Coronavirus India: summary of Covid-19 news, Wednesday 6 May
Coronavirus live India: latest Covid-19 news - 6 May
India Covid-19 update: 04:10 IST on Thursday 7 May (00:40 CEST)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 3,742,665 cases have been detected worldwide, with 262,709 deaths and 1,237,907 people now recovered.
In India, there have been 52,987 cases confirmed, 1,785 people have died and 15,331 people have recovered from the virus.
Coronavirus doubling time shortening
The time it takes for coronavirus cases to double in India is decreasing as the country experiences a spike in infections. India had a doubling time of 15 days four days ago, but that rate has now quickened to 11.
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
All the information you need to understand the coronavirus and ways to stay safe during the Covid-19 pandemic:
Children of migrant workers look out from a train carriage before departing to return to their homes during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, at Sabarmati Railway Station on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. (Photo: SAM PANTHAKY/AFP)
Coronavirus spreads among Indian police
Hundreds of Indian police have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm among an over-stretched force as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown to contain the pandemic.
Some 3 million police are trying to ensure that the vast majority of India's 1.3 billion people stay home.
A senior officer in the western state of Maharashtra said the number of cases had nearly doubled in the police force there in the last week.
Maharashtra, the hardest-hit state, has reported a total of 15,525 infections as of Tuesday.
"More than 450 people from the state police force have now tested positive and four have died due to the virus," the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
(Reuters)
“What we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg”
Public-health expert Dr S.D. Gupta, who is a member of India’s coronavirus taskforce, has told the New York Times that testing will have to be ramped up to ascertain the full extent of the spread of Covid-19 in the country, where confirmed cases have spiked in recent days.
“What we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg,” Gupta said. “Unless we do testing, we will never know how many cases we have. That’s the problem.”
Image rights
BJP president has stated that "a lot of effort is needed" to promote the right image of the country's fight against Covid-19 abroad.
Low testing, high mortality in W. Bengal
In a two-page letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said stricter enforcement of lockdown was necessary and the problems have arisen due to ostracism of healthcare professionals and lack of quarantine facilities in the state.
Oberoi is a famous Indian actor and has released a statement saying:
“We observed that migrant labourers have been stranded here since a while now. There are many of them who are not even able to cope up with acquiring daily essentials. They are struggling to pay their rent, buy daily essentials, to feed their children. We have supported more than 5,000 families."
Coronavirus spreads among Indian police enforcing world's largest lockdown
(Reuters) - Hundreds of Indian police have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days, raising alarm among an over-stretched force as it attempts to enforce the world's largest lockdown.
Some 3 million police are trying to ensure that the vast majority of India's 1.3 billion people stay home, with TV footage early in the crisis showing police beating back migrant workers as they tried to board city buses to reach their villages, making a mockery of social distancing.
India has been under lockdown since March 25 and has confirmed nearly 50,000 coronavirus cases and some 1,694 deaths.
A senior officer in the western state of Maharashtra said the number of cases had nearly doubled in the police force there in the last week. Maharashtra, the hardest-hit state, has reported a total 15,525 cases as of Tuesday.
Indian workers prepare beds at the Nesco Centre Hall, one of the biggest exhibition centre in Mumbai, converted into the quarantine center for pandemic Covid-19 disease. According to reports, the hall will accommodate 1,240 beds. India's lockdown was extended by two more weeks to curb the spread of coronavirus, although some activities were allowed to reopen. EFE/EPA/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI
India plans airlift for 400,000 stranded abroad by virus travel restrictions
(Reuters) - India will begin flights on Thursday to bring home some 400,000 citizens stranded overseas by travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, prompting some worries over the risk that imported infections could fuel contagion in the country.
India's coronavirus cases totaled 49,390 as of Wednesday, of whom 1,694 people had died, and there is still no sign of the curve in new cases flattening despite a stringent, weeks-long lockdown in the world's second most populous country.
But, responding to the distress among India's huge diaspora, the government has asked national carrier Air India to provide aircraft to bring back Indians who want to return from the Middle East, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Indian Navy has also been asked to help by sending two ships to evacuate citizens from the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean.
Indian government are set to increase taxes on alcohol with customers set to almost €5 more on premium imported alcohol. The list of prices and increases (in rupees) are listed in the article below.
No meat? Climate-smart vegetables keep Kashmir fed in coronavirus crisis
As a population of enthusiastic meat eaters, Kashmiris have felt the impact of India's coronavirus lockdown at almost every meal.
Kashmir's meat supply, most of which comes from outside the Indian-administered region, has dropped sharply since a nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus started on March 24.
