Coronavirus India Updates: Covid-19 Tally Surpasses Spain To Rank Fifth

India’s burgeoning coronavirus cases have surpassed Spain’s tally to rank fifth in the number of infections, a day before Asia’s third-largest economy begins its first phase of unwinding the stay-at-home restrictions.

The world’s second-most populous nation added 9,971 fresh cases in last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 246,628, according to the health ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on June 7. This includes 6,929 deaths and 119,293 patients who have recovered.

Over the last 24 hours, India has seen 287 deaths and 5,220 recoveries.

• Total confirmed cases: 246,628
• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 9,971
• Total number of active cases: 120,406
• Total patients cured/discharged/migrated: 119,293
• Total deaths: 6,929

Indian authorities have now reported more than 9,000 fresh cases for four straight days.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 4,666,386 samples have been tested as of 9 a.m. on June 7. Of these, 142,069 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

India on an average added 8,985 cases daily over the past week, overtaking Russia. That compares with Brazil adding 24,915 cases, and the U.S. 21,413 on an average everyday in the last one week.

India’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed the count of France, Germany and China—the nation where the pandemic actually began—among others. On Saturday, India even surged past Italy’s tally, and is now behind the U.S., Brazil, Russia, and the U.K.

Even as confirmed cases continue to mount in India, the lockdown will be lifted in phases from June 8. Malls, restaurants and religious places will be allowed to open as the government aims to the economy that’s headed for its first full-year contraction in more than four decades. The economy was already growing at its slowest pace in over a decade when the virus struck. The lockdown, effective March 25, made it worse, stalling all business activity. Some states like Maharshtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab have extended the isolation restrictions but with some relaxations.

Global update

Globally, cases topped 6.8 million, including 398,000 deaths.

China reported six new coronavirus cases on June 6, five of which it said were imported. South Korea reported 57 news cases over a timespan of 24 hours.

U.S. coronavirus cases increased 1.3% from the same time Friday to 1.91 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. Deaths rose 0.7% to 109,497.

Portugal reported 382 new cases on Saturday, above 300 for a fourth day and taking the total to 34,351. There are 12,070 active cases.

The U.K. government is considering easing lockdown measures for pubs, restaurants and weddings, earlier than originally envisaged, in an attempt to avert a potential summer jobs crisis in the hospitality industry, the Sunday Times reported.

Track news and developments about the Covid-19 outbreak here...

The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district rose to 2,020 on Sunday after 70 more people tested positive for the infection, a district official said.

The death toll stands at 99 so far. The number of the recovered patients stood at 1,184, while 737 others are undergoing treatment, the official said.

Municipal Commissioner Astik Kumar Pandey said testing has been done aggressively in Aurangabad city. “We would have completed 14,000 tests by Monday in the city with 11 lakh population,” Pandey said, adding guidelines of the ICMR are being strictly followed.

(Source: PTI)

Indian Navy Ship ‘Jalashwa’ repatriated 700 Indian nationals stranded in Maldives, making its second port call at the VOC Port in Tuticorin.

INS Jalashwa had earlier this week brought stranded Indians from Sri Lanka and has repatriated about 2,700 Indians so far as part of the navy’s ‘Operation Samudra Setu’ initiative.

The bulk of the repatriated persons, 686, hailed from Tamil Nadu, while the others belonged to Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry, VOC Port officials said. The ship left Port of Male on June 5 and arrived in Tuticorin on Sunday.

(Source: PTI)

The Union Culture Ministry on Sunday approved opening of 820 Archeological Survey of India-protected monuments, which have places of worship from June 8, Minister Prahlad Patel said.

The ministry has decided to open only those monuments among the over 3,000 ASI-maintained monuments where religious events take place, such as Nila Mosque at Hauz Khas enclave, the Qutub archaeological area and Lal Gumbad in Delhi.

Among the ASI monuments to be opened from Monday include 114 from the northern region, 155 from the central region, 120 from the western region, 279 from the southern region and around 100 from the eastern region, officials said.

(Source: 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% recovery rate.

If the number of infected patients is increasing in the state, the cases of recovery are also increasing in the same proportion, Sharma said.

So far, about 5 lakh people have been tested for virus and more than 1.25 lakh tests have been done at the state’s largest Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur 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%.

(Source: PTI)

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.

“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 (Thane) with civic officials on ways to tackle the outbreak,” Thane Municipal Corporation spokesperson and Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sandeep Malavi said.

(Source: PTI)

Facing a shortage of labour, some top builders in the city have initiated efforts to bring back the migrant workers, who have returned to their native places following the Covid-19 lockdown, and are holding parleys with Railway authorities for operation of special trains to ferry them.

