Coronavirus summary, India: Covid-19 news, Friday 15 May
Coronavirus live India updates: cases, deaths and news - 15 May
India Covid-19 update: 02:30 IST on Saturday 16 May (23:00 CEST Friday 15 May)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 4,516,360 cases have been detected worldwide, with 306,051 deaths and 1,622,354 people now recovered.
In India, there have been 85,784 cases confirmed, 2,753 people have died and 30,234 people have recovered from the virus.
More Indian nationals repatriated
Approximately 330 Indian nationals were safely repatriated on Friday as part of the Vande Bharat Mission. Air India flights arrived at Hyderabad International airport from London and Manila bringing back stranded Indians On arrival, passengers were tested for coronavirus before being taken to hotels on the outskirts of the city .
More than 1,700 returnees have been evacuated since 9 May, out of which, nine have tested positive for Covid-19.
UP authorities request details on people buying medicine for fever, cold and coughs
Uttar Pradesh government has made it mandatory for drug inspectors to submit details, including the names, addresses and mobile phone numbers of customers who have bought medicines for fever, colds and coughs, on a daily basis from drug stores in their respective areas, Times Now reports.
India overtakes China in positive Covid-19 cases
India climbed to 11th place in the world ranking of positive Covid-19 cases after 3,787 cases were reported on Friday. With that, India has overtaken China with 10 countries having more confirmed cases - United States, Russia, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Brazil, France, Germany, Turkey and Iran.
Indian farmers and food sector to receive financial aid
India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced measures to strengthen Agriculture Infrastructure Logistics, Capacity Building, Governance and Administrative Reforms for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Processing Sectors. Sitharaman said that out of the 11 measures, eight will be to improve agricultural infrastructure and the other three for administrative and governance reforms, including removing restrictions on sale and stock limits of farm produce.
Nursing staff leaving Bengal over Covid-19 infection risks
Nurses from other states are leaving West Bengal to return home, Hindustan Times reports. Up to 185 nurses from Manipur alone left during the weekend as many health workers fear getting infected.
Migrant workers and families wave from the windows of a special train going to Howrah in West Bengal state back to their hometowns after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus, near Amritsar railway station on May 15, 2020. (Photo by NARINDER NANU / AFP)
Mumbai recording more cases than New York
Mumbai has become an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic with 800 new cases reported on Wednesday.
Delayed survey data blurs India's coronavirus picture
(Reuters) India has lost two weeks in its bid to get a picture of the spread of the coronavirus in its population because of poor Chinese testing kits, a member of a national task force said, complicating a decision on opening up from a lockdown.
The kits were for antibodies to the virus, meaning authorities could determine who had been exposed to it as part of a broad survey to assess its spread.
But hundreds of thousands of kits had to be returned to China after inconsistent results, and the government does not have all of the data it should have to decide on how and when to loosen the lockdown, first imposed on March 25.
"We would have known the extent of infections, how much is the spread, about two weeks back. The delay is about two weeks," Dr Manoj Murhekar, a task force member and director of the National Institute of Epidemiology, told Reuters on Thursday.
A survey of 24,000 people was now underway with indigenously developed test kits and data would be available by the end of May, he said.
Indian Army HQ sealed off after Covid-19 case
The headquarters of the Indian Army in Delhi has been quarantined after a positive test returned there as cases top 80,000 nationwide.
Migrant workers and their families stand in long queues for transport to reach to a railway station to board trains to their home state of northern Uttar Pradesh, after a limited reopening of India's giant rail network following a nearly seven-week lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease in Ahmedabad, India, May 15, 2020. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Amazon Prime snags Bollywood premieres, angering theater owners
(Reuters) Amazon Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, will screen several new Indian films originally meant for theatrical release this month, sparking protests from cinema owners as the novel coronavirus outbreak upends Bollywood.
India has been under a strict lockdown since March 25 to battle the virus, leaving about 9,500 theatres shut and depriving Bollywood of box-office revenue.
So producers of seven films, including two Bollywood movies starring A-listers, such as Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan, will stream the movies directly on Amazon Prime Video following a deal, the company said in a statement on Friday.
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A traffic police officer rides on a self-balancing scooter along a deserted road during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus in Chennai on 15 May 2020. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)
India has announced it will feed millions of migrant workers
India will provide free food grains to millions of migrant workers hardest hit by a weeks-long lockdown as well as offer employment under a rural jobs programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.
The government will spend 35 billion rupees ($463.06 million) on food for nearly 80 million migrant workers over the next two months, Sitharaman told a news conference.
The allocation is part of a 20 trillion rupee ($266 billion) fiscal and monetary package to prop up the ailing economy.
Millions of workers have fled large towns and cities after they lost their jobs during the lockdown, which is aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"The government is concerned about migrant workers," Sitharaman said, and had provided funds to states to provide shelter, food grain and transport for migrants.
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Speeding bus kills Indian migrant workers trying to walk home
A speeding bus ran over and killed six Indian migrant workers as they tried to walk home, police said on Thursday, days after the death of a group of migrants who fell asleep on a railway line shocked the country.
Five others were injured in the accident late on Wednesday, which comes as tens of thousands of distressed migrants try to get home after work - and most public transport - vanished overnight when India imposed a lockdown in late March.
The men were walking from the northern state of Haryana to their home state of Bihar hundreds of miles away, said Abhishek Yadav, a senior police official.
Hello and welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the latest coronavirus news from India.
The Covid-19 pandemic has now infected over 80,000 people in India, with a steep increase in the past two days, with the country only passing the 60,000 case mark three days ago. Over 2,600 people have now died from the coronavirus in India.
27,900 people have recovered from the disease.