Coronavirus: Tamil Nadu records over 4,000 new infections, toll rises to 1,510

9.15 pm: Here are the top updates of the day.

9 pm: Mumbai reports 1,311 new coronavirus cases, taking the total in the city to 84,125. With 69 more deaths, the toll has increased to 4,896.

8.58 pm: A report prepared by the Delhi government, Union Ministry of Health, National Centre for Disease Control, Indian Council of Medical Research and NITI Aayog says that a door-to-door survey to screen the national Capital’s population for coronavirus “may not be suitable” at this juncture. reports NDTV.

8.52 pm: More new cases in states/ Union Territories, according to ANI:

• Punjab: 175 new cases, total rises to 6,283.
• Kerala: 225 new cases, active cases rise to 2,228.
• Karnataka: 1,925 new cases, total rises to 23,474.
• West Bengal: 895 new cases, total rises to 22,126.
• Jammu and Kashmir: 183 new cases, total rises to 8,429.
• Gujarat: 725 new cases, total rises to 36,123. 

8.40 pm: Maharashtra records 6,555 new cases and 151 deaths. With this, the state now has 2,06,619 total infections and the toll has risen to 8,822.

8.24 pm: The Rajasthan government has decided to scrap undergraduate and postgraduate examinations in all state universities this year due to the pandemic, reports NDTV.

7.32 pm: Assam State Disaster Management Authority says all standalone grocery shops are allowed to operate between 11 am and 4 pm from July 6 to July 10 in Kamrup Metropolitan District, reports ANI. Shopkeepers and customers shall have to wear masks, hand gloves and maintain physical distancing guidelines.

7.27 pm: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant says each minister will be allotted a taluka to oversee implementation of norms to tackle the coronavirus crisis, reports PTI. “Even after seven deaths and rise in cases, I notice people violating norms, not wearing masks,” he adds.

7.25 pm: Uttar Pradesh records 1,155 new coronavirus cases, taking its active cases to 8,161, according to ANI. With 12 more deaths, the toll stands at 785.

7.22 pm: Delhi reports 2,244 new coronavirus cases and 63 deaths today. With this, the total number of infections in the national Capital stands at 99,444 and the toll has risen to 3,067.

7.20 pm: Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran says the situation in Thiruvananthapuram has become complicated as number of untraceable cases are increasing, reports ANI. “We are ‘sitting on a volcano’ with rising Covid-19 cases,” he adds.

6.41 pm: Tamil Nadu records 4,150 new cases and 60 deaths, taking the state tally to 1,11,151 and the toll is 1,510, reports ANI. The number of active cases stands at 46,860.

6.38 pm: Chandigarh reports seven new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. The total number of cases is 466 and 395 people have recovered. The toll in the region stands at six.

6 pm: The Union Ministry of Science and Technology says that none of the 11 coronavirus vaccines, currently in human clinical trials, in the world are likely to be ready for use before 2021, reports NDTV, citing a statement.

5.44 pm: Himachal Pradesh’s coronavirus tally rises to 1,048, of which 309 cases are active and 715 have recovered, according to ANI. The overall toll stands at nine.

5.43 pm: Karnataka’s Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar says a criminal case will be filed against those private hospitals that refuse to admit coronavirus patients, reports

5.27 pm: Kerala makes safety rules against the coronavirus compulsory for people for one year till July 2021, reports The News Minute.

5.16 pm: Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tells the Financial Times that his country will not accept stringent European Union conditions on coronavirus emergency aid.

5.13 pm: The United Arab Emirates restructures its government, seeking more agility as it tackles the impact of the coronavirus, reports Reuters

4.55 pm: Workers at Bajaj Auto have demanded a temporary shutdown of one of its plants after 250 employees tested positive for the coronavirus, reported Reuters.

4.54 pm: Over 300 Indians stranded in Qatar due to the coronavirus-induced curbs have returned in two chartered flights to Mumbai and Nagpur, reports PTI.

