Coronavirus: Maharashtra records over 6,600 new cases, toll rises to 9,448

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

10.45 pm: The Indian Navy says it has completed Operation Samudra Setu that began on May 5, and has brought back nearly 4,000 Indians from three countries amid the pandemic, reports PTI.

10.30 pm: Punjab’s coronavirus tally rises to 6,907 after 158 new infections. The toll climbs to 178 after three new deaths, according to PTI.

10.15 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 3,756 new coronavirus cases, taking the state tally to 1,22,350, reports The Hindu. The toll stands at 1,700.

10.05 pm: Jammu and Kashmir records 330 more coronavirus cases – 59 in Jammu division and 271 from Kashmir. The total number of cases is now at 9,261 and toll is 149.

10 pm: Delhi has conducted 22,028 coronavirus tests till Wednesday, reports ANI, citing the health department’s bulletin. Out of these, 9,461 are RT-PCR tests and 12,567 are rapid antigen tests.

9.45 pm: Delhi reports 2,033 new coronavirus cases, and 48 deaths in the last 24 hours, reports PTI. The Capital’s case count rises to 1,04,864 and toll to 3,213.

9.30 pm: Mumbai records 1,381 coronavirus cases and 62 deaths, reports ANI, citing the city civic body’s bulletin. The total number of cases in the city is 87,513, including 59,238 recoveries, 23,214 active cases and 5,061 deaths.

8.47 pm: Kerala reports highest rise in coronavirus cases with 301 new infections, according to PTI. The state now has 6,195 total cases. While 2,605 people were presently under treatment, as many as 107 were discharged today, taking the cumulative recoveries to 3,561.

8.44 pm: More new coronavirus cases in states and Union Territories, according to ANI:

• Haryana: 691 new cases, total rises to 18,690.
• Karnataka: 2,062 new cases, total rises to 28,877.
• Gujarat: 783 new cases, total rises to 38,419.

8.10 pm: Maharashtra reports 6,603 new coronavirus cases and 198 deaths. The state’s tally rises to 2,23,724 and toll to 9,448, reports ANI, citing the health department.

8.06 pm: Maharashtra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope says hotels have reopened in the state, and the administration will also consider reopening restaurants and gymnasiums in the future. “We are positive about it,” he tells ANI. “If social distancing norms are strictly followed, then there is no problem in reopening these two.”

7.35 pm: Food Safety Department officials seal a shop selling “special mysurpak [a sweet]” with 19 herbal ingredients, claiming that it would cure the coronavirus in just three days, according to PTI.

7.30 pm: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan urges the international community to share information on their strategies to deal with the coronavirus, reports PTI. The country has recorded a total of 2,34,489 cases and the toll stands at 4,922.

7.20 pm: Uttarakhand’s Covid-19 tally rises to 3,258 after 28 new infections. There are 534 active cases in the state and 46 deaths, reports ANI.

7.19 pm: Manipur records five new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the state tally to 1,435. There have also been 793 recoveries, reports ANI, citing the state health department.

6.45 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaks about the complete lockdown in the state’s containment zones from Thursday, reports ANI. She says: “Since in a few places we are getting coronavirus patients, we are thinking of containment zones. Police need to be strict, if people don’t wear masks they will be sent home. Lockdown will be implemented in these areas for seven days.”

Read more here:

Covid-19: West Bengal announces complete lockdown in containment zones from 5 pm on July 9

6.04 pm: The annual Amarnath Yatra will be conducted in a staggered manner because of the coronavirus and not more than 500 pilgrims will be allowed to visit the sacred shrine, PTI reports.

5.56 pm: Mumbai’s Dharavi slum records three new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, ANI reports, quoting the city’s civic body. The area’s overall count rises to 2,338 and the toll stands at 86.

5.52 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath says a three-day special cleanliness campaign will be organised across the state from July 10 to check the spread of the coronavirus, PTI reports.

5.45 pm: A study led by University College London suggests that serious problems can occur even in people experiencing mild coronavirus symptoms, AFP reports. The study adds that brain complications due to the coronavirus like delirium, nerve damage and stroke may be more common than initially thought.

5.39 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 1,062 new coronavirus cases and 12 deaths in 24 hours. The state’s overall count rises to 22,259 and the toll reaches 264.

5.33 pm: China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lijian Zhao says a team from the World Health Organization will visit Beijing to study the origin of the coronavirus. “WHO will send similar teams to other countries and regions as needed,” Zhao adds.

5.14 pm: Mizoram reports three new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. The state’s overall count rises to 204.

