Coronavirus highlights: India reports 78,357 cases, 1,045 deaths in last 24 hours

By the last week of April, with only two dozen active Covid-19 cases and barely 500 new cases since January 30, Kerala had claimed to have flattened the curve when other states were struggling. Four months on, Kerala ranks 14 among states with a high caseload.

On September 1, Kerala had 76,525 confirmed cases, 31% of them active, compared to just 21.3% active cases at the national level. Of Maharashtra’s 7. 92 lakh cases, only 25% were active.

The recent spike can be linked to increased testing. On August 26, when 40,352 samples were processed, Kerala reported a record 2,476 cases. On August 31, new cases were at 1,530 out of 18,027 samples. On September 1, when tests came down to 14,137, positive cases fell to 1140.

Until the first week of July, Kerala was testing less than 10,000 samples a day, and daily positive counts hovered between 200-300. In April-May, testing was only 500-1,000, mainly symptomatic people or their contacts. The Health Department then said it didn’t follow the “test, test slogan” and focused on quarantine, tracing and testing symptomatic cases. But the recent spurt has forced the government to increase daily testing.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the government over a host of issues like contraction of India’s GDP, job loss, GST compensation, terming them all “Modi-made disasters.” He also accused the Centre of not being able to control the rising cases of coronavirus in the country and of failing to address incidents of aggression on the border.

Stating that India is “reeling under Modi-made disasters,” Gandhi listed six issues in his tweet. “1. Historic GDP reduction -23.9% 2. Highest Unemployment in 45 yrs 3. 12 Crs job loss 4. Centre not paying States their GST dues 5. Globally highest COVID-19 daily cases and deaths 6. External aggression at our borders,” Gandhi’s tweet read.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. "I wish to inform all that I have been detected COVID19 positive. I am asymptomatic and hence have opted for home isolation. I shall continue to discharge my duties working from home. Those who have come in my close contact are advised to take the necessary precautions," he tweeted.

I wish to inform all that I have been detected COVID19 positive. I am asymptomatic and hence have opted for home isolation. I shall continue to discharge my duties working from home. Those who have come in my close contact are advised to take the necessary precautions.

— Dr. Pramod Sawant (@DrPramodPSawant) September 2, 2020

The novel coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has started phase-3 clinical trials in the United States. The vaccine is already undergoing phase-3 testing in several countries, including India, Brazil, England and South Africa. The company said trials were soon likely to start in Japan and Russia.

In the US trials, about 30,000 participants are likely to be enrolled. Globally, the Oxford vaccine trials are expected to involve 50,000 participants. In India, phase-2 trials of the vaccine began last week, and about 1.600 participants are likely to be enrolled for the combined phase-2 and phase-3 trials.

With India reporting 78,357 new positive cases and 1,045 deaths in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus infections across the country rose to 37,69,524 including 66,333 deaths, 8,01,282 active cases and 29,019,09 recoveries.

Delhi University (DU) this year has seen a jump of almost a lakh in applications for its undergraduate (UG) courses, as per data released by the administration Monday. While in 2019, 2.58 lakh applications had been received by DU, this year the number has jumped to 3.53 lakh.

At a time when COVID-19 has made the physical process of admissions impossible, the university now readies itself to deal with a record number of aspirants and work out how to make the entire admission process online, while keeping it glitch free. Aranya Shankar explains about the admission process to DU this year

The total number of samples tested up to 1st September is 4,43,37,201 including 10,12,367 samples tested yesterday: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

Only 33 per cent of free foodgrains and 56 per cent of free gram (whole), allocated for migrants under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat package, have actually reached the intended beneficiaries, shows data available with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Out of 8 lakh tonnes of foodgrains (wheat and rice) allocated for the migrants, 6.38 lakh tonnes (80 per cent) was lifted by the states and Union Territories but only 2.64 lakh tonnes (33 per cent) could be distributed to intended beneficiaries in the last four months, the data as on August 31 shows, according to officials in the ministry.