4.53 pm: A doctor, who had tested positive for the coronavirus, accuses a private hospital in Hyderabad of overcharging and detaining her for not paying the bills, reports PTI.

4.47 pm: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police says that 18 more of its personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, according to ANI. There are a total of 151 active cases among the force and 270 have recovered so far.

4.46 pm: Preventive measures against the coronavirus are being taken at Delhi’s Safdarjung tomb complex, reports ANI. All monuments are scheduled to open from July 6 onwards.

4.21 pm: An All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLA from Coimbatore tests positive for Covid-19, fifth lawmaker from the party to contract coronavirus, reports PTI.

4.21 pm: Coronavirus recovery rate in 21 states and Union territories is higher than the national average of 60.77%, says the Union health ministry, according to PTI.

4.08 pm: Bengaluru’s civic body chief has apologised to the family of a deceased coronavirus patient, whose body was left unattended for hours on the road, reports PTI.

Read more here:

Coronavirus: Bengaluru man dies outside home after ambulance arrives two hours late

2.57 pm: Andhra Pradesh records 998 new coronavirus cases and 14 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s tally to 18,697 out of which 10,043 cases are active and 8,422 have recovered. The toll in the state rises to 232, reports ANI, citing the state health department’s bulletin.

2.56 pm: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says domestic operations began with 30,000 flyers on May 25. “Yesterday we crossed the 75K [75,000] mark which indicates a slow and steady rise in number of domestic flyers,” he tweets.

2.22 pm: Deepak Ohri, chief medical officer of Gautam Buddh Nagar, has tested positive for the coronavirus, reports The Hindu. According to health department officials, Ohri had influenza-like illness symptoms after his visit to various containment zones.

2.20 pm: A complete lockdown, without any relaxations, has been imposed across Tamil Nadu today as part of the state government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus crisis, reports PTI. Shops, including those selling vegetables and groceries have been closed in many parts of the state.

1.55 pm: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner BH Anil Kumar has apologised to the family of a 65-year-old Covid-19-positive man, whose body was left unattended on the roadside for three hours, as the family waited for an ambulance, PTI reports. Kumar says he met the family of the victim at Gavipuram on Saturday, apologised to them and said BBMP workers should have handled the situation better.

1.07 pm: The government in Spain’s Catalonia region has reimposed coronavirus-related restrictions on an area of 210,000 people, BBC reports. Segrià, an agricultural area west of Barcelona, has reported a spurt in cases.

12.54 pm: “For now, there is no scarcity of hospital beds, we have over 15,000 beds out of which 5300 are occupied,” Kejriwal tells reporters at the DRDO-built hospital. “There is a paucity of ICU beds. If there is any spike in Covid-19 cases, these ICU beds [in the new facility] are very critical for us.”

12.46 pm: Forty-three new cases have been reported in Puducherry, according to PTI. The total number of cases in the Union Territory is now 946, and the toll 14.

12.23 pm: Seven more people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the tally in the state to 259, PTI reports. All fresh cases were reported from isolation centres, where people have been placed under quarantine following their return from other states, Surveillance Officer L Jampa says.

12.12 pm: Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visit DRDO-built Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid-19 Hospital in Delhi Cantonment, ANI reports. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are also present.

11.35 am: The Maharashtra Police say 30 police personnel have tested positive in the last 24 hours, and four have died, ANI reports.

11.27 am: Odisha has reported 469 new cases in the last 24 hours, ANI reports quoting the state’s health department. The number of active cases is now 3,090, and the total number is 9,070.

11.19 am: Twenty-two more people, including four Assam Rifles personnel and 10 National Disaster Response Force personnel, have tested positive for coronavirus in Mizoram, PTI reports. The state now has 186 cases. Of the fresh cases, 14 were reported from Aizawl district and four each from Siaha and Lawngtlai.

11.09 am: Rajasthan has reported 224 new cases and six deaths on Saturday. The total number of cases is now 19,756 including 3,640 active cases and 453 deaths.