5.08 pm: The Delhi High Court grants bail to Tablighi Jamaat attendees from 21 countries, who have been accused of violating visa rules, PTI reports.

4.58 pm: The Odisha government directs government employees commuting from places other than Cuttack and Khordha to not attend offices in Bhubaneswar till July 31, ANI reports.

4.37 pm: Bihar’s capital Patna will remain under lockdown from July 10 to July 16 amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

4.34 pm: The Meghalaya government says admission forms for class 9, graduate and post-graduate courses will be available online and free of cost.

4.31 pm: The Karnataka High Court stays the state government’s ban on online classes, Live Law reports.

4.26 pm: Seventeen personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police tested positive for the coronavirus in 24 hours, ANI reports. The force’s overall count rises to 448.

4.19 pm: Uttar Pradesh reports 1,196 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours.

4.18 pm: The Bihar government bans visitors from entering the state secretariat.

4.10 pm: The Centre says it will continue to make Employees’s Provident Fund contributions till August now. “With a total estimated expenditure of Rs 4,860 crore, this move will benefit over 72 lakh employees,” Javadekar says.

3.55 pm: The Union minister says that the Centre will spend 1.49 lakh crore on giving free foodgrain and pulses to the people for eight months.

3.50 pm: Javadekar adds that the cabinet has also approved capital infusion of Rs 12,450 crore to three public sector companies including the Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and United India Insurance Company.

3.48 pm: Javadekar says that the Centre has extended the time limit for availing benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for Ujjwala beneficiaries by three months from July 1.

3.46 pm: The Union minister adds that that the Centre has approved Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for urban migrants poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme.

3.43 pm: Prakash Javadekar says about 74.3 crore beneficiaries have been covered by the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna Scheme in April, 74.75 crore in May and over 64 crore in June.

3.39 pm: The Ministry of Defence will reimburse the cost of pulse oximeters purchased by ex-servicemen, ANI reports.

3.35 pm: Union minister Prakash Javadekar briefs the media on the Centre’s food security scheme.

3.31 pm: The director of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad Rakesh Mishra says there is no need for people to panic over new findings that show the coronavirus is airborne, PTI reports. “At the moment, there will not be, as far as I see, any major change in guidelines except a few modifications and there is no particular need to be stressed or panic that the virus is flying all over the place and it will be infecting everyone,” he says.

3.26 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office says over 100 organisations in Varanasi distributed almost 20 lakh food packets and 2 lakh dry ration kits to the people with help from the district administration during the lockdown. The prime minister will speak to these organisations on Thursday.

3.22 pm: Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister P Thangamani tests positive for the coronavirus, The Indian Express reports.

3.16 pm: The Union health ministry says experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will provide guidance and support to doctors working in intensive care units in an effort to reduce the coronavirus mortality rate in the country.

3.14 pm: Bihar records 749 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, ANI reports. The state’s overall count rises to 13,274.

3.11 pm: Bengaluru Mayor M Gautham Kumar goes into quarantine after his personal assistant tests positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports.

3.09 pm: The World Health Organization’s teams hold a session with Indo-Tibetan Police Force medical staff at the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre in Delhi.

3.06 pm: Hotels in Mumbai resume their services.

3.04 pm: The Delhi High Court directs the Aam Aadmi Party government to prioritise pregnant women’s request for coronavirus tests and give them the results quickly, PTI reports.

2.51 pm: Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi’s official residence has been sealed for two days after a peon tested positive for the coronavirus, The New Indian Express reports.

2.48 pm: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren says that he will isolate himself for the next few days after a state Cabinet minister and an MLA from his party tested positive for the coronavirus.

Read here: Covid-19: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren goes into isolation after Cabinet colleague, MLA test positive

1.51 pm: The Delhi University informs the Delhi High Court that it has decided to postpone final year undergraduate exams from the original date of July 10 to August, PTI reports.

1.46 pm: Puducherry Raj Nivas, which is the official residence of Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, is being disinfected and will remain closed for 48 hours after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, ANI reports. All staff members and workers at Bedi’s personal office are being tested.

12.55 pm: Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar says the surge in the number of cases in Bengaluru was expected but the extent was not known, reports PTI. “In Bengaluru we were aware that there would be a surge in the number of infections when we relaxed the lockdown, but the information that came to us did not show that it will be to this extent,” he adds. “These numbers were expected by July- end, but it has happened a bit earlier. There is no need to worry, we are making all the necessary arrangements and there is no need for anyone to worry.”

