Coronavirus cases to cross 1-crore-mark by next week, says WHO; IMF lowers growth forecast

11 pm: Here’s a look at the day’s top 10 updates.

10.42 pm: Jharkhand records 18 more cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, ANI reports. Total number of cases in the state is now at 2,219 and the toll from the disease is 12.

10.40 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray writes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to direct the Medical Council of India to postpone the MD-MS examination till December, as the final year resident doctors are playing a crucial role in fighting the pandemic, ANI reports.

10.39 pm: Telangana records 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 10,444, ANI reports.

10.38 pm: West Bengal records 445 more cases of the coronavirus, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 15,173, ANI reports, quoting the state health department. The toll rises by 11 to 591.

10.36 pm: Haryana’s tally of coronavirus infections rises to 6,925 after 490 more cases were recorded on Wednesday, ANI reports. The toll from the disease is 188.

10.35 pm: Goa records 42 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 951, including two deaths, ANI reports, quoting the state health department.

10.33 pm: Rajasthan reports 10 deaths and 382 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, ANI reports. The total number of positive cases in the state stands at 16,009 and the toll is 375.

10.32 pm: Mumbai reports 1,144 new Covid-19 infections and 38 deaths on Wednesday, ANI reports, quoting the figures released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. With this, the city now has 69,625 cases of the coronavirus, including 3,962 deaths.

10.22 pm: The World Health Organization says that the global tally of coronavirus cases is expected to cross the one-crore mark within next week. “This is a sober reminder that even as we continue research and development into vaccines and therapeutics, we have an urgent responsibility to do everything we can with the tools we have now to suppress transmission and save lives,” health body chief Tedros Adhanom says.

10.18 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requests the Centre to withdraw an order directing all Covid-19 patients in the national capital to visit a government-run quarantine centre for evaluation, saying it is like a “15-day detention”, PTI reports.

8.51 pm: Assam reports 226 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 6,282, State Health Minister Himanta Sarma says, according to ANI.

8.48 pm: A petition has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party-led government to issue guidelines for Covid-19 testing of mentally ill homeless persons in the Capital, PTI reports.

8.39 pm: No inter-district movement of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses will be allowed from June 25 to June 30, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami says, according to ANI. The movement of private vehicles will be permitted only after obtaining a pass, he adds.

8.35 pm: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal criticises the Centre’s order, which mandates every coronavirus patient to visit a Covid Care Centre for health assessment, ANI reports. “Why does the govt want to make a patient with high fever stand in the line?” he asks. “I urge the government to roll back the order.”

8.31 pm: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issues a circular regarding “the “on-board handling of unruly passengers in times of Covid-19”, ANI reports. It lays down a set of instructions for the cabin crew to follow, in case a passenger refuses to follow the guidelines to avoid the spread of the coronavirus during flights.

8.28 pm: Gujarat reports 572 new Covid-19 infections and 25 deaths on Wednesday, according to PTI. With this, the state now has 29,001 cases and the toll from the disease is 1,736.

8.24 pm: Punjab reports 230 new infections on Wednesday, taking the state’s total tally of coronavirus cases to 4,627, ANI reports, quoting figures released by the state health department. The toll stands at 113.

8.21 pm: Karnataka reports 397 more cases of the coronavirus and 14 deaths on Wednesday taking the total tally of infections and deaths to 10118 and 164, respectively, ANI reports.

8.19 pm: The Odisha government says it will test all servitors, police personnel and officials of the Jagannath Temple Administration associated with the Puri Rath Yatra for the second time, ANI reports.

8.18 pm: Maharashtra reports 3,890 new infections and 208 deaths on Wednesday, taking the total tally of coronavirus cases in the state to 1.42 lakh, ANI reports, quoting state health department’s figures. The toll from the disease is 6,739.

7.50 pm: The International Monetary Fund predicts that the Indian economy is likely to decline by 4.5% this year.

7.47 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 2,865 new cases and 33 deaths in a day, taking the total to 67,468. The toll now stands at 866.

