Delhi reported 2,008 new cases and 50 deaths on Tuesday. The Capital’s tally rose to 1,02,831 cases and the toll reached 3,165. The number of active cases fell, because 2,129 people – more than those newly found infected – recovered on Tuesday.
The West Bengal government will impose complete lockdown in coronavirus containment zones from July 9. Offices and shops in these areas will be closed and public transport will be suspended
India’s coronavirus tally rose to 7,19,665, with 22,252 new cases in 24 hours on Tuesday morning. The toll went up by 467 to 20,160. More than 4.39 lakh people have recovered. India is now the third worst-affected nation in the world, crossing Russia. The Union health ministry said the recovery rate has gone up to 61.13%.
The Central Board of Secondary Education said that it will reduce the syllabus for classes nine to 12 for the academic year 2020-’21 by up to 30% amid the coronavirus crisis.
The global coronavirus count is now over 1.16 crore, while the toll has crossed 5.39 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 63 lakh people have recovered so far.
The national helpline number for the coronavirus is 011-23978046, and a toll-free number 1075.
These are the helpline numbers for states and the Union Territories.
10.47 pm: Madhya Pradesh records 343 new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s case count to 15,627. The toll rises by five to 622, reports PTI.
10.15 pm: Tripura’s Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb says out of 1,378 samples tested for coronavirus, 24 people have tested positive in the state, according to PTI.
10.05 pm: Telangana’s health department records seven deaths and 1,879 new coronavirus cases, reports ANI. The state’s tally rises to 27,162 and toll to 313.
10.11 pm: Jharkhand reports 141 new coronavirus cases and two deaths, taking the state tally to 3,018. The toll stands at 22, reports ANI.
9.46 pm: The World Health Organization wishes Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro speedy recovery from the coronavirus, reports AFP.
9.37 pm: Karnataka records 1,498 new coronavirus cases, taking the state tally to 26,815. There are 15,297 active cases in the state, and the toll is up by 15 to 416, according to PTI.
9.30 pm: Chandigarh’s health department reports five new cases, taking the overall case count to 492. The toll rises to seven.
8.29 pm: The Maharashtra government has said that up to July 6, of the 23,239 active patients in Mumbai, 13,898 were asymptomatic, while 984 were critical. As many as 3,63,120 tests had been done, and the case positivity rate stood at 23.49%. There are 21,683 hospital beds in the city, of which 8,785 were available as of July 6.
8.12 pm: Mumbai reports 806 new cases in the last 24 hours, and 64 deaths in the preceding 48 hours, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. As many as 985 patients have recovered on Tuesday, reducing the total number of active cases to 22,996.
As many as 58,137 patients have been discharged since the beginning of the pandemic, and 4,999 have died. The total number of cases is 86,132. The doubling rate in Mumbai is 44 days.
7.53 pm: Delhi reports 2,008 new cases and 50 deaths on Tuesday. The Capital’s tally rises to 1,02,831 and the toll reaches 3,165.
7.39 pm: Maharashtra reports over 5,000 new cases and 224 deaths on Tuesday. The state’s tally reaches 2,17,121 and the toll rises to 9,250.
7.37 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 3,616 new cases and 65 deaths on Tuesday. The state’s tally rises to 1,18,594 and the toll reaches 1,636.
7.20 pm: The West Bengal government will club containment and buffer zones to enforce tougher lockdown from July 9, PTI reports. Offices and shops in containment zones will be closed and public transport suspended.
7.18 pm: Mumbai’s Dharavi slum reports only one new coronavirus case, according to PTI. The area’s tally stands at 2,335.
7.06 pm: The Supreme Court directs the Uttar Pradesh government to file a status report on the shelter home where 57 girls tested positive for the coronavirus in June, PTI reports.
7.01 pm: Kerala records 272 new cases on Tuesday, PTI reports. This is the state’s biggest one-day rise. Kerala’s overall count rises to 5,894. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says 157 cases came from foreign countries and 38 from other states.
