Coronavirus live updates: India - cases, deaths and news, today
Coronavirus live India: latest Covid-19 news on 1 May
India Covid-19 update: 14:00 IST Saturday 2 May (10:30 CEST)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 3,345,203 cases have been detected worldwide, with 238,796 deaths and 1,055,663 people now recovering.
In India, there have been 37,336 cases confirmed, 1,223 people have died and 10,007 people have recovered from the virus.
That's all for today...
That's all for our live coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic for 1 May, we have started a new blog to take you through Saturday's latest developments and statistics. Many thanks for joining us - the new blog for Saturday 2 May is now available here.
India records 2,364 cases - almost half of them in Maharashtra
India posted the highest single-day number of positive Covid-19 infections with 2,364 cases registered on Friday. It is the first time that the country has recorded more than 2,000 cases in one day. Almost 50% of the new cases were reported in Maharashtra, with 1,008 cases confirmed.
Central Vista project: New Parliament building plans approved
Plans to build a new parliament building in the Indian government’s controversial Central Vista project have been given the go-ahead in spite of protests by urban planners and civil society groups. The decision to proceed with the Central Vista Project while the country is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic has been widely criticised.
WHO: The pandemic is not over
The World Health Organization said today that it still considers the coronavirus pandemic to be a public health emergency of international concern - the highest level of alarm for the world.
WHO Committee member Dr. Didier Houssin said in today's press briefing: "Covid-19 pandemic is not finished. As we have done clearly from the beginning, we will continue to call on countries to implement a comprehensive package of measures to find, isolate, test and treat every case, and trace every contact.
"We will continue working with countries and partners to enable essential travel needed for pandemic response, humanitarian relief and cargo operations, and for countries to gradually resume normal passenger travel".
Houssin added that there is still much to learn about the transmission of the coronavirus.Currently, there is no vaccine nor licensed therapeutics for the treatment of Covid-19.
A relaxation of sorts
With partial lifting of lockdown restrictions coming in from May 4, liquor companies say that they expect a large part of the standalone shops to open over the next few days.
Tributes in India to "corona warriors"
The Indian government has announced plans to perform fly-pasts by the Air Force to shower petals on hospitals in gratitude to all the front line health workers battling the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
India lockdown extended
India said on Friday it would extend its nationwide lockdown for another two weeks after May 4, but would allow "considerable relaxations" in lower-risk districts marked as green and orange zones under the government's plan to fight the novel coronavirus.
Coronavirus: can Covid-19 be spread through water?
Although it has been proven that SARS is transmittable through water, there is currently no evidence that Covid-19 can be considered a waterborne disease.
Priyanka Chopra lends her voice to Greta Thunberg campaign
The film and television star has been active with various charity initiatives during the coronavirus pandemic and has added her support to the drive by the Swedish activist and UNICEF to protect the world's most vulnerable children during the current crisis.
Indian unemployment rate spikes in April
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India's unemployment rate rose from 14.8% to 23.5% in April as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tributes pour in for Chuni Goswami
Goswami captained the Indian national football team & led to them to gold in the 1962 Asian Games. He later played first-class cricket for Bengal & guided them to the final of Ranji Trophy in 1971-72 and died at the age of 82.
Coronavirus shatters silver screen dreams for India's Bollywood
India's film industry, purveyor of song-and-dance spectacles to millions, will take at least two years to recover financially from the coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening big-ticket projects, putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs.
That was the sombre assessment of about a dozen top producers, distributors and actors from Bollywood, the movie industry in India's commercial capital of Mumbai, during a video conference this week, one of the participants said.
"Making movies has always been a gamble, and now some of us can pack up for the next year," said a film-maker responsiblefor many successful action movies, on condition of anonymity.
"We will have to beg people to come to cinema halls." Such dim prospects, even after the lockdown is lifted, threaten the box-office takings that make up 60% of industry earnings, spurring producers to say big-budget films and extravagant shoots in foreign locations will be shelved.
"Films will have a tough time," said Jehil Thakkar, a partner at accounting firm Deloitte India. "Even after they lift the lockdown, I'd expect the psyche of a lot of people would be to avoid crowded places."
Bollywood has come to a grinding halt, with film production and theatres shut nationwide, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a 40-day lockdown to curb the virus, which has infected 31,000 people and killed more than 1,000 in India.
About 9,500 theatres are shut, and business at multiplexes and single-screen cinemas is unlikely to bounce back for weeks or even months, as infection fears linger and discretionary spending plunges.
India Covid-19 update: 06:50 IST Friday 1 May (03:00 CEST)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 3,253,181 cases have been detected worldwide, with 233,080 deaths and 987,067 people now recovering.
In India, there have been 34,863 cases confirmed, 1,154 people have died and 9,068 people have recovered from the virus.