After the lockdown was announced, many construction projects came to a halt and workers were rendered jobless. Such migrant workers preferred to go back to their home state. Many chose to cover thousands of kilometres by foot as trains, buses or any motor vehicles were not operating.

(Source: PTI)

As many as 86% of Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 cases have been found to be asymptomatic, and the lockdown and related curbs have helped keep the pandemic under check, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said on Sunday.

The state’s mortality rate was the lowest compared to some foreign countries, besides other Indian states, he said in a statement detailing the various efforts taken to address the Covid-19 situation since February. Tamil Nadu, he said, also had the best recovery rate.

(Source: PTI)

From restricted entry to maintaining social distance, among other protocols, shopping malls in Hyderabad are set to reopen from Monday.

N Parthasaradhy, vice-president at GVK One, a shopping mall in the upmarket Banjara Hills which will open for public from June 10, said the management is holding discussions with outlets as to how to regulate the crowd and keep necessary personal protection gear for the sales personnel and at the same time give customers shopping experience.

“We have kept single point entry and exit for our staff and retail staff and everybody needs to have an Aarogya Setu App and show that they are safe. If somebody does not have the app they will have to sign a self-declaration form,” Parthasaradhy said, adding wearing a mask is compulsory for everybody to enter the mall where hand sanitisers are provided for customers.

Movie screens and children play areas, Parthasaradhy said, will not be open now as per guidelines.

Sources in Inorbit Mall located at Madhapur, the IT district, said the mall is to open from Monday. The shopping centre will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. only and entry restrictions are in place so that social distance is maintained at any given point of time.

(Source: PTI)

Saturday was a ‘zero Covid-19 death day’ for Thane city in Maharashtra, though 124 fresh cases during the day took the total confirmed tally to 3,919, said a senior civic official on Sunday.

“The recovery rate in the city is 52.46%, with 2,056 people having been discharged so far,” Sandeep Malavi, Thane Municipal Corporation spokesperson and deputy municipal commissioner, told PTI.

Thane district, which also comprises areas like Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali, Mira-Bhayander, Ulhasnagar among others, saw 10 deaths on Saturday.

(Source: PTI)

A person who had recently returned to Meghalaya from Maharashtra has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, taking the total tally in the northeastern state to 34, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Sunday.

Of the 34 cases, 20 are active, while 13 persons have recovered and one has died, Sangma said.

As of 8 a.m. on June 7, India’s Health Ministry reported 33 cases of coronavirus in the state.

As many as 13,509 stranded Meghalaya residents have returned to the state so far, the Chief Minister’s Office said.

(Source: PTI)

Social distancing will be the ‘mantra’, while traditional practices such as ‘archana’ and giving ‘teertha’ (holy water) will be missing in places of worship in Karnataka when they open for devotees from Monday with a slew of restrictions after almost a three-month long hiatus due to coronavirus lockdown.

Temples, and mosques will reopen on Monday but the church is set to allow its faithful from June 13, giving itself time to sensitise them and parish priests about the guidelines to be followed as part of the fight against the deadly virus.

The state has allowed religious places to open for public in line with the the central government’s guidelines as part of ‘Unlock-1’ and issued standard operating procedure with dos and don’ts, including compulsory face mask for both devotees and priests, thermal screening and barring entry for children below 10 years and elders above 65.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus, the state has specified conditions such as social distancing, no distribution of ‘teertha’ (charanamruta) or ‘prasada’, no temple bells for devotees and a bar on special ‘pooja’.

The temples, mosques and churches have painted social distancing boxes where the devotees will have to stand in queue and wait for their turn, wile masks have been made mandatory for all, including priests. They have also arranged sanitisers, santiser tunnels and thermal screening guns.

(Source: PTI)

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced that malls, restaurants and religious places in Delhi would open from Monday after more than two months since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed, but banquets and hotels would remain closed.

At an online briefing on Sunday, Kejriwal said hotels and banquets might be converted into hospitals in the coming days to treat the novel coronavirus patients and, therefore, they would remain shut.

Delhi will implement instructions, like maintaining social distancing and wearing masks, that the central government and its experts have asked to be taken at these places, Kejriwal said.

(Source: PTI)

Chhattisgarh continued to see a spike in Covid-19 cases with 74 more people, mostly migrant workers, testing positive for the disease. That took the state’s tally to 997, a health official said on Sunday.

The new patients also included a doctor from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Raipur, and two lab technicians, he said.

Of the 74 cases, 42 were reported from Kabirdham district, 11 from Raipur, six from Durg, three each from Balodabazar and Jashpur districts, two each from Raigarh, Mahasamund, Korba and Bilaspur districts while one case came from Bemetara, the official said.

