Coronavirus updates, June 22: Indian scientists find Covid-19 gene in wastewater, hailed by global community

Amid the uptick of infections in the national capital, the Centre has asked the Delhi government to delineate all containment zones afresh, enumerate all households even outside containment zones, conduct a serological survey among 20,000 Delhiites, and associate every district with a big hospital.

Here are the top developments in India:

SC to Odisha govt: ‘Conduct Puri’s Rath Yatra in restricted manner’

The court has directed the Odisha government to maintain a record of persons allowed in Rath Yatra with details of medical conditions after testing.

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Odisha government to make necessary arrangements to conduct Puri’s Rath Yatra, scheduled to start from June 23, in a restricted manner in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The apex court also said it cannot “micro-manage” the rituals and left it to the wisdom of state, the Centre and temple management to deal with that issue.

“If it is confined to Puri alone in a limited way without public attendance as proposed by Gajapati Maharaj of Puri, Chairman of the Puri Jagannath Temple administration, state govt will endeavour to make necessary arrangements to conduct it accordingly,” the SC bench said.

The court has directed the Odisha government to maintain a record of persons allowed in Rath Yatra with details of medical conditions after testing. It also said that those engaged in pulling chariot will maintain social distancing before, during and after Rath Yatra.

Tamil Nadu govt announce complete lockdown in Madurai and other areas

Tamil Nadu government Monday announced complete lockdown in Madurai corporation limits, Paravai Town Panchayat, all village Panchayats of Madurai East, Madurai West and Thirupparankundram blocks of Madurai district from June 24 early morning to June 30.

17 inmates test positive at Delhi’s Mandoli Jail

As many as 17 inmates were tested positive for coronavirus at Delhi’s Mandoli Jail on Monday. Testing was done following the death of a 62-year-old inmate. A total of 29 inmates were tested. Delhi has three prisons—Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli— and as of Sunday, at least 23 inmates tested positive for the virus. Of this, 16 have recovered and one has passed away. Across the three prisons, 45 staffers have tested positive for Covid-19, of which seven have recovered till now.

Indian scientists find COVID-19 gene in wastewater, hailed by global community

Scientists in India have for the first time detected genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater, a breakthrough that paves the way for using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for real-time surveillance of COVID-19 in the country.

The study, led by scientists in IIT-Gandhinagar, found that increased gene copies of the virus in Ahmedabad’s wastewater matched the incidence of the disease in the city. With this, India joins the ranks of a handful of countries doing WBE on COVID-19, Andrew Singer, an environmental microbiologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said on Twitter.

WBE is a promising approach to understand the status of disease outbreak in a certain catchment by monitoring viral load in wastewater.

In this Mizoram Covid Care Centre, ‘TikTok therapy’ for asymptomatic patients

The medical team in their PPE suits (left) and during one of the videos.

In a Covid Care Centre (CCC) in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district a TikTok dance-off is underway. “When I first saw the video of the doctors dancing, I knew this wasn’t for them,” said an 18-year-old patient over the phone from the CCC, with a laugh, “But we took it up as a challenge.”

The doctor, 31-year-old Elsadai Lalbersiama — who is the Medical Officer at the CCC — concedes. “Maybe at the end of this all, I will become a good dancer,” he said.

Two weeks back, when Lawngtlai district — which borders Bangladesh in the west and Myanmar in the south — reported its first Covid cases, Dr Lalbersiama formed a Whatsapp group for the medics and patients. “This was to convey information to them, set reminders about medicine, exercise etc,” said Dr Lalbersiama. All eight patients — who had returned to Mizoram from Delhi — were asymptomatic.

Patients under home isolation to get oximeters: Delhi CM

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

The Delhi government will make arrangements for sending oxygen concentrators to Covid-19 patients under home isolation in case their oxygen saturation levels drop. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Monday that those under home isolation will be given oximeters to monitor their oxygen saturation levels regularly.

“The biggest issue we have seen is oxygen levels falling suddenly. Some patients require oxygen immediately. Those under home isolation will be given oximeters to monitor their levels… We will also give them a number they can call if the levels dip. A team will reach your house with a concentrator. The patient can be stabilised while being shifted to the hospital. This will be present in each district. Once a person is cured, this can be returned to the government,” he said.

Stringent lockdown in several areas as Bengaluru sees rise in Covid cases

With Bengaluru witnessing a sudden spike in the number of fresh Covid-19 cases and fatalities in the past week, Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa has directed officials to implement “stringent lockdown measures” in several areas of the city.

“Stringent lockdown to be in place in areas like KR Market, Siddapura, VVPuram, Kalasipalya, and surrounding areas. Adjoining streets of positive cases’ residences also will be sealed,” Karnataka CM Yediyurappa said after a meeting with top government officers in Bengaluru on Monday.

