India Covid Updates: AI partly seals its Centaur Hotel after crew member tests positive
Coronavirus India Updates: The number of casualties due to coronavirus rose to 2,415 on Wednesday, with the total number of infections crossing the 74,000 mark to reach 74,281. As many as 3,525 cases and 122 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. Around 24,385 people have been treated and discharged so far.
In his fifth address to the nation since the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said the fourth phase of a nationwide lockdown will be in a new form with new rules, meaning lockdown 4.0 is likely to see more relaxations.
After several chief ministers demanded more authority in classifying zones in their jurisdiction during the video conference with PM Modi on Monday, the Centre plans to involve states and seek their views in drawing up the list of green, orange and red zones. Some states are still pushing for full freedom in zoning districts in their jurisdiction, with the Centre only deciding the broad principles. On Monday, while the PM-CMs meeting was still on, a fresh list was circulated, only to be recalled within minutes, said sources. Many states are also in favour of designating smaller areas — rather than entire districts — as red or orange zones.
Last night, the prime minister also announced a Rs 20 lakh crore package to help cushion the Covid economic impact. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address a press conference at 4 PM on Wednesday to unveil the finer points of the package, which is aimed towards achieving the mission of a self-reliant Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Air India partly seals its Centaur Hotel for sanitisation
The ground floor of Air India's Centaur Hotel has been sealed for two days after a crew member tested at the temporary facility there was found positive for coronavirus, PTI quoted a senior official a saying. "All hotels are currently closed and Centaur was also not functioning as a hotel. A part of the premises, which was used for conducting tests, has been demarcated for sanitisation adhering to safety protocols, and the crew test is shifted to a different medical office for the time being," an Air India spokesperson said.
Air India had sealed its headquarters in Delhi on Tuesday for two days to conduct a thorough sanitisation of the building after an employee who worked there tested positive for the virus.
Have requested Centre to deploy CAPF in Maha: Deshmukh
The Maharashtra government has requested the Centre to deploy 20 companies of CAPF in the state so the police personnel, wo have been working "day in and day out" ever since the lockdown was enforced, can be given some rest, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said. Thirty two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force's (CRPF) have already been deployed in Maharashtra and are working in tandem with the state police, according to an official statement.
"The festival of Eid is also around the corner and proper law and order has to be ensured. The police should get some rest for that. Hence, we have requested the Centre to deploy 20 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF), that is 2,000 personnel," the minister said in a video message on Twitter.
Virus spread slowing, key reproduction number 1.29 until May 10
Between April 13 and May 10, the Covid-19 transmission rate (represented by the basic reproduction number or R-number) remained steady at 1.29, even after some of the lockdown restrictions were eased on May 4, according to a study done by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
The transmission rate is driven mostly by outbreaks in a few states, while most states saw contained growth. At the beginning of lockdown, the R-naught (indicating the initial transmission rate) for March 27-April 6 was 1.83. In the study of infectious disease, the basic reproduction number (R0 in the beginning, and then R-number) is used to assess the severity of an outbreak. This number is an average, reflecting the number of people infected by one infected person. The current R-number of 1.29 means that a Covid-19 patient is infecting 1.29 other people on an average.
Rajasthan reports 87 new cases
Rajasthan recorded 87 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, taking the state's total tally to 4,213, PTI reported. The state has reported 117 deaths due to the virus, with Jaipur accounting for 60 deaths. As many as 2,455 patients have tested negative for the virus after treatment, out of which 2,159 have been discharged from hospitals, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), Rohit Kumar Singh, said. The state now has around 1,641 active cases.
Madhya Pradesh: Covid-19 cases in Indore rise to 2,107
At least 91 more people tested positive for coronavirus in Indore in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the worst hit district of Madhya Pradesh to 2,107, an official said on Wednesday, PTI reported. 988 people have been discharged after recovery. The death rate due to covid-19 in Indore stood at 4.51 per cent on Wednesday. Indore is one of the coronavirus hotspots in the country.
First train reaches Delhi, passengers scramble for transport for onward journeys
Hundreds of passengers from Gujarat and Rajasthan reached New Delhi on Wednesday on the first train to arrive here since railway services were resumed on May 12, and a large number of them gathered on roads outside the station with no transport available for onward journeys, PTI reported. Passenger train operation were resumed initially with 15 pairs of trains, weeks after they were suspended due to the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Meanwhile, as many as 42,000 migrants have been ferried to their home states in 35 trains from Maharashtra, a state Home Department official said on Wednesday. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) conducted around 300 bus services to drop the homeward-bound migrant labourers at the state border along Madhya Pradesh.
The Indian Council of Medical Research is conducting a household-level antibody testing of 24,000 adults in select districts to "estimate the prevalence of (Covid-19) infection" among people. This new research comes on the heels of another facility-level pooled testing of all districts of the country. Both mark an enhanced level of testing surveillance from previous studies focused on Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI).
In the last ICMR research study on syndromic SARI surveillance, released April 18, out of 5,911 SARI patients randomly tested for coronavirus from February 15 to April 2, a total of 104 (1.8 per cent) tested positive for the virus across 52 districts in 20 states and Union Territories.
The percentage of random positive samples of Covid-19 among SARI patients across the country showed an increase incrementally over this period. On March 20, the SARI surveillance was expanded to include all SARI patients, not only random sampling.
Most cases in Tamil Nadu are from Chennai
After going past Delhi, the number of novel Coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu look poised to overtake Gujarat as well. Tamil Nadu discovered 716 new infections on Tuesday, and now has 8718 confirmed cases. Gujarat, the state with the second-highest number of cases, has 8904 with the addition of 362 new cases on Tuesday.
As has been happening every day, most of the new cases in Tamil Nadu came from Chennai which now has close to 5,000 cases. This is more than 55 per cent of the total number of cases in the state. But Chennai is not alone in this. In several states, the bulk of cases, more than 50 per cent, are concentrated in just one or two cities. Mumbai accounts for over 60 per cent of all cases in Maharashtra while Ahmedabad has over 70 per cent of all cases in Gujarat. Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Kolkata in West Bengal are also in a similar situation. These cities also account for a large proportion of deaths in the states.
(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)
