Coronavirus India Updates: Fresh Cases Jump Nearly 20,000, Total Covid-19 Tally Close To 5.3 Lakh

India reported the biggest spike in fresh Covid-19 cases for the sixth straight day, making it difficult for the world's fourth-worst infected nation to flatten its virus curve.

India added 19,906 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 528,859 in the world’s second-most populous country, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on June 28. This includes 16,095 deaths and 309,713 patients who have recovered.

Over the last 24 hours, India has seen 410 casualties and 13,832 recoveries.

• Total confirmed cases: 528,859

• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 19,906

• Total number of active cases: 203,051

• Total patients cured/discharged/migrated: 309,713

• Total deaths: 16,095

The number of active cases in India crossed the 2-lakh mark.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 8,227,802 samples have been tested up to June 27. Of these, 231,095 were tested alone on June 27.

India’s daily cases have, on average, nearly doubled in the last week as it added more than 16,000 infections during the period, compared with the U.S.’ 34,996 and Brazil’s 34,580 daily cases.

The pace of transmission of infection in the nation of 1.3 billion people continues to remain a cause of concern at a time the rate has started to decelerate in some developed nations.

Some other countries are already witnessing the second wave of infections. India’s addition of daily cases is almost double that of the U.K., France, Russia, Spain and Italy—countries that witnessed a massive outbreak recently.

While India took about 131 days to reach 2.5 lakh cases, the virus count doubled to more than five lakh in just 19 days.

India’s economy was already growing at its slowest pace in over a decade when the virus struck. The lockdown, which came into effect on March 25, has hammered it, stalling business activity and capping consumption. That pushed the economy to what may be its first full-year contraction in more than four decades. And as the nation eased curbs after more than two months, there have been an influx of cases.

Delhi now has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in India as it surpassed Mumbai. The number of infections in Delhi, according to BloombergQuint’s calculations, is doubling at a faster pace than in Mumbai—12 days to Mumbai’s 40.

Global update:

Globally, coronavirus cases topped 9.9 million, including more than 498,000 deaths.

Infections in the U.S. rose the most in six weeks and passed 2.5 million, while Florida and Arizona had the largest one-day jump. Coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased by 45,450 from the same time Friday, to 2.49 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News.

South Korea reported 62 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, the biggest increase since June 19. The new cases bring the nation’s total to 12,715, while the number of fatalities remained at 282.

Brazil, which has the world’s second-most cases, reported a 3% increase in new infections and a 2% rise in deaths in the past 24 hours. The nation had 38,693 new cases, lifting the national total to 1.31 million. It reported 1,109 new fatalities, taking the count to 57,070.

South Africa reported a record 7,210 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total 131,800, while the number of people who’ve died rose by 73 to 2,413.

Track news and developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.

Hit by the coronavirus pandemic, real estate developers have resorted to layoffs and pay cuts and are focusing on cost control measures as sales are likely to remain muted in the coming months, PTI reported quoting industry experts.

The realty sector employs 60-70 lakh people, including three lakh white-collar employees, according to industry estimates. As per estimates by MyHiringClub.com and Sarkari-Naukri.info, around two lakh employees, including white-collared, in the real estate sector are expected to be laid off due to the coronavirus crisis, the report said. More than 60,000 jobs have been slashed so far.

(Source: PTI)

The Madhya Pradesh government will launch a 'Kill Corona' campaign from July 1 to control the spread of Covid-19 in the state, PTI reported quoting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Under the campaign, door-to-door surveys will be conducted and tests would also be done on citizens for other diseases. Chouhan said during the 15-day campaign, 2.5 lakh tests will be carried out and 15,000-20,000 samples would be collected daily.

(Source: PTI)

The Haryana government allowed shopping malls in Gurgaon and Faridabad to reopen from July 1, more than two months after they were shut to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak, PTI reported.

The state had earlier allowed malls to reopen from June 7, barring Gurgaon and Faridabad that accounted for overwhelming proportions of Covid-19 infections and fatalities.

The malls can remain open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. so as to ensure compliance of the night curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., PTI reported citing the standard operating procedures issued by the Urban Local Bodies Department.

(Source: PTI)

The Delhi government allowed the city’s restro-bars, hotels, and clubs to sell their stock of beer expiring by July 15 to liquor shops to minimise their financial losses, PTI reported quoting an official aware of the matter.

There are around 950 hotels, clubs and restro-bars in the national capital which have an excise licence but have not been allowed to open since March 25, when the lockdown was announced.

(Source: PTI)

The lockdown will not lift after June 30, said Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The crisis persists, gradual resumption of activity does not imply all is fine, he said.

According to a PTI report, Thackeray said the 'Chase the Virus' initiative that received good results in worst-hit Mumbai will now be expanded to other parts of the state to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

As part of the campaign, 15 close contacts of each Covid-19 patient will compulsorily be kept in institutional quarantine, while community leaders will tell people about co-morbidities, meals and other facilities available at institutional quarantine facilities etc, clinic timings, etc.

The confirmed coronavirus cases across the globe are approaching 10 million, with deaths closing in on 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The Australian state of Victoria will enforce testing for returning travelers and could put some suburbs back into lockdown as it battles a worsening spike in new infections.

(Source: Bloomberg)

There are 10 states with more than 1,000 recoveries.

India’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic is driven by its people, PTI reported quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying during the virtual meeting of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. He attributed the success against the contagion to the implementation of the nationwide lockdown in its initial phase.

The pandemic, according to Modi, has been used as an opportunity to improve the healthcare facilities, the report said.

(Source: PTI)

A retired police constable died of Covid-19 in Puducherry, while 29 fresh cases were reported, PTI reported citing government data. That takes the total tally of infections to 648 in the union territory.

A total of 512 samples were tested and of them 29 turned positive, the report said. Active cases in the union territory stood at 385, including the discharge of 252 patients and death of 11 people so far.

(Source: PTI)

Over the last 24 hours, 13,832 patients in India recovered from the disease.

In 24 hours, 410 patients succumbed to the deadly virus.

Globally, India ranks eighth in the number of Covid-19 related deaths.