Ahead of the Union Cabinet expansion on Wednesday, several Union Ministers, including Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar resigned from their posts.
'Anyone who takes the eye off the movement of the virus should be prepared for unpleasant surprises.'
'Both the governments and people have to recognise that this is a long race, not a short sprint.'
CEO of Wockhardt Hospital Mumbai, Dr Parag Rindhani, who is a microbiologist, said: "In the past three months, we have seen several cases of COVID-19 and now, fortunately, we are seeing a decrease in numbers. With this trend, we can expect a flattening of the curve by mid-July, which BMC commissioner has also said, and the normalcy of life can be expected by the beginning of August."
IMD has said the temperature in April-June across most parts in India is expected to be 0.5-1 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. However, doctors and scientists say they haven't found any direct correlation between the speed of COVID-19 spread and warm weather.
Of the 56 deaths reported since Friday evening, 18 were in Maharashtra, 15 in Gujarat, nine in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Delhi and West Bengal, two each in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and one each in Punjab and Kerala.
A convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, Jalees Ansari, who went "missing" while on parole, was arrested on Friday from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, an official said. Ansari (68), a Mumbai resident who was serving a life term in a Rajasthan jail, was nabbed in a joint operation by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Sqaud and the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF), he said.
The step has been taken in view of the high density of population in Mumbai where there is more possibility of spread of the disease compared to other districts.
36 deaths have been reported since Friday evening -- 12 from Madhya Pradesh, 10 from Gujarat, seven from Maharashtra, four from Delhi and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir. Of the 488 deaths, Maharashtra tops the list with 201 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 69, Gujarat at 48 and Delhi at 42 and Telangana at 18.
According to the ministry, Maharashtra remained at the top with the total cases at 1,985, including 217 patients who have recovered/discharged and 149 patients died.
The team probing the incident examined 808 suspects and 118 witnesses to collect strong evidence against the accused, the CID said in a release.
Following the intervention of a bench of Justices S S Shinde and Madhav Jamdar, the state said it will shift Rao, 81, who is lodged as an under-trial in the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, to the Nanavati Hospital as a 'special case'.
In the Nagpur Central Jail, a COVID-19 patient who has been complaining since the last 10 days of high fever, breathlessness, joint pain, cold and sore throat, is being treated in jail quarantine. The prisoner is Professor G N Saibaba, 90% handicapped, wheelchair-bound, with a damaged heart and pancreas; dependent on others even for his essential bodily functions.
Of the 181 inmates who tested positive for the virus, 177 have fully recovered.
Apart from the appointment of Lokpal at the national level and Lokayukta in states, Hazare has been demanding implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations and some electoral reforms.
"As of now there is no abnormality due to the injury," Dr Gandhi added.
Observing that doctors are harassed by authorities on pretext of not following norms laid down for imposing ban on sex determination tests, the Bombay high court has quashed a complaint in a lower court against a doctor couple in Beed district of Maharashtra.
The health ministry's decision to deny 82 medical colleges renewal permission may deliver a death blow for medical education in India, warns Dr Arun Jamkar, former vice chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.
A total 87,374 people have recuperated in a span of 24 hours in the country, while the number of new confirmed cases reported is 86,508, according to the data updated at 8 am.
This first-of-its-kind-in-India centre is fully funded by Reliance Foundation and includes a negative pressure room that helps in preventing cross-contamination and helps control infection. All beds are equipped with the required infrastructure, biomedical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines, and patient monitoring devices.
'The minister is not concerned about our daughters' well-being.' 'Just when the sex ratio for girls is showing an improvement across every district, the minister wants the onus to be on the women knowing very well that decision making in India is in the hands of the male.'
The first plane -- Air India's jumbo B747 aircraft carrying 211 students, 110 working professionals and three minors-- reached Delhi around 7.30 am and another flight of the airline would leave the national capital for the Chinese city in the afternoon.
Hazare began his fast on January 30 at his native Ralegan Siddhi village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, demanding appointment of anti-corruption watchdogs at the Centre and in Maharashtra and resolution of farmers' issues.
Dabholkar was shot dead on August 20, 2013 near his home in Pune, while he was on a morning walk.
Reports show that she had a significant increase in the level of benzodiazepine, a class of anti-depressants.
The modern world will not accommodate bigotry of the sort India is showing the world today, argues Aakar Patel.
With the dizzying rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, India Inc has transitioned from a wait-and-watch policy to full-on emergency mode, bringing back remote and flexi work, stringent safety protocols, and allowing only essential travel. Companies - especially in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - that had adopted a hybrid work model during the last few months when the caseload remained low, are either switching back entirely to work-from-home (WFH), or calling skeletal staff to office on select days. Take the case of cigarettes-to-hotels major, ITC, which had been on a hybrid work model over the last few months.
The Union health ministry said 11 states have over one lakh active COVID-19 cases, 17 have less than 50,000 cases while eight have active cases between 50,000 and one lakh.
'We really need to look seriously to see if there are any local variants.'
After winning accolades for its 'Kerala model' of combating the contagion about a year ago, the state is now seeing daily fresh cases between 12,000 to 15,000 with no end in sight to the 'prolonged surge', as some experts put it.
We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul -- at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment, says Mihir S Sharma.
The Padma Vibhushan for this year has been awarded to a total of seven prominent personalities, while 16 have been given the Padma Bhushan, 118 have been given the Padma Shri on the 71st Republic Day this year, they said.
Under the NSA, people can be detained without a charge for up to 12 months if the authorities are satisfied that the person is a threat to the national security or law and order.
"Coming festivals (Chhat, Puja, Dussehra, Deepavali, Id, Xmas, New year) pose a huge challenge in the pandemic control. It has been seen that Onam in Kerala and Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra escalated the pandemic seriously. This must not be allowed to happen in Delhi," the report stated.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
The family has objected to the AIIMS report saying that Gupta-headed forensic team was not submitting a post-mortem report but was only to expressing its opinion on the findings of Cooper Hospital in Mumbai.
In a discussion in Lok Sabha on the COVID pandemic, members called for ban on international flights in view of the outbreak of the Omicron strain and demanded that the government 'accept responsibility' for deaths of lakhs of people during the outbreak.
Two cases of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected in Karnataka, the Union government said on Thursday while asking people not to panic but follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and get vaccinated without delay.
A total of 77 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 27 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, 17 from Gujarat, 11 from West Bengal, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, three from Delhi, two from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and one from Karnataka.
The testing rate is likely to slow down, report Pavan Lall and Sohini Das.