As part of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on May 14 announced free foodgrains for two months to migrants who were neither beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act NFSA nor had a ration card in the state they were stationed in.

One-fifth of Chennai’s population has been exposed to Covid-19, a population-based sero survey carried out by the National Institute of Epidemiology to check transmission of the infection in the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) region showed.

The study, released by the city corporation, said the results were out of samples tested for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 on 12,405 individuals from the corporation’s 51 wards.

Of those tested, only 173 were found to have had a history of contact with Covid-19 patient. The field data collection for the study took place between July 18 and 28, and the positivity rate found at the end of July was around 10 per cent.

REJECTING THE Centre’s proposal that state governments could borrow to meet the compensation deficit under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, at least four non-BJP states have said the borrowing should be done by the Centre instead.

While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Two days after the GST Council meeting last week, the Centre had detailed two borrowing options proposed to states for meeting the compensation shortfall of Rs 2.35 lakh crore.

Maintaining its steady streak for the seventh consecutive day, Andhra Pradesh reported 10,368 fresh cases of Covid-19, pushing its overall tally further up to 4.45 lakh on Tuesday. The states Covid-19 chart now showed 4,45,139 total cases, 3,39,876 recoveries and 4,053 deaths. In the 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday, 10,368 new positive cases were detected from 59,834 tests while 9,350 patients got cured and 84 more succumbed, the latest bulletin said. Government data revealed that between August 1 and 31, a total of 2,84,562 coronavirus cases were reported in AP, 2,53,912 patients had recovered and 2,562 died. The number of active cases went up by 28,088 during the period.

The Tripura Assembly will hold its next session within September in the Assembly house, following social distance norms, Assembly speaker Rebati Mohan Das said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters, Das said the Assembly has permanent seats which can accomodate 100 MLAs and since the House has only sixty, business could be safely conducted in the Assembly house, maintaining distance more than the usual social distancing norms.

"We have 60 legislators in the state. After visiting the Assembly, our Parliamentary Affairs minister Ratan Lal Nath and we found that the session can be conducted maintaining distance more than the usual social distancing norms," he said.

The schedule of the session will be fixed during Business Advisory Committee ( BAC) meeting that will be conducted at the earliest.

"Many states have limited their Assembly sessions within one or two days in this Covid-19 pandemic. We are thinking to conduct the session for one day, but if it is necessary, it can be extended to two-three days," Das told the media.

The state has cut down its budget session from five days to two days in March due to spread of coronavirus. The state got total 12156 Covid-19 cases of whom 7847 were recovered. Total 116 Covid-19 patients died while two others died by suicide. Four MLAs of the state were affected by coronavirus till date including BJP legislator Rampada Jamatia, Ashish Kumar Saha, Mimi Majumder and ruling ally IPFT MLA Dhananjay Tripura. (Report by Debraj Deb)

Jharkhand registered its highest single-day spike of 3,331 COVID-19 cases, which pushed the tally in the state on Tuesday to 41,769, a health department official said. The death toll rose to 423 after 13 more people -- six in Jamshedpur and four in Ranchi -- succumbed to the infection, he said. Jamshedpur also recorded the maximum number of new cases at 630, followed by Koderma at 310, Ranchi at 292, Seraikela at 227 and West Singhbhum at 210. Jharkhand currently has 14,176 active coronavirus cases, while 27,180 people have recovered from the disease.

The 816-bed jumbo hospital set up at Nehrunagar in Pimpri-Chinchwad started functioning from Tuesday. On the first day, 12 COVID-19 patients were admitted at the jumbo hospital. PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Santosh Patil said initially, they are taking in patients from other hospitals like YCMH or Bhosari hospital. "Later, we will start admitting walk in patients," he said. 

Pimpri-Chinchwad Tuesday saw around 600 positive cases, a drop from the around 1200 cases surfacing daily. But Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said, "This could be because we did not get reports of test conducted by private hospitals. Tomorrow, we will get all the test reports together and will see more cases."  

