Even by a simple model, at least 14-29 lakh coronavirus cases and between 37,000 and 71,000 deaths have been averted, said the Centre Friday, highlighting how India has been able to contain the virus through early implementation of nationwide lockdown.
In a routine press briefing to apprise media about the coronavirus situation in the country, Praveen Srivastava, a senior officer with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), said the government has shared publicly available data with independent experts to model the impact of lockdown, adding that “in pandemic like this there are no parallels to compare”.
“Two independent economists have estimated that we have averted 23 lakh cases and 68,000 deaths. According to some retired scientists about 15.9 lakh cases and 51,000 deaths have been avoided, my ministry worked with Indian Statistical Institute and found 20 lakh cases were averted,” said Srivastava. “The way we are opening up economy, the way people are sensitised, it will have significant impact,” he added.
In a country of over 1.15 lakh coronavirus infections, the serene and calm islands of the union territory (UT) of Lakshadweep remain an outlier with no positive cases so far. Nagaland and Sikkim are the two other Covid-free states.
Health officials of the UT, whose 64,000 population is highly dependent on Kerala for their medical needs, attribute the success so far to early preparedness, mandatory testing of its residents and strict quarantine. The achievement is especially remarkable as there had been constant movement of people and essential supplies between Kerala and the islands till mid-March.
It was only rational for the UT authorities to test and treat them in Kerala as the islanders anyway depend on the state for treatment of advanced and critical medical cases. Health officials also utilised the initial few weeks of the lockdown to spread awareness among the remote inhabited parts of the islands about the virus and ramp up health facilities in case of an accidental transmission.
Explained: Impact of RBI’s decisions to slash repo rate, extend loan moratorium on corporates, consumers
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday slashed its key policy rates to stabilize the financial system and tackle the economic fallout from the ongoing nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The RBI panel unexpectedly cut the repo rate by 40 basis points to 4 per cent and the reverse repo rate by 40 basis points to 3.35 per cent. In another significant move, the RBI also announced extension of moratorium on loan repayments by another three months to August 31.
What will be the impact of rate cut?
The 40 bps cut in the repo rate – the interest rate that the RBI charges for funds given to banks – will make funds cheaper for banks thus aiding them to bring down lending rates. This comes at a time when credit offtake is sluggish and investments have halted in the economy. EMIs on home, auto, personal and term loan rates are expected to come down in the coming days.
However, banks will also slash deposit rates on various tenures to manage its asset-liability position. Savers and pensioners will see their returns coming down.
A three-day infant girl died of Covid-19 in Chandigarh on Sunday. The infant’s mother, a resident of Daddu Majra, had given birth to the infant at the Civil Hospital in Sector 22 on Thursday and the infant was brought dead to PGIMER at 11 pm on Saturday night. She tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday evening and is the fourth patient patient in Chandigarh to have died due to the disease. Read more here
In absence of any strategy outlined by the Government of India to assess community spread in districts and states, Panchkula health administration has taken it upon itself to check if such a phenomenon has begun in the district. The Indian Express explains their method of research and the results, along with what it might mean for the district. Read more here
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Around 80 residents of Assam and Manipur who were expected to board a train to their home states from Bharuch late on Saturday were stranded after they were not allowed to board. According to officials, the train, with a capacity of 1,200 passengers, left on Saturday with 750 passengers on board as against the 900 to whom tickets were issued.
The Bharuch district administration claimed that the passengers arrived late and missed the train. Read more here
As many as 394 fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported from across the state, taking the total tally to over 14,000. Ahmedabad and Surat recorded 29 deaths on Sunday — 28 and 1 respectively.
The death toll in the state reached 861, while the total number of positive cases stood at 14,083, with 279 fresh cases being reported in Ahmedabad. Read More here
Taking note of a report purportedly prepared by a medical officer of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, which raises several complaints against the Covid-19 hospitals in Ahmedabad, the Gujarat High Court has formed a three-member committee to look into the matter.
The members appointed by the high court are Dr Ami Parikh, Head of the General Medicines and Dr Advait Thakore, Head of the Emergency Medicines, both from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation- run SVP Hospital along with Dr Bipin Amin, Professor (Medicines) at the Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad. Read more here
For 12 days now, migrant workers boarding the Railways’ special Shramik trains from major stations have been handed a cooked meal, a snack, a bottle of water and, in some cases, soap or hand sanitiser and a face mask, thanks to a civil society initiative that started with providing food to the neediest communities during the lockdown and is now also reaching out to those boarding trains and buses home.