7.45 pm: West Bengal extends lockdown till the end of July, PTI reports. No train or metro services will be allowed.

6.31 pm: Kerala reports the highest single-day increase of 152 cases, according to ANI. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says 98 of these cases have returned from abroad, and 46 from other states. He adds that there are 3,603 cases in the state of which 1,691 are active cases.

6.19 pm: Delhi reports 3,788 cases of Covid-19, including 64 deaths, taking its total number of cases to 70,390 and toll to 2,365.

5.39 pm: Uttarakhand has reported the deaths of five more coronavirus patients, according to PTI. Of these, two died in accidents, and four were discovered to be infected only after their deaths.

5.24 pm: Tokyo has reported 55 more cases of Covid-19, The Japan Times reports. Wednesday is the first day on which new cases have exceeded 50 since May 5.

5.18 pm: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi says that out of 15 districts in the country with the highest death rate, four are from Uttar Pradesh. “Jhansi: One death out of every 10 coronavirus patients, Meerut: One death out if every 11 coronavirus patients, and one death out of every 14 coronavirus patients in Etah and Agra,” she tweets. “It is a matter that one should think about – if the cases are not increasing then why is the death rate so high?”

5.03 pm: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will purchase one lakh antigen testing kits to ensure speedy results for suspected coronavirus patients, PTI reports. The BMC has launched Mission Universal Testing, under which it will use ICMR-approved kits that provide results within 15 to 30 minutes.

4.55 pm: Singapore has recorded 191 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 42,623, according to the country’s health ministry. Most of the new cases are foreign workers living in dormitories, the ministry says.

4.46 pm: The Maharashtra government says that in the last 48 hours, 185 new cases have been reported among the police, and two policemen have died, according to ANI. The total number of positive cases rises to 4,288, including 998 active cases, 3,239 recoveries and 51 deaths.

4.40 pm: Puducherry has reported 59 more cases of the coronavirus, taking the total number of cases to 461, including 176 recoveries and nine deaths, the Puducherry Health Department says.

4.33 pm: A criminal complaint has been filed in a court in Bihar against yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna, alleging that they have misled people and put at risk lakhs of lives by claiming that they have found a cure for the coronavirus, PTI reports. The complaint, filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Kumar in Muzaffarpur, seeks registration of an FIR based on cheating, criminal conspiracy and other charges.

4.24 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has directed officials to finalise the formation of over one lakh screening teams to check the spread of the coronavirus, PTI reports. “Medical screening is very important to check the spread of coronavirus,” Adityanath says at a review meeting with officials in Lucknow. “The constitution of over one lakh screening teams should be finalised after training.”

4.15 pm: Mysuru City Corporation issues an order to close Devaraja market, Santhepete, Shivaramapete, Mannars market and Boti Bazaar for the next four days in view of the increasing number of coronavirus cases, ANI reports.

4.08 pm: The Chandigarh Health Department says that the total number of positive cases is now 420, including six deaths.

3.55 pm: Uttarakhand has reported 33 new cases of the virus, taking the total number of cases to 863, ANI reports. The total number of deaths is 35.

3.40 pm: Here is a map showing the worst-affected countries in the world:

3.30 pm: The Maharashtra government says that it cannot allow ICSE examinations to be held for Class 10 and Class 12 from July 2, amid the pandemic, The Indian Express reports. The decision has been taken in a State Disaster Management Committee meeting held on June 22, the government tells the court.

3.20 pm: Dozens of activists and students have gathered in Bangkok, Thailand to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the 1932 Siamese Revolution, defying an official ban on gatherings, BBC reports.

3.07 pm: A 22-year old ambulance assistant has succumbed to the contagion in Coimbatore on Wednesday, PTI reports. He is the first fatality from the disease in Tirupur district.

3 pm: A study has said that the Covid-19 pandemic in India may cause an additional 95,000 deaths due to tuberculosis, PTI reports. The study estimates at least 110,000 additional deaths from TB in India, China, and South Africa, of which 95,000 will come in India itself, due to lack of testing and treatment options.

