A couple waits outside a vaccination centre in Bengaluru on Saturday. Coronavirus India highlights: Maharashtra recorded 39,923 fresh Covid-19 cases, 53,249 discharges and 695 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state currently has 5,19,254 active cases while the death toll stands at 79,552.
The Kerala government on Friday extended the ongoing lockdown till May 23 as the state’s positivity rate still remains high. “The positivity rate remains high, so the state government has decided to extend the present complete lockdown in Kerala till May 23,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. The state has recorded 34,694 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, while 93 deaths took the toll to 6,243, the chief minister added.
India counted 3.43 lakh new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, and 4,000 deaths. The country’s caseload of 2,40,46,809 now includes 37,04,893 active cases, 2,00,79,599 recoveries and 2,62,317 deaths. Maharashtra contributed 42,582 new cases, while Kerala reported 39,955. Uttar Pradesh is no longer in the top five contributors. Andhra Pradesh has stepped in with more than 22,000 cases. Of the toll reported on Thursday, Maharashtra contributed 882 deaths, while 344 came from Karnataka.
India’s coronavirus numbers over the last two weeks suggest the second wave may have reached its peak, or will in the next few days. However, the end of the second wave may still be a long distance away. India’s cases, which touched 4.14 lakh last Thursday, have dropped significantly in the last one week.
Dr Reddy’s administered the first jab of Sputnik V, a Covid-19 vaccine made by Russia, in Hyderabad on Friday. The company said the cost per imported dose would be Rs 995.40, and rates may decrease when local supply begins. Sputnik is the third vaccine to get emergency use approval in India after Covishield (Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (Bharat Biotech).
The Covid-19 death toll in Bihar reached 3670 on Friday on account of 77 fresh casualties, even though the recovery rate continued to look up with the number of people testing positive in a day dropping further. According to the state health department, 7,494 fresh cases were reported in the state where, till recently, more than 10,000 people were testing positive for the dreaded coronavirus on a daily basis.
Patna, the worst-affected of the state's 40 districts, reported 967 fresh cases, days after its tally rose by four- digit figures every day. The district has so far reported 1.32 lakh cases, more than one-fifth of the states aggregate of 6.37 lakhs. The number of people who have recovered is 5.44 lakh and the active caseload, which had crossed one lakh about a week ago, has now come down to 89,563. (PTI)
Punjab on Friday recorded 8,068 fresh Covid-19 cases that took its tally to 4,83,984 while 180 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 11,477, according to a medical bulletin. The number of active cases in the state dropped to 79,359 from 79,950 on Thursday. Of the latest deaths, 23 were reported from Amritsar, 19 from Ludhiana, 18 from Bathinda and 13 each from Jalandhar and Patiala, the bulletin stated.
Ludhiana reported the maximum number of fresh cases at 1,320, followed by 988 in Bathinda, 661 in Mohali and 570 in Patiala, it said. As many as 8,446 coronavirus patients were discharged after they recovered from the infection, taking the total number of cured persons to 3,93,148, it added. There are 421 critical patients who are on ventilator support while 9,820 are on oxygen support, the bulletin said. (PTI)
Head of Delhi University's Political Science Department Veena Kukreja, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at a hospital here, died in the early hours of Friday after suffering a cardiac arrest. She was 64. Kukreja's colleagues condoled her demise while her department held a virtual prayer meeting in her memory.
Professor Bipin Tiwary, Kukreja's colleague from the department said she was admitted to Saroj Hospital in Rohini on April 24 after she tested positive for coronavirus. She was recovering well and had been moved out of the ICU to the Covid ward. "I was in constant touch with her and I used to call her at 6-6.30 pm every day. I was monitoring things like whether her bed is clean, washroom is okay and whether she is being looked after. Yesterday also I spoke to her and she seemed quite jovial and was on the road to recovery. But around 2.30 am her BP and pulse dropped and she passed away," he said. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu government on Friday issued a fresh set of guidelines to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
According to the new rules, E-pass registration, which was mandatory for inter-state and international passengers, is now mandatory for inter-district passengers as well from May 17. Only for essential activities such as marriages, funeral, medical treatment, elderly care people will be allowed to travel after filling the forms on the state government’s dedicated website. Read more
The number of people cremated or buried at dedicated Covid crematoriums or graveyards from April 20 to May 2 is over one and a half times the number of coronavirus deaths reported by the Uttarakhand Health Department, official data revealed.
According to the Urban Development Department, 1,523 "Covid-infected people" were cremated or buried during those 13 days, whereas the number of fatalities reported by the state Health Department during the period was 910. This is 613 less than the number of cremations and burials recorded by the Urban Development Department. (PTI)
Vaccination drive in Mumbai will be suspended for Saturday and Sunday, says Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated a drive-in Covid-19 vaccination facility in Nagpur earlier today, for people above 60 years of age. The facility has begun at Glocal Square Mall in Sitabuldi. (ANI)
Gujarat reported 9,995 Covid-19 cases and 104 deaths from the infection in the last 24 hours, taking the state's tally and toll to 7,35,348 and 8,944 respectively, an official said on Friday. The daily addition of cases went below the 10000-mark after 27 days, when 9,541 people were detected with the infection on April 17, he pointed out.
