The Shenai Banquet opposite LNJP hospital in Delhi has been turned into an isolation facility and will start operations from Thursday. (Express photo/Tashi Tobgyal)
Reversing his own order, Delhi LG Anil Baijal Friday said that only those Covid positive patients who do not have adequate facilities at home to ensure physical segregation and do not have other medical conditions would require to be shifted to Covid Care centres and other facilities for assessment. In his previous order, Baijal, who also heads the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, said all those who test positive have to report to Covid care centres for assessment, after which they will either be asked to isolate at home or assigned to a hospital or care centre.
A central team led by Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, will visit Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana on June 26-29. The team will interact with the state officials and coordinate with them to strengthen ongoing efforts for Covid management, said the ministry. Ramping up the testing facilities across the country, India now has 1,007 diagnostic labs among which 734 are government and 273 are private facilities. According to the latest updates, India conducted 2,07,871 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tests to more than 75 lakhs at 75,60,782.
The Covid-19 tally in India rose to 473,105 earlier in the day after nearly 17,000 fresh cases were recorded within a span of 24 hours. More than 400 deaths were also recorded, taking the total to 14,894. As of now, Delhi continues to remain the city with the highest case count — 70,390 cases so far. Globally, over 9.4 million people are infected with the virus with as many as 482,162 deaths. The United States continues to be the worst affected country followed by Brazil, Russia and India.
Migrant workers from other states wait to board trains to their home states at the Secunderabad Railway station in Hyderabad. (AP)
With Bhiwandi’s healthcare system under strain with burgeoning Covid-19 cases, Makkah Masjid at Shanti Nagar in Bhiwandi East has been now converted into a makeshift treatment facility with five beds and two doctors. Read more here
In view of the spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, Indian Railways on Thursday cancelled all regular mail or express, passenger and suburban services till Aug 12. Apart from those of 230 specials, trains for essential workers, all the tickets booked for regular time-tabled trains for journey between July 1 and August 12 stood cancelled, said the railway board.
Source said that the decision was taken keeping in mind the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country. However, all special trains — operating since May 12 and June 1 — would continue, they said. The limited special suburban services which began recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities will also continue to run, officials said.
Eight more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Nagaland, taking the states tally to 355 on Thursday, Health minister S Pangnyu Phom said. Of the 355 cases, 195 are active while 160 people have recovered, the minister said. Nineteen Army personnel stationed at the Jakhama Cantonment have so far contracted the virus in the state.
'Eight new cases of COVID-19 positive have been reported out of 315 samples tested,' the minister tweeted. The fresh cases are from quarantine centres in Kohima and Dimapur districts. Dimapur district has reported the highest number of cases at 159, followed by Pheren (85), Kohima (76), Mon (23), Tuensang (8), Zunheboto (3), and Phek (1). (PTI)
Watch | Developments in Coronavirus crisis across India, world
The Centre has provided Rs 6,600 crore to Tamil Nadu since April for procurement of medical equipment to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. Besides, a total of Rs 2,825 crore worth assistance had been released to the state till June 14 through various welfare scheme components of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, she told BJP's Tamil Nadu unit workers addressing a
virtual rally.
"Considering that the government will need funds to buy medical equipment like ventilators, Rs 6,600 crore was given to Tamil Nadu in this fiscal within these three months to tackle COVID-19 and to see that people do not face any difficulty," the Minister said. (PTI)
Hair salons in Maharashtra will be allowed to reopen from June 28, after over three months of downing shutters due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, a state minister said on Thursday. State Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said that during the state cabinet meeting held on Thursday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray agreed to allow the salons to reopen with adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs) about hygiene and cleanliness.
"The hair salons will reopen. However, the use of sanitisers and face-masks will be mandatory for the hairdresser and the customer. Similarly, the cloth or towel used for one customer shall not be used for others," he said. (PTI)
A 35-year-old suspected Covid-19 patient died at the Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad (SSG) Hospital in Vadodara after he allegedly inflicted wounds on himself with broken glass pieces.
