Coronavirus India June 7 Highlights: Govt says ‘fine tuning’ strategy based on emerging knowledge, experience

West Bengal recorded its fastest increase in 1,000 Covid-19 cases on Sunday, reaching the 8,000-mark in a span of two days, even as 13 more people died of the disease.

The state health department reported the highest single-day surge in cases for the third straight day, with 449 people testing positive for the infection. On Saturday, 435 cases had been detected, and 427 people had tested positive the day before. The case count on Sunday stood at 8,187. Read more here

Forty police officers including the Barnala SSP were quarantined after a drug smuggler arrested last week tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Three police officers and a 51-year-old man who owns a medical store in Malerkotla, who came in contact with the accused, have also tested positive so far. The drug smuggler’s wife (28) and 70-year-old mother too tested positive Sunday evening. Read more here

Three Mohali residents, including a photographer who runs a studio in Dhakoli, tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, taking the district tally up to 131.

The district now has 20 active cases.

The other two persons who tested positive are a woman and her son, who are family members of another patient from Rishi Apartment in Sector 70. Read more here

After consistently sliding for over a month, the death rate in Maharashtra has once again started to rise. On Sunday, the mortality rate was recorded at 3.58 per cent, up from the 3.25 per cent recorded on May 25. In Mumbai, the mortality rate stood at 3.55 per cent on the day.

The state Sunday recorded 3,007 new Covid-19 cases, 1,218 of them in Mumbai alone, taking the total virus count in Maharashtra to 85,975. A total of 39,314 people have recovered, so far. Read more here

Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau K S Dhatwalia has tested positive for COVID-19 and admitted to AIIMS, sources said on Sunday. He was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) trauma centre at 7 pm, they said. AIIMS trauma centre is a dedicated COVID-19 hospital. There was no official word on his health condition.

The National Media Centre, where his office is located, has been closed and will remain shut on Monday as the entire building will be sanitised, official sources said. The NMC is likely to remain closed on Tuesday as well and a massive contact tracing exercise is being carried out in accordance with the standard protocol, they said. All activities of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), including holding of press conferences, will take place in the Shastri Bhawan till the NMC is completely sanitised and reopened, the sources said. Dhatwalia had on Wednesday shared the stage with Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar when they had briefed the media on the decisions taken by the Cabinet. PTI

A day after the state government announced the Standard Operating Protocols (SOPs) ahead of the reopening of places of worship from June 8, the Vadodara city police issued a notification on Sunday imposing Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) until June 30, while releasing a list of SOPs that all places of worship must follow. Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church of Gujarat has decided to maintain 'status quo' of the existing lockdown in view of the pandemic.

In Saturday's meeting held by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state home minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja with various religious heads, representatives of the Catholic church had asked the government to consider their request to administer the 'holy communion' to the faithful as it is an intrinsic part of the service and "cannot be considered as prasad" which is prohibited in the SOPs.

On Sunday, the Catholic diocese issued a video message through its spokesperson informing the believers that the church has decided to maintain a 'status quo' with the ongoing lockdown after examining the protocols laid down by the government.

On Saturday, the Muslim clerics had also asked Rupani to excuse the mosques from the mandatory installation of sanitizer dispensers since it is alcohol-based and 'prohibited in Islam'.

The Commissioner of Police on Sunday confirmed that the order allows all places of worship to carry on with their regular prayer services so long as the mandatory social distancing and precautions mentioned in the SOPs -- originally issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare -- are followed.

The notification of the Vadodara police, signed by Commissioner of Police Anupam Singh Gahlaut, states, "All places of religious worship will have to follow the SOPs to precision, which has been enlisted by the health and family welfare department as well as the state government."

The panel of eminent doctors constituted by the Gujarat government, to control the spread of Covid-19 as well as to implement and supervise related provisions in the state, fails to provide a definite answer for the state’s high mortality rate. Read mroe here

A 60-year-old woman who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Ludhiana died Sunday, taking the state death toll to 51. A government functionary said she also suffered from a renal disease.