Imports have stalled and many meat sellers around the Himalayan region have shut, explained Abdul Rashid, who usually eats mutton at least four days a week, but hasn't had any in the past month.
To fill the empty space on their plates, millions of Kashmiris are turning to vegetables, which local farmers have been supplying in growing abundance over the past 15 years, after adopting new seeds and climate-smart growing methods.
"Our choices are very limited these days," said Rashid, who lives in a suburb of the regional capital, as he stopped to buy vegetables from a seller at a local market.
"As vegetables are mostly produced locally, we get them fresh. And we know where they have come from," he said.
Since the start of the lockdown, Kashmiris have been consuming large quantities of haakh - a local variant of collard greens - as well as spinach, potatoes and onions, according to the Kashmir Vegetable Dealers Association.
Women queue outside a post office to collect aid provided by the Telangana state government during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Secunderabad the twin city of Hyderabad on May 6, 2020. Photo by Noah Seelam.
India to send nearly 1,000 tonnes of paracetamol raw material to Europe
India will supply Europe with about 1,000 tonnes of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for common pain reliever paracetamol, a top exports body said, easing export controls on over-the counter medicines used to cope with COVID-19 symptoms.
The Indian government in March put a hold on exports of several drugs including paracetamol to secure supplies for its people after the coronavirus outbreak disrupted the industry's supply chain globally. COVID-19 is the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Europe has sought up to 800 tonnes of paracetamol APIs every month, said Dinesh Dua, chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil).
"We have been under immense pressure from the European Union for the last 10 days," Dua said.
The Union Health Ministry has written to the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists have written to its members with a list of 55 drugs for ICU management of novel coronavirus patients and a list of another 96 drugs that are vital in the treatment of coronavirus symptoms and other illnesses during the pandemic.
Tackling coronavirus hotspots in city slums hindered by lack of data
(Reuters) -- Containing coronavirus hotspots in sprawling city slums has been made harder by a dearth of reliable data, urban experts said on Wednesday, calling for more extensive mapping and surveys to help deal with the global health crisis.
Some of the hardest hit are people living in densely crowded slums and informal settlements with little or no running water, and inadequate sewage systems.
"You cannot monitor what you haven't measured. Access to precise locations is imperative for effective disaster response and risk reduction," said Megha Datta, a director at Geospatial Media and Communications, a technology firm in India.
"But navigation tools don't apply in slums because they have not been mapped. The complex and diverse morphology of slums also makes data extraction through standard methods difficult," she added.
Over 14,000 Indians set for repatriation
64 flights from 12 different countries set to bring Indian nationals home.
Coronavirus: Lockdown 3.0 in India - new extension, when it starts and when it ends
Till 17 May, at the earliest.
Expiring driving licenses get new lease of life
If your driving license or vehicle registration is running out, don't worry. Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that documents relating to the Motor Vehicle Act will be treated as valid through to 30 June where they expire between 1 February and 30 June. Basically because it's impossible to renew documents during lockdown
The Arogya Setu contact tracing app has been downloaded at least 75 million times - any doubts about its security need to be addressed quickly.
Coronavirus and sport: the impact of Covid-19 on sporting events around the world
Football, cricket, rugby, surfing, Olympics, golf, tennis, cycling, athletics, motor sports, swimming, baseball, NFL, NHL, baseball, basketball... see the impact of #coronavirus on (almost) every sport.
Front page: The New Indian Express
Here's the front page of today's New Indian Express, on the mega repatriation plan, starting on 7 May and bringing back Indians from 12 nations - the UAE, the UK, the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. 64 flights are being laid on.
Also on the front page: Tamil Nadu now has over 4,000 Covid-19 cases (33 deaths), and there has been a big drop in hospital admissions under the PMJAY health insurance scheme for the most vulnerable members of society. The drop is thought to be down to the lockdown, fear among patients and some empanelled hospitals getting converted into Covid-19 hospitals.
We had this in yesterday's live blog, but if you missed it here it is again - a fairly mammoth operation by any standards.
India Covid-19 update: 03:30 IST on Tuesday 6 May (00:00 CEST)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 3,651,010 cases have been detected worldwide, with 256,239 deaths and 1,194,140 people now recovered.
In India, there have been 49,400 cases confirmed, 1,693 people have died and 14,142 people have recovered from the virus.
Hello and welcome
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of all the latest Covid-19 news on 6 May, as it happens from around India, which is still on phase 3 of the lockdown, now extended to May 17.
India has had 49,400 confirmed coronavirus cases so far, with 1,693 deaths. 14,142 people in the country have now recovered from the disease having tested positive for it.