Since May 13, when they began with providing packed meals to passengers on board six or seven trains, they have clocked more than one lakh meals in total for those boarding the trains alone. In addition, the initiative is also serving those boarding buses from Thane’s Majiwade junction. Read more here
With 10,000 cases recorded in the last four days, the number of novel coronavirus cases in Maharashtra crossed the 50,000-mark Sunday with 3,041 fresh cases, the highest in a single day so far. The overall patient count in the state now stands at 50,231, of which Mumbai alone accounts for 30,452 cases.
The total death toll in the state reached 1,654, including 988 deaths in Mumbai. Of the 58 deaths reported Sunday, 39 were from Mumbai, six each from Solapur and Pune, four from Aurangabad, and one each from Latur, Thane, and Mira Bhayandar. Read more here
Barbers have started reopening their salons in Pimpri-Chinchwad, two months after they were forced to shut down businesses due to a nationwide lockdown imposed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. While they have received a green signal by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to open their shops, there is no such permission issued to barbers by the Pune Municipal Corporation so far.
Through an order issued on Friday, the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner allowed salons and beauty parlours to reopen. Late on Saturday, the civic body issued strict guidelines on how to run barbers’ shops/beauty parlours by adopting strict social distancing norms. The administration has allowed only salons outside containment zones to reopen. Read more here
Days after the state government declared Pimpri-Chinchwad a non-red zone, the industrial city continues to see a spike in Covid-19 cases with Anandnagar slums emerging as a hotspot. The rapid spread of infection in the slum has raised concern among PCMC officials, who are busy devising new strategies to bring the situation under control.
On Saturday, Anandnagar slums reported 26 positive cases. And on Sunday, 37 more tested positive, taking the tally of cases to 107. The figure is the highest for any suburb or slum of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Read more here
Despite assurance to pay Rs 1,000 for each dead body a class IV employee handles, Mumbai’s Rajawadi hospital is facing delays in disposing of bodies. A Covid-19 patient has released a video from the hospital, stating that a body was kept for hours in the ward, sealed, on the cot next where he was put up for treatment.
Dr Vidya Thakur, hospital superintendent, confirmed she had received this complaint, but did not comment further.
The BMC put out a statement saying: “BMC is taking the incident at Rajawadi Hospital very seriously. While authenticity of the video is being verified, administration is taking all precautions to prevent recurrence of any such incident. We are working hard to ensure proper healthcare is provided to all.”
“As per GoM guidelines, bodies of deceased are to be handed over to kins 30 minutes after death, documentation & formalities for which can cause some delay. This, however, does not justify the unfortunate incident & we are committed to ensure that it doesn’t get repeated.”
In the past few weeks, videos have emerged from Sion hospital and Kandivali Shatabdi hospital of patients complaining that bodies were not being removed on time. The BMC had decided to offer Rs 1,000 to each ward boy for handling one dead body.
Civic officials said shortage of manpower remains a major reason why bodies are not moved out of ward on time. BMC officials said families, too, are not immediately available to claim the body. ENS
Despite assurance to pay Rs 1,000 for each dead body a class IV employee handles, Mumbai’s Rajawadi hospital is facing delays in disposing of bodies. A Covid-19 patient has released a video from the hospital, stating that a body was kept for hours in the ward, sealed, on the cot next where he was put up for treatment.
Dr Vidya Thakur, hospital superintendent, confirmed she had received this complaint, but did not comment further.
The BMC put out a statement saying: “BMC is taking the incident at Rajawadi Hospital very seriously. While authenticity of the video is being verified, administration is taking all precautions to prevent recurrence of any such incident. We are working hard to ensure proper healthcare is provided to all.”
“As per GoM guidelines, bodies of deceased are to be handed over to kins 30 minutes after death, documentation & formalities for which can cause some delay. This, however, does not justify the unfortunate incident & we are committed to ensure that it doesn’t get repeated.”
In the past few weeks, videos have emerged from Sion hospital and Kandivali Shatabdi hospital of patients complaining that bodies were not being removed on time. The BMC had decided to offer Rs 1,000 to each ward boy for handling one dead body.