He added that these areas had clusters that reported a big number of cases in the past few days.

A sampling area where tests are being done, in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

Karnataka may have up to 25,000 active cases by Aug: COVID War Room chief

Active coronavirus cases in Karnataka may reach around 25,000 by August 15 if the state maintains the current compounded daily growth rate of 4 per cent, a senior government official said on Monday while stressing the need to stick to social distancing and wearing masks to contain spread of the virus.

The projections are so sensitive that if the daily growth rate is at 3 per cent then active numbers can reach 17,000 but if it is at 4 per cent then the state could see around 25,000 cases in about 50-60 days, Munish Moudgil, chief of Karnataka COVID-19 War Room, said in a statement.

A Health worker takes the Swab sample for Covid-19 rapid test at a health center in New Delhi on Friday. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA 19 06 2020.

The state currently has 9,150 cases of which 3,391 are active cases, 5,618 discharges and 137 deaths.

Delhi: BJP asks its MPs to visit 169 testing centres

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy has written a letter to all BJP MPs of Delhi, asking them to visit rapid antigen detection testing centres in the capital. Covid-19 testing through the rapid antigen methodology had commenced at 169 centres in and around Delhi’s containment zones on Thursday.

“In order to augment the effort of the Government of NCT of Delhi, the Government of India, after having a series of discussions under the chairmanship of Amit Shah ji with officers of GNCTD, ICMR, Ministry of Home Affairs, has taken a decision to set up 169 rapid antigen detection testing centres across all districts of Delhi,” the letter said.

“Further, to inform that the Union Minister has desired that you, being the representative from your Lok Sabha constituency, it would be in the fitness of things that you visit all testing centres falling within your constituency, in co-ordination with the district administration,” the letter read.

People with COVID-19 symptoms wait outside a coronavirus help desk at the Government Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

UP govt to begin antigen testing

The UP government on Sunday said that it will soon start rapid antigen testing in the worst Covid-affected districts of the state . Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said while the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing capacity in the state is being continuously increased, they are going to start rapid antigen testing.

“On Saturday, we tested 16,125 samples and in total, more than 5.60 lakh samples have been tested. We are continuously increasing the testing capacity. Other than the RT-PCR tests, we will also start antigen tests, which have been approved by the ICMR, in some selected districts. We are going to start with the National Capital Region (NCR) districts where a huge number of cases is being reported, and in districts like Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur,” said Prasad.

Deserted view of Khan Market due to COVID-19 pandemic in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Delhi HC stays proceedings against Ganga Ram Hospital

The Delhi High Court on Monday put on hold the investigation and all related proceedings against Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in connection with an FIR lodged against it for alleged violation of COVID-19 regulation norms.

Justice C Hari Shankar passed the interim order on the hospital’s application seeking stay on proceedings in relation to the June 5 FIR lodged at the Rajinder Nagar police station under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC and the proceedings initiated thereafter.

A doctor speaks with a woman at a coronavirus help desk at the Government Fever Hospital in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

According to the FIR, the complainant is a senior official of the Delhi Health Department who has alleged that the hospital was not using the RT-PCR app while collecting COVID-19 samples. It said that as per the guidelines, it is “mandatory” for labs to collect samples through the RT-PCR app.

Pune sex workers seek to resume work with caution, SOPs

With the lockdown being eased, some sex workers in Pune’s red light area want to get back to business by taking all precautions and following the standard operating procedures to stay protected against COVID-19.

The livelihood of nearly 3,000 sex workers in the Budhwar Peth area here in Maharashtra has been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown, following which several of them moved back to their hometowns, according to an NGO working for their welfare.

Cremation at Nigam Bodh ghat in New Delhi. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Now, with the lockdown being relaxed, some of them are gearing up to resume work and are even ready to explore options of services like “phone sex”, Tejasvi Sevekari, executive director of city-based NGO Saheli Sangh, told PTI. She said the NGO, which is a collective of sex workers, has chalked out some standard operating procedures (SOPs) for them and is training them on how to take extra precautions while soliciting customers.

Arunachal Pradesh’s tally rises to 139

Four more persons were found to be positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the total number of cases in the Northeastern state to 139, officials said on Monday. There are 118 active cases in the state at present, they said. Total 21 people have recovered from the disease so far, they added.

Most of the active cases are in Changlang district where 68 people are undergoing treatment, followed by Capital Complex (20), West Kameng (12), East Siang (five), Lohit and Lower Dibang Valley (three each), Namsai and Tirap (two each), West Siang, Tawang and Lower Siang (one each). The state has not reported any death due to COVID-19.