Around 52.46 per cent of the patients have recovered, the health ministry said. The number of active cases stood at 1,53,178 while 1,80,012 patients have recovered, it said in the daily COVID-19 update.
Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj his wife and 21 other people -- family members, staff and his followers staying in the same household -- have tested positive.
At least 40 people died and nearly 150 others were injured on Friday after a packed three-storey ferry carrying around 500 passengers caught fire on the Sugandha River in southern Bangladesh, officials said.
The Centre on Wednesday deployed multi-disciplinary teams in bird flu-affected areas of Kerala and Haryana, while Madhya Pradesh, where crows have died due to the influenza, banned the entry of chicken consignments from southern states for 10 days as a precautionary measure.
Each train is likely to carry around 1,000-1,200 passengers, keeping in mind the social-distancing protocol.
At a video conference with chief ministers and representatives of these 10 states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Modi said the recovery rate has gone up which, he added, meant that government efforts have proved to be effective.
The friends and relatives of 16 accused, including Hany Babu, Stan Swamy and Sudha Bharadwaj, made the demand during a virtual press conference.
'Even though we have around 156 patients, we don't have anyone who requires ventilatory support or the ICU facility.'
He attributed the episode to low sugar and low oxygen supply to his body as he was wearing convocation robes.
A day after reporting 4,092 COVID-19 cases, highest single-day tally in more than a month, Maharashtra saw the daily count fall on Monday but it remained above 3,000 for the sixth straight day as the state government termed the situation as 'alarming' and warned of 'harsh decisions' after the recent spike.
The Centre stressed that the next three weeks will be critical for the country reeling from the worst health crisis as it announced a series of measures to shore up medical infrastructure and supplies and scale up vaccination.
The doctors have also demanded enhanced security outside and within the hospitals where the Markaz evacuees have been admitted. A doctor said some patients evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz, the headquarters of Tabligh-e-Jamaat in south Delhi, don't follow instructions from doctors and are reluctant to take medicines.
Maharashtra is in the beginning of a second COVID-19 wave, a central team report has said, highlighting that there is very limited active effort to track, test, isolate cases and quarantine contacts, and there is no adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour among people in rural and urban areas in the state.
Thomas Abraham, 93, and his wife Mariyamma, 88, both have been fully cured after days of life-and-death battle against the deadly virus. The secret behind their recovery seems to be the healthy lifestyle they have been leading.
Medical experts feel an aggressive containment strategy in red zones and insulation of green zones is a must while giving relaxations.
Taking exception to Health Minister Harsh Vardhan not mentioning the death of healthcare workers due to Covid-19 in his statement in Parliament, the Indian Medical Association has published a list of 382 doctors who died due to the viral disease and demanded that they be treated as "martyrs".
Additional director health Pushkar Anand said these fresh deaths occurred between August 12 and 14.
The mini-bus carrying around 26 Sikh pilgrims, all from Peshawar, hit the Shah Hussain Express which was coming from Karachi to Lahore at a crossing near Sheikhupura district at around 1.30 pm, police said.
Doctors in Kanpur on Thursday called off their six-day strike against the attack on their colleagues, a day after the Uttar Pradesh government clamped Essential Services Maintenance Act against striking medicos and the Allahabad high court stepped in to resolve the deadlock.
'We cannot have bodies putrefying in water.' 'This is a health hazard and it can create a very inflammatory situation.'
However, the number of confirmed cases reported by states rose by over 500 to cross 3,000 with at least 90 dead. While Maharashtra, Telangana and Delhi disclosed several new cases of the deadly virus infection, government officials said the numbers have risen in last few days mostly due to one event -- referring to the Tablighi Jamaat's religious gathering in the national capital attended by thousands of people last month.
She said the prayers of party supporters has reaped fruits and thanked the medical experts from AIIMS and Singapore among others who treated the 68 year-old leader.
The Union health minister said of the total active COVID-19 cases in the country, 1.5 per cent are on oxygen support and 2.34 per cent are in ICUs.
The body should be carried on a stretcher or a cot and it should be kept appropriately in a designated place till all formalities are disposed of, the guideline said.
Far from the metros and big cities, the coronavirus crisis in the country's districts, towns and villages is being led by district magistrates.
The responsibility of keeping the pandemic under control lies with the DM or collector.
Subrat Kumar Sen, the young district magistrate of Saran, north Bihar, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih how he and his staff are combating a crisis that no one has confronted before.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 74, including three foreigners, followed by Kerala at 52 including seven foreign nationals.
'There can be potential hotspots for spread of infection like industrial clusters with closed work environment, people coming from high prevalence areas, other high density areas such as slums, prisons, old age homes etc'
Harnessing the power of social media, Palaniswami seems to have struck a personal chord with citizens-cum-netizens, not only interacting with them but ensuring redressal of their grievances.
In her letter to her husband Sajeesh, Lini expressed her pain and anguish that she could not see him again.
With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking a uniform vaccination policy for the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday assured her that the Modi government was firm in its resolve to help the state fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but also flagged more than 40 per cent positivity rate in some districts of the state.
The apex court, which has been mulling over the issue in its meetings held at the residence of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Thursday and Friday, took note of the government's March 5 advisory cautioning against mass gatherings in view of the fact that the World Health Organisation has declared COVID-19 a 'global pandemic'.
The highest day temperature so far this summer in Churu was 50.8 degrees on June 1, beating the 49.8 degree record set in 1993, according to the weather department.
In a communication to the chief secretaries of the states and Union territories, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown were issued after taking the views of the states, following a video-conference held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with chief ministers on May 11.
Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have announced a lockdown of educational institutions, malls and other places that attract people in large numbers, even as some of them have been reporting increase in positive cases.
The Technical Education minister, who tested positive for COVID-19 on July 18 and is the first minister in the state to succumb to the disease, breathed her last at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPIMS).
The deluge, which had affected 2.5 lakh people in 11 districts on Wednesday, spread to six more districts on Thursday affecting 4.23 lakh people, it said.
The oxygen shortage was inevitable to an extent given the tsunami of Covid cases, but the problem is the lack of even basic preparation by both the Centre and states, notes Shyamal Majumdar.
Nipah virus infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans.
Nirav Modi's lawyer raised a British court's judgment blocking the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US on mental health grounds, as the embattled diamond merchant appeared via videolink before a court here on Thursday for a two-day hearing of final submissions in his fight against being extradited to India. The 49-year-old diamond merchant, facing charges of fraud, money laundering and intimidating witnesses in the estimated $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case, appeared in the Westminster Magistrates' Court. Sporting a full beard and dressed casually in a blazer, he followed the proceedings from a room at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London as his counsel raised Monday's judgment which blocks the extradition of Assange to the US on the grounds of his mental health.
'Our government's claim that there are no undetected cases of infection that happened within our bustling cities because of exposure to infected international travellers are not credible,' notes Rahul Jacob.