6.58 pm: Ladakh reports 36 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. The union territory’s overall count rises to 1,041. One death has been reported from Ladakh.
6.55 pm: The Union health ministry says that according to the World Health Organization, India’s coronavirus cases per 10 lakh of population are lower than the global average.
6.34 pm: The Border Security Force says 69 personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus in 24 hours, ANI reports. The force’s overall count rises to 1,454.
5.58 pm: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gautam Gambhir hands over a coronavirus isolation facility to the Delhi government.
5.47 pm: The Supreme Court issues a notice to the Centre on a plea filed by Air Passengers Association Of India, seeking refund of tickets for flights cancelled because of the coronavirus lockdown, ANI reports.
5.37 pm: Florida’s greater Miami area becomes the latest United States coronavirus hotspot to rollback orders to allow dining at restaurants, Reuters reports.
5.24 pm: A medical team has been sent to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s official residence after his relative tested positive for the coronavirus.
5.20 pm: The CBSE releases a link for students to access the revised syllabus.
5.04 pm: The Central Board of Secondary Education will reduce the syllabus of classes nine to 12, Union minister Ramesh Pokhriyal says.
5.00 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurates coronavirus treatment facilities in Mulund, Dahisar, Mahalaxmi Race Course and Bandra Kurla Complex areas of Mumbai. The facilities will have 3,520 beds in all.
4.52 pm: A Spanish study published in The Lancet shows that only around 5% of the country’s population has developed coronavirus antibodies. The study involved 60,000 people. Experts say that at least 70% of a population needs to be immune for herd immunity to work.
4.47 pm: Uttar Pradesh records 1,346 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, ANI reports, quoting Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad. The state’s overall count rises to 29,141. The toll stands at 827.
4.39 pm: The officials in Jammu begin preparations for the Amarnath Yatra.
4.37 pm: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s relative, who had been staying at his official residence in Patna, tests positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports.
3.06 pm: India’s coronavirus tests cross 1 crore. The Union health ministry adds that India’s recovery rate is now over 61%.
2.56 pm: Andhra Pradesh records 1,178 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours. The state’s overall count rises to 21,197. The toll stands at 252.
2.51 pm: Former Goa Health Minister Dr Suresh Amonkar died of the coronavirus on Monday, according to Hindustan Times. He was 68.
2.44 pm: Four hundred workers have tested positive for the coronavirus and seven have died at Bajaj Auto’s Waluj plant in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city so far, PTI reports, quoting Auto Workers’ Union President Thengade Bajirao. The workers are now demanding temporary suspension of operations at the plant.
2.37 pm: Shops, malls, offices and business establishments in Bhopal will be closed for three days if they fail to comply with coronavirus safety guidelines, PTI reports.
2.33 pm: Top United States Health Expert Dr Anthony Fauci says an eventual coronavirus vaccine will work well and provide protection against the disease for only some amount of time and not infinitely, Reuters reports.
2.23 pm: Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent scientists and President of the Royal Society, says that the country is lagging behind others in the mandatory use of face masks, PTI reports. “The public have taken to handwashing and distancing but remain sceptical about face coverings,” he says.
2.19 pm: Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar says the Centre will soon release the standard operating procedure for resumption of film shootings in India, ANI reports. He adds that the government will also announce incentives for production houses.
2.18 pm: The Uttarakhand government seals the borders of Haridwar city to restrict the entry of devotees for ‘Kanwar Yatra’, ANI reports.
2.09 pm: The co-founder of AgVa Healthcare, the company manufacturing indigenous ventilators, says their units are five to 10 times cheaper than the others, ANI reports. Professor Diwakar Vaish also responds to complaints about defects in these ‘Made in India’ ventilators.
2.04 pm: The chief surgeon at a government hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district and a senior supply officer test positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports.
1.57 pm: A coronavirus patient’s body was dumped outside a hospital in Bhopal on Monday, NDTV reports. The incident was captured on CCTV.
