Coronavirus India Updates: Cases Near 82,000; Over 2,600 Dead
Track all the news updates on the coronavirus situation in India here.
Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India crossed 81,000 with over 2,600 dead, with just two days left for the third lockdown to end.
India added nearly 4,000 new Covid-19 cases over 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry’s 8:00 a.m. update on May 15. The total number of cases in India stands at 81,970. This includes 27,920 people who’ve recovered and 2,649 deaths. The ministry said that 70 percent of all deaths so far have been because of comorbidity.
Authorities have now reported more than 3,500 fresh cases for five straight days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on May 12 announced a lockdown 4.0 which will be substantially different from the ones seen from March 24. Details of this lockdown, however, are still awaited.
Modi had previously asked all state chief ministers to submit a plan on how to reopen their states, and mentioned in his speech on Tuesday that details of the latest lockdown will be revealed before May 18.
Global Update
U.S. cases rose 1.6 percent from the day before to 1.4 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. That was below the average daily increase of 1.8 percent over the past week. Deaths rose to 85,066. Italy registered an increase of new cases and the most daily fatalities in seven days on Thursday, as the government prepares to further ease a lockdown starting May 18, with shops as well as bars and restaurants expected to reopen on a regional basis.
There have been more than 4.4 million conformed coronavirus cases across the world and deaths have topped 3,01,000.
Track all the news updates on the coronavirus situation in India here:
Delhi Ready To Restart Metro: Transport Minister
Delhi is ready to resume metro rail operations but the final decision will lie with the central government, the union territory's transport minister said today.
Health Ministry Not Satisfied With Two Key Antiviral Drugs
The Union Health Ministry is not satisfied with the efficacy of Remdesivir and Favipiravir for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
A senior government official told ANI that in a meeting of a technical committee at the ministry, experts from multiple health bodies discussed the drugs’ effects and found no concrete evidence of positive results.
World Bank Earmarks $1 Billion To Protect India’s Poorest From Covid-19
The World Bank has approved $1 billion support to India for providing social assistance to the poor and households that are severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. With this, the World Bank has now committed a total of $2 billion to aid India’s fight against the coronavirus. Last month, it had earmarked $1 billion for the country’s health sector.
Rajiv Bajaj Expects A Tsumani Of A Curve Once Lockdown Lifts
The lockdown has been poorly planned and executed, Rajiv Bajaj said in an interview to Mojo, explaining that the government should have focused on the elderly and the vulnerable instead of putting everyone under lockdown together.
“When we unlock, closer to the monsoon, we are going to expose everybody all at the same time and I’m afraid that we are going to have a tsunami of a curve.”
India Must Gear Up To Face Community Transmission Of Covid-19: Health Expert
India must gear up to face the possibility of community spread of the Covid-19, a prominent health expert said on Friday, cautioning that there could be more widespread transmission of the novel coronavirus due to easing of the lockdown.
On some experts suggesting that there is already community transmission (stage 3) of the virus in the country, President of Public Health Foundation of India, Prof. K Srinath Reddy maintained that it is a matter of definition. If one looks at the spread to people without history of travel or history of contact, certainly there are several such cases, he said. "But most of them are concentrated around the original points of entry of the foreign travellers or the travel routes of their contacts. So, these people who are describing it as stage 2 still are saying this is traceable local transmission, it is not unpredictable community transmission, he told PTI.
Therefore, we are avoiding the term community transmission. It is a matter of definitions and language; we need not debate that really, Reddy, who formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said.
He said it should be recognised that community transmission has occurred in virtually every country which experienced this pandemic in a major form and India should also be prepared for it and act as though it is happening and take all precautionary containment measures. There is not only risk but actually threat of community transmission, said Reddy, who presently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard.
According to him, nations in South East Asia, including Malaysia, and India in particular, have kept the Covid-19 death rates per million of the population low compared to countries where the pandemic broke out around the same time. He said the low death rate in India could be the benefit of multiple factors such as younger age group, more rural population, temperature and climatic conditions as well as the benefits the containment measures which preceded lockdown, and then got much more consolidated with the lockdown.
"Its quite possible that all of these factors have been helpful and we have seen that benefit, Reddy said. But we need to continue to consolidate that.
There are some risk factors, when the lockdown opens there will be much greater mobility of people, there could be more widespread transmission of the virus, so we have to maintain as much as possible physical distancing, continue practices like wearing masks and hand-washing as precautionary measures, he said. Things are going to be difficult in overcrowded areas, especially slum areas. We will have to try and provide as much facilities as possible, particularly for elderly people and to people with co-morbidities, whether they can be provided temporary shelters elsewhere with good social cares.
Source: PTI
Local Epidemiology Should Guide Focussed Action In ‘New Normal’ Covid-19 World: WHO
As Covid-19 cases continue to rise in South-East Asia, the WHO on Friday cautioned countries in the region to take "evidence-informed action" and conduct careful assessment of the local epidemiology before winding down the health and social measures taken to combat the virus.
The region has nearly 122,000 cases and 4,000 deaths due to Covid-19. In India, the death toll rose to 2,649 and the number of cases climbed to 81,970, according to latest data.
Countries in the region are in various transmission scenarios and the cases are increasing. In every transmission scenario, the core public health measures remain - rapidly detect, test, isolate, care and trace contacts, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.
Singh said moving forward "we need to scale up these measures".
She said the focus should be on the local epidemiology of Covid-19, to identify hot-spots and clusters, and the capacity of systems and responders to find, isolate and care for cases, and quarantine contacts.
"Countries in the region must continue to take evidence-informed action and conduct careful risk assessments while winding back public health and social measures," the WHO regional director said.
There can be no illusions: We are in this for the long haul, Singh said.
Source: PTI
Finance Minister To Address Media At 4 P.M.
In her third such press conference, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the media to give out further details of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12.
Day before, Sitharaman announced measures around income tax breaks, regulatory relief for real estate companies and collateral-free loans for MSMEs. Yesdterday, she announced a set of measures for migrants and farmers.
India Total Cases Approach 82,000-Mark, More Than 51,000 Active
Total conformed coronavrius cases in India rose to 81970 as of 8 a.m. today, according to the data made available by the Health Ministry. Active cases breached the 50,000-mark for the first time, no standing at 51401.
- Cured/discharged/migrated: 27920
- Deaths: 2649
Authorities reported 3967 new cases, 100 deaths and 1685 recoveries in the 24 hours preceding the 8 a.m. update.
Post-Lockdown Flights: Cabin Crew Attire To Have Face Shield, Gown And Mask
Cabin crew members of Indian airlines will have personal protective equipment like face shields, gowns and masks as part of their attire on commercial passenger flights when they resume operations, industry sources said.
India is under a lockdown since March 25 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and all scheduled commercial passenger flights remain suspended.
Airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and AirAsia India have decided to go with the new attire to ensure safety of cabin crew members as they are in close proximity to passengers during flights, the sources said.
This would be similar to the attire unveiled by Philippines AirAsia for its cabin crew on April 27. The attire comprise a red-coloured full body suit consisting of a face shield and a face mask.
"While AirAsia India will have face shields, masks, gowns, aprons and gloves as a part of their PPE attire for cabin crew members, Vistara would have a lap gown, face mask and face shield as the new dress code," a source said.
Source: PTI