Coronavirus India Updates, 28 July: Bi-weekly lockdown extended till Aug 31 in Bengal; India’s fatality rate declines to 2.25%

Meanwhile, the government is preparing at least 5 sites for the late stage human trials for several coronavirus vaccine candidates including the ones developed by Bharat Biotech, University of Oxford and Zydus Cadila. The sites spread across 4 states are expected to conduct trails by the end of this year.

Former Karnataka minister passes away due to coronavirus

Former Karnataka Minister Raja Madangopal Naik has died of COVID-19 at a hospital in Kalaburagi, a health department official said on Tuesday. He was 69 and is survived by his wife and two sons.

“He was admitted to the ESIC hospital in Kalaburgi about a week ago and passed away on Monday,” the official told PTI.

Naik, who had stints in Congress, BJP and the JD(S), was a minister in the Congress government headed by M Veerappa Moily.

Need to create awareness about higher risks due to comorbidities: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Dr Harsh Vardhan

While the mortality rate due to COVID-19 is approximately 2 to 3 per cent, most cases of the contagious disease are largely asymptomatic, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said while stressing on the need to create awareness about the higher risk of both morbidity and mortality due to the virus in people who have conditions like diabetes, obesity, fatty liver and chronic liver diseases.

Vardhan said the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres are working for the screening of such conditions.

The health minister said the pre-emptive and proactive measures taken under the guidance of the Prime Minister have helped control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

West Bengal announces extension of lockdown in containment zones till August 31

Due to the rising COVID-19 cases, the West Bengal government has announced a complete lockdown on designated dates in containment zones till August 31. The state has already in place a strict bi-weekly lockdown since last week, which was supposed to end on July 31.

The containment zone at Razabazar.

In a statement, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the extension of lockdown in containment zones till August 31. The lockdown will be observed on the following dates — August 2, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 23, 24, 31.

However, exceptions have been made for religious festivals and national holidays such as Bakri Eid, Rakhshabandhan, and Independence Day.

Mumbai sero-survey: 57% respondents in slums exposed to coronavirus

A sero-survey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on 6,936 people from three wards found that 57 per cent respondents in slums had been exposed to and developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus, as opposed to 16 per cent in residential societies.

Those who were associated with the survey said that shared facilities like toilets, high population density and lack of physical distancing may be the reasons why those living in slums were 3.5 times more exposed to the virus than people living in housing societies.

Overall, the survey found that 40 per cent had had the infection. A surprise finding is that more women had been infected than men.

Fine for not wearing mask raised to Rs 500 in Gujarat

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday announced the increase in fine for not wearing a face mask and spitting in public from Rs 200 to Rs 500 starting August 1.

In areas falling under the Ahmedabad and Surat municipal limits, the fine for not wearing a face mask in public places has already been increased to Rs 500.

The government has also ensured that face masks are made available to citizens easily and at low prices.

Gujarat reports over 1,000 new cases for the 7th straight day; Rs 244 cr spent from CM’s fund

With 1,052 new cases in the last 24 hours, Gujarat reported more than 1,000 cases for the seventh straight day taking the overall tally in the state past the 57,000 mark. The death toll stood at 2,367 with 22 more succumbing to the virus in a day.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has allocated Rs 244 crore from the CM’s Relief Fund for control and treatment of Covid-19 in the state, the state government notified on Monday.

Of the Rs 100-crore allocation to the health department, Rs 11.80 crore has been spent for providing medicines. For providing frontline health workers with protective equipment, the state spent Rs 15.42 crore till date and Rs 15.52 crore was spent for procuring 4,597 Tocilizumab injections and 18,050 Remdesivir injections.

Uttar Pradesh becomes the first state to test over 1 lakh people in a day

Uttar Pradesh recorded its highest single day spike of 3,578 new cases after it became the first state to test more than 1 lakh people in a single day. Uttar Pradesh has tested 19.41 lakh samples till now.

While 8,153 samples out of one million people have been tested, 313 out of every 1 million people in Uttar Pradesh have tested positive for the virus. In the last one week, the number of new infections has grown by an average of 5.4 percent every day.

Uttar Pradesh has tested 19.41 lakh samples till now.

The enhanced testing in Uttar Pradesh has been made possible by the widespread deployment of the rapid antigen testing in the last one month. These antigen tests, which provide results within half an hour, account for almost half the daily tests in Uttar Pradesh.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to test children, pregnant women and elderly for COVID-19 on priority. He stressed on enhancing the testing capacity and ordered the officials to everyday conduct one lakh rapid antigen tests, 40,000-45000 RT-PCR and 2,500 to 3,000 tests through truenat machines.

J&K records 489 fresh COVID-19 cases

Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday recorded 489 coronavirus cases and 12 deaths, including a medical officer’s in Bandipora, pushing the overall COVID-19 casualty figures in the union territory to 18,879 infections and 333 fatalities, officials said.