Meanwhile, a day after Punjab reported 54 new Covid cases, the spike being witnessed in about a fortnight reached another high with 93 new cases on Sunday, taking the state tally since the outbreak to 2,608.

Among the cases reported on Sunday, 42 were contacts of Covid patients, 14, including two from abroad, had travel history outside the state. The source of infection was not immediately known for 33 patients. Among the new cases are four pregnant women from Ludhiana and a policeman from Barnala. Read more

Tripura's COVID-19 cases crossed 800 on Sunday as 53 patients were found afflicted by the virus afresh. Among all corona patients, 192 have 'recovered' so far and were discharged from hospital. However, 607 active cases are still under treatment.

Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb tweeted about these cases and wrote, "53 people (Sepahijala Dist: 49 & Gomati Dist: 4) found COVID-19 #POSITIVE in Tripura out of 1153 samples tested. All of them have returned from Chennai by train. Confirmed case: 803 Active case: 607 Discharge: 192 Migrated: 3 Unnatural Death: 1 #TripuraCOVID19Count". According to latest reports, 12,139 persons are placed under surveillance for coronavirus including 751 admitted in different quarantine centers and 11388 persons under home quarantine. Tripura has tested 35,263 persons for COVID-19 at a rate the state government claims to be highest in NE India.

5??3?? people (Sepahijala Dist: 49 & Gomati Dist: 4) found COVID-19 #POSITIVE in Tripura out of 1153 samples tested. All of them have returned from Chennai by train.

??Confirmed case: 803
??Active case: 607
??Discharge: 192
??Migrated: 3
??Unnatural Death: 1#TripuraCOVID19Count

— Biplab Kumar Deb (@BjpBiplab) June 7, 2020

Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday reported the highest ever spike in COVID-19 with 620 Corona positive cases during the past 24 hours. These included 583 from Kashmir and 37 in Jammu division. With this, the number of active positive cases across the Union Territory has risen to 2,830 including 2,146 in Kashmir and 684 in Jammu division. There have been 41 COVID-19 related deaths also including 5 in Jammu and 36 in Kashmir.

According to the daily health bulletin issued by UT government, a total of 2,11,513 people have been enlisted for observation and 41,848 people kept under home quarantine. A total of 2,830 people have been kept under hospital isolation and 52 under hospital quarantine. - Arun Sharma reports from Jammu

Asserting that coronavirus is a "new agent" about which not everything is known, the government on Sunday defended the timing of imposition of the lockdown and rejected as "baseless" media reports expressing concerns that it did not take inputs from technical experts while drawing up its COVID-19 strategy.

The government also said it is "fine-tuning" its strategy based on emerging knowledge and experience on the ground. In a statement, the Health Ministry said a section of the media is reporting on the decisions regarding India's approach to the pandemic and asserted that the decision on the lockdown was taken in the background of rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases. (PTI)

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh denied Shiv Sena having any such opinion of Sood and said the party will appreciate whoever takes good initiatives. Talking to news agency ANI, "Actor Sonu Sood has done good work by sending a lot of migrant workers to their homes. I did not hear what Sanjay Raut sahab said. We will appreciate whoever takes such good initiatives, be it Sonu Sood or anyone else."

Actor Sonu Sood has done good work by sending a lot of migrant workers to their homes. I did not hear what Sanjay Raut sahab said. We will appreciate whoever takes such good initiatives, be it Sonu Sood or anyone else: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh pic.twitter.com/VVuEhG3LDt

— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2020

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut Sunday wondered whether the BJP was behind Bollywood actor Sonu Sood’s recent efforts to help stranded migrant workers, in a bid to show the Uddhav Thackeray government in a poor light.

