Covid-19: Kejriwal, Amit Shah discussed key strategies, says AAP as Delhi’s count nears 60,000

9 pm: Here are the top 10 updates of the day.

8.57 pm: Haryana reports 412 more cases of the virus. The total number of cases has increased to 10,635.

8.42 pm: As many as 393 new cases and 12 deaths have been reported in Rajasthan till 8.30 pm, according to ANI. Total number of cases has risen to 14,930 including 2,984 active cases, 349 deaths and 11,355 people discharged.

8.33 pm: Chhattisgarh reports 139 new cases of Covid-19, according to ANI. Total number of cases are now 2,273, including 11 deaths, according to the state Health Department.

8.26 pm: Ahmedabad district reports 273 more cases, taking the total number to 18,827, according to PTI. The number of fatalities have risen by 20 to 1,332. Gujarat reports 580 new cases, taking its tally to 27,317. The death of 25 patients means the toll is now 1,664.

8.02 pm: The Aam Aadmi Party says the Delhi government is closely monitoring the situation in the Capital. The party adds that Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia today discussed key strategies with Home Minister Amit Shah on making contact tracing more robust and strengthening of medical services.

8.01 pm: The toll in West Bengal rises to 555 with 15 new fatalities, reports PTI citing the state health department. The state also reports 414 new cases, taking the total count 13,945.

7.59 pm: Goa reports 64 new infections. With this, the tally goes up to 818.

7.57 pm: Fourteen more personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police test positive, reports ANI.

7.46 pm: Ladakh reports one more case, taking the total in the Union territory to 837, reports PTI.

7.45 pm: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Health Secretary Priti Sudan and other senior officials leave from the Ministry of Home Affairs after attending the meeting chaired by Amit Shah.

7.43 pm: Jammu and Kashmir reports 122 fresh cases, according to ANI. With this, the total number cases stands at 5,956.

7.31 pm: Punjab reports 122 new cases, taking the total number of cases to 4,074. The toll in the state rises to 99.

7.30 pm: Gujarat’s tally rises to 27,317 with 580 fresh infections and 25 deaths in the last 24 hours.

7.27 pm: Delhi reports 3,000 new cases and 63 deaths.

7.21 pm: Dharavi in Mumbai reports 12 new cases, says Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The total number of cases in the slum is now 2,170 and toll stands at 80.

7.17 pm: Kerala’s tally rises to 3,170 with 133 fresh infections. This is the highest single-day surge in the number of cases for the state, reports PTI.

7.06 pm: Karnataka reports 453 fresh cases and five deaths. With this, the state’s total number of active cases goes up to 3,391 and toll stands at 137.

7.04 pm: Uttar Pradesh reports 596 new cases in the last 24 hours, says Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad.

7.03 pm: The Ahmedabad civic body issues a show-cause notice to a hospital for “grave negligence” after a 73-year-old patient died, reports PTI. According to the notice, the patient was made to wait at the gate of Rajasthan Hospital for 20 minutes on June 18. They also allegedly took another 10-15 minutes to bring the stretcher.

The patient, who was in a critical condition, was taken to Rajasthan Hospital from another private facility as he needed a ventilator. The Rajasthan Hospital had confirmed the availability of ventilator.

6.28 pm: Six more people test positive in Himachal Pradesh, reports PTI. With this, the total number of cases in the state rises to 663.

6.25 pm: Indian pharmaceutical firm Hetero says it has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India to both manufacture and market the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, to treat coronavirus patients. In May, the company had announced that the drug will be manufactured at its Food and Drug Administration-approved facility in Hyderabad.

Also read

Coronavirus: Pharma firm Hetero gets drug controller’s nod to produce, market remdesivir

6.23 pm: Nepal claims 90% of its coronavirus cases are migrant workers who returned from abroad, mostly from India, reports PTI. The country reports 421 new cases and its overall tally rises to 9,026.

6.12 pm: Tamil Nadu reports the highest single-day surge of 2,532 cases, reports ANI. The state reports 53 deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases stands at 59,377 while toll is now 757.

6.02 pm: The Meghalaya government extends the night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am till June 30, reports PTI. The night curfew was supposed to be lifted on June 22. The state government also extends the ban on inter-state movement of people till June 30.

5.47 pm: Chandigarh’s tally rises to 404, including six deaths, ANI reports citing the health department.

