Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to take adequate steps to maintain social distancing once the Metro Rail is permitted to function, particularly, since compartments are fully packed, which can be dangerous in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The Jammu and Kashmir government said that 73 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the union territory on Wednesday, of these 36 from Jammu division and 37 Kashmir division. Total positive cases stand at 1,390.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Mumbai rose to 24,118 on Wednesday, reports said, adding that the toll stood at 841 in the city.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Maharashtra touched 40,000 on Wednesday after 2,250 new cases were reported in 24 hours. The total cases rose to 39,297. 65 new deaths were also reported, taking the toll to 1,390.
Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that domestic flights will commence from 25 May, but initially, "only a small percentage of the total number of domestic flights will be operated".
"Then depending on the experience we gain, we will increase the number of flights. I think Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) should not be made so onerous that they are difficult to be followed. We've now reached a happy balance and SOPs will be announced soon. Those will be the norms for some time," he added.
While Assam government said that 13 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state on Wednesday, reports said that 11 of the new patients were already in quarantined after they had returned from other states.
Reports said that 743 coronavirus cases were reported in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, taking the state's total to 13,191. Three new deaths were also reported, taking the toll to 87.
Twenty-four new cases of coronavirus were reported in Kerala on Wednesday, reports said. Of these, 12 are people who came abroad, 8 are from Maharashtra, 3 from Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, five people recovered on Wednesday, India Today reported.
A Rajasthan Police official was quoted by PTI as saying that buses arranged by the Congress for Uttar Pradesh's migrant workers have started turning back from the Rajasthan-UP border after they weren't allowed into Uttar Pradesh.
Union health ministry on Wednesday said,"When the first lockdown started, then recovery rate was around 7.1 percent, the recovery rate during 2nd lockdown was 11.42 percent it then rose to 26.59 percent. Today the recovery rate is 39.62 percent."
Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner from 25 May.
"All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25 May. SOPs for passenger movement also being separately issued by Ministry," he added.
Lav Agarwal, Union Health ministry joint secretary on Wednesday said, "is satisfactory to note that 42,298 people have recovered and the number of active cases are 61,149."
A coronavirus positive case was on Wednesday detected in the Directorate General of Health Services in the medical education division at the Health Ministry, Nirman Bhawan. "Proper protocol for sanitisation of entire area will take place, contact tracing initiated," the ministry's statement said.
With 107 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Rajasthan till 2 pm on Wednesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 5,952.
So far, the lives of 143 COVID-19 patients have been claimed by the infectious disease taking the mortality rate to 2.4 percent.
Delhi registered the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with 534 infections. The total number of confirmed cases in the National Capital climbed to 11,088.
As many as 176 COVID-19 patients succumb to the viral infection so far.
Andhra Pradesh government to resume intra-State bus services from Thursday, ANI quoted Madireddy Pratap, Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation, as saying.
At least 1,683 buses will first run on 434 routes in non-containment zones, he added.
Cab aggregator Ola is laying off 1,400 staff from rides, financial services and food business as revenues declined by 95 percent in the past two months due to coronavirus pandemic, a note by CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said.
In an email to employees, Aggarwal made it clear that the prognosis ahead for the business is "very unclear and uncertain" and the impact of this crisis is "definitely going to be long-drawn for us".
The Indian Railways has excelled on its own promise of running Shramik Special trains by running 204 of them in a single day, said Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday.
Goyal, through a tweet, stated that going beyond the promised 200 Shramik Special trains per day, the Railways had run 204 such trains on 19 May to enable migrants, stranded due to the COVID-19 lockdown, to return to their native states.
"The Railways had promised to run 200 Shramik Special trains for workers yesterday, exceeding that limit we ran a record 204 trains in the service of passengers. A total of 1,773 Shramik Special trains have been operated so far by the Indian Railways to send workers to their home states," Goyal's tweet read.
The total number of COVID19 positive cases in Maharashtra Police is now 1388 including 948 active cases, 428 recovered and 12 deaths, reports ANI. Meanwhile, The total number of active cases of coronavirus in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) now stands at 96.
“An official of Rohini jail has tested positive for COVID-19. The personnel who live nearby him in staff quarters will also be asked to do self-quarantine at home for 14 days,” said Tihar jail official, reports ANI. The total number of positive cases at the Rohini Jail stands 17 which includes 15 inmates and two jail officials.
Kerala government has decided to postpone the SSLC or Class 10 and Plus two or Class 12 examination until first week of June after the Centre extended the coronavirus-induced lockdown until 31 May.