12.38 pm: In Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, 75 police personnel have been quarantined after a thief tested positive, reports Hindustan Times. “All 75 will undergo the Covid-19 test on Friday,” says Kamal Kishore, the sub-divisional police officer of Hazaribagh. “At present, 15 are under institutional quarantine and the rest [60] are isolated at their respective homes.”

He adds that the owner and the staff of the shop from where the accused was arrested will also undergo the test along with those living in and around the shop.

12.21 pm: Puducherry records highest surge of 112 cases, reports PTI.

12.17 pm: A Delhi Police constable dies 12 days after testing positive, reports PTI. Constable Yogender Yadav, 40, was posted at Paschim Vihar West Police Station. He was admitted to Park Hospital on June 12 due to a liver related ailment and had tested positive for Covid-19 on June 25.

12.08 pm: India’s Covid-19 recovery rate crosses is now 61.53%. As many as 4.56 lakh people out of the total 7.42 lakh have recovered.

12.05 pm: Two Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLAs, one of who is a minister in Hemant Soren’s Cabinet, have tested positive, reports The Times of India. Both are said to have met the chief minister recently.

11.50 am: Rajasthan reports 173 new cases and six deaths, ANI reports citing the state health department. With this, the total number of infection in the state is now 21,577 including 478 deaths.

10.34 am: PM Narendra Modi wishes Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro a quick recovery.

10.31 am: Karnataka Chief Minsiter BS Yediyurappa holds an emergency meeting with Deputy Chief Minister A Narayan.

10.28 am: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s coronavirus emergency cabinet is considering limiting number of its citizens and residents returning home from abroad, reports Reuters.

10.23 am: United States President Donald Trump claims the US toll is “down tenfold”.

10.22 am: Mexico records 6,258 new cases and 895 deaths, reports Reuters.

10.20 am: Visuals from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram where a “triple lockdown” has been imposed for a week.

10.17 am: Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry backtracks after claiming that a necklace made from eucalyptus can help prevent transmission of Covid-19, reports The Guardian. This comes after the country’s agriculture minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo faced severe criticism from health experts for claiming that the necklace, if worn for 30 minutes, could help destroy the virus.

10.12 am: Israel’s top epidemiologist Siegal Sadetzki resigns in protest against the government’s handling of the pandemic, reports The Guardian. “The achievements in dealing with the first wave [of infections] were cancelled out by the broad and swift opening of the economy,” Sadetzki writes in a Facebook post.

10.03 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asks the health secretary to share a detailed analysis of factors behind all Covid-19 deaths in the Capital in the last two weeks, reports ANI.

10.01 am: Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar inaugurates a plasma donation center at Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai.

9.53 am: The Drug Controller General of India flags black-marketing of remdesivir, a medicine used for Covid-19 patients, reports NDTV. “This office has received a letter from M/s Local circles, through MOHFW, raising concerns regarding black marketing and overpricing of the drug Remdesivir by certain unscrupulous persons,” DGCI chief VS Somani writes in a letter to the health ministry. “You are requested to instruct your enforcement officials to keep a strict vigil on the matter to prevent the black-marketing and sale of the drug Remdesivir Injection above MRP.”

9.48 am: Maharashtra BJP MLA Mukta Tilak tests positive in Pune. “Today me and my mother have tested positive for COVID-19,” the legislator tweets. “We are not showing any symptoms & have been advised by the doctors to be under home quarantine & have thus self-isolated.”

9.45 am: The Maharashtra government will recruit 10,000 more police personnel, says Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, according to The Indian Express. The Maharashtra Police have 5,435 cases and 71 deaths so far.

9.44 am: The Supreme Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report on Covid-19 cases in Kanpur’s juvenile homes, reports The Indian Express. “There are news reports about children in juvenile homes in Kanpur being tested Corona positive. Please check and file affidavit,” says the bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao.

9.41 am: A Central team has advised Karnataka to increase testing in order to bring the spread of the virus in Bengaluru under control, reports The Indian Express. “They discussed a lot of issues on how to tackle the spread of the virus,” Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar tells the newspaper. “One thing they said is that the more you test, the better you can control the spread of the disease.”

9.31 am: India’s coronavirus tally rises to 7,42,417, with 22,752 new cases in 24 hours on Wednesday morning. The toll increases by 482 to 20,642. More than 4.56 lakh people have recovered.

9.29 am: The Gujarat High Court will remain closed from today till July 10 for sanitisation, reports ANI. Six staff members of the High Court registry and a constable from the Vigilance Department have tested positive.

