A woman passenger, wearing a protective suit, waits for train at New Delhi Railway Station on Monday, November 2, 2020. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)India’s active COVID-19 cases have fallen below 5.5 lakh and now comprise merely 6.55 per cent of the total infections as the number of recoveries crossed 76 lakh, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The slide in active cases is supplemented by an exponential rise in recoveries, it said. The total number of recoveries has surged to 76,03,121 and exceed active cases by 70,61,716, the ministry highlighted.
The national COVID-19 recovery rate has further escalated to 91.96 per cent. The ministry said new infections reported in a day have fallen below 40,000 as India registered a daily rise of 38,310 new cases on Tuesday. With 490 deaths on Monday, the toll rose to 1,23,097. Numbers usually dip on Mondays because of the relatively lower number of tests conducted on Sunday. Last Monday had recorded the lowest number of new cases in over three months. The country had reported 36,470 new cases in a span of 24 hours till 8 am on October 27. With a large number of coronavirus patients recovering every day and a sustained fall in the mortality rate, the ministry underlined, “India’s steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues.”
Delhi recorded over 6,700 fresh COVID-19 cases for the first time on Tuesday taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4 lakh, even as the positivity rate stood at 11.29 per cent amid festive season and rising pollution in the city. The 6,725 fresh cases came out of the 59,540 tests conducted the previous day. This is the first time when the number of daily cases has crossed the 6,000-mark. The previous highest single-day spike till date here — 5,891 cases — was recorded on Friday.
Explained | Unlock 6.0 guidelines: Which states have allowed more relaxations in November
Amid the pandemic, two big elections are taking place. In India, the second phase of voting for the Bihar Assembly elections is underway Tuesday. It is touted the largest election amid Covid-19 in the world. Second, the US presidential election is also taking place on November 3.
Boating in Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake in resumed after 228 days on Sunday. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday directed the authorities to strike a balance between livelihood and COVID-19 control measures as the country grappled to contain the second wave of the pandemic. Khan made the comments while chairing the meeting of National Coordination Committee (NCC) to formulate measures to combat the coronavirus. It was attended by key Cabinet ministers, while chief ministers took part in it through video link.
The surge in the number of cases and lack of regard for the COVID-19 guidelines by the public have led to fears among authorities that the situation could get worse, making it hard to turn the tide against the second wave. '(The) Prime Minister directed all stake holders to balance between disease control measures and livelihood of people,' according to the statement issued by the National Command and Control Center (NCOC), the country's coronavirus control body.
Delhi recorded over 6,700 fresh COVID-19 cases for the first time on Tuesday taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 4 lakh, even as the positivity rate stood at 11.29 per cent amid festive season and rising pollution in the city. The 6,725 fresh cases came out of the 59,540 tests conducted the previous day. This is the first time when the number of daily cases has crossed the 6,000-mark.
The previous highest single-day spike till date here -- 5,891 cases -- was recorded on Friday. Forty-eight new fatalities were recorded, pushing the death toll in the national capital to 6,652, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. Delhi had recorded over 5,000 daily cases for five days on the trot, ending Sunday when the count stood at 5,664.
Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded 169 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the district's infection tally to 18,339, official data showed. The number of active cases came down to 1,280 from 1,289 on Monday, according to the data released by the UP Health Department for a 24-hour period.
On the brighter side, 178 more patients got discharged during the period and the overall number of recoveries in the district reached 16,991, sixth highest in the state, it showed. The district's death toll stood at 68 with a mortality rate of 0.37 per cent. The recovery rate of patients improved slightly to 92.64 per cent from 92.53 per cent for the previous day, the statistics showed.
Meanwhile, the number of active cases in UP came down to 22,538 from 23,035 on Monday. The overall recoveries in the state reached 4,57,708 as the death toll linked to COVID-19 climbed to 7,089 on Tuesday, the data showed.
Nepal on Tuesday reported 20 COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the country's death toll to 1,004. The country also recorded 3,114 new cases, pushing the national infection tally to 179,614. There are currently 37,476 active coronavirus cases in the country.
