Coronavirus: Kerala CM confirms community transmission as India’s caseload crosses 10-lakh mark

11.05 pm: Here are the day’s top updates.

11 pm: Jailed activists Vernon Gonsalves and Anand Teltumbde on Friday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court, asking that they be tested for the coronavirus, days after poet-activist Varavara Rao – their fellow inmate at Mumbai’s Taloja jail – was found to have contracted the infection. All the three activists have been jailed in the Elgar Parishad case.

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Coronavirus: Jailed activists Vernon Gonsalves, Anand Teltumbde file petition to get tested

10.30 pm: Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week, was on Friday admitted to the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. She was earlier in home quarantine with her daughter Aaradhya.

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Coronavirus: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who tested positive last week, admitted to Mumbai hospital

9.07 pm: Maharashtra records 8,308 new cases and 258 deaths on Friday. The state’s tally rises to 2,92,589 and the toll reaches 11,452.

9.02 pm: The Election Commission of India asks for suggestions from national and state political parties on election campaign and public meetings amid the coronavirus crisis, ANI reports The last date of sharing suggestions is July 31.

8.59 pm: “The coronavirus pandemic has severely tested the resilience of all nations,” Modi says. “In India, we’ve tried to make the fight against the pandemic a people’s movement by combining the efforts of the government and civil society.”

8.48 pm: Modi says India’s grassroot health system is helping it achieve one of the best coronavirus recovery rates in the world.

8.35 pm: “In our joint fight against the coronavirus, we have extended medical and other assistance to over 150 countries,” the prime minister says.

8.33 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

8.22 pm: The ban on flights to Kolkata from six hotspot cities is extended from July 19 to July 31.

7.20 pm: Immigration officials in the United States are spreading the coronavirus by transferring people between detention centres, Reuters reports. Half of the transfers involved immigrants who were either moved from centers with Covid-19 cases to those with no known cases, or from centers with no cases to those where the virus had spread.

7.17 pm: Nagaland’s tally rises to 551 with 40 new cases on Friday.

7.14 pm: Almost half of the 190 inmates at the Anantnag District jail in Jammu and Kashmir test positive for the coronavirus, PTI reports.

7.12 pm: The Jharkhand government says people arriving from other states will have to stay in home quarantine for 14 days, ANI reports.

7.09 pm: Tamil Nadu reports 4,538 new cases and 79 deaths on Friday. The state’s tally rises to 1,60,907 and the toll reaches 2,315.

6.55 pm: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan says the coronavirus has reached community transmission stage in Poonthura and Pulluvila areas, The New Indian Express reports.

6.53 pm: The Centre sends a special team to Bihar amid rising coronavirus cases.

6.34 pm: Delhi records 1,462 new cases on Friday, taking the total to 1,20,107. The toll rises to 3,571 with 26 new deaths.

6.24 pm: Kerala records 791 new coronavirus cases on Friday, ANI reports, quoting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The state’s tally rises to 11,066.

6.17 pm: Himachal Pradesh reports 18 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its total to 1,402. The state has 383 active cases. The toll stands at nine.

6.14 pm: Indonesia records 1,462 new coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing its total cases to 83,130, Reuters reports. The country’s tally rises by 84 to 3,957.

6.11 pm: The Andhra Pradesh government launches 52 new buses to collect samples for coronavirus tests.

6.08 pm: Swiss officials start investigations into importers and dealers of defective respiratory masks, Reuters reports. The Swiss Federal Office for Accident Prevention and Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund say 60% of the protective masks they reviewed offered insufficient protection.

6.04 pm: United Kingdom Health Secretary Matt Hancock calls for an urgent review into the number of coronavirus deaths recorded by England after experts say that the daily figures may have included people who have died of other causes, BBC reports.

5.57 pm: Karnataka minister R Ashok says the lockdown in Bengaluru will not be extended beyond July 22, ANI reports.

5.55 pm: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation says 19.84 lakh passengers travelled domestically in June this year, which is 83.5% lower than the number of travellers the same month last year.

5.46 pm: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath directs officials to set up integrated command centres in the state and the district headquarters for medical screening, ambulance services and surveillance activities, PTI reports. He also orders the use of drone cameras for monitoring containment zones.

5.43 pm: Chandigarh’s coronavirus tally rises to 660 on Friday with 25 new cases.

5.41 pm: Mumbai’s Dharavi slum records 10 new coronavirus cases on Friday, ANI reports. The area’s tally rises to 2,438, of which only 102 are active cases.