In his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in the party’s mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Raut raised questions on the sudden rise of “Mahatma” Sood and referred to a sting operation ahead of the 2019 General Elections, which showed Sood accepting an offer to promote the BJP-led government on various social media platforms. Sena’s attack came in the backdrop of Sood arranging buses and chartered flights for migrant workers stuck in Mumbai. Read full story here

A 37-year-old Central Reserve Police Force jawan suffering from cancer has succumbed to COVID-19, taking the total number of deaths due to the disease in the country's largest paramilitary force to three, officials said on Sunday. They said the jawan, a constable of the 141st battalion, died at a hospital here on Friday. (PTI)

Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma on Sunday said out of 10,385 COVID-19 patients in the state, 7,606 have been cured, registering a 73.24 percent recovery rate. Sharma said if the number of infected patients is increasing in the state, the cases of recovery are also increasing in the same proportion. So far, about 5 lakh people have been tested for virus infection and more than 1.25 lakh tests have been done at the state's largest Sawai Man Singh Hospital here alone. The health minister said the number of corona patients in the state is doubling in 21 days, while their death rate is 2.25 per cent. (PTI)

Two more deaths reported in Bengaluru

#COVID19: #Karnataka reports two more deaths in #Bengaluru — of a 61-year-old female (P-2519) and a 57-year-old male (P-4315). Death toll due to #coronavirus in the state is now 61. Fatality rate: 1.12 @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/ZI7SwBYSE5

— Ralph Alex Arakal (@ralpharakal) June 7, 2020

The Rajasthan Police is conducting an inquiry after receiving a complaint that the staff of a private hospital in Churu district allegedly discussed not attending to Muslim patients. Screenshots of a purported WhatsApp chat between the staff of the hospital have gone viral on social media.

On Saturday, Dr Sunil Choudhary, who runs the Srichand Baradiya Rog Nidan Kendra in Sardarshahar and whose staff purportedly wrote the messages, apologised through a Facebook post, saying the hospital staff didn’t have any intention to hurt any religious groups. Deep Mukherjee's report from Jaipur

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Karnataka reported 239 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday. With this, the total number of positive persons in the state has gone up to 5,452 It includes 61 deaths and 2,132 discharges.

Karnataka reported 239 new #COVID19 cases on Sunday. With this, the total number of positive persons in the state has gone up to 5,452 It includes 61 deaths and 2,132 discharges. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/qtNTpczVm0

— Darshan Devaiah B P (@DarshanDevaiahB) June 7, 2020

The Thane Municipal Corporation has sent a request to the Maharashtra government to provide 100 doctors and 300 nurses from Kerala to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak here, a senior civic official said on Sunday. The number of COVID-19 cases in Thane municipal limits is closing in on the 4,000-mark and stood at 3,919 as on Saturday night.

"The request to the Maharashtra government to arrange 100 doctors and 300 nurses from Kerala was made after two doctors from there held a meeting here with civic officials on ways to tackle the outbreak," TMC spokesperson and deputy municipal commissioner Sandeep Malavi said. (PTI)

• Global death toll exceeds 4 lakh with over 6.9 million positive cases so far
• China exonerates self in whitepaper on COVID-19, says virus first noticed on Dec 27
• Bangladesh sees record single-day jump in fatalities; cases cross 65,000-mark
• COVID-19 cases in Pakistan inching closer to 100,000-mark
• Brazil govt stops publishing virus cases and death toll as data befuddles experts

As many as 11 officials of Ministry of Labour and Employment have tested COVID-19 positive, according to a source. The staff are being tested for COVID-19 after two employees found positive last week, which led to closure of Shram Shakti Bhawan that houses the ministry for two days on June 4 and 5 for sanitisation. "A joint secretary, a steno, a principal private secretary, a private secretary, six multi task assistants and a driver have been tested COVID-19 positive in the Ministry of Labour and Employment," the source said. (PTI)

Bangladesh on Sunday registered its highest single-day increase in coronavirus fatalities with 42 deaths, while the total number of cases crossed the 65,000-mark with 2,743 more patients, a media report said. According to the health directorate, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases increased by 2,743 to reach 65,769 in the country, bdnews24.com reported.