Gujarat reported 954 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, raising its case tally to 1,75,633, the state health department said. With six new deaths, the state's COVID-19 death toll rose to 3,734, it said. Recoveries during the day again outnumbered new cases, with 1,197 patients getting discharged. The number of recovered cases in the state thus rose to 1,59,448. With this, Gujarat has achieved a recovery rate of 90.78 per cent. The health department said 52,739 tests were conducted for the virus in the last 24 hours, increasingthe total number of samples tested so far to 62,10,550.
Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday recorded 478 new COVID-19 cases and 12 fatalities, raising the tally to 96,188 and the death toll to 1,502, officials said. Out of the fresh cases, 195 were reported from the Jammu division and 283 from the Kashmir Valley, they said. The officials said Srinagar district recorded the highest of 111 cases, followed by 106 in Jammu. There are now 5,968 active cases in the UT, while 88,718 patients have recovered, they said. The union territory reported 12 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours -- four from the Jammu division and eight from the Kashmir Valley, taking the death toll 1,502, the officials said. (PTI)
As Bengaluru continues to witness the trend of Covid-19 recoveries outnumbering new cases since mid-October, the same has left more dedicated beds vacant in hospitals and Covid Care Centres (CCC) in the city as well.
Data from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on live bed allocation in the city indicates that 70 per cent of the beds are vacant as on Tuesday. According to the Covid-19 hospital bed status portal, 8536 beds out of the total 12,207 beds allocated in the city are unoccupied. Of these, 72 per cent of the beds in government hospitals and medical colleges are available for patient intake while around 70 per cent of the total beds available in private facilities are unoccupied. As many as 548 beds in government-run CCCs are also vacant.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Response Team (ERT) set up by individuals and members of various NGOs and other organisations in the city have observed a drop in the number of people seeking their help to book a hospital bed for Covid-19 treatment. 'A decline of 50 to 60 per cent has been noted in the last fortnight as compared to the same during the first half of October,' Ameen Mudassar of the Sigma foundation, a member of ERT said.
However, he added that this cannot be directly attributed to the spread of the pandemic slowing down as cases where people prefer treatment at home has also seen a rise consequently. (With inputs from Ralph Alex Arakkal)
The COVID-19 death toll in Uttar Pradesh rose to 7,089 on Tuesday with 13 more people succumbing to the disease, while 1,726 fresh cases pushed the infection tally to 4,87,335, a government spokesman said. The recovery rate in the state has reached over 92 per cent and the number of deaths on Tuesday was the lowest in almost five months. The number of active cases currently stood at 22,538, of which 9,599 are in home isolation. On Monday, over 1.58 lakh tests were done and altogether over 1.53 crore tests have been performed, the spokesman said, adding that UP was the only state to have conducted over 1.50 crore tests.
Achieving a significant milestone in the fight against coronavirus, India's active COVID-19 cases have fallen below 5.5 lakh and now comprise merely 6.55 per cent of the total infections as the number of recoveries crossed 76 lakh, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The slide in active cases is supplemented by an exponential rise in recoveries, it said.
The total number of recoveries has surged to 76,03,121 and exceed active cases by 70,61,716, the ministry highlighted. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has further escalated to 91.96 per cent. The ministry said new infections reported in a day have fallen below 40,000 as India registered a daily rise of 38,310 new cases on Tuesday. The country had reported 36,470 new cases in a span of 24 hours till 8 am on October 27. With a large number of coronavirus patients recovering every day and a sustained fall in the mortality rate, the ministry underlined, "India's steady trend of registering dipping active cases continues."
Some countries have still not removed restrictions on the entry of Indian nationals and the central government is ready to fly passengers to these countries whenever they ease their limits, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia is one such country that does not allow airlines to bring passengers from India currently amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are operating international flights under VBM (Vande Bharat Mission) since May 6, 2020. However, some countries, including some in the Gulf region, have still not removed restrictions on the entry of Indian nationals," Puri said on Twitter.