Civic officials said shortage of manpower remains a major reason why bodies are not moved out of ward on time. BMC officials said families, too, are not immediately available to claim the body. ENS
PUNE DISTRICT recorded eight deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday, with the toll climbing to 272. Among the patients who died is a 21-year-old man from Gultekdi, who was admitted to Sassoon General Hospital on May 22 and succumbed to the infection on the same day. His throat swab tested positive for the coronavirus on May 23 while his death was reported on Sunday.
A total of 258 new positive cases were recorded on the day, with the total number of cases at 5,694, said District Health Officer Dr Bhagwan Pawar.
Among other patients who died was a 63-year-old man from Bhawani Peth, who was admitted to Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital on May 12. He had acute renal failure.
In another case, a 71-year-old man from Ganesh Peth, who was admitted to KEM hospital on May 20, also died of the infection. He too was suffering from acute renal failure. A 56-year-old woman from Salisbury Park, admitted to Sahyadri hospital (Karve Road) on May 8, also succumbed to the infection. She had endometrial cancer.
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday directed all deputy commissioners and district police chiefs to ensure that no migrant is forced to walk to any other state or remain hungry while in Punjab.
Any migrant found walking on the road should be transported by police to the nearest place by bus from where he/she can board a train or bus to his/her native state, the chief minister said. Till they leave Punjab, they should be provided food and water, he further said as part of his directions. Read more here
Mumbai police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) personnel will be deployed across the city Monday to ensure strict adherence of social distancing as people celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.
Markets in the metropolis are usually flooded with people busy shopping for the festival, while thousands of people assemble at prominent places like the Minara Masjid in south Mumbai and Haji Ali Dargah to offer namaz. However, with the Covid-19 cases rising in the city — Mumbai recorded 1,749 new cases Saturday — police have also appealed to the Muslim community to avoid large congregations and offer namaz at home. Read more here
The pace of fresh Covid-19 cases being reported in Karnataka accelerated in the past week, with the tally crossing the 2,000-mark Sunday and doubling in just nine days. The state had reported more than 1,000 cases on May 15.
“As of Sunday, 2089 cases have been reported in Karnataka. This includes 654 discharges. 130 new cases have been reported today,” Karnataka Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said.
The trend of returnees from Maharashtra testing positive the most in the state continued on Sunday as well, as 100 cases (76.92%) fell under the category. Read more here
Three more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Tripura on Sunday, raising the total count to 194. Among them, 165 have ‘recovered’ and been discharged from isolation center at state-run GB Panth Hospital, only 29 person are currently under treatment.
All the new cases were found among people who returned from Delhi on the Rajdhani Express.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb took to Twitter in a late evening post and wrote, “991 samples have been tested today in #Tripura for COVID-19. Among them 3 persons found COVID19 #POSITIVE. All of them have returned from #Delhi by Rajdhani Express. #TripuraCOVID19count”.
Earlier this evening, cabinet spokesperson Ratan Lal Nath said Tripura currently holds the highest recovery rate at 86.39 percent for coronavirus patients in the country.
With domestic passenger flights to resume from Monday after a hiatus of two months due to the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, confusion prevailed on Sunday as different states imposed their own set of conditions on reopening airports.
After the Centre announced the resumption of services, many states had expressed reservations. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh have announced their respective quarantine measures for passengers arriving at their airports.
Click here to know the rules and schedule set by states.
Any state which wants migrant workers of Uttar Pradesh back, has to seek permission from the state government and need to ensure their socio-legal-monetary rights, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday.
Upset that migrant labourers were "not properly taken care of" by various states in wake of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, Adityanath said, "These workers are our biggest resource and will give them employment in Uttar Pradesh as state government is going to set up a commission for their employment."
Government issues SOP for movement of Indian nationals stranded abroad and for those stranded in India desirous to travel abroad.
Maharashtra on Sunday recorded over 3,000 Covid-19 cases, the highest daily spike, taking the state tally to 50,231. With 58 deaths due to the pandemic reported during the day, the death toll in the state rose to 1635.
