To review the security and other poll arrangements ahead of Assembly elections in five states, the Election Commission will hold a meeting of chief secretaries, directors general of police and chief electoral officers of poll-bound and neighbouring states in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The total of 103 deaths reported since Thursday morning include 43 in Maharashtra; 29 in Gujarat; eight in Madhya Pradesh; seven in West Bengal; five in Rajasthan; two each in Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh; and one each in Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 13,295 while 2,301 people have been cured and discharged.
Laxmi Sorte and Kaustav Ghosh are on a 101-day road trip across India to support and encourage local businesses affected by the pandemic.
The decision has been taken due to a significant improvement of security situation in the state, a home ministry official said.
Vardhan said the ICMR is actively researching on reports of COVID-19 reinfection and although the number of such cases is negligible at this moment, the government is fully seized of the importance of the matter, the health ministry said in a statement.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 26,565, while 10,017 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. "Thus, around 26.52 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.
There has been a spike of 1,813 cases since Tuesday evening. The number of active COVID-19 cases stand at 22,982, while 7,796 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the health ministry said.
Almost all states and Union Territories have extended the curbs which they first started imposing in mid-April as the second COVID wave hit the country.
Of the total 452 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 194 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 57, Gujarat and Delhi at 38 each and Telengana 18.
Students' organisations and political parties are participating in the bandh to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there.
Nearly four lakh people have been affected across seven districts of Assam.
Notwithstanding the recent arrest of several top insurgent leaders from various groups in Assam, there will be no let-up on the counter-insurgency operation in Assam till insurgents give up arms and join the political process, said Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
With 39,297 cases in total, Maharashtra remains the worst affected state in the country, followed by Tamil Nadu (13,191 cases), Gujarat (12,537 cases), and Delhi (11,088 cases).
Maharashtra remains the worst-affected state due to the virus with 33,053 cases, including 1,198 deaths. It is followed by Gujarat (11,379), Tamil Nadu (11,224) and Delhi (10,054).
'You have been surrounded from all directions, if you want the safety of your troops and your personal safety, we will give you eight hours to make up your mind to surrender.'
According to the ministry's data, Maharashtra is on the top of the list with most COVID-19 cases, 5,652 cases of which 789 patients have recovered and 269 patients succumbing to coronavirus.
Maharashtra tops the tally with 232 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 77, Madhya Pradesh at 76, Delhi at 47, Rajasthan at 25, Telangana at 23 and Andhra Pradesh at 22.
The militants belonged to the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura group.
'With more and more young people relocating outside their home states for work, an all-India MLDA of 21 would be a good way to ensure that more Indians can go with the flow,' recommends Kanika Datta.
According to the health ministry data, Delhi has reported the highest number of confirmed cases at 503.
A resident of Uttarakhand's Badena village, Singh had joined the army in 2016 and is survived by his parents.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,752 and the number of cases climbed to 85,940 on Saturday.
With COVID cases declining, Delhi will see further relaxation in lockdown, including reopening of markets and malls and resumption of metro services, from June 7 while Maharashtra will implement a five-level plan to ease curbs based on weekly positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds in districts.
This is the sixth consecutive day when COVID-19 cases increased by more than 30,000.
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.
A man, from whom a fake character certificate was originally procured, using which the Uber rape case accused got an All India Tourist Permit, has been identified by the police and summoned for questioning.
The Union health ministry officials also said India was at the second stage as there is still no 'hard evidence' to say that there has been community transmission of the fast-spreading coronavirus, remarks which may provide anxious citizens with much needed assurance and hope.
"People must realise that mob violence and taking of law into the hands will invite wrath of law," said the bench.
The seizure of liquor has been a matter of concern for the EC since it apprehends that the liquor might be used to influence the voters.
It took 110 days for the COVID-19 cases in the country to reach 1 lakh and just 56 days more to go past the 9-lakh mark.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he would accept a proposal from Telugu Desam Party's C Ramachandraiah for providing a special package to Andhra Pradesh.
Persistent efforts by the Board of Control for Cricket in India and its full members to block implementation of some crucial recommendations of the Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha committee on Wednesday provoked the Supreme Court to observe that public functions relating to cricket can be taken over by the government with the enactment of a law in Parliament.
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has painted a grim security situation in the country's border with Myanmar and Bhutan where there were reports of insurgents, weapons and drugs crossing over and said that his ministry was taking measures to effectively manage the international borders.
Alok Verma, the 1979-batch IPS officer, will be in the hot seat because he will serve in 2018 and into 2019, the year of the general election.
In the year 2016, 8132 human trafficking cases have been reported in India.
The total number of states in the country will be now 28 while the total UTs will go up to seven.