5.29 pm: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduces a set of measures for a “more significant return to normality” by Christmas, The Guardian reports. Johnson said that the people will not be forbidden from using public transport and casinos and beauty parlours will be allowed to open from August 1.

5.10 pm: A study shows that the reduction in air pollution because of the Covid-19 lockdown imposed in March may have prevented 630 premature deaths and saved as $690 million (about Rs 5,100 crore) in health costs across India, PTI reports.

Scientists studied the levels of PM 2.5 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad between March 25 and May 11. They then compared it with similar periods in the past five years. The study was published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society.

According to the study, the levels of harmful air pollutants reduced by up to 54% in Delhi and 10% in Mumbai. It reduced between 24% to 32% in other cities.

5.04 pm: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa says the lockdown was not a solution to control Covid-19, PTI reports. “There is no proposal before the government to extend the lockdown,” Yediyurappa says in a press release. Bengaluru is currently under lockdown till 5 am on July 22.

4.30 pm: West Bengal adds 35 more areas to its list of containment zones, taking the total to 676, PTI reports.

4.28 pm: Thirty-four people, including 31 personnel of the Border Security Force, test positive for Covid-19 in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, PTI reports. The district’s count now rises to 253, including seven deaths.

4.25 pm: A lockdown will be imposed in the areas that fall under Rasra municipality board in UP’s Ballia district from Saturday as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise, PTI reports. The lockdown in Rasra will be in place from July 18 to 25.

The Adityanath government has sacked Ballia Chief Medical Officer Dr PK Misra and District Women’s Hospital Superintendent Dr Madhuri Singh over allegations of laxity.

4.08 pm: Indore reports 129 new cases of the coronavirus in 24 hours on Friday, taking the total tally of infections in the district to 5,761, PTI reports. Of the 5,761 cases recorded so far, 4,139 patients have recovered from the infection, while 284 have died.

3.48 pm: The Union health ministry says the actual case load of Covid-19 cases in the country is only 3,42,756, as on Friday. More than 6.35 lakh (63.33%) of the total cases have recovered, it says.

3.42 pm: The Monsoon Session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, which was scheduled to begin from July 20, has been postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic, PTI reports.

3.40 pm: The Odisha government announces that the spouse, or next of kin of an Anganwadi worker who dies of the coronavirus in line of duty, shall continue to receive Rs 7,500 every month till the date they turn 60-years-old, ANI reports.

3.39 pm: The Bombay High Court asks the Maharashtra government to state its position on a petition seeking compensation for families of frontline workers who died after contracting Covid-19 infection on duty, PTI reports.

3.06 pm: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces a funding of $3.8 billion (Rs 28,495 crore) into England’s National Health Service to try to ward off any resurgence of the coronavirus, as he sets out the next stage of his recovery plan for Britain, Reuters reports.

3.00 pm: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh announces that a lockdown will be imposed on weekends in the state to curb the spread of the coronavirus, ANI reports. “Guidelines for the same to be issued soon,” he adds.

2.52 pm: A Congress leader, who recovered from Covid-19, launches a Plasma Donors Association for promoting awareness among those who have successfully battled the disease and encourage them to donate plasma to save other patients, PTI reports. “This is purely to serve the patients without any discrimination or indulging in politics,” Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy says.

2.48 pm: Himachal Pradesh reports seven more cases of the coronavirus on Friday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 1,384, ANI reports. The toll from the disease stands at nine.

2.45 pm: Opposition parties in Bihar write to Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commission of India appealing to ensure “substantial public participation and level playing field in 2020 Bihar polls”, ANI reports. “People expect the commission to ensure and satisfy the people that the entire poll exercise does not become a super spreader event [of the coronavirus],” they add. Parties who issued the statement include, the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Hindustani Awam Morcha, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Loktantrik Janata Dal

2.43 pm: Andhra Pradesh reports 2,602 new cases of the coronavirus in 24 hours on Friday, ANI reports, quoting the state health department. The state now has 40,646 infections, including 534 deaths.

2.41 pm: The human clinical trials for Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, which is India’s first indigenous coronavirus vaccine candidate, began at PGI Rohtak on Friday, Haryana minister Anil Vij says. “. Three subjects were enrolled today [Friday],” he adds. “All have tolerated the vaccine very well. There were no adverse efforts.”

1.28 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council at 8.30 pm on Friday. “[I] would be speaking on various issues, including this year’s theme of multilateralism after Covid-19, at a time when we mark 75 years of the United Nations,” he tweets.

1.25 pm: Puducherry reports 91 new cases of the coronavirus and three deaths in 24 hours on Friday, ANI reports, quoting the health department. The state’s tally of infections stands at 1,832, including 25 deaths.