According to another official, the new patients in Kabirdham included 40 migrant labourers who recently returned to their native villages from different parts of the country and were kept in quarantine centres, a lab technician and a rural staff of the health department.

As of 8 a.m. on June India’s Health Ministry reported 923 cases in the state.

(Source: PTI)

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.

As of 8 a.m. on June 7, India’s Health Ministry reported 157 cases in the northeastern state.

Among the 16 districts in the state, Churachandpur has recorded the maximum number of cases at 34, of which 17 have recovered. Pherzawl, the only district with no Covid-19 patient so far, registered three cases on Saturday.

(Source: PTI)

The Maharashtra government is yet to take a decision on opening religious places for devotees in the state as part of lockdown relaxations, an official said on Sunday.

“A decision is yet to be taken on opening temples, mosques, churches and other religious establishments for people. There has been no decision so far on allowing people to gather at such places,” Maharashtra’s law and judiciary department secretary Rajendra Bhagwat told PTI.

Authorities of some prominent temples in Maharashtra also said they have not received any official communication on allowing shrines to be opened for devotees.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs last week said ‘Unlock-1’ will be initiated from June 8 under which the nationwide lockdown, enforced on March 25, will be relaxed to a great extent, including opening of shopping malls, restaurants and religious places, even as strict restrictions will be in place till June 30 in the country.

(Source: PTI)

Delhi’s borders with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana will open from Monday but hospitals, except those run by the centre, will only treat patients from the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday.

While malls, restaurants and religious places will open in the city in accordance with the central government’s guidelines, hotels and banquets will remain closed as Delhi might need to convert them into hospitals in coming time, he said.

If people from other cities come to Delhi for specific surgeries, they will be provided treatment at private hospitals, Kejriwal said.

(Source: PTI)

Liquor in Delhi will be cheaper from June 10 as the Aam Aadmi Party government on Sunday decided to withdraw the 70% ‘special corona fee’ on their sale in the national capital, an official said.

The government, however, increased the value added tax on all categories of liquor from 20% to 25%, 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.

(Source: PTI)

There are now 10 states with more than 1000 recoveries.

The 10 states with most Covid-19 deaths.

West Bengal will resume bilateral trade with neighbouring Bangladesh through the Petrapole integrated checkpost in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday after more than a month, a senior official said.

A pool of 100 local truck drivers will only be allowed to go up to 500 metres within the Bangladesh port area, and return after unloading goods, the official said. Drivers must wear PPEs and not get down from the vehicles while the unloading process is underway. Empty trucks will have to be sanitised too, the official said.

Another official said that trade will be allowed for 12 hours daily.

Bilateral trade through this land port, the largest facility on the India-Bangladesh border, was stopped on May 2 after two days of operation, following protests by locals who were afraid that truck drivers and labourers might spread the coronavirus infection.

(Source: PTI)

The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 234 in Rajasthan on Sunday, with the state recording three more deaths.

The number of cases climbed to 10,385 as 48 more people tested positive for the disease, officials said.

Two deaths were reported from Jaipur and one from Baran district, they said. Of the fresh cases, 24 were reported in Jaipur, four in Bharatpur, three each in Jhunjhunu and Kota besides cases in other districts.

As of 8 a.m. on June 7, India’s health ministry reported 231 deaths in Rajasthan and total cases at 10,331.

(Source: PTI)

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.

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, said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.

The Association of All Goa Muslim Jamats has decided to defer reopening of mosques in the state till June 30.

(Source: PTI)

With India’s surplus face mask capacity choking production lines, the medical device industry has asked the government to lift the ban on export of non-N95 masks to help manufacturers clear unsold inventories and resume production at full capacity.

India has a production capacity of 1.5 billion three-layer masks and after accounting for domestic demand, the surplus capacity is 532.03 million, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry said.

Out of a manufacturing capacity of 59.4 million pieces of four-layer masks, 1.9 million is spare capacity. The country has 5.05 million surplus capacity of reusable/washable masks. It has a production capacity of 31.2 million pieces of N95 masks, of which 1.05 million is surplus, it said.

India in March had banned export of all kinds of masks to avoid any shortage in the country at a time the Covid-19 outbreak started gaining momentum. Last month, it allowed export of non-medical and non-surgical masks made of cotton, silk, wool and knitted materials but export of all medical and surgical masks remained prohibited.

(Source: PTI)

In 24 hours, 287 Indians succumbed to the deadly virus. That’s the second-highest one-day death.

Globally, India ranks 13th in the number of Covid-19 related deaths.