1.40 pm: The Subject Expert Committee, which evaluates applications for clinical trials of potential coronavirus vaccines, has said that Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech should submit results of the Phase I clinical human trial of Covaxin to the Drugs Controller General of India before starting the Phase II trial, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
Read more here:
Coronavirus: Expert panel says Phase I trial of Covaxin necessary before starting Phase II
1.35 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa meets Union Health Ministry officials amid the recent surge in cases in the state.
1.30 pm: The Haryana government freezes the dearness allowance and dearness relief for state government employees and pensioners at the current rates till July 2021.
12.25 pm: The Supreme Court refuses to entertain a plea seeking more testing across the country, ANI reports.
11.52 am: Arunachal Pradesh reports its second Covid death after a 40-year-old mad died in Naharlagun, PTI reports. The state has so far reported 270 infections.
11.50 am: Air New Zealand halts bookings temporarily to ease the burden on the country’s quarantine facilities.
“We have seen similar moves in Australia, where passenger numbers into Sydney have been limited following the suspension of flights into Melbourne because of the surge in COVID cases in Victoria,” Housing Minister Megan Woods says, according to RNZ. “They too are having to manage the flow of people into the country to match availability of managed isolation beds. We are seeing rapid growth in the numbers of New Zealanders coming home as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens.”
Woods adds: “Our number one priority is stopping the virus at the border, so everyone must to go into quarantine or managed isolation. The government is also talking to other airlines about managing flows. The last thing we need are hastily set up facilities to meet demand, so we must have a manageable number of fit-for-purpose, safe facilities that do the job of stopping COVID at the border.”
11.47 am: Infosys brings back 200 employees and their stranded family members from San Francisco to Bengaluru via a chartered flight, according to The Economic Times.
11.45 am: The total cases in Odisha crosses 10,000 with 571 new cases. The state’s tally is now 10,097 and the toll is 42.
11.43 am: Australian city Melbourne has been placed under a new, six-week lockdown, from Thursday.
11.38 am: Balasore MP and Union minister Pratap Sarangi quarantines himself at his home in New Delhi after he shared a stage with an MLA from Odisha last week. The MLA has now tested positive for the coronavirus.
11.28 am: The number of coronavirus deaths in Britain rise to 44,236. It has reported over 2.8 lakh cases.
11.22 am: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation authorities have decided to test all high-risk contacts of coronavirus patients in institutional quarantine facilities before discharging them, The Times of India reports. So far, people in institutional quarantine were discharges after 10 days if they did not show any symptoms for three days.
Similarly, in a bid to ramp up testing, the criteria for high-rise contacts in home quarantine has also been eased. They can now get tested through self declaration.
11.15 am: The Shiv Sena takes a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that the battle against Covid-19 would be won in 21 days. The crisis still persists even after 100 days, the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.
“The coronavirus will be there and [we] need to live with it...the vaccine for coronavirus will not be available before 2021...that means [we] will have to live with coronavirus at least till then,” the editorial adds.
11.08 am: Authorities have decided to impose a total shutdown in English Bazar and Old Malda towns in West Bengal for a week from Wednesday amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Only essential items would be available.
Malda has so far reported 869 cases and four deaths.
11 am: Authorities in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts of Uttar Pradesh have sealed the borders with Uttarakhand and Haryana to prevent devotees, called kanwariyas, who participate in the annual Kanwar Yatra from entering, PTI reports.
The devotees visit Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar during the Kanwar Yatra, which is an annual pilgrimage for the Hindu god Shiva.
Muzaffarnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Abhishek Yadav said 58 checkpoints were set up on the Delhi-Haridwar national highway and at other places along the Uttarakhand border to check the arrival of kanwariyas.
10.16 am: The pandemic could last till next April at least in Mexico, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell says, Reuters reports. “Flu season begins in October and there are some reasonable assumptions that we could also have a spike in COVID-19 along with the flu throughout the fall-to-winter season,” he says.