1.23 pm: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike starts around 200 mobile labs to conduct antigen tests in containment zones and Covid-19 hotspots in Bengaluru, ANI reports. Bengaluru has reported 25,288 Covid-19 cases and 507 deaths as of Thursday night.

1.22 pm: Bengaluru Mayor Goutham Kumar says the lockdown imposed in the city to contain the coronavirus outbreak may be extended by a week, ANI reports. “People are still not aware and wandering outside their houses aimlessly,” he says. “Keeping this in view, [the] government may extend the lockdown...”

1.20 pm: Fifty-two more people, including seven Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel, tesT positive for Covid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday, PTI reports. With this, the state’s total tally of infections rises to 543.

1.17 pm: Five more persons test positive for Covid-19 in Mizoram on Friday, taking the state’s tally to 272, PTI reports.

1.14 pm: Districts in Madhya Pradesh may be the most vulnerable to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, a study in British medical journal, The Lancet, states. The study notes that apart from Madhya Pradesh, eight states – Bihar and Telangana, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, and Gujarat – have high vulnerability to be impacted by the outbreak

1.10 pm: At least 250 casual workers of Air India move the Bombay High Court seeking direction to the government-run airline to provide them work, PTI reports. The workers argue the coronavirus-induced lockdown has rendered them jobless and deprived them of wages. A bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and V G Bisht issued a notice to Air India and directed the national carrier to respond within two weeks.

1.09 pm: There are no plans to stop public darshan at Tirumala Tirupati Balaji temple, says YV Subba Reddy, chairperson of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board, according to NDTV. This came even as 14 priests were among 140 temple employees who tested positive for coronavirus.

12.33 pm: According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, the US has recorded 77,300 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. This is the highest one-day total for the pandemic so far.

12.30 pm: A 60-year-old patient dies by hanging herself at KC General Hospital in Karnataka around 5 am, says the deputy commissioner of police, Bengaluru (North).

12.28 pm: The Supreme Court adjourns hearing on 24 public interest litigations over the “miseries and difficulties” faced by migrants labourers across the country following the lockdown. The court will take up the matter again on July 24, reports ANI.

12.25 pm: Israel imposes new weekend restrictions, reports AFP. Restaurants and gyms will be closed and gatherings of more than 10 people in closed spaces and 20 in open air have been banned.

11.33 am: A week-long complete lockdown begins on Friday in 47 wards of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation in West Bengal, to curb the spread of the coronavirus, ANI reports.

11.05 am: The leading government hospital in Bengaluru for treatment of Covid-19 has seen a 97% death rate among patients put on ventilators, The Indian Express reports. Since April, when the 100-year-old Victoria Hospital attached to the Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute was designated the city’s first Covid-19 hospital, it has seen 91 deaths. Of them, 89 had been put on ventilators for advanced respiratory support. Of the 1,500 patients admitted at the hospital so far, 92 have required intubation to help in breathing, with 89 of them dying, senior BMCRI officials tell the newspaper.

11.00 am: India and the United States are working together on combating the coronavirus and collaboration is underway for co-development of a Covid-19 vaccine, Indian envoy Taranjit Singh Sandhu says, according to PTI. “A partnership between the two countries in health, life sciences and technology sectors can bring benefits to the entire world,” Sandhu adds.

10.59 am: The health ministry says that states have completed almost 77 lakh trainings and more than 27 lakh course registrations on iGOT, the integrated Government online training platform, during the pandemic period.

10.53 am: United States’ infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg that he expects results for a clinical trial on monoclonal antibodies by late summer or early fall, Bloomberg reports. A monoclonal antibody is a laboratory-produced protein that can potentially be used to treat sick patients as well as for prophylaxis. Fauci describes them as “precise bullets” that can be developed from antibodies from other people who have been infected and used as a treatment to fight the coronavirus at multiple stages.

10.50 am: Odisha reports 718 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of infections in the state to 16,110, ANI reports, quoting the state health department. A total of 1.69 lakh tests have been conducted in the state, so far.

10.42 am: A man in Bengaluru, Karnataka, who claimed to have tested positive for the coronavirus, stations himself outside Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s official residence after allegedly failing to find a hospital bed for himself, NDTV reports. “I am feeling sick,” the man allegedly shouts. “My son has fever. I was told I am positive. I am not getting a bed.” An aide of Yediyurappa, however, denies this and says that he did not go to any hospital but came directly to the chief minister’s house. He adds that an ambulance was arranged to take the family to hospital.