"We are ready to fly passengers to these countries whenever they ease restrictions," he added.
On October 22, the minister had said that the average fares on special flights operating between Kerala and Bahrain are between Rs 30,000 and Rs 39,000 as the Gulf country allows only 750 passengers to come from India per week. Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities in Sri Lanka have extended the school holidays for two more weeks, postponing the opening of classes amid a surge of COVID-19 patients from two clusters in Colombo and the capital's suburbs. Schools had been scheduled to reopen November 9, but the government announced Tuesday that classes would not resume until November 23.
Schools were suddenly closed last month as a precautionary measure after a new cluster of coronavirus infections centered on a garment factory erupted in the densely populated Western province, where the capital is. Another cluster centered on the country's main fish market arose later. The two clusters have now grown to 7,856 confirmed cases, with 275 in the previous 24 hours. The total caseload for the pandemic stands at 11,335 with 21 deaths from COVID-19. (AP)
With more than 300 cases of the novel coronavirus being detected in Gurgaon everyday, the district health department Tuesday released an "Advisory for the festival season". It urged people to follow protocol, including social distancing and wearing masks, and appealed not to "move unnecessarily out of home".
The family court in Bandra has got a Covid-19 testing facility for lawyers and litigants before entering the premises. The principal judge Monday made testing mandatory before entering court, but later revised it and said it was optional. Physical hearings began on Monday, months after the coronavirus outbreak began in India.
India on Monday accused Pakistan of taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to enhance support to cross-border terrorism. "While the world has come to a standstill due to the pandemic, Pakistan has only enhanced support to cross-border terrorism taking advantage of the pandemic," First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Ashish Sharma said. He also said Pakistan had resorted to "unbridled hate speech trying to foment violence and intolerance in our country," reported PTI. Sharma was speaking at the Third Committee meeting of the General Assembly.
After recording over 5,000 cases for five consecutive days, the national capital Monday recorded 4,001 new infections. The Centre, which has said the recent spurt was due to ongoing festivities, has come up with an elaborate plan to contain the spread of the disease in the coming days. The measures include targeted RT-PCR testing in restaurants, market places and barber shops; ensuring availability of enough beds and ventilators; and aggressive contact tracing of those quarantined. Read more here
A second serological survey in Haryana has found Covid-19 antibodies in 14.8 per cent of the population. Haryana’s Director of Health Services, Dr. Usha Gupta, said, “Rural areas of Faridabad and Jind were found to have the highest positivity rate of 25.5 per cent. Urban areas of Faridabad, Yamunanagar and Panipat districts had the highest sero-positivity rates of 40.2 per cent, 37.1 per cent and 36.3 per cent, respectively”. Read more here
Only 38,310 new cases of coronavirus infection detected on Monday. Numbers usually dip on Monday because of the relatively lower number of tests on Sunday. Last Monday had recorded the lowest number of new cases in over three months. Total number of people infected till now: 82.67 lakh. Death count over 1.23 lakh.
On an average, every person who dies from Covid-19 in India could have lived for at least 20 more years. The fatalities may cause a total loss of more than four million life years in a full year, according to experts. Still, the impact of Covid-19 deaths is expected to be far less than road injuries, a new study has found. Read More
Nearly 35 per cent of the 25 lakh-odd population in Pimpri-Chinchwad ? almost 8.5 lakh residents ? have developed Covid-19 antibodies, according to a sero-survey conducted by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Dr D Y Patil Medical College and Research Institute. Read More
With four Covid-19 patients succumbing to the infection Monday, the death toll in Gujarat has crossed 3,750 mark. As many as 875 fresh cases were reported taking the tally to around 1.75 lakh. Read More
Delhi recorded 4,001 Covid-19 cases on Monday and a positivity rate of around 11 per cent, with the Centre attributing the sudden surge in incidences here in the last few days to greater movement of people in the festive season and laxity in following safety norms.
These fresh cases came out of the 36,665 tests conducted on the previous day. Delhi had recorded over 5,000 daily cases for five days on the trot, ending Sunday when the count stood at 5,664. The highest single-day spike till date here -- 5,891 cases -- was recorded on Friday.
