Top 10 Covid-19 updates: India’s tally nears 63,000; Railways to start partial services from Tuesday
Here is a look at the biggest developments of the day.
- India’s coronavirus tally rose to 62,939 on Sunday morning. The toll rose to 2,109. As many as 41,472 people are still being treated, while 19,357 were discharged after treatment and one person has left the country.
- The Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, the Centre said, adding that online booking will begin on Monday evening.
- India’s evacuation efforts continued on Sunday. A batch of 572 Indians reached Mumbai from the United Kingdom early on Sunday morning. A flight carrying 243 stranded Indians from Singapore landed in Mumbai later in the day. INS Jalashwa, with 698 repatriated Indians from the Maldives, also arrived at the Cochin Port on Sunday. Passengers were also flown from London to Bengaluru, Kuala Lumpur to Kochi, Kuwait to Chennai, Tashkent in Uzbekistan to Delhi, and from the US to Mumbai and Hyderabad on Sunday. One flight that was set to transport passengers from Doha to Kerala was cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday.
- The number of coronavirus cases climbed across India on Sunday. As of Sunday evening, the Maharashtra reported 20,228 positive cases, continuing to be the worst-affected state in India. Gujarat came second with 8,195 new infections, followed by Tamil Nadu, which reported 669 new cases, taking the state’s tally to 7,204. Delhi reported 6,923 coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, Kerala reported seven new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday. This included three people who flew into Kerala from Abu Dhabi on May 7.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday hold his fifth meeting with chief ministers of all states, to analyse the coronavirus pandemic situation in the country, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Sunday. The meeting will be held via videoconferencing at 3 pm.
- The Delhi government on Sunday acknowledged the discrepancies in the number of coronavirus deaths reported by hospitals and the numbers that it has announced. However, the government blamed hospitals for allegedly not reporting the deaths in a timely and regular way. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said earlier in the day that 75% of the coronavirus cases in the national capital were mild or asymptomatic.
- The Centre on Sunday issued guidelines for restarting manufacturing industries after the nationwide lockdown, saying the first week should be considered as “test or trial run”.
- The coronavirus has affected more than 40 lakh people and claimed 2.79 lakh lives across the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
- South Korea warned of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic later this year. “It’s not over until it’s over,” President Moon Jae-in said ahead of the country’s plan to ease restrictions.
- Eighty-one more inmates of Mumbai’s Arthur Road prison tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday. With this, the total cases in the prison rose to 184, including 24 staff members.