“There is concern that the Covid-19 pandemic is resulting in decreased TB clinic attendance, delayed diagnosis and treatment,” Finn McQuaid, the study first author at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says. “This is especially so in low- and middle-income countries where health services, or access to them, might be substantially disrupted.”

2.38 pm: The Maharashtra government sets up a 13-member task force to study problems related to transport services in the state and suggest measures on how to run them effectively in the wake of the pandemic, PTI reports. The task force will be headed by state Transport Minister Anil Parab.

2.34 pm: Dine-in facilities have resumed at hotels in Ludhiana, Punjab with 50% seating capacity, ANI reports. The state government has allowed hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services to reopen at 50% capacity.

2.26 pm: The Delhi government prepares a “Revised Covid Response Plan” under which includes conducting sero-survey of 20,000 people across districts and house-to-house screening by July 6, ANI reports. The plan is based on the recommendations of the VK Paul committee.

2.19 pm: The Tamil Nadu government claims that some Siddha preparations have given 100% recovery rate from the coronavirus, NDTV reports. The state government is expanding the use of Siddha treatment at the Ambedkar College at Vyasarpadi in Chennai after reporting that all 25 patients at a facility who received the treatment successfully recovered.

“There is a 100% success rate,” minister K Pandiarajan says. “We are not endangering lives. Siddha is a trump card for us. We are blending Siddha, Yoga and Ayurveda. There is no empirical verification but there is enough history. People have faith. We are documenting many cases now.”

2.13 pm: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police has taken over a 10,000 bed capacity Covid care center in Radha Soami Beas at Chhattarpur in Delhi, PTI reports. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Tuesday replied to a request by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who asked for the deployment of doctors and nurses from ITBP and Army personnel at the facility, saying that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has already assigned the hospital to the ITBP.

2.07 pm: The licence officer at the Uttarakhand Ayurved Department says Patanjali did not mention that they had manufactured a preparation that could cure the coronavirus, in the application. He says the licence was given only for the drug to act as an immunity booster, and for cough and fever, ANI reports. “We’ll issue them a notice asking how they got permission to make the kit [for coronavirus],” he adds.

1.59 pm: The Karnataka government has issued an order notifying the establishment of fever clinics and swab collection centres in 66 private hospitals or medical colleges in Bengaluru, PTI reports. The order says the need to increase the number of such clinics and centres arose because of a big rise in the number of cases of influenza-like illnesses and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection.

1.55 pm: In the last 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh reports 497 new cases and 10 deaths, according to ANI. The total number of cases is now 10,331, including 5,423 active cases, 129 deaths and 4,779 cured.

1.48 pm: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia writes to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention to remove the new rules under which every Covid-19 patient has to visit a Covid care centre to determine if they need to be sent to institutional quarantine. Sisodia says the rules impose a huge burden on the system, as there are not enough ambulances to ferry infected people to the Covid care centres, and medical workers are already under much pressure.

1.38 pm: Fifty-one policemen in Maharashtra have died of the coronavirus so far, PTI reports. More than 4,000 cops have tested positive till date.

1.28 pm: The Delhi High Court asks the Centre and the Aam Aadmi Party government to respond to a petition filed by a private firm, challenging the ban on export of personal protective equipment kits and medical masks, PTI reports.

1.20 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a cabinet meeting.

1.15 pm: The Australian government calls in the army to tackle a surge in coronavirus cases, AFP reports. Victoria state has recorded double-digit increases in new daily cases for more than a week, mostly from its capital Melbourne.

12.59 pm: Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic refuses to self-isolate after his contact with tennis star Novak Djokovic, who tested positive positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Croatian Public Health Institute said Plenkovic’s risk of infection was low because he only briefly met Djokovic and was not in a close contact with him.

12.48 pm: The Indian Council of Medical Research, in an advisory issued on Tuesday, said testing should be made widely-available to all symptomatic individuals across the country. “It is imperative that contact tracing mechanisms for containment of infection are further strengthened,” ICMR added.