"Of the 104 deaths, 16 occurred in Ahmedabad district, 13 in Surat, 10 in Vadodara and 10 in Rajkot district. Of the new cases, Ahmedabad city led with 2,764, followed by 639 in Vadodara city, 631 in Surat district, 429 in Vadodara district, 338 in Mehsana, 316 in Rajkot city and 306 in Rajkot district," he said. The official said 15,365 people were discharged during the day, taking the recovery count to 6,09,031, which is 82.82 per cent of the caseload. (PTI)
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Haryana on Friday reported 164 Covid-19 related deaths, taking the toll to 6,402, while 10,608 fresh infections pushed the case count to 6,75,636. According to the health department's daily bulletin, the latest deaths included 16 from Rohtak, 15 from Gurgaon, 12 from Jind, 11 each from Hisar, Panipat and Bhiwani and 10 from Ambala district.
Among the districts which continued to report a big spike in cases included Gurgaon (2,144), Hisar (1,146) and Faridabad (8,26). After a gap of a few weeks, the total number of active cases in the state dropped below 1-lakh mark to 99,007. (PTI)
Maharashtra records 39,923 fresh Covid-19 cases, 53,249 discharges and 695 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state currently has 5,19,254 active cases while the death toll stands at 79,552. (ANI)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will provide a monthly aid of Rs 5,000 to all children who have lost the sole bead earner of their families till they become self-sufficient. (ANI)
Jammu and Kashmir on Friday recorded 3,027 fresh Covid-19 cases that took its tally to 2,36,790 while 60 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 3,027, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 1,511 were from the Jammu division and 1,516 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, they said. Jammu district recorded the highest number of fresh cases at 534, followed by 379 in Srinagar and 308 in Budgam. (PTI)
As people continue their struggle to look for hospital beds with oxygen supply for Covid-19 patients, a city-based NGO is lending a helping hand to the needy by providing medical oxygen inside their customised autos.
City-based Kadamai Educational and Social Welfare Trust is operating these auto ambulances dubbed as “emergency ambulances” in north Chennai, but it is fast turning out to be a much sought after service in other parts of the city as well.
The trust has been functioning for the past seven years. They started out as an institution offering tuition to underprivileged students and slowly became a social welfare organisation. They had been actively involved in mitigation efforts due to natural disasters such as floods, cyclone, etc., which had affected the city in the recent past. (Read Janardhan Koushik's report)
Telangana on Friday registered 4,305 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the infection count to 5,20,709, a government bulletin said. Total recoveries were at 4,62,981,with 6,361being cured, while the toll rose to 2,896 with 29 more deaths. Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 607, followed by Rangareddy (293) and Medchal Malkajgiri (291). The state has 54,832 active cases and over 57,000 samples were tested. (PTI)
Uttarakhand reports 5,775 new Covid-19 cases, 4,483 recoveries and 116 deaths in the last 24 hours. (ANI)
Three men were arrested here for allegedly black-marketing Remdesivir, an anti-viral drug used in the treatment of Covid-19 patients, police said on Friday. The accused were identified as Ankit Saluja (36), Dilpreet Saluja (26) and Akarsh Saxena (25), they police. "Based on a tip-off, we found a stationary car in Kolar area of the city on Thursday evening. Five vials of Remdesivir were recovered from the trio, who were inside the vehicle," police inspector Chandrakant Patel said. The accused told the police that they got the vials from one Akash Dubey, who works with a city-based private hospital, three days ago at Rs 16,000 each, he said.
They also told the police that they had earlier bought six Remdisivir injections from Dubey for black-marketing, Patel added. (PTI)
The total lockdown imposed in Aizawl and other district headquarters from May 10 has been extended for another 7 days to flatten the Covid-19 transmission curve. The government order issued on Friday said that the existing complete lockdown, which was scheduled to be lifted on May 17 (4 am) has been extended till 4 am of May 24.
"As Covid-19 positive cases continue to surge inspite of the stringent measures taken, the competent authority has decided to continue with the total lockdown with an anticipation of flattening the curve of the disease transmission thereby preventing probable overburdening of healthcare facilities," the order said. The second corona wave continues to trouble the northeastern state. (PTI)
Karnataka reports 41,779 new Covid-19 cases, 35,879 recoveries and 373 deaths in the last 24 hours. (ANI)
Rajasthan recorded 14,289 fresh coronavirus cases and 155 deaths on Friday, taking the infection tally to 8,35,814, officials said. The Covid-19 death toll in the state stands at 6,472, they said. Capital city Jaipur reported the highest number of 58 deaths followed by Jodhpur where as many as 14 people died of the disease, according to an official report. Bikaner and Udaipur reported 12 deaths each followed by seven deaths each in Bharatpur and Sikar, it said.
Of the latest positive cases, a maximum of 2,823 cases were reported from Jaipur, while 1,368 cases and 708 cases were seen in Alwar and Jodhpur, respectively. A total of 6,16,589 people have recovered from the infection and the number of active cases stands at 2,12,753 in Rajasthan. (PTI)
Mumbai, in the last 24 hours, reported 1,657 new Covid-19 cases, 2,572 recoveries and 62 deaths. (ANI)