Forty-two new fatalities were recorded on Monday, pushing the death toll in the national capital to 6,604, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. The active cases tally stands at 33,308, as per the bulletin.
The Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced Deepavali bonus to the tune of Rs 210.48 crore to the PSU employees in the state, despite a dip in the operating income of many companies due to non-operation of public transport and factories due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The move would benefit over 2.91 lakh employees, an official release here said.
Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ category workers and employees working in all profit/loss-making public sector undertakings will be given a bonus of 8.33 per cent and an ex-gratia of 1.67 per cent. READ MORE
After a gap of over seven months, inter-state bus services between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh resumed on Monday as officials of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation and its AP counterpart came to an understanding and signed a MoU, a senior TSRTC official said. The bus services between the states were suspended in March due to the nationwide lockdown to contain coronavirus.
Though passenger transport by the TSRTC to other states began in September, it was not resumed with Andhra Pradesh owing to deadlock on some contentious issues such as number of kilometres to be plied by each corporation in the other state. "Bus services began as both the corporations (TSRTC and APSRTC) signed MoU," the official said.
As per the MoU, TSRTC will ply 1.61 lakh km in AP with 826 buses, while Andhra Pradesh will run almost the same length with 638 vehicles in its neighbouring state, a press release from the TSRTC said.
Manipur on Monday reported nine COVID-19 related deaths, the highest single-day spike, pushing the death toll to 180 while the total positive cases has climbed to 19,091, with 341 fresh cases.
The spike in the deaths and positive cases were reported in the wake of the new SOP issued by the state to control local spread.
Of the total deaths, five are from Imphal West and four from Thoubal district between the age group between 35 to 80 years. Of the 341 new cases, 149 are from the general population and 28 from Central security forces. All are locals without any significant travel history.
With this, the cumulative number of positive cases rose to 19,091, including general population 16,303 and Central Security personnel 2,788. Jimmy Leivon
Haryana has found antibodies against SARSCoV-2 among 14.8 percent of the state’s population in the second round of seroprevalence survey released on Monday. Urban areas have observed a high positivity rate of 19.8 per cent, while it was 11.4 per cent in rural areas. In the first round of survey conducted in August, seroprevalence was 8 per cent across the state.
Haryana’s Director of Health Services, Dr. Usha Gupta, said, “Rural areas of Faridabad and Jind were districts were found to have the highest positivity rate of 25.5 per cent. Urban areas of Faridabad, Yamunanagar and Panipat districts had the highest sero-positivity rates of 40.2 per cent, 37.1 per cent and 36.3 per cent, respectively”.
Health Minister Anil Vij, Monday said, “This second round of Sero Survey was carried out with the aim to identify the further penetration of COVID-19 at the community level and to monitor its transmission trends so that proper measures can be taken to control its spread.” READ MORE
Local train services, halted for the general public since March in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, is likely to resume in West Bengal in a graded manner this month, with a crucial meeting between the government and Eastern Railway authorities scheduled on Monday to thrash out the modalities.
Similar to Mumbai, suburban trains in West Bengal act as a crucial link between the districts and Kolkata, with the suspension of services causing hardships to office-goers and businessmen who have had to depend on overcrowded buses to reach the state capital. Both Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which have so far allowed only certain categories of people to avail local trains, are also likely to see normal services resume in November following the Centre’s nod.
CLICK HERE for a status check of suburban train services in different states.
The government on Monday attributed the surge in active COVID-19 cases in Delhi to the festive season, greater movement of people and laxity in adhering to safe COVID behaviour and said efforts will be made to increase testing in critical zones. It also emphasised that Metro travel should be carefully regulated as per the SOPs. At a high level meeting, chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the COVID-19 situation in Delhi was discussed threadbare.
"The recent surge in the number of active cases was attributed to the festival season, which has witnessed greater movement of people, accompanied by laxity in adhering to the basic principles of safe COVID behaviour," a home ministry statement said.