The incident happened around 10 am in the lavatory of the isolation ward at the hospital. The medical staff present in the ward had forced open the door of the lavatory when the patient stopped responding to calls, to find him severely wounded. He died while undergoing treatment. The hospital authorities said that it was a suspected case of suicide but would still wait for the Covid-19 test results before confirming the same.
“The cause of death is unknown since the Covid test results are awaited, but he was admitted in our isolation ward and his nasal swab samples for Covid testing were collected. Before we could get the test results, he attempted suicide. In the lavatory he tried to break the window pane and wounded himself from the glass pieces. There was heavy blood loss and subsequently he died. We have given this preliminary information to the police as well,' said Dr Rajeev Daveshwar, Medical Superintendent, SSG hospital. Read more
Vadodara Covid-19 tally crosses 2,000 mark to stand at 2042 with 44 cases today.
SDMA Thursday approved modification of SOP for home isolation for Covid patients to meet the twin objectives of containment of local spread & provision of timely medical care for Covid positive cases to save precious lives, said Delhi LG Anil Bajilal Health department will deploy a robust surveillance mechanism. Taking to Twitter, Baijal added that only those Covid positive patients who do not have adequate facilities at home to ensure physical segregation and do not have other medical conditions would require to be shifted to Covid Care centres and other facilities.
The total number of COVID19 cases in the state is 145 including 115 active cases and 30 discharged: Department of Information and Public Relations, Government of Mizoram.
Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa to convene all party meet tomorrow to discuss need for Bengaluru lockdown and revised COVID-19 strategy. "People should cooperate to maintain social distancing if they do not want another sealdown," Yediyurappa said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday launched a video call facility for #COVID19 patients admitted at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital was the first hospital to be declared as full-fledged COVID hospital 100 days ago. Around 114 deliveries have taken place at the hospital in this period. LNJP is the first hospital where plasma therapy was started, Kejriwal said.
Ramping up the testing facilities across the country, India now has 1,007 diagnostic labs among which 734 are government and 273 are private facilities. According to the latest updates, India conducted 2,07,871 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tests to more than 75 lakhs at 75,60,782.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has placed the lives of millions of children in South Asia at risk, according to a recent UNICEF report. Quoting a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the report warned that as many as 8,81,000 children– aged five and under– could die over the next twelve months. A bulk of these deaths are likely to occur in India and Pakistan, the report said.
The report — titled ‘Lives Upended: How COVID-19 threatens the futures of 600 million South Asian Children’ — states that children in these countries are more likely to succumb to established illnesses like measles and pneumonia as public health systems are placed in a precarious position amidst this global health crisis. Read more here
Uttarakhand reports 20 new Covid-19 cases till 2:30 pm today, taking the total number of cases to 2642: State Control Room Covid-19.
A central team led by Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will visit Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana on June 26 to 29. The team will interact with the State officials and coordinate with them to strengthen ongoing efforts for management of COVID-19, said Health Ministry. (ANI)
The Gujarat Home Department has asked the state Director General of Police (DGP) and other senior officers not to grant any leave to the police personnel, saying that their presence was necessary for the effective implementation of Unlock-1. A notification issued on Thursday by the home department said that the presence of all the available police force was necessary for the implementation of the Centre's guidelines for the phased re-opening of coronavirus-induced lockdown or Unlock-1 that came into effect from June 1. "For the effective implementation of Unlock-1, it is necessary that police personnel remain active in the field. Therefore, all the police officers as well as lower rung police personnel are hereby advised not to demand leave unless it is for medical or any other unavoidable reasons," the notification said.
CBSE will not conduct the remaining examinations for Class 10 and 12 from July 1 to 15. Class 12 students will be evaluated on their performance in the last three school exams. The students can also appear for the board exam at a later date to improve performance.