A decision to restart flights under UDAN Scheme has been taken by Ministry of Civil Aviation. Preference being given to flights connecting North-East region, hill states, islands & short haul routes. Flights will be augmented in a calibrated manner. Further details will be issued by the ministry.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday issued an order to prepare a framework for setting up a Migration Commission to employ labourers. Under this Commission, social security will be guaranteed to the labourers by providing employment to them, Adityanath said. He also targeted Shiva Sena and Congress for failing to take care of migrants in their respective states.
Why are pregnant women more at risk from Covid-19? In what ways can mothers pass on the coronavirus to their newborn? Research is on to determine the answers to many such questions. A recent study published in The Lancet has examined the milk from two nursing mothers infected with SARS-CoV-2. The researchers found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the second mother for four consecutive days. Click here to read our explainer.
Kerala on Sunday reported 53 new cases of Covid-19 and one death in the last 24 hours. The deceased is a Wayanad-native woman who was suffering from cancer.
In a bizarre incident, an auto-rickshaw driver in Kasaragod district of Kerala tested positive for coronavirus after he was admitted to the hospital for surgery following a freak injury. Officials say the man suffered injuries to his spine after a jackfruit fell on his head. However, it is not clear how he may have contracted the viral infection.
“The man is a resident of Belur in Kasaragod. While he was trying to pluck a jackfruit off a tree, one of them fell on him, injuring his spine. His hands and legs were weakened too. His condition required surgery. Our protocol dictates that we subject everyone who requires immediate surgery to the COVID test, just to be sure. That’s when he tested positive,” confirmed Dr K Sudeep, superintendent of the Pariyaram Medical College in Kannur.
Days after US biotechnology company Moderna Inc reported successful results from its experimental vaccine for Covid-19, a second breakthrough has been made in China, with Cansino Biologics Inc saying the vaccine appeared to be safe and might protect people from the novel coronavirus.
The early-stage trial was conducted by researchers at several laboratories and included 108 participants aged 18 to 60. Click here to know more.
Hinting at a possible extension of the ongoing lockdown in his state, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Sunday said that the “coming time is crucial” and that he cannot say whether the lockdown will be over by May 31. He also observed that it was wrong to impose the lockdown suddenly and that it cannot be lifted now all at once. “We can’t say that the lockdown will be over by May 31. We will have to see how we will go forward. The coming time is crucial as the multiplication of virus is picking up,” Thackeray said in a video address. More details here.
France is relaxing its border restrictions as the virus gradually recedes, allowing migrant workers and family visitors from other European countries but is requiring quarantine for people arriving from Britain and Spain. Starting Monday, France is abandoning border checks installed in March and switching to spot checks in various places, according to a government statement. It is also broadening the categories of people allowed from other countries in Europe's border-free travel zone to include migrant workers and people coming for family reasons. Travellers from outside Europe are still banned until at least June 15, except for French citizens.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led government has directed state-run liquor shops in the national capital to ensure 100 per cent sale of alcohol through proper scanning, PTI reported. This came after the excise department learnt that only 10 to 15 per cent of liquor being sold at vends was being scanned, which was a blatant violation of the order.
In the direction to the four state-run corporations, the department said this practice is likely to result in the submission of “inaccurate daily sales” information sought by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia after imposition of 70 per cent ‘Special Corona Fee’ on the MRP of each bottle and also creation of Monthly Stock Record gap. Complaints of overcharging from the customers are being received at various levels, it added.
The Himachal Pradesh Congress has expressed surprise over Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's statement of exploring ways to promote the hill state as a quarantine destination to boost tourism. In a press note issued here, state Congress president Kuldeep Singh Rathore asked the chief minister to take 'practical decisions after due consideration' for reviving the state's economy. "It is not only wrong to present Himachal as a quarantine destination but it may also prove dangerous for the state? The Congress would not accept this decision to give an open invitation to the pandemic," Rathore said. (PTI)
The novel coronavirus death toll in Delhi rose to 261 on Sunday, while the number of infections climbed to 13,418 with 508 new cases, the government said. A total of 6,540 patients have recovered, while 6,617 are undergoing treatment, according to a health bulletin. The city has 86 containment zones. On Saturday, the number of coronavirus cases in the city was 12,910 and fatalities 231
Singapore on Sunday reported 548 new coronavirus cases, majority of them foreign workers living in dormitories, taking the total number of infections in the country to 31,616, the Health Ministry said. Only three of the new 548 cases were Singapore citizens or permanent residents (foreigners). The rest 545 patients are all foreign workers living in dormitories, the ministry said. The total number of infections has gone up to 31,616, it said. The death toll due to the disease stands at 23, the ministry said, adding that 13,882 patients have recovered so far. As on Saturday, 711 patients were still in hospital. Eight of them were in critical condition in the intensive care unit, the ministry said. As many as 16,452 patients are isolated and cared for at community facilities as they have mild symptoms, it said.
