The country has recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the fourth consecutive day. India went past Russia on Sunday to become the third worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The death toll climbed to 20,160 as 467 more people succumbed to the disease.
A fatal construction accident at Sao Paulo's World Cup stadium may delay its opening until February, but FIFA is not worried about it being ready on time to host the tournament's opening game in June, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Thursday.
It took 110 days for coronavirus infections in the country to reach one lakh, while just 44 days more to go past the six-lakh mark. With a steady rise, the number of recoveries stands at 3,59, 859 while one patient has migrated. There are 2,26,947 active cases of coronavirus infection presently in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked states to make full use of the expanded COVID-19 testing capacity and saving lives a top priority as India recorded the highest ever spike of 2,003 coronavirus deaths after Maharashtra and Delhi added earlier fatalities not attributed to the disease.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and his Microsoft counterpart Satya Nadella have assured help to India as the country grapples with a ravaging coronavirus crisis that has put enormous pressure on its hospitals due to a shortage of beds, oxygen and medical supplies.
'Strengthen hospital capacity, look after patients who need care, primarily ICU care...' 'Train doctors, get PPE, get ventilators, have treatment protocols in place.'
Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary late Saturday night, a BJP leader was hacked to death less than 12 hours later on Sunday morning and later, prohibitory order under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district, additional police force was deployed there and senior officers camped there to monitor the law and order situation.
This was the sixth consecutive day when coronavirus cases increased by more than 14,000. Consequently, India has added 92,573 cases since June 20, and over 2.82 lakh this month alone since June 1.
The death toll climbed to 15,301 with 407 new fatalities, according to the Union health ministry data.
The ministry, however, said it could not be sufficiently established yet if these variants were behind the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in some states.
Accusing Rahul Gandhi of trying to "weaken" the country's resolve to fight COVID-19, the Bharatiya Janta Party said on Wednesday that the Congress leader has been acting in a "most irresponsible" manner and is trying to mislead the country with "falsehoods and misrepresentation of facts".
The manner in which a large proportion of common people have mortgaged their rationality and questioning spirit to let hatred, prejudice, and bigotry take over their minds is a cause of worry, observes Mohammad Sajjad.
"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.
Asymptomatic cases pose a problem as the patients are tested COVID-19 positive but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. However, they pose a risk of spreading the disease to others.
'The death toll in the UK is anything between 33,000 and 38,000. That's filling our stadium and then filling it half again. It's a sobering thought.'
He also said that there were around 620 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis in the city, but there is a shortage of Amphotericin-B injections used in its treatment.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday said there is no reason to believe the Little India riot -- the city-state's worst outbreak of violence in over 40 years for which 33 Indians have been charged -- was due to unhappiness among foreign workers.
Asked about the report, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "The political judgements of Freedom House are as inaccurate and distorted as their maps."
All special trains -- 15 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs of mail/express trains operating since June 1 -- will continue.
'The new cases should be divided into three categories - mild, moderate, if a patient needs oxygen, and severe, if he/she needs ventilator support'
Delhi on Monday sounded an alert of its depleting vaccine stock, with Health Minister Satyendar Jain saying that the national capital has only one day's Covaxin jabs left and its Covishield doses will last for just three to four days.
The Gurgaon-Manesar industrial belt, one of the country's largest auto hubs, which once again witnessed labour unrest following the death of a young worker at Rico Auto on Sunday.
According to a doctor unless the virus is cultured or gene sequencing done, it will be difficult to determine whether it is a different strain of the virus that has infected the person the second time.
Singapore has started deporting 52 Indian nationals for their alleged role in the December 8 riot, the city state's worst street violence in 40 years.
In a zone-wise classification of districts in the country, the Union health ministry has designated all 11 districts of Delhi as red zone. The city has 272 wards.
Even though he consults chief ministers at regular intervals, the ultimate decision is still his own. He will be blamed, nobody else, if, god forbid, there is a huge spurt in fatalities after the reopening, notes Virendra Kapoor.
Red Bull's triple World Champion Sebastian Vettel won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday but his victory was overshadowed by the death of a marshal, the first fatality in Formula One in over a decade.
The study, published in the journal Science on Wednesday, assessed the disease transmission patterns in 5,75,071 individuals exposed to 84,965 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the two states based on data collected by tens of thousands of contact tracers.
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.
In the latest guidelines, the BMC clarified that no garden or play area equipment, swings and bars will be allowed to operate during the lockdown period, till June 30.
'If you put your own party into the witness box, like what Sidhu did, and treat them as wrongdoers, then how will the people of Punjab trust the party?'
As the death toll in the country from coronavirus jumped by a record 445 to 13,699, the Centre maintained that the number of infections per lakh population was among the lowest in the world. The new cases surged by over 10,000 for the 11th day in a row and rose by 14,821 to take the total to 4,25,282, according to health ministry data.
While there is a continuous increasing trend in COVID-19 cases and deaths globally, particularly in America and Europe and the situation in the world is becoming worrisome, in contrast the scene in India is satisfying as the cases and deaths are declining, Dr V K Paul, member (health) at NITI Aayog, told a press conference.
'I set out really early because it gets very hot.' 'The soles of my feet burn by the time I have finished going house to house on foot.'
That Sivakasi has also killed over time, albeit very slowly, numerous child-workers engaged in matchbox production is scarcely registered on the national conscience, says Shreekant Sambrani
The remarks come amid suspected cases of COVID-19 reinfection being reported from abroad and from Indian states like Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra.
The mass gathering was organised to celebrate the Lag B'Omer holiday at Mount Meron.
When BJP leaders, including Mr Modi's number two, Amit Shah, use the pandemic to launch an assault on state governments run by opposition parties, or to topple them, they are exploiting a grave crisis in cynical political self-interest, notes Shekhar Gupta.
But still we have prepared the whole country for the worst situation, the Union health minister said.
