Top 10 coronavirus updates: Global cases cross 90-lakh mark, over 4.69 lakh dead
A look at the biggest Covid-19 developments of the day.
- India’s coronavirus tally on Monday rose to 4,25,282 with 14,821 new cases in 24 hours. The toll climbed to 13,699 with 445 new fatalities. There have also been 2,37,196 recoveries so far. The cases in Maharashtra rose to 1,35,796, while the toll went up to 6,283. Delhi, meanwhile, surpassed Tamil Nadu to become the second worst-hit region in India, with 62,655 cases and 2,233 deaths. The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu was 62,087 as of Monday evening, and the toll stood at 794.
- The number of cases in the world crossed the 90-lakh mark on Monday. The coronavirus has infected 90,03,042 people globally so far, and 4,69,122 people have died of it, according to the Johns Hopkins University. More than 44 lakh people across the world have recovered.
- The Supreme Court said it would allow the Odisha government and the Centre to conduct the annual Rath Yatra at the Jagannath Temple in Puri. The bench said the yatra can be held with the coordination of the temple committee, and the state and central governments without compromising with the health of the devotees.
- The World Health Organization warned that the drug dexamethasone should only be used for patients with severe or critical Covid-19, and under close clinical supervision. “There is no evidence this drug works for patients with mild disease or as a preventive measure, and it could cause harm,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom said.
- Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday that the health department has recommended a ward-wise lockdown in Guwahati, in view of the rising number of coronavirus cases in the city. Sarma expressed the possibility that the spread of the virus in the city was in the community transmission stage. Meanwhile, Madurai corporation and nearby areas in Tamil Nadu will go under lockdown from June 24.
- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that testing capacity in the Capital has been ramped up amid rising coronavirus cases. He added that coronavirus patients under home isolation will be provided with pulse oximeters to measure their oxygen levels every few hours.
- The Centre said India has one of the lowest coronavirus cases per lakh population in the world and that the gap between recovered and active cases is continuously widening. The Union health ministry cited a World Health Organization report to support its claim. “India has one of the lowest cases per lakh population in spite of its high population density,” the ministry said in a statement. “India’s cases per lakh population are 30.04 while the global average is more than its triple at 114.67.”
- Activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha has detailed the condition of a temporary detention facility in Maharashtra, where he is currently being kept before being moved to a central prison. The activist, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, said 350 prisoners were crammed into six rooms and share three toilets at a Covid-19 quarantine facility during a conversation with his partner.
- Fifty-seven girls living in a government-run shelter home in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur city have tested positive for the coronavirus over the last week. Five of the girls were found to be pregnant. The state has so far reported 16,594 cases of the coronavirus and 507 deaths, according to data from the Union health ministry.
- Three Pakistani cricketers – Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan – tested positive for Covid-19.