With a day to go for flight operations to resume, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today spoke to civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri and requested him to give some more time for preparations. "We can't say that lockdown will be over by 31st May. We will have to see how we will go forward. The coming time is crucial as the multiplication of the virus is picking up. I want to assure the medical fraternity that we are with them in all ways," he said, news agency ANI reported. Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in the country with the biggest caseload
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare today made 14-day quarantine mandatory for international arrivals. Out of the 14 days, 7-days of institutional quarantine at own cost followed by 7 days of home isolation. In cases of human distress, serious illness, death in the family, children below 10 years or pregnancy, home quarantine of 14 days may be permitted. Aarogya Setu app shall be mandatory during this period. The same rules apply for those arriving through land borders as well
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat has started donating Rs 50,000 from his monthly salary to the PM-CARES fund, news agency ANI reported on Sunday. The amount will be deducted from his salary and deposited in the Centre’s COVID-19 relief fund for the next twelve months, defence sources told ANI. The former Army Chief wrote a letter in March requesting the concerned authorities to transfer the amount from his monthly salary, as per reports. The first deduction of Rs 50,000 was made in April, ANI reported.
The first 'Sunday curfew' imposed by the Karnataka government to try and contain the spread of COVID-19 got underway in the state today, with people by and large adhering to norms, roads wearing a deserted look and almost no vehicular traffic, barring essential services. With barricades being up across most roads in the state, people ventured out only to purchase groceries, vegetabes and medicines.
Instances of violation of Sunday curfew lockdown norms were reported in COVID-19 hotspots of Shivajinagar and Rayapura in Bengaluru and Nelamangala and Devanahalli. Temples, malls, bars, eateries and small food joints remained shut throughout state. In most parts of the state buses, autorickshaws and cabs did not ply. (PTI)
While India continues to add more and more number of new novel Coronavirus infections every day, a definite slowdown is observable in some of the earlier troubled states. Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have more than 6,000 confirmed cases each and are still contributing a significant number of new cases, but there is a noticeable decline in their growth rates for the last couple of weeks. Their growth rates have fallen comfortably below the national level.
The increase in the number of new infections is, therefore, driven by Maharashtra, and for the time being, by Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Maharashtra, which had about one-fifth of India’s entire caseload two months ago, now accounts for more than one-third of all confirmed infections in the country. In the last ten days, however, it has contributed more than 40 per cent of India’s new infections.
Russia on Sunday reported 153 coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours, the epidemic's highest daily toll, raising total fatalities to 3,541, the country's coronavirus crisis response centre said. It also said 8,599 new cases had been documented, fewer than on the previous day, pushing the nationwide tally of infections to 344,481.
Around 3300 Jammu and Kashmir residents including 1200 students who were stranded in various parts of Maharashtra have been evacuated by four Shramik special trains during the past 10 days, an official said. This is the highest number of trains deployed in any single state for the evacuation of J&K residents facilitating return of 97 per cent of the stranded residents, he said.
The process for evacuating J&K residents from Maharashtra by Shramik trains began on May 14 with the first such train leaving Nagpur for Udhampur railway station with around 1000 stranded persons on board. The train carried J&K residents stranded in Nagpur and adjoin districts of Akola, Wardha, Aurangabad, Yavatmal, Amravati, Raigad, Gondia, Nashik, Washim, Bhandara, Palghar, Buldhana, Akola and Latur, an official statement said. (PTI)
Odisha is the latest state to make home quarantine mandatory for incoming passengers. Before this, the governments of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Assam, and the administration of Jammu and Kashmir have decided that arriving passengers will have to stay in quarantine. Chhattisgarh and Punjab have also decided compulsory quarantine for 14 days.