The total number of positive cases so far has reached 49,300 in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Manoj More

With coronavirus infections witnessing a spike in many northern districts, Haryana added nearly 30,000 patients to its COVID-19 tally, a jump of 85 per cent, during August, an analysis of data provided by the state government shows. On July 31, the total number of cases in the state was 34,965 which soared to 64,732 by August 31, the day which also saw the highest single-day spike of 1,450 cases. A total of 29,767 cases were added to the tally, while the number of fatalities rose from 421 to 689, the state health department data showed. Also, during the month, recovery rate improved slightly from 80.73 per cent on July 31 to 81.37 per cent on August 31, while fatality rate dropped to 1.06 per cent now from 1.20 per cent at the end of July. The doubling rate of coronavirus infection too went up from 25 to 34 days while tests per million being conducted rose from 24,165 to 45,370 during the same period. Faridabad and Gurgaon, the two hardest-hit districts of Haryana falling in the National Capital Region, saw a decline in the growth in the number of new cases. But instances of the infection more than doubled in some other districts, particularly in the northern region of the state, during the past month.

In the fourth phase of Unlock, Indian Railways is planning to introduce more special trains with the consent of state governments following a green signal from the Home Ministry. However, the new lot of special trains will be introduced in batches and full resumption of normal services in a pre-Covid scale is still a long way away.

If some states, especially Opposition-ruled ones, do not agree to more inter-state trains, the Railways plans to run more trains on routes that do not touch those states. The existing 200-odd special trains have been witnessing an average of 75 per cent occupancy.  

For students across the country, the year 2020 has been no less than a roller coaster ride, with many of them forced to take online classes and exams amid several postponements due to Covid-19. On Tuesday, visuals showed several students appeared for the BArch exam JEE (Mains) exam, with many aspirants scrambling to reach their centres owing to skeletal public transport operations.   

In these 24 hours, Maharashtra reported 11,852 new coronavirus infections, Andhra Pradesh 10,004, Karnataka 6,495, Tamil Nadu 5,956 and Uttar Pradesh 4,782. Together, they account for 56 per cent of the cases added in a day, the official statistics revealed. These five states have also reported the maximum number of patients that were cured and discharged in 24 hours, cumulatively accounting for 58.04 per cent of the total 65,081 people who have recovered during the period across the country. While Maharashtra reported 11,158 recoveries in a day, the corresponding figures for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka stand at 8,772 and 7,238 respectively. Tamil Nadu registered 6,008 recoveries, while in Uttar Pradesh the figure stood at 4,597.

The national capital's next round of monthly sero-prevalence survey began on Tuesday covering all 272 municipal wards to analyse the COVID-19 situation in Delhi at "micro-level", Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. The sample size this time will be 17,000 and the exercise will be carried out for seven days, he told reporters. The last sero-prevalence survey was held from August 1-7, which showed that 29.1 per cent of the people surveyed had antibodies against the coronavirus infection. "The fresh round of sero-survey began today. This time we will be doing it ward-wise, so all 272 municipal wards of Delhi will be covered, plus two Assembly areas. Sampling will be done for a week. After that, results should come in 7-10 days," Jain said. The previous surveys were done district-wise. But this time, it is being done ward-wise to analyse the COVID-19 situation in the city at a "micro-level", the Delhi health minister said.

