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Coronavirus India: summary of news for Friday 5 June

Update:
Coronavirus India live updates: cases, deaths and news, today

Coronavirus live India: latest Covid-19 news - Friday 5 June

India

India Covid-19 update: 02:00 IST on Friday 5 June (22:30 CEST)

According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 6,711,318 cases have been detected worldwide, with 393,600 deaths and 2,986,631 people now recovered.

In India, there have been 236,184 cases confirmed, 6,649 people have died and 113,231 people have recovered from the virus.

Known cases of coronavirus surging

With some richer countries coming out of lockdown the feeling you might get from some media in those countries is that the worst of the pandemic is over, but alas that is very far from the truth. Globally, confirmed cases of the virus are growing faster than ever, and the surge is “concentrated in densely populated, low- and middle-income countries across the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and South Asia.”

Air India bookings open

The UK and the USA included in the new openings from the airline.

India's new normal

A look into how ready cities are for the next phase of easing.

Kerala sees cases increase

Cases of Covid-19 in Kerala have been increasing steadily since 8 May and now total 1,697.

India

Lockdown reveals child labour cases in India as kids stream home

Vijay Kewat waited patiently at Gaya station, ready to receive 100 child workers who were headed home under India's lockdown. He was speechless when 500 streamed off the train instead.

"It was an extraordinary sight and even officials were stunned," the child rights activist said.

Abandoned by employers and packed with haste onto a special train carrying migrant workers home, the children poured onto the platform at Gaya in eastern India last week, Kewat said. And many promptly disappeared into nearby streets, he added.

"That day at the station, everyone realised that there were thousands of trafficked children being sent back home as factories were closed and nobody was documenting this return," said Kewat, who works at the charity Centre Direct.

Over the last two weeks, similar instances have been reported from Rajasthan to Assam to New Delhi, all states where children have been rescued and sent to quarantine centres.

India has launched multiple campaigns to check child labour in recent years, cracking down on factories where children are hired to make bangles, stitch shoes or sequins.

India

India set to reopen temples, malls but no sprinkling of holy water

India will throw open shopping malls, restaurants and places of worship that typically attract large crowds next week, officials said, even though coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest daily rate than at any time in the past three months.

Anxious to jump-start an economy crippled by COVID-19 and put millions of people back to work, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is dismantling its vast lockdown of the 1.3 billion population imposed in March.

Strict guidelines will accompany the loosening of restrictions on Monday, however.

Hotel guests will be tested for fever, masks will be compulsory at all times, and restaurants will have to set tables apart to maintain social distancing when they reopen on Monday, according to rules issued by the federal home ministry.

Covid-19

'It's not over': COVID-19 cases rise in some nations easing lockdowns - WHO

Some countries have seen "upticks" in COVID-19 cases as lockdowns ease, and populations must protect themselves from the coronavirus while authorities continue testing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The epicentre of the pandemic is currently in countries of Central, South and North America, particularly the United States, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

"On upticks (in cases), yes we have seen in countries around the world - I'm not talking specifically about Europe - when the lockdowns ease, when the social distancing measures ease, people sometimes interpret this as 'OK, it's over'," Harris told a U.N. briefing in Geneva.

"It's not over. It's not over until there is no virus anywhere in the world," she said.

Environmental tips from IRCTC

The Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation have issued a series of guidelines to make lockdown a 'greener' experience. 

Places of worship prepare

India's temples, shrines and places of worship gearing up for 8 June reopening.

 

Yamuna

India's Yamuna river regains sparkle as virus lockdown banishes waste

The sparkle has returned to the Yamuna river flowing through India's capital of New Delhi, residents say, after decades of filthy and stinking waters, matted with garbage and polluted with toxic effluent from industry.

In a feat that eluded years of government cleanliness efforts, a nationwide lockdown against the coronavirus has brought about the transformation of a river many Hindus consider holy, with a halt in industrial activity since late in March.

Sanjay Gir, a 55-year-old Hindu monk who spends his time on the riverbank, said he could not remember when he had last seen the river so clean.

Pakistan and India share a 3,000km border and any increase there will have repercussions in India. Both countries are really starting to see increases in total cases count recently.

Yesterday was India's highest total since the pandemic began with close to 9,000 new cases.

Vaccines work

This is always an important message, but the WHO is likely gearing up for a fight with the anti-vaxxers who are already trying to spread a false message that any coronavirus vaccine won't be safe.

When will visitors return?

Complicated with that many people, but how soon will people be coming for tourism?

Coronavirus possibly in India by November

Indian scientists reckon the coronavirus was in the country by 11 December and possibly as early as November 26. They studied the most recent common ancestor of all the strains currently in the country to make the evaluation

Surge of cases in rural areas

Rural parts of India are seeing a surge in Covid-19 infections, report Reuters, with millions of migrant workers returning from big cities, where the virus has been concentrated up to now.

Officials said the spike in cases was a fresh challenge for the country's health authorities, even as they struggle to check the outbreak in cities amid the easing of a months-long lockdown. Confirmed cases in India crossed the 200,000 mark on Wednesday. Some experts say that a peak remains weeks away.

oppo

Covid-19 subs for test matches

The ICC is looking at allowing substitutes if a a player tests postive for coronavirus during a test match. The idea would be to allow like-for-like subs, similar to the rule for concussed players. Question not answered is why the rest of the team wouldn't have to isolate if one of their team-mates tests positive. 

AstraZeneca agrees deal for one billion vaccine doses

UK drug giant AstraZeneca has agreed a deal with Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker, for the Indian company to produce one billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine being developed in Oxford, UK, for low and middle-income countries. Part of that billion will be for India, the rest going to GAVI, the vaccine alliance. 

Death

Covid-19 figures for India

India has now had 226,713 people officially confirmed as having the disease (that's sixth highest globally, behind the US, Brazil, Russia, UK, Spain and Italy). In total 6,363 people have died from the new coronavirus, while 108,450 have recovered.

Latest news for 5 June 2020

Hello and welcome to our coverage of the latest coronavirus news in India as it happens. We'll strive to keep you up to date with the latest Covid-19 information as it happens.