12.41 pm: Britain’s top medics write an open letter to political leaders, warning them of a second wave of coronavirus cases, Reuters reports. “While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk,” the experts say in their letter.

12.31 pm: Fifteen Central Reserve Police Force personnel test positive for the coronavirus in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district on Wednesday, PTI reports.

12.29 pm: Sikkim records four new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, PTI reports. The state’s tally rises to 83. Twenty-nine patients in the state have recovered.

12.20 pm: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia says he has written to Home Minister Amit Shah, asking him to do away with the rule under which a coronavirus patient has to go to a quarantine centre for examination. “This is not a fight between Amit Shah’s model and Arvind Kejriwal’s model,” he adds. “We should implement a system in which people don’t face problems.”

12.05 pm: Rajasthan reports 182 new coronavirus cases and seven deaths on Wednesday. The state’s tally rises to 15,809 and the toll reaches 372.

11.56 am: The Delhi government will screen every house in the Capital from July 6 as a part of its new coronavirus response plan, India Today reports. At a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week, Home Minister Amit Shah had directed the Delhi government to demarcate containment zones afresh and ramp up house-to-house surveillance. The government was given a deadline of June 30 for a complete survey of people living in containment zones.

11.49 am: Pakistan records 3,892 new coronavirus cases and 60 deaths in 24 hours, according to PTI. The country’s tally rises to 1,88,926 and the toll reaches 3,755.

11.31 am: A 48-year-old woman dies of the coronavirus in Srinagar, PTI reports. Jammu and Kashmir’s toll rises to 88.

11.27 am: The Odisha police urge people to not visit Puri for ‘darshan’, a day after the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra began in the city.

11.18 am: A judge in Brazil on Tuesday ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to wear a protective mask in public places, according to BBC. Bolsonaro has been often seeing greeting his supporters without a mask.

11.14 am: The Child Welfare Committee in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur city had repeatedly warned the authorities of overcrowding in the shelter home where 57 girls tested positive for the coronavirus, The Indian Express reports. “We have regularly been raising the issue of overcrowding at the shelter home in Kanpur with the director of the Women Welfare Department and the district probation officer,” Kanpur Child Welfare Committee member Rajendra Kumar told the newspaper. The last time we raised the issue was on June 11 after an inspection.”

11.08 am: Odisha records 282 new cases on Wednesday, ANI reports. The state’s tally rises to 5,752.

11.04 am: The Union health ministry says 10,495 patients recovered from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

10.57 am: Tennis star Novak Djokovic, who tested positive the coronavirus, on Tuesday issued an apology for hosting an exhibition tournament and admitted that he and the organisers “were wrong” to go ahead with the event despite coronavirus risks.

10.47 am: Australia reports first coronavirus death in more than a month on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The patient was in his 80s.

10.33 am: Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Ayurveda Shripad Naik says the government will look into the report sent by Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved and then make a decision on the medicine that the company is claiming to be a cure for the coronavirus, ANI reports.

10.26 am: Yoga guru Ramdev tells India Today his company Patanjali Ayurved is not making false claims about the medicine that it is advertising as a cure for the coronavirus. “We have taken all permissions right from the production of the drug to its clinical trials,” he says. “We have sent all related information to the Ayush Ministry today [Wednesday], they will receive it soon. We have presented all details even to the media. We have not violated any laws.”

10.22 am: The United Nations on Tuesday honoured Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja for her efforts to combat the coronavirus. During a virtual seminar to mark Public Service Day, she also elaborated on Kerala’s highly-appreciated strategy to contain the outbreak.

10.16 am: Over 200 stranded citizens arrive in India from Australia.

10.11 am: Boats resume in Varansi after nearly three months, ANI reports.

10.09 am: The residents in Punjab’s Ludhiana city crowd a vegetable market.