Dr Vipin Itankar, the district collector of Nanded has tested positive for COVID-19. Itankar, who has been in the frontline in tackling the spread of the infection, was admitted in the district civil hospital on Monday. After a personal assistant of Itankar had tested positive last week, the district collector had home quarantined himself. However, he took a test after he developed symptoms his throat

After being postponed twice, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main is being held on Tuesday across India. While today is the BArch exam, a vast majority of students will appear for exams from tomorrow onwards when BTech entrance exams will take place.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exam is being conducted amid special arrangement, from no shoes with thick soles to mandatory masks at exam hall – several arrangements have been made by the NTA. Over 10 lakh masks, 10 lakh pairs of gloves, 1,300 infrared thermometer guns, 6,600 litres of hand sanitiser and an equal amount of disinfectant liquid, 6,600 sponges, 3,300 spray bottles and 3,300 cleaning staff have been arranged at an additional cost of almost Rs 13 crore. The exam will be conducted at 660 centres across the country, which was increased from 570.

More than 10,000 people were tested within two hours of the launch of Hong Kong’s universal testing drive, China’s Global Times reported. Small queues began forming outside testing centres as soon as they opened early in the morning.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam was amongst the first few people to be tested, along with a number of other senior government officials. At least 593,000 residents of Hong Kong have signed up for the mass testing programme, according to the Global Times report. However, several groups, such as the HA Employees Alliance (HAEA), has called the scheme ineffective and have urged citizens to refrain from getting tested. Many fear that residents will grow lax once they obtain negative test results, and the disease will spread further as people will stop strictly following prevention measures. Critics have also raised concerns about the scheme being misused for surveillance.

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is suffering from COVID-19, was administered plasma therapy after his condition deteriorated late on Monday night, doctors said. Gogoi's condition, however, is stable on Tuesday, they said. His condition had deteriorated due to a sudden fall in oxygen saturation levels, a spokesperson of the team of doctors attending to the senior Congress leader said. Gogoi had tested positive for COVID-19 on August 25 and was admitted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on the next day.

Ex CM @tarun_gogoi who is admitted in GMCH for Covid 19 had a sudden fall in Oxygen saturation to 88% at 11.30pm.The teamof Doctors supervising his health immediately decided to give 1 unit of plasma with 2 lits of oxygen on Mask.O2 saturation now is maintained between 96 to 97%.

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) August 31, 2020

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Monday that nobody will be forced to have the vaccine against the pandemic once it is developed.

The comments come after the government earmarked millions of dollars for the purchase and future production of vaccinations as Brazil suffers the second worst outbreak of the pandemic outside the United States.”No one can force anyone to get a vaccine,” he said in response to a question from a supporter, according to a video posted on social media.

Brazil has become a hot spot in recent months, with 3,908,272 confirmed cases and 121,381 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. On Monday, the Health Ministry reported 45,961 new cases of the coronavirus and 553 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

The head of the World Health Organisation has warned that opening up societies too quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic is a "recipe for disaster". WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday insisted that countries that are serious about opening up must also be serious about suppressing transmission. He said that is not “an impossible balance".

Tedros cited four key points that countries, communities and individuals should focus on: preventing “amplifying events” — as the virus thrives on clusters; protecting vulnerable groups; people taking steps individually to protect themselves; and finding, isolating, testing and caring for cases, while tracing and quarantining their contacts

Lighting up hopes of many recipients in waiting, as well as those fighting Covid-19, Monday was a special day for Krishna, a 13-year-old boy, who was discharged from PGIMER’s dedicated Covid hospital after he successfully received a heart transplant and recovered from the novel coronavirus infection. The young recipient, a student of Class VIII of S D Public School, Sector 18, was greeted with flowers and best wishes and a painting on organ donation. 

Chinese students on Tuesday began a full return to regular classes following two weeks without new cases of local transmission in the country. About 75% of students had already returned to school and the remainder will return beginning from Tuesday. Reports said students had their temperatures checked on arrival but rules on social distancing and mask wearing varied depending on the region. Çhina's National Health Commission reported 10 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, all of them brought from outside the country. China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths from COVID-19 among 85,058 cases since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

As it prepares to begin operations from September 7, one of the key measures Delhi Metro is looking at is managing air circulation, to allow more fresh air from outside and to disperse any suspended viral particles. This will raise temperatures further from what’s to now be maintained inside coaches as a precaution against the coronavirus — in the range of 24-30 degrees Celsius. The Indian Express spoke to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) technical team and independent experts to figure out what India’s largest subway system is doing to emerge from Covid. Read Sourav Roy Barman's report, here

With 1,931 new cases on Monday, Pune has now overtaken Delhi to become the city with the maximum number of people infected with the novel coronavirus. Monday’s addition took Pune’s total case count to 1,75,105, leaving behind Delhi’s 1,74,748, as per figures from the state Public Health department till August 31.