Amid the ongoing controversy over Baba Ramdev's company Patanjali Ayurveda introducing a "cure" for coronavirus infection, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday warned the yoga guru that the state government won't allow the sale of 'spurious' medicines. "The National Institute of Medical Sciences, Jaipur will find out whether clinical trials of @PypAyurved's 'Coronil' were done at all. An abundant warning to @yogrishiramdev that Maharashtra won't allow sale of spurious medicines. #MaharashtraGovtCares #NoPlayingWithLives," the minister tweeted.
Using cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins is associated with a lower death rate in patients hospitalised with coronavirus, according to a large-scale study. The research, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, also showed that mortality risk and other negative outcomes were not increased by combination therapy consisting of statins and blood pressure-lowering drugs called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs). 'These results support the safety and potential benefits of statin therapy in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 and provide a rationale for prospective studies to determine whether statins confer protection against Covid-19-associated mortality,' said study senior author Hongliang Li of Wuhan University in China. 'Moreover, our findings represent an important contribution to the accumulating clinical evidence regarding the beneficial or detrimental effects of prescribing ACE inhibitors or ARBs to patients with Covid-19,' Li said.
Arunachal Pradesh has recorded its first coronavirus fatality after a 43-year-old woman succumbed to the disease, while two new coronavirus cases have been reported, taking the northeast state's tally to 160, officials said on Thursday. The woman, a resident of West Kameng district, was suffering from chronic kidney disease and had returned from Delhi on June 11, PTI reported. She was kept at an institutional quarantine at Dirang. As her health deteriorated, she was tested for the virus and was found positive on June 23. She was referred to Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Naharlagun, but died on the way to the hospital near Shergaon on Wednesday, the officials said. Her mortal remains were cremated following Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines at Dirang by Dirang administration, they said.
A 35-year-old suspected coronavirus patient died after he allegedly stabbed himself with broken glass pieces. He was admitted in the isolation ward of SSG hospital in Vadodara after he had developed symptoms and his test results were awaited.
Three Maharashtra Police personnel, including an officer, died due to the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the toll in the state force to 54, an official said on Thursday. Out of the 54 victims, 34 were from the Mumbai Police force, he was quoted as saying by PTI. Three officers were among the 54 personnel who have so far succumbed to the viral infection since its outbreak in the state, he said. As of now, more than 4,200 police personnel have been infected with coronavirus. Of these, over 3,000 have recovered, the official said.
Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan today launched the 'eBloodServices App', an initiative by the Indian Red Cross Society. "Those in need can get registered on the app and know where they'll get blood. They can also demand up to four units of blood. The Indian Red Cross Society's blood banks will wait up to 12 hours for them. We -uUrge voluntary blood donors to continue donating blood in these times," he told ANI.
Briefing reporters on the pandemic situation, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said: "The cases are increasing in Bengaluru. Therefore, we have sealed some areas in Bengaluru. Today, we've called a meeting of ministers and officials to discuss the next course of action. In Bengaluru, we've arranged all facilities to treat coronavirus patients. But we are also thinking about the number of cases which is increasing in the city. I urge people to maintain social distancing and sanitisation if Bengalurians don't want another round of sealing."
Over 30 personnel attached to Naval Air Station INS Parundu in Ramanathapuram have tested positive for coronavirus, district officials said on Thursday, but the forward operating base was 'operational', Defence sources in Chennai said. According to PTI, while the district authorities put the number of infected at 33, Defence sourcessaid 'some' of the sailors, mostly who had arrived here recently on postings, have been affected with the virus. They said that as per standard protocol, such personnel are quarantined and tested for the contagion in which 'some' of them have tested positive. "INS Parundu is very much operational. Entry of civilian staff working there has been restricted," they added.
The Centre has informed the Madras High Court that 17,701 people from Tamil Nadu stranded in various countries due to travel curbs following the coronavirys pandemic were brought back through 50 flights, PTI reported. The Union External Affairs Ministry made the submission in a counter-affidavit on a petition by the DMK seeking details on bringing Tamils stuck abroad because of Covid-19 and suspension of flights. The Ministry said 45,242 repatriation requests were received from people of Tamil Nadu stranded in different countries.