Additional Director General in the Directorate General of Health Services Nasima Sultana told a media briefing that 13,903 people have so far recovered from the deadly contagion, including 578 patients in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the government has drafted a new lockdown strategy, mapping the country into red, yellow and green zones to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported. (PTI)

A person, who recently returned to Meghalaya from Maharashtra, has tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of cases in the northeastern state to 34, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Sunday. "Another resident of Meghalaya who has come from Maharashtra has tested positive for COVID19. Person is under quarrantine in East Khasi Hills," he tweeted. Of the 34 cases, 20 are active while 13 persons have recovered and one has died, Sangma added.

Another resident of Meghalaya who has come from Maharashtra has tested positive for COVID19. Person is under quarrantine in East Khasi Hills.

Total cases 34
Active cases 20
Recovered 13
Deceased 1

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) June 7, 2020

A police complaint was on Sunday filed for alleged violation of lockdown norms against a resort in Gujarat's Rajkot district where the Congress has lodged some of its MLAs to thwart any 'poaching' bid, an official said. Except for five-six MLAs, most the 65 Congress legislators have reached various resorts in Gujarat after the party summoned them to protect them 'from poaching' by the ruling BJP, ahead of the June 19 Rajya Sabha elections for four seats from the state, a Congress leader said. (PTI)

The Union Culture Ministry on Sunday approved opening of it's over 3,000 Archeological Survey of India monuments from June 8, Minister Prahlad Patel said. He said all coronavirus-related protocols issued by the Union Health Ministry will be followed by the monument authorities. The 3,691 Centrally-protected monuments and archaeological sites maintained by the ASI were shut from March 17 in view of the COVID-19 crisis. Sources said that e-tickets and wearing masks might be made the norm at such sites for visitors. (PTI)

Pharmacist at JNU's health centre tests positive for COVID?19 . This now becomes the first case of coronavirus reported inside the university campus.

Pharmacist at JNU's health centre tests positive for #COVID?19 . This now becomes the first case of #coronavirus reported inside the university campus. @IndianExpress @ieDelhi

— Anya Shankar (@AnyaShankar) June 7, 2020

Two doctors at Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) in Sundergarh have tested positive for coronavirus, raising the number of medicos who have contracted the infection in Odisha to five, an official said. The doctors, both engaged in COVID-19 duty, were among the 18 cases recorded in Sundergarh since Saturday, District Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said. (PTI)

The Congress party opposed the decision of opening up Delhi from Monday. Addressing a virtual press conference, senior Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said, 'It is premature for the Delhi government to open restaurants, malls from June 8 till health infrastructure is improved.' He said it was shameful that the Covid positivity rate in the national capital was the highest and its recovery rate the lowest in country. This is because Delhi hospitals are in bad shape, he said. He asked the Kejriwal-led government why the government hospitals were 'refusing' admission to Covid patients, alleging that 72 per cent of the Covid-dedicated beds in Delhi were lying vacant.

A Kashmiri woman, who was arrested earlier this year for allegedly planning a terror attack during anti-CAA protests in NNew Delhi, has tested positive for COVID-19 while in the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA). The judge directed the NIA to admit Hina Bashir Begh to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital.

The court sent her husband Jahanzaib Sami and another accused Abdul Basith to judicial custody in the case after the agency did not seek their further remand. Her lawyer advocate M S Khan, meanwhile, filed an application seeking interim bail for two months for her, saying "Delhi is struggling to cope up with the rising number of coronavirus positive cases" and that there is "lack of proper treatment facilities in government hospitals". (PTI)

Affiliation fee for colleges under Bangalore University has been reduced by 10% in view of economic crisis due to COVID-19 lockdown. The usual practice is to allow a 10% rise every academic year. The result is 20% fee reduction this year.

Bangalore University reduces affiliation fee for colleges under its jurisdiction by 10% citing economic crisis related to #COVID19 lockdown. Usually, the practice is to allow a 10% rise every academic year. Result: 20% fee reduction this year. @IndianExpress @ieeducation_job pic.twitter.com/yk0IYrMkML

— Ralph Alex Arakal (@ralpharakal) June 7, 2020

The global death toll exceeded 4 lakh-mark on Sunday with 400,013, fatalities as recorded by Johns Hopkins University. Over 6.9 million people have been infected so far, of whom 30 lakh have recovered. With over 2.46 lakh cases, India continued to be the fifth nation, only after United Kingdom, worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the search for a Covid-19 vaccine becoming nothing less than the holy grail for scientists, enormous attention and funding have been focused on developing and mass-producing an injection. The rapid spread of SARS-nCov-2 has led experts to declare that it would continue to spread if a vaccine cannot be found.