9.56 am: Trinamool Congress MLA Tamonash Ghosh, who tested positive for the coronavirus last month, dies. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweets her condolences.

Also read:

Coronavirus: Trinamool Congress MLA Tamonash Ghosh dies in Kolkata hospital

9.50 am: Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said that “Bengaluru will become another Brazil” if harsher restrictions are not implemented to contain the coronavirus. In a series of tweets, he urged the state government to impose a 20-day lockdown in the city.

9.45 am: The United Nations, in a report released on Tuesday, said more than 100 million children in South Asia could slip into poverty as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. “While they [the children] may be less susceptible to the virus itself, children are being profoundly affected by the fallout, including the economic and social consequences of the lockdown,” the report said.

9.41 am: At least 12 trainee sailors at the Indian Navy’s Lonavala-based INS Shivaji station have tested positive for the coronavirus so far, PTI reports.

9.38 am: Indian Council of Medical Research says it has tested over 73 lakh samples so far.

9.15 am: India’s coronavirus tally rises to 4,56,183. The toll reaches 14,476. The country reports 15,968 new cases and 465 deaths in 24 hours.

9.09 am: Germany reports 587 new coronavirus cases and 19 deaths on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The country’s tally rises to 1,91,449 and the toll reaches 8,914.

9.04 am: Assam reported a record 203 new cases on Tuesday. The state’s overall count rose to 6,056.

8.59 am: South Africa’s top epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim says the “worst of the coronavirus pandemic” is yet to arrive in the counrty, PTI reports. The country has so far recorded over 1 lakh cases and 2,102 deaths.

8.54 am: The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that countries are acting in isolation and not uniting to fight the coronavirus. He warned that the go-it-alone policy will not defeat the disease.

8.50 am: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Wednesday chair an all-party meeting on the coronavirus crisis, ANI reports.

8.14 am: The US’ top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci says he is hopeful of a vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021, reports AP. He adds that he is concerned about the recent surge in coronavirus cases.”We’ve been hit badly,” he says. “The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges.”

7.43 am:
Brazil recorded 39,436 new coronavirus cases and 1,374 deaths on Tuesday, Reuters reports. The country has so far recorded more than 11 lakh cases and 52,645 deaths.

7.41 am: The residents of Delhi are seen outside the Azadpur fruit and vegetable market to buy essentials.

7.38 am: The toll in Latin America and the Caribbean crosses 1 lakh, AFP reports.

7.37 am: Here are the top updates from Tuesday:

1. Delhi recorded 3,947 new coronavirus cases and 68 deaths. The national Capital now has 66,602 cases and the toll has risen to 2,301. Meanwhile, 2,516 people tested positive in Tamil Nadu, taking the state’s count to 64,603. In Maharashtra, India’s worst affected state, the total rose to 1,39,010 and the toll to 6,531 on Tuesday.
2. Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Indian pilgrims will not go to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage this year amid risks over the spreading coronavirus. His comment came a day after Saudi Arabia announced that it would only allow people living in the kingdom to take part in the pilgrimage.
3. One of the traditional servitors at the Puri Jagannath Temple in Odisha tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of the annual Rath Yatra. This came a day after the Supreme Court had directed that only those who test negative would be allowed to pull the chariots and participate in the rituals.
4. Congress President Sonia Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic. Gandhi pointed to what she described as “grave deficiencies” in India’s health infrastructure that were exposed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
5. The Arvind Kejriwal government issued new Standard Operating Procedures for management of coronavirus patients in Delhi. There are separate guidelines for people who test positive through a rapid testing process, whose results are available in around 30 minutes, and the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction – or RT-PCR test – which takes 24 to 48 hours to provide results.
6. The Ministry of AYUSH asked Patanjali Ayurved to stop advertising some preparations that the company claims can cure the coronavirus, according to a government press release. The ministry said that it does not know the facts related to the claim and details of the studies carried out to test the preparations. Yoga guru Ramdev, the founder of Patanjali Ayurved, had made the announcements at a media interaction in Haridwar earlier in the day.