9.28 am: A total of 2,62,679 samples were tested on Tuesday, says the Indian Council of Medical Research. With this, India has so far tested 1,04,73,771 samples.

9.27 am: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation shuts down two branches of ICICI Bank in the city after 15 people test positive.

9.26 am: Odisha reports highest single-day rise in case with 571 infections on Tuesday. With this, the state’s tally is now over 10,000. Meanwhile, Biju Janata Dal MLA Prashant Nayak tests positive in Odisha, reports Hindustan Times.

9.15 am: World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the coronavirus pandemic still has not reached its peak globally. “The outbreak is accelerating and we’ve clearly not reached the peak of the pandemic,” he adds.

9.03 am: The WHO’s technical lead for infection prevention and control, Benedetta Allegranzi, said that though there was evidence of airborne transmission, it was not definitive. “The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings - especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out,” she said, according to Reuters. “However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this.”

Also read

Covid-19: WHO acknowledges there is ‘evidence emerging’ that virus transmits through the air

9 am: The World Health Organization on Tuesday said that there was emerging evidence that the coronavirus is airborne, Reuters reports. “We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of Covid-19,” Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on the pandemic at the WHO, said.

In an open letter to the World Health Organization, 239 scientists from 32 countries had claimed last week 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.

8.58 am: There will be a complete shutdown in Cuttack, Odisha, till July 10, ANI reports.

8.40 am: The US has so far reported 29.93 lakh cases and 1,31,455 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

8.30 am: The United States has formally notified the United Nations about its decision to quit the World Health Organization, PTI reports. In May, United States President Donald Trump had said his country would terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization, after weeks of accusing the agency of helping the Chinese government cover up the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. In April, the US had halted its share of funding to the global agency.

“I can say that on 6 July 2020, the United States of America notified the secretary-general, in his capacity as depositary of the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization, of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, effective on 6 July 2021,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said.

The withdrawal will, however, not go into effect till next July as the US needs to give a year’s notice.

Also read

US officially notifies World Health Organization of its withdrawal amid Covid-19 pandemic

7.55 am: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong warns that if the Covid-19 situation in the state worsens, then the government may impose a total lockdown, PTI reports. The state reported six new cases on Tuesday, taking the total number of active cases to 50. Two people have died so far and 43 have recovered.

“If the situation worsens... I think we have no option (but to impose a total lockdown in the state),” Tynsong says. “Though there is no community spread but the situation is not safe (as of now). I request each and every citizen to kindly refrain from any unnecessary exposures.”

7.45 am: West Bengal reports its highest single-day Covid-19 toll on Tuesday with 25 deaths. The overall toll in the state is now 807, PTI reports. The state’s tally rises to 23,837.

7.40 am: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the coronavirus, The Guardian reports. “It came back positive,” he told reporters on Tuesday. Bolsonaro has been repeatedly criticised recently for not taking the pandemic situation though Brazil is the second worst-affected country in the world. It has reported more than 16.6 lakh cases and nearly 67,000 deaths.

“There’s no reason for fear. That’s life,” Bolsonaro said. “Life goes on. I thank God for my life and the role I’ve been given to decide the future of this great nation that is called Brazil.” The 65-year-old has been seen in public either without masks or with an improperly worn mask. He has also flouted physical distancing norms, The Guardian reports.

Also read

Brazil President Bolsonaro tests positive for coronavirus after months of flouting distancing rules

7.35 am: The global coronavirus tally is now over 1.17 crore, while the toll has crossed 5.43 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 64 lakh people have recovered so far.

7.30 am: Here is a look at the top updates from Tuesday:

• 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, and only behind the US and Brazil.
• Maharashtra reported 5,134 new coronavirus cases and 224 deaths, taking the state’s tally to 2,17,121 and the toll to 9,250. Delhi recorded 2,008 new cases that took its overall case count to 1,02,831. The Capital’s toll reached 3,165 with 50 new deaths. Tamil Nadu reported 3,616 new cases and 65 deaths. The state’s tally rose to 1,18,594 and the toll went up to 1,636.
• The West Bengal government announced that strict lockdown will be imposed in containment zones from July 9 amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Offices and shops in these areas will be closed and public transport will be suspended.
• 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 Central Board of Secondary Education said syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 will be reduced by 30% for the coming academic year due to the coronavirus situation.
• Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne will be placed under lockdown from Thursday amid a surge in cases.
  
• The New Zealand government on Tuesday asked its national airline not to take new bookings for three weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic. The country, which had declared itself Covid-free in early June, is now attempting to limit the number of citizens returning home to reduce the burden on quarantine facilities.