10.37 am: Around hundred patients broke out of a Covid Care Centre in Assam’s Kamrup district and blocked National Highway 31 on Thursday, alleging that they were not provided with proper food and water, PTI reports. Kamrup Deputy Commissioner Kailash Kartik assured them their allegations will be looked into.

10.36 am: According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, India has tested 1.30 crore samples till July 16. Of these, 3.33 lakh samples were tested on Thursday.

9.50 am: The Coordination Committee Against Citizenship Amendment Act expresses concern about the health of prisoners at Guwahati Central Jail during the coronavirus outbreak, reports The Assam Tribune. The committee notes that there is ambiguity around the Covid-19 test of peasant leader Akhil Gogoi and other inmates.

“If the treatment of a political prisoner like Akhil Gogoi can be delayed and his COVID status can be kept ambiguous for a long time, we can very well imagine the condition of the other general prisoners,” committee president Dr Hiren Gohain and convenor Deben Tamuly says.

“As it is being alleged that 95% of the inmates might be affected by Covid-19, immediate action is required on this matter,” the committee says.

9.18 am: India reports 34,956 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the total to 10,03,832. The toll rises by 687 to 25,602. This is the highest daily rise in the number of infections as well as deaths. More than 6.3 lakh people have recovered.

9.06 am: Forty-nine inmates of Anantnag district jail test positive, reports Greater Kashmir. With this, the number of infected prisoners now stand at 96. There are a total of 192 inmates presently lodged in the jail.

8.51 am: Streets in Panaji, Goa, wear a deserted look.

8.24 am: With 428 new cases, Australia’s Victoria sets record for fresh infections second day in a row, reports Reuters.

8.12 am: Rahul Gandhi predicts India will cross 20,000-lakh mark by August 10.

7.45 am: The White House says India has done the second largest number of coronavirus tests after the United States. “So we’ve done more than any country in the world on testing; there’s no doubt about that – 42 million tests,” says White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “The country with the next highest number is India at 12 million.”

7.26 am: Counties in Arizona, Texas order coolers, refrigerated trucks for bodies, reports Reuters.

7.24 am: Brazil surpasses 2 million coronavirus cases, reports AFP.

7.18 am: US registers record 68,428 new cases in 24 hours, reports AFP. As many as 974 people have died from the virus.

7.16 am: Assam’s caseload crosses the 20,000-mark with 892 new cases and the toll reaches 50 with two deaths, says Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma.

7.10 am: Here are the top updates from Thursday

• India reported 32,695 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the total to 9,68,876. The toll rose by 606 to 24,915. This is the highest daily rise in the number of infections as well as deaths. More than 6.12 lakh people have recovered. 
• Gujarat-based pharmaceutical giant Zydus Cadila’s coronavirus vaccine candidate entered the human trials stage. The clinical trials will be conducted across multiple sites in India with over 1,000 subjects.  
• Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the Centre aims to start operating 55% to 60% of the pre-coronavirus capacity of domestic flights by Diwali in November. Puri added that India will soon use bilateral air bubbles to resume international travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Union minister said that Air France will operate 28 flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to Paris between July 18 to August 1. Eighteen flights will also operate between India and the United States from July 17 to July 31.
• Maharashtra reported 8,641 new coronavirus cases and 266 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state’s tally rose to 2,84,841 and the toll reached 11,194. Delhi recorded 1,652 new coronavirus cases and 58 deaths on Thursday. The Capital’s tally rose to 1,18,645 and the toll reached 3,545. In Tamil Nadu, 4,549 new coronavirus cases took the state’s tally to 1,56,369. The toll went up to 2,236 with 63 new deaths. Kerala’s tally rose to 10,275 with 772 new cases. The toll reached 37 after two more deaths.
• Punjab capped the cost of coronavirus treatment at all hospitals. Private hospitals cannot charge patients with moderate symptoms more than Rs 10,000 per day. For patients requiring intensive care but not ventilators, the cost of treatment at private hospitals has been fixed at Rs 15,000. Private hospitals can charge critically ill patients Rs 18,000 per day. The government has also fixed treatment cost at healthcare facilities certified by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers.
• The Odisha government ordered a complete 14-day lockdown in Ganjam, Khordha, Cuttack, Jajpur and Rourkela districts from 9 pm on July 17. The state also began plasma therapy for the treatment of Covid- 19 patients at a hospital in Cuttack.
• The United States posted a new daily record of 67,632 new cases in 24 hours. The global coronavirus count is now over 1.35 crore, while the toll has crossed 5.83 lakh, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 75 lakh people have recovered so far. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time.