In a bid to combat the virus pandemic, the Chennai division of Southern Railways has introduced an advanced technique to facilitate contactless access to passengers at railway stations. Automated Ticket Checking and Managing Access (ATMA) is the new system installed at Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. MGR Chennai Central Railway Station. This new system facilitates contactless verification of tickets, body temperatures, and face masks of passengers entering and exiting the station premises. As per a press release from the Southern Railways, the ATMA system is equipped with a web camera, affixed on the enquiry desk at the entry points. Passengers are directed to show their ticket along with identity proof which is captured by the camera, and the image gets displayed on the monitor for officials to check. Once the ticket verification is done, the passenger are allowed to enter the station premises for further screening.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make India more self-reliant, but if the experience over the past few years is anything to go by, it’s not going to be easy. Faced with disruptions to raw material supplies from China because of the pandemic and millions of job losses following a nationwide lockdown, Modi has ratcheted up calls to boost local manufacturing and reduce India’s reliance on imports. A shortage of personal protective equipment at the beginning of the outbreak increased his resolve — and within the space of just two months, India has become the world’s biggest maker of PPE kits after China. That success has only emboldened Modi as he exhorts Indians to buy local goods. A military standoff with China is now adding fuel to those calls. Following a deadly clash between soldiers from both countries along a contested Himalayan border this month, Indian political leaders have called for a boycott of Chinese goods and possible higher tariffs on products from its neighbour. Traders, who were previously reluctant to snub cheap Chinese imports, have now come up with a list of 3,000 items, including toys, watches and plastic products, that can easily be replaced by local manufacturing.
On June 24, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) took over Covid-19 Care Centre at Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Delhi's Chattarpur as Nodal Agency to operate. Many teams of ITBP including medical and administration paid a visit to the ashram. They held a series of discussions with the stakeholders as well. Radha Soami Satsang Beas COVID-19 care centre has 10,000-bed facility.
Twelve Army personnel have tested positive for coronavirus in Nagaland's Kohima district, officials said on Thursday. Health and Family Welfare Department officials said 12 Army personnel of Jakhama army camp quarantine centre tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. A group of army personnel had returned to Jakhama garrison from different parts of the country last week and were put under strict quarantine as per the military SOP rules within the camp jurisdiction, officials said. Twelve positive cases were reported on Wednesday, taking the total infections in Jakhama Army camp to 15, they said. Earlier a COVID-19 case was detected in the camp on June 19 and two cases on June 23. All the 15 Army personnel are admitted to the Jakhama Army Hospital and all are asymptomatic, sources said.
India’s Hetero Labs Ltd has priced its generic version of remdesivir, Gilead’s experimental Covid-19 drug, at 5,400 rupees ($71) per 100-milligram vial, the drugmaker said on Wednesday, as it prepares to ship them to hospitals in the country. The privately held company said it would supply 20,000 vials of the drug. Fellow Indian drug firm Cipla Ltd had said on Tuesday that its own version of the antiviral drug remdesivir would be priced below 5,000 rupees. Cipla and Hetero are among a bevy of drugmakers which have licensing agreements with U.S.-based Gilead Sciences Inc, the original manufacturer of remdesivir, to make and sell the drug in 127 low- and middle-income countries.
In a bid to regulate admission of non-Covid patients in the hospitals, the Health Department has warned both private and government hospitals that strict action will be taken if patients were denied admission for treatment. The government also cautioned private hospitals of suspending licences as well as initiating necessary penal steps if it receives any complaints of patients being denied admission for treatment. “There have been instances of denial of admission and services by the private hospitals and patients suffer due to this lackadaisical attitude of these hospitals. Such denial is an offence under the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017 and the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Rules, 2017. If any report of denial of admission or services is received against such private hospital, necessary penal steps, including suspension of licence, will be initiated against the aforesaid hospital,” the order issued by the Health Department said.
