the last week for not wearing masks in public places. They also recorded a sharp rise in people flouting social distancing norms.
According to a data released by Police Headquarters, more than 1.53 lakh challans were issued against offenders from June 19 till June 26. Read more
More than 31.51 crores (31,51,43,490) vaccine doses have been provided by the Government of India to states and Union Territories so far, says Union Health Ministry. (ANI)
On March 17 last year, the ‘Doctor Fish’ pedicure set arrived at Kavya Beauty Salon, among the popular beauty parlours in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar City. The owner, Kavya Sharma, was confident that the neon blue-lit tank teeming with hundreds of Red Garra fish — to nibble dead skin off people’s feet — would be a success. The Rs 65,000 set which she bought from Ghaziabad was for her latest venture, a plush unisex salon next to her two existing beauty parlours (for men and women). An ‘ultra-sonic facial bed’ and an array of ‘chemical treatment’ products also lined the racks of the swanky 13X54 ft space that she had rented for Rs 25,000 a month.
Five days later, the Prime Minister announced the Janata Curfew, and within hours Kavya’s salons shut down. Through the year, as the Covid-19 cases went up and down, Kavya spent anxious hours over her mounting losses, the expiry dates on her facials and peels, and her fish. (Read Ankita Dwivedi Johri's report)
With the addition of 432 new cases of coronavirus, the infection count in Maharashtra's Thane district has gone up to 5,30,720, an official said on Sunday. Besides these new cases reported on Saturday, the virus also claimed the lives of 18 more people, raising the death toll in the district to 10,629.
The Covid-19 mortality rate in Thane is two per cent, he added. Details of recovered and under-treatment patients were not provided by the district administration. In neighbouring Palghar district, the Covid-19 case count has gone up to 1,16,033, while the death toll has reached 2,537, another official said. (PTI)
India recorded 50,040 new cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the preceding 24 hours, the Union ministry of health and family welfare informed on Sunday in its daily bulletin — a marked rise from its spike of 48,698 new cases a day ago. As many as 1,498 new fatalities were also recorded in the same duration.
The Covid-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 7,446 on Sunday as five more people tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said. Twenty more people were cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 7,265, it said, adding the Union territory now has 54 active cases. The archipelago has thus far registered 127 coronavirus deaths. The administration has tested over 4 lakh samples for Covid-19 so far. (PTI)
When the nationwide lockdown was announced in March last year, artist Umesh Singh was in Varanasi, preparing for exhibitions in the coming months. The 2019 postgraduate from Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad, was looking forward to leveraging the attention his work had received at the 2018-19 Students’ Biennale and the Serendipity Arts Festival and was hopeful that an early communication with gallerists and art collectors would help his career get off to a flying start. “People had appreciated my work at both forums and there were several inquiries. I was expecting some of the work to find buyers,” says Singh, 28. (Read Vandana Kalra's report)
The Odisha government has urged the Centre to reduce allocation of Covid-19 vaccines to the private sector from the current 25 per cent to 5 per cent.
State Health and Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das raised the issue in a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday. “For the state of Odisha, the government and private vaccine allocation ratio of 75:25 may be revised to 95:5 ratio, keeping in mind the ground reality. Procurement by private hospitals in the state is negligible. Till date, only seven private hospitals in Odisha have been able to procure vaccines from the manufacturers,” Das said in the letter, adding that private hospitals provide services to only 5 per cent of the state’s population. (Read Aishwarya Mohanty's report)