5.41 pm: The Delhi government says all coronavirus patients will be referred to Covid-19 care centres to determine whether they can be isolated in their homes, or need institutional quarantine. The revised order comes after Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal withdrew an order mandating five-day institutional quarantine for all those who test positive for the virus.

Also read

Covid-19 care centres to decide on home isolation, says Delhi government in new order

5.40 pm: Bangladesh’s national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines resumes international flights after a gap of three months, reports Dhaka Tribune.

5.26 pm: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare says Dharavi’s growth rate has been reduced over the last two months, reports ANI. Dharavi had 491 cases in April with 12% growth rate and case doubling period of 18 days, it adds. “Proactive measures adopted by BMC reduced Covid-19 growth rate to 4.3% in May 2020 & further to 1.02% in June. The measures also ensured an improved case doubling time to 43 days in May 2020 and 78 days in June 2020.

4.59 pm: Home Minister Amit Shah will hold a meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and other senior officials today, reports ANI. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia will also participate.

4.57 pm: The Mumbai Police and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are at loggerheads about reimposing a strict lockdown in parts of the city where the number of coronavirus cases have surged. While the police want a total lockdown in parts of Malad, Kandivali, Borivali and Dahisar, the civic body feels it is not feasible.

Also read

Covid-19: Mumbai Police, BMC disagree over reimposing complete lockdown in some areas

4.15 pm: Lucknow’s “Tunday Kababi” restaurant reopens after three months.

3.25 pm: Singapore reports 262 new cases, according to The Straits Times. With this, the country’s total count is now 42,095.

3.02 pm: Uttarakhand reports 23 new cases. The state’s tally is now 2,324, reports ANI citing the health department.

3.01 pm: Satyendar Jain’s condition has improved after being administered plasma therapy, reports ANI citing the Office of Delhi Health Minister.

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Covid-19: Delhi health minister’s condition has improved after plasma therapy, says his office

2.40 pm: The Maharashtra Police report 88 new cases and one death in the last 24 hours, reports ANI. With this, the total number of cases in the force rise 4,048 while toll stands at 47.

2.39 pm: Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajendra lashes out at the Centre for allegedly not providing proper facilities and financial help. “How many times has your ICMR [Indian Council of Medical Research] changed guidelines, you must think about it,” he says, according to ANI. “We asked for 1,000 ventilators but you have given us only 50. Our machine was diverted to Kolkata by ICMR on the orders of PM.”

2.19 pm: The toll in Jammu and Kashmir rises to 81 after a 72-year-old patient died at a military hospital on Saturday, reports PTI.

2.15 pm: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary-General Vladimir Norov says India is playing the role of “the pharmacy of the world” during the pandemic, reports PTI. India has so far supplied medicines to 133 countries, he adds.

1.20 pm: The number of cases in Indore district in Madhya Pradesh rises to 4,329 on Sunday with 41 new infections, PTI reports. The toll now stands at 197.

1 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 477 new cases and five deaths in the past 24 hours, ANI reports. This takes the state’s total number of cases to 8,929 and toll to 106.

12.45 pm: The Centre says 1,90,730 samples were tested in the past 24 hours. With this, the total number of samples tested so far is 68,07,226.

12.22 pm: US President Donald Trump blames China for the spread of the coronavirus and called it “kung flu”. He says the virus had several names. “I can name Kung flu,” Trump says, according to PTI. “I can name 19 different versions of names. Many call it a virus, which it is. Many call it a flu. What difference. I think we have 19 or 20 versions of the name.”

Kung flu is a pun on Chinese martial art Kung fu.

12.05 pm: Assam reports 133 new cases in 24 hours. The state now has 5,388 cases in total.

11.55 am: Odisha’s count rises to 5,160 after it recorded 304 cases in 24 hours, ANI reports.

11.45 am: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath meets his counterparts from Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, and Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat via videoconference, ANI reports. They have decided to suspend the Kanwar yatra, which takes place during the ‘Shravan’ month, this year due to the pandemic.

11.25 am: Pune reported its highest single-day rise in cases on Saturday, with 823 new infection. The total number of positive cases in Pune is now 15,004, while the toll is 584, ANI reports.

10.48 am: Rajasthan records 154 new coronavirus cases and four deaths. The state’s tally rises to 14,691 and the toll reaches 341.

10.45 am: Saudi Arabia says it will resume all economic and commercial activities from Sunday but restrictions on international travel and religious pilgrimages will continue, BBC reports.