A day after Ramdev launched an ayurvedic ‘Corona Kit’ claiming it cured Covid-19, serious questions have emerged over the business practices of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, the FMCG company that markets Patanjali brand products and Divya Pharmacy, the unit producing the medicines. On Wednesday, a day after the Ministry of Ayush ordered Patanjali to stop publicising claims of Covid-19 cure, the Uttarakhand government said its licencing authority did not grant any approval to the Corona Kit, and the Rajasthan government told The Indian Express it had no knowledge of clinical trials at National Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (NIMS), a private hospital in Jaipur where Covid-19 patients are admitted. Most significantly, when mildly symptomatic patients developed fever during the trials, they were administered allopathic medicines. As it is, the trials were conducted only on asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients. Severely symptomatic patients and those with acute respiratory distress syndrome were excluded for enrolment.
There are many parallels one can draw between the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown (gharbandi) and demonetisation (notebandi), in terms of their impact on India’s farm economy. Both resulted in the same thing – demand destruction – albeit through different routes. Either way, the outcome was the same. Notebandi and gharbandi both basically “flattened” farm produce prices, by shifting the demand curves to the left. The demand drop wasn’t due to prices going up. Rather, with consumption being limited to homes — manpower shortages forced many food companies to also curtail production in factories and, hence, cut raw material purchases — there was less demand now for milk, potatoes or tomatoes even at the same price. This wasn’t, in other words, simply a “movement along the demand curve”, but a “leftward shift in the demand curve”.
As many as 75,60,782 samples have been tested so far.
At first glance, the numbers tell a scary story — of Delhi surpassing Mumbai to become the city with the highest Covid-19 cases in the country. And the fact that a third of the capital’s 70,390 cases have been recorded in the past week. A closer look at the capital’s evolving Covid response, though, suggests that the surge in cases is closely tied to significantly increased testing — 1.08 lakh tests, more than a fourth of the total, have been conducted in the corresponding period. So far, the city has tested over 4.2 lakh people using the RT-PCR as well as rapid antigen testing kits. The number of hospital beds has also increased in the past two weeks — from 8,800 on June 10 to 13,400 on Tuesday.
The Covid-19 tally in India rose to 473,105 on Thursday after nearly 17,000 fresh cases were recorded within a span of 24 hours.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai has become the first major educational institution in the country to scrap all face-to-face lectures for the rest of the year due to the pandemic. In an announcement made late Wednesday night, director Subhasis Chaudhuri said the institute would teach the next semester “purely in the online mode so that there is no compromise on the safety and well being of the students”. “The COVID Pandemic has made us at IIT Bombay rethink the way we impart education to our students. To ensure that our students begin the academic year without further delay, we are planning on extensive online classes details of which will be informed to all students in due course of time,” he wrote in a Facebook post shared close to midnight.
With 3,788 new Covid-19 cases being reported on Tuesday, Delhi has overtaken Mumbai as the city with the highest case count — 70,390 cases so far. The total case count in Mumbai, which reported 1,118 new cases in the last 24 hours, is 69,528. While Delhi has done 4.2 lakh tests so far (about 22,142 per million), Mumbai 2.94 lakh tests (22,668 per million). Mumbai’s positivity rate (23.2%) remains higher than Delhi (16.7%); Delhi also has fewer deaths (2,365) than Mumbai (3,964). With the number of cases still rising, the Delhi government has prepared an ambitious plan —house-to-house screening in containment zones by June 30, and in the rest of the city by July 6.
The Assam government has started a mental health support programme for Covid patients and quarantined persons in the state to provide emotional support, counselling and treatment. The programme, called ‘Monon’, was started on June 17. The team behind it comprises 220 psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, and trained voluntary counsellors. It is led by Dr Mythili Hazarika, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. “This is a unique kind of a programme, where the mental health professionals are calling those who might need help rather than just waiting for them to call us,” Hazarika told The Indian Express. She added that each person on the team is allotted to call at least 15 Covid patients per day.