Covid-19 vaccine "could be ready by January"
Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN's town hall that "if everything falls into place right" there could be a coronavirus vaccine by January". Fauci said that developing a vaccine without being absolutely certain that it works first is "risky" but he said it "certainly is worth the risk given what's at stake."
Trump says he has evidence coronavirus may have originated in Wuhan lab
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing over the origins of the deadly disease.
Trump did not mince words at a White House event on Thursday, when asked if he had seen evidence that gave him a "high degree of confidence" the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. "Yes, yes I have," he said, declining to give specifics. "I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that."
The Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed the allegations, and other US officials have downplayed their likelihood. Most experts believe the virus originated in a market selling wildlife in Wuhan and jumped from animals to people.
The Republican president has shown increasing frustration with China in recent weeks over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.
Trump said previously his administration was trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from the Wuhan lab, following media reports it may have been artificially synthesized at a China state-backed laboratory or perhaps escaped from such a facility.
The coronavirus outbreak has contributed to a deepening rift between the Trump administration andChina, with Beijing suggesting the U.S. military might have brought the coronavirus to China and Trump saying China failed to alert the world to coronavirus risks in a timely and transparent fashion.
Trump also said on Thursday it was possible that China either could not stop the spread of the coronavirus or let it spread. He declined to say whether he held Chinese President Xi Jinping responsible for what he feels is misinformation about the emergence of the coronavirus. Trump told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for Beijing over the virus. "I can do a lot," he said.
Covid-19: Anti-coronavirus nasal spray, Neumifil, in works in UK
Anti-coronavirus nasal spray, Neumifil, on trial in UK
The UK-based company Pneumagen says it is developing a drug that could be effective in blocking the coronavirus' pathway into the lungs.
Read the full story here:
Respects paid at Rishi Kapoor's funeral
Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan was one of guests who attended the funeral of late veteran actor Rishi Kapoor, in Mumbai on Thursday. Kapoor, who built a career as one of Bollywood’s romantic heroes, died of leukaemia on Thursday. He was 67. Others who attended to pay their final goodbyes were actors Rajeev Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and director Rahul Rawail
Bollywood will take two years to recover from coronavirus financial aftermath
India's film industry, purveyor of song-and-dance spectacles to millions, will take at least two years to recover financially from the coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening big-ticket projects, putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs.
That was the sombre assessment of about a dozen top producers, distributors and actors from Bollywood, the movie industry in India's commercial capital of Mumbai, during a video conference this week. "Making movies has always been a gamble, and now some of us can pack up for the next year," said a film-maker responsible for many successful action movies, on condition of anonymity. "We will have to beg people to come to cinema halls."
Such dim prospects, even after the lockdown is lifted, threaten the box-office takings that make up 60% of industry earnings, spurring producers to say big-budget films and extravagant shoots in foreign locations will be shelved. "Films will have a tough time," said Jehil Thakkar, a partner at accounting firm Deloitte India. "Even after they lift the lockdown, I'd expect the psyche of a lot of people would be to avoid crowded places."
Bollywood has come to a grinding halt, with film production and theatres shut nationwide, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a 40-day lockdown to curb the virus, which has infected 31,000 people and killed more than 1,000 in India. About 9,500 theatres are shut, and business at multiplexes and single-screen cinemas is unlikely to bounce back for weeks or even months, as infection fears linger and discretionary spending plunges.
"Theatres may not open before mid-June on a pan-India level and normal occupancy may not come back until August," Karan Taurani, an analyst with investment firm Elara Capital, said in a note, adding they may have to slash prices to lure viewers. Industry figures show India makes 1,200 films in a typical year, but Taurani sees big-budget movies getting pushed into the next fiscal year, as production houses battle a liquidity crunch amid falling box-office revenues.
For example, the release of Bollywood's first attempt at a multi-hero action franchise, film-maker Rohit Shetty's 'Sooryanvanshi', has been postponed indefinitely from a late March schedule. "It is likely that even after theatres re-open, only smaller films will be released, so that producers get a sense of how many people are coming to them," Shailesh Kapoor, head of agency Ormax, which tracks Bollywood films, told Reuters.
Millions of migrants stranded
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has called for the set up of a special train service to deal with the millions of migrants who are trying to return to their hometowns in other parts of the country. Returnees would need to be registered, screened, transported then placed in quarantine once back home.Rajasthan have started to evacuate around 40,000 migrant workers from different states but faces processing five times that number in the coming weeks.
Updates from Indian government for 30 April
Updates ending 5pm on Thursday from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB)
Coronavirus live blog - welcome
Welcome to our live updates and breaking news live feed from India. It's Friday 1 May and we will bring you news, comment, opinion and statistics throughout the day as things continue to develop during the coronavirus epidemic.