The hospital bed situation was reported to be comfortable with 57 per cent of the 15,789 dedicated beds being vacant. While the new COVID cases and total active cases are going up, the administration is focusing on testing, contact tracing and treatment.
A four-week partial shutdown has started in Germany, with restaurants, bars, theaters, cinemas and other leisure facilities closing down until the end of the month in a drive to flatten a rapid rise in coronavirus infections.
The restrictions that took effect Monday are milder than the ones Germany imposed in the first phase of the pandemic in March and April. This time around, schools, kindergartens, non-essential shops and hairdressers are to remain open.
But leading officials decided last week that a 'lockdown light' was necessary in light of a sharp rise in cases that has prompted many other European countries to impose more or less drastic restrictions.
On Saturday, the national disease control center reported the highest number of infections in one day -- 19,059 -- since the pandemic began. Figures at the beginning of the week tend to be lower, and the center reported 12,097 cases Monday.
But that compared with 8,685 a week earlier, underlining the upward trend.
British newspaper The Guardan reported that a global aviation manual now under review by a UN body and expected in November, suggests global guidelines calling for the use of tests with a sensitivity and specificity of 95% when screening passengers to detect the novel coronavirus ahead of flights, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Friday that travelling was now “relatively safe” and posed a “relatively low” health risk although there was no “zero risk”. More advice on risk management processes would be released soon, he added.
Japan’s largest airport on Monday opened a novel coronavirus testing facility aimed at outbound travellers who need proof they are virus-free, as it takes steps to reopen international travel that has been largely grounded for months by the pandemic.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was admitted to a city-based hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 last month, was discharged from the medical facility on Monday.
Disclosing this, Pawar, who was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital here on October 26, said he will be in home quarantine for next some days and thanked those who had wished him a speedy recovery.
Rajasthan will be the first state in the country to enact a law making it compulsory to wear masks in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday.
The law will be enacted on Monday, he said in a tweet, describing mask as a "vaccine" to protect against coronavirus.
"Rajasthan will be the first state in the country to enact a law to make it compulsory to wear masks for protection against corona, because mask is the vaccine to protect against corona and it will protect," Gehlot said.
An amendment bill was introduced in the Assembly on Saturday to make mask wearing mandatory while traveling in public and private transport and for attending political and social programmes.
There was only a 28 per cent rise in the total number of cases in the month of October, the lowest so far. The percentage monthly growth has been declining progressively and that is not a surprise considering that the base has been expanding continuously, but this is the first time that even absolute numbers have been lower than previous months (see charts).
A little more than 47,000 new cases were detected on Sunday. It was the eighth consecutive day that this number has remained below 50,000. The active cases fell further to 5.61 lakh.
Schools reopened for students of classes 9th and 10th in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on Monday, after months of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Below are some pictures from Bishop Azariah government school. A headmistress said there would be 15-minute breaks between periods for students to sanitise their hands.
Students at the Bishop Azariah government school in Vijayawada, AP. (ANI)
There would be breaks of 15 minutes between periods for students to sanitise their hands. (ANI)
Schools reopened for students of classes 9th and 10th in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on Monday, after months of the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Below are some pictures from Bishop Azariah government school. A headmistress said there would be 15-minute breaks between periods for students to sanitise their hands.
Students at the Bishop Azariah government school in Vijayawada, AP. (ANI)
There would be breaks of 15 minutes between periods for students to sanitise their hands. (ANI)
The daily positivity rate rose to 12.69% on Sunday as Delhi reported 5,664 new Covid-19 cases from 44,623 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. With 51 more deaths reported, the death toll increased to 6,562. There are 34,173 active infections in the city, out of which 20,732 are under home isolation and 6,461 in hospitals.
This is the fifth day in a row that the city has reported over 5,000 new cases. Over the last week, a total of 32,882 new cases have been added to the total infection count of the city.
Addressing the issue of the recent spike in cases in the national capital, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain Sunday said “aggressive contact tracing” was the primary reason for the sudden increase in numbers.