Around 2.30 pm Wednesday, more than 30 people stood in a queue outside a CRPF bus at Sarvodaya Enclave's gate number 2, some visibly anxious as the line slowly moved forward. The bus is a makeshift laboratory aimed at providing free and fast Covid test results to area residents, with officials saying such mobile testing labs have become crucial in assessing the spread of the virus.
"For the past several days, we have been carrying out mobile tests in many parts of South Delhi. Testing trucks are stationed at vantage points as well as in and around containment zones. We have observed that in many areas, several domestic helps, shopkeepers and people whose jobs involve visiting multiple places reside. In such a case, testing becomes crucial since the data gives an idea of where the infection is spreading. We also carry out surveys to ensure testing vans are placed in such a manner to provide maximum coverage," said Kapil Chaudhary, South Delhi sub-divisional magistrate.
The makeshift testing centre involves a bus where the testing kit is placed and a registration counter outside. A lab technician handles the testing paraphernalia, while another makes reports. A driver and two CRPF guards are also present. A government doctor oversees the operations. The resident welfare associations of these areas help the SDM arrange the mobile testing facility.
Bringing yet another change in its testing protocol, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now allow all those over the age of 70 to undergo testing for Covid-19 without prescription. The BMC, which had earlier warned doctors of disciplinary action if they recommended tests to patients without physical examination, has now decided to review this rule as well stating that e-prescriptions will also be allowed for testing. Read more here
The number of persons infected with coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in Pimpri-Chinchwad crossed 2,000 on Tuesday, as was predicted by the civic administration at the start of the month.
"At the civic general body meeting held earlier in the month, I had predicted that Covid-19 cases will rise to between 2,000 and 3,000. In the next few days, we expect the number of cases to touch the 3,000 mark," Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar told The Indian Express. Read more here
The Assam government has started a mental health support programme for Covid patients and quarantined persons in the state to provide emotional support, counselling and treatment. The programme, called ‘Monon’, was started on June 17. The team behind it comprises 220 psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, and trained voluntary counsellors. It is led by Dr Mythili Hazarika, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.
In the first six days, the ‘Monon’ team made a total of 2,543 calls to under-treatment Covid patients or those who have recovered. Out of this, 1,212 persons needed counselling. According to official figures, out of the 1,200-odd people who needed counselling, 94 were found to be depressed, 139 with symptoms of clinical anxiety and at least nine people suffered suicidal tendencies. But of the diagnosed people, 43 had psychiatric symptoms before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. Health officials say that further treatment and rehabilitation programmes will be worked out based on the assessments by the ‘Monon’ team.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday declared B T Kawade Road area as containment zone for the second time after increase in Covid-19 cases. The locality alongside the road will be sealed for five days on June 26. Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad included B T Kawade Road area in the list of 74 containment zones.
A 43-year-old patient from Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district succumbed to COVID-19 in the wee hours of Wednesday morning becoming the state’s first casualty to the virus.
The woman, who was suffering from chronic kidney disease, had returned from Delhi earlier this month. “She was undergoing hemo-dialysis and planning for kidney transplant surgery at Delhi. But due to the prevailing situation the procedure could not be done and returned from Delhi on 11/06/2020,” stated a release from the Directorate of Health Services, Arunachal Pradesh.
The release added that she was referred to Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) but her condition deteriorated. “She expired near Shergaon during transfer by ambulance on 24/06/2020 around 4 am” stated the report. It added that “She was cremated following MoH&FW guidelines on dead body management at Dirang by Dirang Administration and Police on 24/06/2020.”
On Wednesday, two people tested positive for the virus in Itanagar Capital Complex (ICC) and Longding. “The cases have been detected from the Facility Quarantine and all are asymptomatic” said the release. As per official data, only one out of the 121 active cases in the state is symptomatic.