As many as 93 Indians, who were stranded in the United Kingdom amid the lockdown, arrived on an Air India flight in Indore on Sunday morning. As part of the Centre’s ‘Vande Bharat’ mission, the flight from London reached arrived at the city via Mumbai at 8.04 am, Indore’s Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport Director Aryama Sanyal told news agency PTI.
A health checkup of the passengers was conducted and their belongings were sanitised, the official added. The passengers will be kept under the mandatory 14-day quarantine, she said.
International Business Machines Corp. cut an unspecified number of jobs across the US, eliminating employees in at least five states. The company declined to comment on the total number, but the workforce reductions appear far-reaching.
Based on a review of IBM internal communications on the Slack corporate messaging service, the number of affected employees is likely to be in the thousands, said a North Carolina-based worker who lost his job along with his entire team of 12. “This was far ranging — and historical employment ratings, age and seniority did not seem to matter,” he said. The person asked not to be identified on concern that speaking publicly may impact his severance package. The cuts also affected employees in Pennsylvania, California, Missouri and New York, where IBM is based, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Tami Nadu government has relaxed the restrictions on 17 industries present in the non-containment areas of Chennai. The industries can start working with 25 per cent of workers from tomorrow. Workers from containment areas are not permitted and those present at the workplace are required to wear masks and undergo thermal screening
A trial funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States has found that the broad-spectrum investigational antiviral drug remdesivir can speed up recovery in Covid-19 patients requiring oxygen therapy. The results of the trial were considered encouraging enough to warrant publication even as the trial was ongoing.
“Preliminary results of the trial suggest that a 10-day course of remdesivir was superior to placebo in the treatment of hospitalised patients with Covid-19. This benefit was seen in the number of days to recovery… Even though the trial was ongoing, the data and safety monitoring board made the recommendation to unblind the results to the trial team members from the NIAID, who subsequently decided to make the results public. Here's how remdesivir tricks coronavirus
Japan’s state of emergency is nearing its end with new cases of the coronavirus dwindling to mere dozens. It got there despite largely ignoring the default playbook.
No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. No high-tech apps that tracked people’s movements were deployed. The country doesn’t have a center for disease control. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2% of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries. Yet the curve has been flattened, with deaths well below 1,000, by far the fewest among the Group of Seven developed nations. Here's what happened in Japan
At the epicentre of coronavirus infections in India, Maharashtra is planning to reopen its schools from June 15 onwards. State’s School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad has indicated that the return to school will be gradual and phase-wise with schools in non-red areas reopening first.
In an interview to The Indian Express she spoke of plans for running classes in shifts, shortening school hours, banning morning assemblies and sporting activities. “Maintaining social distancing is the key. The option of pairing students with odd roll numbers and calling them in the first shift and the ones with even roll numbers in the second shift is being considered. Another option is to call a batch of class students every alternate day,” she said. “At all cost physical distance will have to be maintained. Only one student will be permitted on one desk,” she added.
While Covid-19 has forced a rewrite of almost every calendar, some plans stayed on course. For over a month and a half of the lockdown, The Indian Express has chronicled the parenthood journey of Mamata Dudi and Kailash Bajya: the bike rides to the clinic, the complications, a sudden 400-km trip to Rajasthan, a happy ending — and a new phase. Read our special Sunday story here
In this season of a pandemic and all the associated uncertainties, at least one thing had gone to plan – Mamata was now the mother of a baby boy.
Bollywood actor Kiran Kumar late Saturday revealed he has been home quarantined since testing positive for coronavirus on May 14. He has remained asymptomatic since the diagnosis and is quarantined on the third floor of his house. The 74-year-old actor will get tested again in two or three days. Kiran Kumar is the latest celebrity to test positive for coronavirus after Zoa Morani, Karim Morani and Kanika Kapoor.
An employee at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant has tested positive for COVID-19, according to a company spokesperson. The company is also looking at "a possibility of a second case" of infection at the facility but has ruled out any impact on the business part due to the situation.
The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) had re-opened the Manesar facility earlier this month after around 50 days of closure due to coronavirus-led lockdown. "One employee of the company's Manesar plant tested positive on May 22, 2020 for COVID-19," the spokesperson told PTI when contacted over the matter. The said employee had last attended the plant on May 15 with normal health after which his residence area came into a containment zone and he did not join work thereafter, he said.