10.43 am: The Uttar Pradesh government says the Kanwar yatra, which takes place during the ‘Shravan’ month, will be suspended this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, PTI reports.

10.40 am: Seven foreign nationals on Saturday approached the Supreme Court against the Ministry of Home Affairs’ decision to blacklist them for their alleged involvement with the Tablighi Jamaat, according to NDTV. The seven foreign nationals include two from Thailand and one each from Malaysia, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mali.

10.37 am: The Ministry of Civil Aviation says the government-imposed cap on airfares may be extended beyond August 24, PTI reports.

10.31 am: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday hit out at the Congress after the party’s state chief Mullappally Ramachandran called Health Minister KK Shailaja ‘COVID Rani’, PTI reported. “The attack against the minister was due to a peculiar mindset and was anti-women,” he said. “It is regrettable that the KPCC [Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee] president has stooped to such a level.”

10.29 am: United States President Donald Trump on Saturday told his supporters at an election rally that he had asked health officials to reduce coronavirus tests since they are a “double-edged sword”, Reuters reports.

10.24 am: A senior Bharatiya Janata Party MLA in Madhya Pradesh tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, after he cast his vote for the Rajya Sabha elections and attended party meetings, according to PTI.

10.18 am: The Delhi government directs state-run hospitals to not get oxygen concentrators and cylinders on their own since it is in the process of procuring them, PTI reports. In an order issued earlier this month, the government had ordered the hospitals to arrange oxygen supply for all the beds.

10.16 am: The Drug Controller General of India on Saturday gave permission to Hetero and Cipla to manufacture and market antiviral drug remdesivir for “restricted emergency use” on hospitalised coronavirus patients, according to PTI.

9.20 am: India reports 15,413 new cases and 306 deaths in 24 hours. This is the highest single-day rise in infections so far. The country now has 4,10,461 cases and the toll stood at 13,254. As many as 2,27,755 people have recovered.

8.15 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the country on Sunday to mark International Yoga Day, says practising yoga can help strengthen the immune system and help fight the highly-contagious coronavirus. “The coronavirus attacks our respiratory system,” the prime minister says. “Pranayaam or breathing exercises help strengthen the respiratory system to fight the disease.”

Read more here:

International Yoga Day: ‘Pranayaam’ can help build immunity against coronavirus, says Narendra Modi

7.50 am: Mumbai, the worst-affected Indian city, recorded its highest single-day rise in deaths with 136 fatalities, taking its toll to 3,561. With 1,197 new cases, the city’s count rose to 65,265.

7.45 am: Maharashtra also recorded its highest-ever single-day jump in cases with 3,874 new infections and 160 deaths on Saturday. This took the total number of positive cases in the state to 1,28,205 and the toll 5,984.

7.40 am: Delhi on Saturday reported its highest single-day increase of 3,630 new coronavirus cases. With this, the state’s tally rose to 56,746. The toll rose to 2,112 with 77 deaths. As many as 7,725 people recovered, taking the total recoveries to 31,294.

7.35 am: Globally, the coronavirus has infected 87,68,285 people so far, and 4,63,999 people have died of it, according to the Johns Hopkins University. However, as many as 43,47,162 people have recovered.

7.30 am: Here are the top updates from Saturday:

• India recorded 14,516 new coronavirus cases on Saturday – the biggest single-day rise so far. The country now has 3,95,048 cases and the toll stood at 12,948.
  
• Tamil Nadu reported 2,396 cases in the biggest-single day rise in Covid-19 infections. The state now has 56,845 cases, while the toll from the disease is 704 after 39 more deaths.
  
• Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal withdrew his order mandating five-day institutional quarantine for all coronavirus patients, saying only those cases that do not require hospitalisation, and people who do not have adequate facilities at home would be required to undergo institutional isolation.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan to offer immediate employment opportunities to migrant workers who have returned to their villages during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
• The Andhra Pradesh government cancelled this year’s Class 10 examinations in the state in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The state’s tally of infections crossed the 8,000-mark to reach 8,452. The toll is 101.
  
• The Delhi government issued an order asking hospitals and medical institutions under it to recall their staff who are on leave and asked them to join work immediately. The order said that leave will be granted only under the most “compelling circumstances”.
• Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that around 2,75,000 Indians, who were stranded in foreign countries during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, have been brought back to the country in flights and ships.