“Twelve persons, who were COVID-19 positive, have died over the past 24 hours (till 5 pm Tuesday) in Jammu and Kashmir,” an official said, adding that all but one death were reported from the Kashmir valley.

This has taken the death toll of coronavirus-infected persons in the union territory to 333 of which 309 were from the valley and 24 were from the Jammu region, they said.

Dr Shabir Malik, who was posted as a Medical Officer in Gurez area of Bandipora district, was among the 12 people who died on Tuesday, they said.

Tamil Nadu reports 6972 fresh COVID-19 cases, 88 fatalities

Tamil Nadu reported 6,972 fresh cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, pushing the overall tally beyond 2.27 lakh, while the total fatalities stood at 3,659 following 88 new deaths.

Of the 6,972 cases, 64 were passengers who had come from foreign and other domestic locations. The cumulative tally of positive cases stood at 2,27,688.

As many as 4,707 persons were discharged today, taking the total recoveries to 1,66,956, leaving 57,073 active cases, according to a Health department bulletin.

Over 61,000 samples were tested, while the state had 119 testing facilities, including 61 in the private sector. So far, 24,75,866 samples have been tested.

Three Army jawans among 18 new COVID-19 cases in HP; tally rises to 2,289

Himachal Pradesh recorded 18 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including three Army jawans, taking the state’s tally to 2,289, officials said here. The number of active cases in the state stands at 1,033, they said.

Among the fresh cases, seven were reported from Chamba, three from Bilaspur, and two each from Mandi and Shimla, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) R D Dhiman said.

In Chamba, two Army soldiers, aged 20 and 21, who recently returned from Leh-Ladakh, are among the fresh cases, a district official said, adding that they were home-quarantined.

Five other institutionally quarantined men, three of whom returned from Mumbai and one each from Gurgaon and Bengaluru, also tested positive for the disease, he added.

Contact tracing and follow up action of the new cases and fatalities are underway, the health ministry said.

Bengal cases cross 60,000; patients discharged exceed number of new cases for the first time

According to the health bulletin, in which figures are updated till 9 am, the state’s caseload crossed 60,000 to settle at 60,830 after the addition of 2,112 infections. The deaths of 39 patients pushed up the toll to 1,411. The recovery rate climbed by more than one percentage point to 65.62 per cent.

The improvement in discharge rate, which was fuelled by the release of 2,166 patients, saw the state’s active caseload decline for the first time in over a month as it came down from 19,595 to 19,502. Till date, 39,917 patients in the state have recovered from the disease.

Door-to-door COVID-19 survey meets severe resistance in Tripura villages

Tripura’s week-long statewide door-to-door survey for COVID-19, which started on Monday, ran into severe resistance among villagers at Khowai district, who feel coronavirus afflicts urban people alone and not villagers.

The resistance was seen mostly in tribal hamlets Twimadhu, Mungiakami, Jumbari, Tulashikhar and few other villages in the vicinity since last morning as medical teams reached there to survey the households. Villagers cut off all entry and exit points in these areas and demanded the local administration to exclude them from the survey process.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, Khowai District Magistrate Smriti Mol said the protests were mainly seen at Mungiakami village where 300 families live, but added that similar sporadic protests were found in scattered patches of Tulashikhar rural development block and other areas.

“The villagers have expressed their conviction that coronavirus afflicts only urban people and doesn’t affect villagers. They set up road blockade on all major roads in and out of their village, preventing medical teams to access their areas”, he said.

The official stated that since the door-to-door COVID-19 survey is a voluntary process, the agitators were not coerced. They were, however, sensitized and tried to be convinced.

“We explained them that samples would not be collected from everyone. A survey would be done in all households and those found with symptoms would undergo sample collection. They have not conceded to the survey yet. Let’s see, there are more days of survey ahead. If they agree, we shall have the samples collected”, the official said.

Odisha to conduct last rites of Covid suspects without waiting for test report

The state government issued a letter after it was noticed that cremation of bodies were being delayed. (PTI/file)

The Odisha government has instructed all district collectors, SPs, municipal commissioners and health officials to conduct the last rites of COVID-19 suspects without insisting on testing of swab or waiting for the report, an official said. The state government issued a letter on Monday after it was noticed that cremation of bodies were being delayed as officials waited for the corona test reports of the victim after his/her death, the official said.

“It is clarified that as we are in the midst of a global pandemic, as a measure of abundant precaution, in all such cases the dead body may be disposed of as per COVID norms, in compassionate consultation with the family of the deceased,” Additional Chief Secretary of Health Department PK Mohapatra wrote in a letter.

200 nurses boycott work at Pune hospital, demands better pay

About 200 nurses at the Jehangir Hospital have not been attending work since Sunday, complaining of low salaries and excessive workload.

Negotiations to bring about a compromise remained unsuccessful, and by the end of the day, the stands seemed to have hardened. (File/Representational)

Negotiations to bring about a compromise remained unsuccessful, and by the end of the day, the stands seemed to have hardened. The hospital admitted that some nurses who were not part of the original agitation on Sunday had also joined the strike.