Coronavirus India Updates: Total Covid-19 Cases At 59,662, Death Toll At 1,981

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in India neared 60,000 by Saturday morning with less than ten days left for the lifting of an extended nationwide lockdown.

India added 3,320 new coronavirus infections over 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry’s 8 a.m. update. The total number of cases in India stands at 59,662. This includes 17,847 people who've recovered and 1,981 deaths.

Over those 24 hours, India has seen 1,307 patient recover and 95 new deaths.

Maharashtra, and particularly Mumbai, continues to be the hotspot of new infections in India. The city has invoked a colonial-era law making it compulsory for private doctors to sign up for duty at state-run hospitals, or face potential prosecution. Besides, it has had to shut down the Vashi APMC markets—a key hub for the city's food supply chain—completely from next week.

The western state is followed by Gujarat, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with the most cases.

India's health ministry has told citizens that they will have to learn to live with the virus, urging people to follow prevention guidelines and bring about a behavioural change.

Globally, cases crossed 3.8 million leaving over 270,000 dead.

Spain and Germany reported an uptick in new coronavirus cases as lockdown measures eased. Italy reported the fewest new cases and daily fatalities in three days on Friday, while Portugal, which began easing confinement measures on Monday, reported a bigger increase in new cases for a third day.

Track all the news updates on the coronavirus situation in India here:

• 25 new cases recorded today including one death
• Total number of cases is now at 833 including 27 deaths

Source: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

The testing capacity for Covid-19 has been scaled up to around 95,000 tests per day and a total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday.

The minister, who reviewed the status of Covid-19 in the northeastern states along with the measures taken for its containment and management, also stressed on the need to take concrete action to check the use of non-smoking tobacco and prohibiting spitting in public places which shall help in preventing the spread of the infection, according to a statement.

During the high-level meeting with Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, Vardhan appreciated the dedication of all the states in combating Covid-19.

"It is a huge relief and very encouraging to see green zones in most northeastern states. As of date, only Assam and Tripura have active Covid-19 cases. Other states are all in the green zone. Let us focus and work together by converting the orange zones to green zones and maintain the protective status across the states," Vardhan was quoted as saying in the statement.

Source: PTI

With 224 new instances of the novel coronavirus infection, the total number of cases reported in the national capital climbed to 6,542, the Delhi government said on Saturday.

The fresh cases were reported between 4 pm to midnight of May 8.

No fresh death due to the virus was reported in this period. Delhi has so far reported 68 deaths.

Of the total cases reported in the city, 4,454 are active while 2,020 patients have been cured of the disease, the health bulletin stated.

Source: PTI

A bulk of the Covid-19-related fact-checks in April were related to communal rumours, most of which were false allegations against Muslims of purposefully spreading the virus, claimed a report by BOOM Live.

BOOM Live, a fact-checking platform that works with social media companies like Facebook, said its study analysed 178 fact-checks on Covid-19 related to misinformation/disinformation around the pandemic from January to May this year.

"During April, a new trend was observed communally charged disinformation targeting Muslims became more frequent," the report said.

Other trends also witnessed in April were: spike in fake news related to politics, more lockdown related misinformation, more misinformation around Italy and rumours related to the economy. The January-February period saw mostly rumours about China, with some false prediction theories and cures/prevention/treatments to Covid-19.

Source: PTI

Home Minister and former Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah looked to quell rumours today, clarifying that he is completely healthy and not suffering from any diseases.

“India is fighting a global pandemic and as its Home Minister I have been working late nights, which is why I didn’t focus on this,” he said in a tweet

Over one lakh cases of lockdown violations were registered and 19,297 persons were arrested ever since prohibitory orders were enforced in Maharashtra in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, police said on Saturday.

At least 1.02 lakh cases were registered under section 188 (disobeying an order passed by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, an official said.

As many as 714 personnel, including 81 officers, of Maharashtra police contracted Covid-19, and of these 61 had recovered from the infection, he said.

Maximum number of coronavirus cases reported in the police department were from Mumbai, he added.

At least 194 cases of attacks on policemen were reported in various parts of the state, while 680 persons were arrested in these incidents and 73 policemen and a home guard were injured in these attacks, the official said.

Nearly 32 cases of attacks on health workers were reported in the state till Saturday, he added.

Meanwhile, the police have registered 1,289 offences of illegal transport and seized 54,611 vehicles during the lockdown, the official said. The police have also collected fines to the tune of over Rs 3.76 crore for various offences in this period, he said.

Source: PTI

A special committee has been formed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for containing the spread of Covid-19 in different parts of the city, a member of the panel said.

Chairperson, caretaker board of administrators of the civic body and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim, former deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, four community medicine experts and KMC health officials are members of the newly formed committee.

The panel was formed after Hakim assumed charge as chairperson of the caretaker board of administrators (BOA) of the KMC on Friday.

The state government appointed the board since elections could not be held to the KMC owing to the coronavirus outbreak. The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the BOA to act as the KMC's caretaker board for a month. Ghosh told PTI on Saturday, "We will sit every afternoon to take stock of the situation and decide accordingly.

"Apart from containment zones, we will review the situation in other areas of the city as well. There should not be any laxity in any zone, be it a containment zone, red zone or an orange zone. The KMC will not lower its guard in any of these areas and strict monitoring will be done everywhere," he said.

Source: PTI

The Delhi government has issued 4.75 lakh e-tokens, which allow people to buy liquor in the national capital, an official said on Saturday.

Under the e-token system, customers are alotted a specific time for purchasing alcohol to avoid violating social distancing norms. Registered individuals receive the e-token on their mobile phones, and must collect their It was introduced on Thursday after people flouted social distancing norms and thronged to liquor stores to buy alcohol.

The e-token is sent to mobile phones of registered people.

The Central Industrial Security Force reported 13 fresh cases of Covid-19 among its personnel on Saturday with the maximum being in its Delhi Metro protection unit, officials said.

The 1.62 lakh personnel strong force has a total of 48 active cases of coronavirus with the addition of the new numbers.

Two of its personnel have succumbed to the disease over the last two days.

Among the 48 active cases, maximum 31 are in the unit that guards the Delhi Metro followed by 13 in the Mumbai international airport guarding unit. The maximum rise in cases, at 10, over the last 24 hours has also been reported from the Delhi Metro guarding unit.

The paramilitary forces or the Central Armed Police Forces have over 540 positive cases now and five personnel have succumbed to the disease. These forces, under the command of the Union Home Ministry, include the CRPF, BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB.

Source: PTI