The union government's guidelines will come in the first week of June. The Chief Minister's Office said the date would be decided after that.
In a period of two weeks, as many as 74,118 people travelled back to Assam while, 17,488 left the state, said Additional DGP GP Singh on Wednesday, who has been appointed as the nodal officer for inter-State transportation of stranded people of Assam.
With 37,136 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far, Maharashtra remained worst-affected state across the nation, followed by Tamil Nadu with 12,448 and Gujarat with 12,140 cases.
Maharashtra continued to remain the worst COVID-affected state with 37,136 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, according to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry.
The state reported 1,325 COVID-19 deaths so far while, 9,639 patients have recovered taking the recovery rate to 26 percent.
India registered highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases with 5,611 in the past 24 hours, according to the latest data released by Union Health Ministry on Wednesday. The overall count across the nation was now at 1,06,750.
The COVID-19 toll climbed to 3,303 after 140 more patients succumbed to the viral infection as of Wednesday.
Expressing grief over the death of farmers in Etawah truck accident, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to the families of the victims and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
Six farmers were killed and one was injured after the pickup-truck in which they were travelling collided with another truck in Friends Colony area of Etawah, in Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday night.
R Singh, SP City said, "Farmers were going to market to sell jackfruit. Injured person admitted at Saifai Medical College".
The number of confirmed cases in India crossed the one lakh-mark on Tuesday as the country reported 4, 970 fresh infections and 134 fatalities .
Health ministry officials said that it has taken much longer for the country to report over a lakh cases as compared to other countries and the death rate due to the virus has also remained comparatively low.
Confirmed cases cross one lakh-mark
The Union health ministry, in its 8 am update, said the total number of confirmed cases has reached 1,01,139 and the toll has risen to 3,163. This marked an increase of nearly 5,000 cases and 134 fatalities in a 24-hour period. As many as 39,174 people have been cured of the viral infection and the number of active cases in the country stands at 58,802, according to the health ministry website.
Of the 134 deaths reported since Monday morning, 51 were in Maharashtra, 35 in Gujarat, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Delhi, seven in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, four in Madhya Pradesh, three in Tamil Nadu, two each in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and one each in Bihar and Telangana.
After registering a single-day jump of 4,970 cases, the total number of #COVID19 cases in India surged past 1 lakh on Tuesday. The total number of infections stood at 1,01,139. AP
Of the 3,163 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,249 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 694 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 252, West Bengal at 244, Delhi at 168, Rajasthan at 138, Uttar Pradesh at 118, Tamil Nadu at 81 and Andhra Pradesh at 50.
The ministry also states that more than 70 percent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, or the existence of multiple disorders in the same person.
The highest number of confirmed cases in the country is from Maharashtra at 35,058, followed by Tamil Nadu at 11,760, Gujarat at 11,745, Delhi at 10,054, Rajasthan at 5,507, Madhya Pradesh at 5,236 and Uttar Pradesh at 4,605.
India presently reporting 0.2 deaths per lakh, says health ministry
Separately, the health ministry said that for every one lakh population, there are 7.1 coronavirus cases in India so far, as against 60 globally.
Referring to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the ministry said 45,25,497 COVID-19 cases had been reported worldwide till Monday, which is about 60 cases per lakh population.
Among the countries with a very high load of coronavirus cases, the US, with 14,09,452 instances of the infection so far, has around 431 cases per lakh population. In the UK, this ratio is 494 cases per lakh and for Italy it is 372.
Officials also cited data about India having taken 64 days for the count of confirmed cases to increase from 100 to one lakh, which was more than double the time taken by countries like the US and Spain.
According to the data sourced from the health ministry and Worldometers, the coronavirus infection cases increased from 100 to 1,00,000 in the US in 25 days, while it took 30 days for the cases to reach the 1 lakh-mark in Spain, reports PTI.
It took 35 days in Germany, 36 days in Italy, 39 days in France and 42 days in the United Kingdom for the coronavirus infection cases to rise from 100 to 1 lakh, respectively.
Reeling off further data, officials said India has so far an average of about 0.2 COVID-19 deaths per lakh population as against the global average of 4.1.
"The relatively low death figures represent timely case identification and clinical management of the cases," PTI quotes the ministry as saying.
The officials further said a record number of 1,08,233 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Monday, taking the overall count of tests to more than 24 lakh.