In latest developments, British pharma giant AstraZeneca, which is developing a vaccine in partnership with Oxford University, said it was “on track” to roll out up to two billion doses in September. Meanwhile, US also said that it had already produced two million vaccine doses that are “ready to go” if they “check out for safety”. Check out all the latest vaccine-related developments here

Malaysians will be allowed to travel interstate, get their hair cut at salons and visit street markets beginning Wednesday, when more coronavirus lockdown restrictions are lifted. Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Sunday that more economic sectors will reopen, schools and religious activities will gradually resume, and people can travel for domestic holidays after nearly three months of lockdown.

But he said certain prohibitions will remain as the country enters a “recovery” phase until the end of August. Nightclubs, pubs, karaoke parlors, theme parks and reflexology centers will stay shut. Contact sports or those that involve many spectators, including soccer and boxing, and activities involving mass groups will remain banned. Malaysia has confirmed just over 8,000 cases of the virus, including 117 deaths.

While there has been a slowdown in the novel Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra in the last three weeks, the most remarkable slowdown so far seems to be that in Gujarat. Once growing at more than 20 per cent, around the middle of April, Gujarat has seen a continuous decline in daily growth rate after that and is currently one of the slowest growing states in the country. Behind the extraordinary slowdown in Gujarat has been a surprising consistency in the number of new cases it reported every day.

A bigger concern in Gujarat, however, has been its death figures, and there doesn’t seem to be any slowdown there. The state has been reporting between 20 to 30 deaths every day, and till now has recorded a total of 1,219 deaths, more than any other state except Maharashtra.

Top ten states with maximum caseload

At least 15 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Manipur, raising the total in the state to 172, officials said on Sunday. Of the 15, eight have recently returned from Mumbai and seven from Delhi, a statement issued by the states COVID-19 Common Control Room said. Six of the Delhi returnees have arrived by air, and one by bus, it said, adding that follow-up and contact tracing for all fresh cases were underway. Taking the new patients into account, the number of active coronavirus cases in the state rose to 120.

The schools in Maharashtra will not open from June 15 as decided earlier, however, the classes can be expected to start from July onwards. “There would be no physical reopening of schools in Maharashtra on June 15 and June 26 (for Vidarbha region). Not even in green zones,” an education department official told The Indian Express. Last Sunday, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the classes will commence in June in both online and offline module.

Russia reported 8,984 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours on Sunday, pushing the total number of infections to 467,673. Officials said 134 people had died during the same period, bringing the official nationwide death toll to 5,859.

In Uttarakhand, preparations for reopening of Badrinath temple underway.

Uttarakhand: Preparations for reopening of Badrinath temple underway. However, temple authorities had written to CM&Chamoli DM urging them to keep yatra suspended till June 30. #COVID19

Centre has allowed reopening of religious places from tomorrow. State Govt yet to decide. pic.twitter.com/SiucTzdzPa

— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2020

Liquor in Delhi will be cheaper from June 10 as the AAP government on Sunday decided to withdraw '70 per cent Special Corona Fee' on their sale in the national capital, an official said. The government, however, increased the Value Added Tax (VAT) on all categories of liquor from 20 per cent to 25 per cent, the official said. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The 'Special Corona Fee' was imposed last month on the Maximum Retail Price of liquor bottle as the government looked to earn additional revenue, hit badly due to the coronavirus lockdown

Churches and mosques in Goa have decided to remain closed for some more time, even though the state government has allowed reopening of religious places from Monday as part of the lockdown relaxations. Temple committees, however, are yet to take a call on opening their shrines for devotees in the coastal state. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday said religious places in the state can open from Monday, but no mass activities will be allowed there in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

"In the Cabinet meeting it was decided that private hospitals in Delhi and Delhi govt hospitals will be reserved for the people of Delhi. Central government hospitals will be open for the country. The private hospitals can take patients who have come for special surgeries," CM Kejriwal said. 