Pune already has the maximum number of active cases in the country. It currently has 52,172 patients, much more than about 20,000 in Mumbai and about 15,000 in Delhi. As many as 4,069 people have succumbed to the infection in the district, while 1,18,324 infected people have recovered from the disease so far.

India detected 69,921 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to nearly 37 lakh. Of the 36,91,167 cases of Covid-19 in India, 7,85,996 patients are under treatment for the disease, while 28,39,883 have recovered, the Union Health Ministry said. As many as 819 deaths were reported, taking the toll to 65,288.

Obese and overweight people are at high risk of suffering severe cases of Covid-19, according to a French study. The research, presented at a conference this week, shows how carrying extra pounds puts patients at risk of more serious disease and death. Only one in every 10 people who end up in intensive care with Covid-19 were in a range of healthy weight, the study found.

Local train and Metro rail services will continue to remain suspended in Maharashtra for the time being. Also, large public gatherings and congregations will be barred.

Two days after the Union government announced major relaxations in Unlock 4.0, Maharashtra — the worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic — has decided against the resumption of suburban rail services for the general public and Metro rail services for now. Sources said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is worried that the resumption of these public transportation services in a big way would lead to formation of new mobile Covid-19 hotspots.

Students across Chhattisgarh were on Monday scrambling to get to centres for IIT-JEE Main, to be held between Tuesday and September 6, with transport preparations made by the state government at the last minute, due to the uncertainty over whether the exam would be held, catching many unawares. JEE (Main) is the first national-level entrance test to be held amidst the pandemic. Around 8.58 lakh students are set to appear for it at 660 centres across India over six days, in 12 shifts. Read Gargi Verma's report, here

The West Bengal government on Monday said the dates of statewide lockdown in September would remain unchanged and it would go ahead with imposing curbs on September 7, 11 and 12 as part of its strategy of biweekly lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19/ The state government had announced the dates earlier, but in its recent Unlock 4 guidelines the Centre made it clear that states cannot enforce local lockdown outside containment zones without consulting it.

Five Rajasthan MLAs, including a minister in the incumbent Congress government, have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past two days.

Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas had taken to Twitter on Sunday to inform that after experiencing coronavirus symptoms, he undertook a Covid-19 test, the result of which was positive. He urged everyone who came in contact with him in the past few days to isolate themselves and undergo Covid-19 test.

On August 28, two days before Khachariyawas tested positive, he was part of a Congress-led protest in Jaipur demanding the postponement of NEET-JEE examination in which several Congress leaders, including former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, were present.

Later on Sunday evening, Sapotra MLA Ramesh Meena too announced on Twitter that he had tested positive for coronavirus. Meena, one of the 18 MLAs who sided with Pilot during the month-long political crisis, was also a cabinet minister till July before he was removed from his post by the party.

By Monday morning, two BJP legislators — Siwana MLA Hameer Singh Bhayal and Chittorgarh MLA Chandrabhan Singh Aakya — had also tested positive. BJP MLA from Sanganer and former mayor of Jaipur Ashok Lahoty was the fifth legislator to test positive for Covid-19 in two days. On Monday evening, Lahoty too informed through social media that he has contracted the disease.

Former mayor of Jaipur and Congress leader Jyoti Khandelwal, who was also part of the August 28 rally, tested positive. On Monday evening, Khandelwal informed on social media that she underwent a Covid-19 test after her husband tested positive. Deep Mukherjee