While the total count of tests in India is estimated to be the seventh largest in the world, after the US, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK, the country ranks much lower at 139th place in terms of tests per million population, as per data website Worldometer. The countries having done more tests than India per million population include Russia, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Germany, US, Canada, France and Sweden.
As per the latest data, more than 48 lakh people worldwide have tested positive for the deadly virus ever since its emergence in China last December, while nearly 3.2 lakh have lost their lives. Over 18 lakh have recovered too. More than 15 lakh cases have been reported in the US alone, while over 90,000 have died there.
Kerala, Manipur report new cases
There are concerns that in some parts of the country, including in Kerala, Goa and some north-eastern states, a second or third wave of the virus outbreak is emerging as these states had almost flattened the curves till a few days ago before people from other states or countries started arriving there.
Kerala on Tuesday recorded 12 more COVID-19 cases, all being returnees from overseas and other states, taking the total active patients to 142. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the rise was expected but asserted community transmission has not happened so far. All those who tested positive had come from outside the state—four from abroad and eight from other states, including six from Maharashtra, Vijayan told reporters.
Since 7 May, when the first repatriation flight from the Gulf landed, several of the Keralites who returned home after being stranded in foreign countries and in other states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which have a high number of COVID-19 cases, have tested positive. On Monday too, as many as 28 returnees had tested positive.
In Manipur too, a woman and her daughter tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from Delhi, officials said. Uttar Pradesh also saw 142 more people testing positive for COVID-19, taking its tally to 4,748.
The National Capital recorded 500 more cases, taking its tally to 10,554, while its death toll has now risen to 166. In Assam, 20 people tested positive, taking the total number of cases in the state to 135. All the new patients were in different quarantine centres across districts. These included people having returned from Chennai and Darjeeling.
At least two COVID-19 related deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh, taking the toll to 52, while 57 more tested positive. With this, the total number of infections in the state has reached 2,489. Fresh cases include those linked to the Koyambedu market in Chennai, which has become a major hotspot of the deadly virus infection.
Karnataka recorded its biggest ever single-day rise with 127 new cases. Of these, 91 have inter-state travel history from neighboring Maharashtra, the state government said.
Maharashtra, the worst-affected state, reported 2,100 fresh cases, taking its overall tally to 37,158, state's health minister Rajesh Tope said.
Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir issue lockdown guidelines
Two days after the Centre announced an extension of the nationwide lockdown till 31 May, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday issued guidelines demarcating the state into red and non-red zones and allowing shops, public transport in the non-red zones.
According to the guidelines, which come into force from 22 May,the municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (which includes Mumbai, Thane and surrounding towns), as well as civic bodies of Pune, Solapur, Aurangabad, Malegaon, Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Akola and Amravati fall in the red zone. In the red zone, no rickshaws, taxis or cabs have been allowed to ply while shops can function according to guidelines issued earlier.
Significantly, e-commerce for delivery of non-essential goods has been allowed in all areas except containment zones, which shall be notified by local authorities. In such containment zones, only essential services will be allowed. No movement of people in and out of these zones will be allowed except for medical emergencies and maintaining supply of essential goods.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration too issued orders categorising districts into orange, red and green zones and issued guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown. According to ANI, hospitals, clinics and liqour shops will be allowed to open across the Union Territory while canteens/eateries at bus stands, railway stations and airports have also been allowed to open in the UT, but with passes in Red districts.
Similarly barber shops, salons and parlours will be allowed to open in all the areas except within the limits of municipal corporations in red and orange zones. Private offices can function with 50 percent strength in orange zones and 100 percent strength in green zone.
In Delhi, where lockdown relaxations kicked in, several markets were buzzing with activity, but many shopkeepers complained of less inflow of customers even as confusion over opening up of establishments using the odd-even formula prevailed.
File image of migrants boarding special trains. AP
Centre issues guidelines for Shramik Special trains
The new guidelines for the Shramik special trains issued by the Centre did away with the mandatory consent from the destination states. According to the fresh SOP, the train schedule, including stoppages and destination, shall be finalised by the railways ministry based on the requirements of states and UTs, and shall be communicated to states and UTs for making suitable arrangements for sending and receiving such stranded workers. Officials explained that the Ministry of Railways will ensure more halts of the special trains for the convenience of migrant workers.
Sending states and UTs, and the Ministry of Railways will ensure that passengers are compulsorily screened, and only asymptomatic passengers are allowed to board the trains, it said. During boarding and travel, all passengers will have to observe social distancing and will have to adhere to health protocols prescribed by the destination state or UT on arrival, the SOP said.
With inputs from agencies