Mexico has so far recorded 2,61,750 cases and 31,119 deaths.
10.07 am: “Like the virus, terrorism does not respect national borders,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says. “It affects all nations and can only be defeated collectively. So we must harness the power of multilateralism to find practical solutions.”
He adds: “Psycho-social, economic and political stresses associated with COVID-19 have risen dramatically. Terrorists must not be allowed to exploit those fissures and fragilities.”
10.05 am: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday said terrorist groups such the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and their affiliates should not be allowed to exploit the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, PTI reports.
“It is too early to fully assess the implications of Covid-19 on the terrorism landscape,” he said at the opening of the virtual week-long discussions on counter terrorism. “But we know that ISIL, al-Qaeda, their regional affiliates – as well as neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups – seek to exploit divisions, local conflicts, governance failures and grievances to advance their objectives.”
10.03 am: Clinical scientist Gagandeep Kang on Monday resigned as the executive director of the Faridabad-based Translational Health Sciences and Technology Institute – an autonomous health research body under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology, The Indian Express reports.
Kang’s tenure was supposed to end in August 2021. The 57-year-old medical scientist’s resignation was unexpected as it came at a time when India is struggling hard to contain the spread of coronavirus and the world is racing to get a vaccine against the contagion.
Read more here:
Gagandeep Kang quits top government research institute, says decision not linked to Covid-19 vaccine
10 am: As many as 872 employees of the Central Railway and the Western Railway, and their family members and retired personnel have tested positive for the coronavirus so far, PTI reports. Of this, 86 have died.
9.55 am: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela was discharged on Monday after he recovered from the coronavirus, The Indian Express reports. The 80-year-old Nationalist Congress Party leader was admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad on June 28.
9.50 am: Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu alleges that the Andhra Pradesh government’s claim that it has conducted a million Covid-19 tests is a “sham”, PTI reports.
“Shocked that a Govt can stoop to such level to cover their failures,” Naidu says. “‘One Million Covid tests’ narrative woven by the AP Govt is either a sham/scam. I request the Centre to look into this immediately and expose the criminal motive behind the ‘SMS testing racket’ run by the government.” Naidu alleges that people who have not even given their samples for testing have received either negative or positive reports.
9.43 am: The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration in Uttar Pradesh has asked doctors and nurses of a private hospital to return to work in three days or face action, PTI reports. “An FIR will be registered against doctors and nurses who are leaving job during COVID-19 and action ensured against them”, a statement said. “The four doctors and 40 nurses of the Sharda Hospital have been given necessary instructions over leaving their jobs.”
9.40 am: India has so far tested 1,02,11,092 samples, the Indian Council of Medical Research says. Of this, 2,41,430 samples were tested on Monday alone.
9.27 am: India reports 22,252 coronavirus cases and 467 deaths in 24 hours. This takes the overall tally to 7,19,665 and the toll to 20,160. More than 4.39 lakh people have recovered.
India is now the third worst-affected nation in the world, crossing Russia. Only the United States and Brazil have more cases.
8.50 am: The US reports nearly 30 lakh coronavirus cases. It currently has 29,11,888 infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. Its toll passed 1,30,000 on Monday.
The White House, meanwhile, claimed that the US was “a leader” in the global fight against the coronavirus, according to The Guardian.
8.40 am: In Israel, bars, clubs and gyms have been shut down after a surge in cases in recent days. The country has reported 30,749 cases and 334 deaths so far.
8.30 am: Kenya is set to emerge from its lockdown in a phased manner, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday, according to The Guardian. International flights will resume from August 1 and several other travel restrictions are also expected to be lifted. The move came amid concerns about the ailing economy following four months of lockdown.
8.10 am: The Democratic Republic of Congo extends lockdown for 15 more days. This is the sixth extension since March and has raised concerns about the effect on the economy, The Guardian reports.