All 160 reported cases in Arunachal Pradesh have been found on those who have returned to the state after travel restrictions were lifted in May. Among them are 22 NDRF personnel. Changlang district has the highest number of cases (60), followed by Itanagar Capital Complex (30) and West Kameng (12). The state has tested 20938 people so far. (Express Web Desk/Guwahati)
With new infections being reported in the state largely among those arriving from Gulf countries, the Kerala government Wednesday decided to tighten safety measures for expats returning to the state in order to contain the transmission of the novel coronavirus.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, at his routine press briefing in Thiruvananthapuram, announced a slew of measures for the expats returning from the six GCC countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain beginning June 25. Click here to know more about the guidelines.
The Uttarakhand government is set to issue a notice to yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali for launching a drug claiming to be a remedy for Covid-19 despite applying a licence for an immunity booster against cough and fever.
Uttarakhand Ayurveda Department’s licence officer Y S Rawat said that a notice is being issued to the firm demanding an explanation about the launch of ‘corona kit’. There is still no proven cure for Covid-19.
“Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd had the licence only for manufacturing an immunity booster against cough and fever. There was nothing in their application related to the treatment of coronavirus,” Rawat said in a statement. More details here.
Delhi recorded 3,788 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday taking the total tally to 70,390, while the death toll climbed to 2,635, authorities said, according to PTI. On Tuesday, the national capital reported a record of 3,947 cases, the highest single-day spike till now. On the other hand, Mumbai currently has 69,528 Covid-19 cases.
The ongoing lockdown in West Bengal was to end on June 30.
CM Mamata Banerjee, after attending an all-party meeting held at an auditorium adjacent to the state secretariat, said though there were differences of opinion among the leaders, it was finally decided to extend the curbs till the end of July with relaxations, PTI reported.
West Bengal government Wednesday announced extension of lockdown in containment zones till July 31 to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Twenty-eight migrants who were rescued at sea have tested positive for the coronavirus, Sicily's governor said Wednesday, suggesting a new complication in Italy's efforts to manage waves of migrants smuggled across the Mediterranean from Libya. The positive tests represent the largest cluster yet among newly arrived migrants, after a handful of positive cases were recorded among new arrivals in May in Greece.
The migrants were being held on a ship off the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle where some would-be asylum seekers are taken to undergo quarantine after being rescued at sea.
While there is no specific proven treatment for the novel coronavirus yet, patients are being administered different drugs that were approved for treating other diseases. With pharmaceutical companies launching generic versions of Remdesivir and Favipiravir for Covid-19 treatment, it has been found that they help reduce viral load but are not “game changers”.
India has also authorised off-label use of tocilizumab and convalescent plasma therapy on specific groups of patients. Moreover, India has also been using hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that has been a subject of debate over its efficacy against Covid-19, as a prophylactic drug. Recently, WHO halted its testing as part of the Solidarity Trial after data showed that the drug does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Read more here
As many as 29 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the Railway ministry. At least seven have recovered and have joined back work from office or from home. Among those resuming work from office is also the "langoor handler", whose job is to chase away monkeys in the building.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Wednesday said that he has written to Home Minister Amit Shah to request him to scrap the new system requiring every Covid-19 patient to visit a government-run centre for clinical assessment. He said that the new system puts pressure on the government's facilities with the rising number of cases and that there would be chaos in the city in the next few days if it was not scrapped. This is not a fight between Shah's model and Kejriwal's model, he said, adding that there should be a system in which people don't face problems.
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Singapore on Wednesday reported 191 new coronavirus infections, including seven community cases, taking the tally to 42,623, the health ministry said. Of the seven community, two are Singapore citizens or permanent residents (foreigners) and five are foreigners on work passes.
Most of the new cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, the ministry said. Meanwhile, contingency plans have been made to mitigate the spread of the virus during the general elections to be held on July 10, the Channel News Asia reported. Click here to follow our Coronavirus Global Updates.