10.56 am: Tokyo residents will vote in a gubernatorial election for the governor on Sunday amid a surge in coronavirus cases, The Japan Times reports.

10.04 am: A 72-year-old councillor of the Mormugao Municipal Council in Goa has died of the coronavirus on Sunday morning, PTI reports. Pascoal DSouza, who did not belong to any political party, had tested positive for coronavirus last month, and was admitted to ESI Hospital in Panaji.

9.52 am: India’s coronavirus tally rises to 6,73,165 with a whopping 24,850 new cases over the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As many as 613 people died. The total number of recoveries is now 4,09,082, the active cases stand at 2,44,814, and the toll at 19,268.

9.48 am: A businessman from Pune district in Maharashtra has got himself a customised gold mask worth Rs 2.89 lakh, PTI reports. “I saw a news on television about a silver mask,” businessman Shankar Kurhade says. “I then spoke to my jeweller and ordered a gold mask.”

9.45 am: Chinese officials have reported eight new cases of the coronavirus, according to AP. Of these, just two cases have been detected in Beijing. There have been 334 cases of the virus in Beijing since three weeks ago, when an outbreak was first detected.

9.40 am: Over 97 lakh samples have been tested so far, says the Indian Council of Medical Research. On Saturday, 2,48,394 samples were tested.

9.26 am: World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has told The Wire that speed in manufacturing a vaccine may be important, but it cannot not come at the cost of scientific and ethical standards. Swaminathan has said that the vaccine cannot be given to people from August 15.

9.20 am: Three new coronavirus cases have been reported in New Zealand on Sunday, all individuals who returned from abroad. The total number of cases in the country is now 1,183, with just 21 active cases.

9.15 am: United States President Donald Trump has claimed that 99% of cases in the country are “totally harmless”, The Guardian reports. “Now we have tested almost 40 million [4 crore] people,” Trump says. “By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless. Results that no other country can show because no other country has the testing that we have, not in terms of the numbers or in terms of quality.”

9.11 am: The Defence Research and Development Organisation says it has erected the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid-19 Hospital in Delhi Cantonment within 11 days, and it will have 1,000 beds, including 250 beds in the intensive care unit, ANI reports.

9.01 am: The WHO has again stopped trials of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus patients, as well as HIV treatment lopinavir/ritonavir. The health body says that trials show HCQ and the HIV drug “produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients when compared to standard of care.”

8.50 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweets that more people in Delhi are being cured of the virus at home now, and less patients need hospitalisation. He claims that there are 9,900 hospital beds now free for coronavirus patients.

8.35 am: The director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Dr Randeep Guleria, tells NDTV that the August 15 timeline for the Covaxin vaccine is unrealistic. His comment comes two days after the Indian Council of Medical Research wrote to hospitals saying they were fast-tracking India’s first coronavirus vaccine for a possible August 15 launch.

Here are the top updates from Saturday:

• The Centre on Saturday extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2019-’20 till November 30 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

• The Indian Council of Medical Research on Saturday defended its direction to clinical trial sites of Covaxin to fast-track approvals and launch it by August 15. This was in accordance with global norms to fast track vaccine development, the top medical body said, amid criticism that the deadline was unscientific and unrealistic.
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi have sent their swab samples for testing after they sat next to a leader who has tested positive for the coronavirus.
• In Bengaluru, there will be a complete lockdown till 5 am on Monday to curb the rising spread of COvid-19 cases. Meanwhile, Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday accused the Karnataka government of misappropriating funds for purchasing medical equipment for coronavirus treatment in the state.
• The World Health Organization has updated its chronology of the coronavirus pandemic to say that it was not alerted by China to the first pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The global health body said its own regional office had picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission from their website on cases of “viral pneumonia”.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday revised the prescribed dosage of anti-viral drug remdesivir for coronavirus patients from six days to five.The patients must be injected with 200 milligram of remdesivir on day one and 100 milligram for the next four days, the Union health ministry said in an updated version of its Clinical Management Protocol for the coronavirus.