The New York Times has devoted Sunday's entire front page to a long list of names of people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. The names and brief descriptions culled from obituaries from around the country fill six columns under the headline ``US. Deaths Near 100,000, an Incalculable Loss,'' with a subheadline reading: ``They Were Not Simply Names on a List. They Were Us.''
The all-text list takes the place of the usual articles, photographs and graphics in an effort to convey the vastness and variety of lives lost, according to Simone Landon, assistant editor of the graphics desk, who described ``a little bit of fatigue with the data.'' ``We knew we were approaching this milestone,'' she said in a New York Times article explaining the project. ``We knew that there should be some way to try to reckon with that number.''
The Gujarat High Court came down heavily on the state government for trying to “artificially control” the Covid situation in the state and called the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, the main government Covid facility in the state, “as good as a dungeon, may be even worse”. So far, the Civil Hospital has seen 377 Covid deaths, which accounted for 45% of the total deaths in the state.
A Packed Railway schedule since May 1 — 2,600 Shramik trains, around 80% bound for UP and Bihar — led to a bizarre situation where a migrant special from Mumbai, which was to reach Gorakhpur within 24 hours on Friday evening, was rerouted via Odisha, adding two days and five states to the original journey. By Saturday evening, officials said, the train had crossed Gomoh in Jharkhand, still 600 km away from its destination, with the estimated arrival now “sometime on Sunday morning”. The passengers said they came to know of the diverted route only around 6 am on Saturday after cellphone networks sent messages welcoming them to Odisha.
Coronavirus cases in India Sunday rose to 1.31 lakh. Of the 1,31,868 cases, 73,560 are active infections, while 54,440 patients have been discharged. The death toll has climbed to 3867. India is the 11th worst-affected country in the world.
With just a day to go for the resumption of domestic flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Saturday said there was no need for states to quarantine incoming travellers if passengers had Aarogya Setu approval, and did not show any symptoms of Covid-19. Confusion, however, reigns with many states requiring passengers to quarantine themselves for two weeks. With just a day to go, airlines expressed anguish at the lack of coordination between the Centre and states.
Dr Jitendra Nath Pande (78), the former head of the medicine department at AIIMS and a stalwart in the field of pulmonology, died due to coronavirus at his residence in Siddhartha Enclave on Saturday. After retiring from the country’s premier medical institute in 2003, Dr Pande had taken up the mantle of director and professor of the pulmonology department at Delhi’s Sitaram Bhartia Hospital.
Dr Pande had authored hundreds of papers on respiratory medicine, was a recipient of several prestigious awards, and was the personal doctor to President Ram Nath Kovind.
Amid the tussle between the Centre and states over the resumption of domestic flights from May 25, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said it’s “extremely ill-advised to reopen airports in the red zone”. “Mere thermal scanning of passengers inadequate w/o swabs. Impossible to have autos/cabs/buses ply in current circumstances. Adding positive passenger will add Covid stress to red zone. #MaharashtraGovtCares,” Deshmukh tweeted.
Argentina extended until June 7 a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires on Saturday and tightened some movement restrictions, after a steady increase in the city's confirmed coronavirus cases in recent days. Officials will tighten traffic controls between the capital and Buenos Aires province, the area with the second highest concentration of cases, President Alberto Fernandez said in a televised press conference.
Argentina has a commercial flight ban until Sept. 1, one of the world's strictest travel measures during the pandemic. The country recorded 704 new infections on Saturday, one of the highest single-day increases since the pandemic began. The country has 11,353 cases, mostly in Buenos Aires, where the city's low-income neighborhoods have been particularly hard hit, government data showed.
Coronavirus cases in Ahmedabad crossed the 10,000-mark and rose to 10,001 after 277 new patients were reported on Saturday, the state health department said.n The total number of cases in Gujarat stood at 13,689 after 394 tested positive Saturday, while death toll increased to 832 with 27 more deaths.
In Vadodara, among the 34 to test positive was also a 49-year-old officer of Harni unit of the Vadodara crime branch. Read more here
Fourteen more residents of Bapu Dham Colony tested positive for novel coronavirus on Saturday. Three of these patients were sampled at the testing booth set up by the health department inside the colony. Meanwhile, a two-month-old child who recovered from Covid-19 was discharged from PGIMER, leaving 51 active cases out of the total 232 cases reported in the city till Saturday night. Read more here