Requesting the elders to stay safe, Kejriwal asked them to minimise interactions. "Lockdown isn't over for you." Kejriwal also added that borders in Delhi will reopen from tomorrow. "From the feedback, we have received in the last week, we have come to the conclusion that a majority of the citizens want the hospitals in Delhi to be reserved for Delhi citizens. A group of five doctors also said the same thing."

Addressing the presser, religious places, malls, restaurants will open in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. He added that hotels and banquets will not be opened in the capital as they might be attached to hospitals for quarantine purposes at later stages. He urged people to adhere to social distancing practices, wearing masks and sanitising hands. 

WHO Friday changed its guidelines on using face masks, advising that face masks should be worn in public to stop the spread of COVID-19, which has over 6.7 million cases worldwide with a death toll that is nearing 400,000.

In a statement, WHO’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the body has updated its guidance keeping in mind evolving evidence. “WHO has developed this guidance through a careful review of all available evidence, and extensive consultation with international experts and civil society groups,” Ghebreyesus said in the statement. What do the new guidelines say?

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is slated to make a series of announcements via video-conferencing at 12 pm on Sunday. Last week, the chief minister had sealed the borders of the capital for a week. He had also sought suggestions from the citizens if the hospitals should be be reserved for Delhi residents. Decisions regarding the same are expected today

RJD leaders Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav clang utensils to protest against Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally to be held in Bihar today. RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tewari said: “Our leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has also held Zoom meetings; we also have WhatsApp groups, but we are not thinking of elections like the BJP is. We stay connected to help migrant workers, some of whom have also become our party members.

#WATCH Patna: RJD leaders Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav clang utensils to protest against Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally to be held today and over the situation of migrant workers. #Bihar pic.twitter.com/Cw7HMVfOob

— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2020

Tamil Nadu is ready to go ahead with Class 10 exams scheduled to be held from June 15 to 26 across the state, making arrangements for physical distancing in classrooms.

With Class X board exams scheduled to begin from June 15 in #TN, #MTC to operate special buses for students to get the hall tickets. As many as 109 buses will ply in 63 routes across #Chennai, #Kancheepuram, #Chengalpet, and #Thiruvallur from June 8- June 13. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/PFxD9Bsc1n

— Janardhan Koushik (@koushiktweets) June 7, 2020

With Jammu and Kashmir witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases, authorities are considering holding Amarnath Yatra only through the shorter Baltal route this year. The 41-day yatra was to begin on June 23, but owing to Covid-19, authorities are yet to make an announcement. In April, the UT administration and Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board said the yatra would be cancelled this year. The press note was later withdrawn.

There are two trekking routes to the shrine — the Pahalgam route and the shorter Baltal trek that is 14 km from the base camp at Baltal. While the officials said they haven’t received confirmed dates yet, sources said the yatra is likely to start on July 21.

In Rajasthan, social distancing norms were violated as a huge crowd gathered at Pratap Chowk in Baran for the inauguration ceremony of Maharana Pratap’s statue. Congress MLA Panachand Meghwal also took part in the event.

#WATCH Rajasthan: Social distancing norms violated as people in huge numbers gathered at Pratap Chowk in Baran for the inauguration ceremony of Maharana Pratap’s statue, amid #COVID19 pandemic. Congress MLA Panachand Meghwal also took part in the event. (06.06.2020) pic.twitter.com/rWb4jSLWgh

— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2020

State health minister Rajesh Tope announced Saturday that Maharashtra will procure 10,000 vials of the investigational drug, Remdesivir. The state government is in price negotiations with various suppliers and is trying to mobilise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to buy expensive medicine. Earlier this week, the Drug Controller General of India approved the use of Remdesivir as a five-day regimen to treat Covid-19 patients.