8.05 am: South Africa records more than 8,000 new cases in a day, The Guardian reports. The country now has 205,721 cases and 3,310 deaths.
7.45 am: The United States says it would not allow foreign students to remain in the country for the autumn semester if all their university classes are moved online because of the coronavirus crisis. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its notice added that students could stay back if they shift to a course with in-person tuition.
Read more here:
Covid-19: US to withdraw visas for foreign students whose universities move to online-only classes
7.40 am: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he has undergone another test for the coronavirus, Reuters reports. His lungs were clean, he adds.
7.35 am: Paris’ Louvre Museum reopened on Monday after a four-month coronavirus lockdown, AP reports.
7.30 am: China reports eight new coronavirus cases on Monday, The Guardian reports, adding that there were no new infections in Beijing. China so far has 83,565 confirmed coronavirus and the toll is 4,634.
7.25 am: Karnataka Minister JC Madhuswamy says there are fears of community transmission of the virus in the state, ANI reports. “Medical condition of eight infected with coronavirus admitted in Tumkur Covid Hospital is critical,” Tumakuru district-in-charge minister Madhuswamy said. “There is no guarantee of their lives as per the information. We somewhere feel we are worried that coronavirus is spreading at the community level.”
He added: “We have reached a point where it is difficult for the district authorities to restrain it, even though we are trying to restrain it. Somewhere the situation is going out of hand.” There have been nine deaths in the district so far.
7.20 am: A total lockdown would be imposed from 7 pm on July 9 to July 15 in Jorhat, Assam.
7.15 am: West Bengal has set up its first plasma bank, following Delhi, reports The Times of India. The plasma bank is at Kolkata Medical College and Hospital.
The first such facility in India was set up at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences in Delhi.
7.10 am: The global coronavirus count is now 1,15,89,382. The toll stands at 5,37,419, according to the Johns Hopkins University. As many as 62,74,848 people have recovered so far.
7 am: Here are the top updates from Monday:
- India’s coronavirus tally crossed the 7 lakh-mark on Monday evening and rose to 7,00,150, according to a calculation by PTI. Earlier in the day, the health ministry said the country has 6,97,413 cases and the toll stood at 19,693. India is now the world’s third worst-affected country, behind only the United States and Brazil.
- The number of coronavirus cases in Delhi crossed the 1 lakh-mark in the evening. The city reported 1,379 new infections, taking the total to 1,00,823. Maharashtra saw an increase of 5,368 new cases. With this, the worst-hit state’s tally rose to 2,11,987. As many as 3,827 new cases were reported in Tamil Nadu, taking the total number to 1,14,978.
- The Union Home Ministry allowed universities and institutions to conduct final year examinations.
- The Karnataka government revised the quarantine norms for travellers coming from other states, including Maharashtra, and exempted them from the mandatory seven-day institutional quarantine. Travellers coming to Karnataka will now be placed in 14-day home quarantine.
- The Maharashtra government said that hotels and lodges outside containment zones will be open to guests from July 8, but with strict safety measures in place. The government said that the establishments will be allowed to operate at 33% of their capacity.
- The finance ministry, in a report, said that India’s gross domestic product is expected to contract 4.5% in the 2020-’21 financial year as predicted by the International Monetary Fund. The ministry cited “unprecedented Covid-19 induced supply-demand shocks” for the downward revision of the economic growth.
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that in the future, Harvard Business School will have case studies on failures of the Narendra Modi-led government, such as its handling of the coronavirus crisis, demonetisation and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.
- In an open letter to the World Health Organization, 239 scientists from 32 countries have claimed that the Covid-19 coronavirus is airborne. The claim contradicts previous evidence that suggested that it was transmitted from person-to-person through droplets from the nose or mouth, which are expelled when a person with the disease coughs, sneezes or speaks.
- The border between Australia’s Victoria and New South Wales states will be closed from Tuesday for the first time in 100 years amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Movement between the two states was last banned during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919.