India reported a jump of over 9,000 cases for the fourth time on Sunday. With a rise of 9,971 cases, India now has 2,46,628 cases — 5th highest in the world. The death toll stands at 6,972. There are 1.2 lakh active cases, while 1.19 lakh have recovered. Now, only the US, Brazil, Russia, and the UK have more cases than India.

Home Minister Amit Shah will today address party workers at approximately 72,000 booths to reach out to its cadres and workers through a virtual rally on Sunday. The event is being touted as a formal launch of the electoral process in Bihar, which is scheduled to go to the Assembly polls in October-November this year.

Opposition RJD and Congress, however, took on the saffron party for going in “election mode” at a time the battle against coronavirus is yet to be won in a state where cases are still rising – as of Saturday evening, more than 4,500 positive cases.

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https://t.co/M3NQGZRQ4H pic.twitter.com/5GmdNpDVXf

— BJP Bihar (@BJP4Bihar) June 6, 2020

The faultlines between the Delhi government and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital deepened on Saturday as an FIR was filed against the hospital’s Medical Superintendent for allegedly violating directions issued under the Epidemic Diseases Act. The FIR, filed on June 5, was based on a complaint by Deputy Secretary (Health) Amit Kumar Pamasi. The FIR drew a sharp reaction from the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) which said the action was "highly condemnable and demoralising for the entire medical fraternity.”

The development came on a day Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took aim at “some private hospitals” in the Capital without naming any particular facility, saying they were “lying” about not having vacant beds, and indulging in “black marketeering”.

China has issued an alert, warning its citizens not to travel to Australia in the latest sign of deteriorating relations. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism published a statement on its website on Friday night saying that discrimination and violent behavior against Chinese and Asians are on the rise due to the Covid-19 epidemic. The ministry told Chinese tourists to be on alert for their safety and not travel to Australia.

Brazil removed from public view months of data on its COVID-19 epidemic on Saturday, as President Jair Bolsonaro defended delays and changes to official record-keeping of the world’s second-largest coronavirus outbreak. Brazil’s Health Ministry removed the data from a website that had documented the epidemic over time and by state and municipality. “The cumulative data … does not reflect the moment the country is in,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter, citing a note from the ministry. “Other actions are underway to improve the reporting of cases and confirmation of diagnoses.”

Neither Bolsonaro nor the ministry gave a reason for erasing most of the data on the covid.saude.gov.br website, which had been a key public resource for tracking the pandemic. The page was taken down on Friday and reloaded Saturday with a new layout and just a fraction of the data, reflecting only deaths, cases and recoveries within the last 24 hours.

Since the first death in the middle of March, Covid fatalities in the country have moved to 6,642 in seven weeks with almost half of them (3,059) occurring in the last fortnight. These deaths remain concentrated — over 80 per cent in 26 districts, the Covid hotspots. Indeed, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Thane, Pune, and Chennai were the only districts with more than 100 deaths these past two weeks. They saw 1,964 deaths over this period, almost half of their total 4,055 Covid deaths. Even though cases and deaths are mostly concentrated, they are spreading. In the last fortnight, districts reporting at least one death have risen from roughly 230 to about 320.

But India’s case fatality ratio (CFR, number of deaths per 100 cases) still remains low — 2.8 per cent. Globally, the CFR is 5.8 per cent. In the US, it is 5.7 per cent, in Brazil it is 5.5 per cent, and in Russia it is 1.2 percent.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to relax rules on outdoor dining and weddings, as well as speeding up government investment plans in a bid to limit the economic damage from the coronavirus, newspapers reported on Saturday. The Sunday Times said Johnson wanted to relax planning restrictions that stop many pubs, cafes and restaurants from using outside areas, and also to make it legal to hold weddings outside - something currently limited to Jews and Quakers. Indoor weddings and funerals with up to 10 people attending would also be permitted from early July, while places of worship would be allowed to reopen for private prayer from June 15, as part of plans to be announced in the coming week, the newspaper said.

After the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) came under fire for distributing poor-quality masks in slums and low-income areas, Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar on Saturday set up a three-member committee to probe the matter.

“…We will take strict action against those responsible for this. No one will be spared,” Hardikar told The Indian Express. Read more here