The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday announced that the number of coronavirus cases in India had crossed the figure of 5 lakh.
1. With India reporting 18,552 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the total number of Covid-19 infections crossed the 5 lakh-mark to reach 5,08,953 on Saturday including 1,97,387 active cases and 2,95,881 recoveries. Also, as many as 384 deaths in a day pushed the total fatalities to 15,685.
2. The number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in Maharashtra has been declining for over a fortnight now.
3. Meanwhile, Jharkhand became the second state after West Bengal to extend the lockdown till July 31. “Considering the seriousness of the situation, the state government has decided to extend the lockdown till 31 July,” Chief Minister Hemant Soren tweeted.
4. Three months after they closed down following the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the malls in Gurgaon are likely to re-open next week. At a press conference on Friday, the officials said that directions to this effect would soon be issued.
5. West Bengal Bengal Chief Minister too relaxed its night curfew to 10 pm-5 am and said that the government wants the Metro Rail services in Kolkata to resume from July 1.
6. With India’s COVID-19 cases crossing the five lakh-mark, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the government has no plan to defeat the pandemic and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has surrendered as he refuses to fight coronavirus.
“Covid19 is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country. The Government Of India has no plan to defeat it. Training his guns on Modi, he said, “PM is silent. He has surrendered and is refusing to fight the pandemic,” Gandhi tweeted.
He also tagged a report that claimed the government had “retreated” as no meeting of the ICMR panel or the Group of Ministers had taken place and neither had the Health Ministry held its briefings on the pandemic.
7. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that the total number of 79,96,707 samples has been tested till June 26 and the number of samples tested on June 26 was 2,20,479.
8. Telangana on Friday reported 985 new COVID-19 cases, taking the overall state tally to 12,349. According to the state health department”s bulletin, there are currently 7,436 active cases, reports ANI.
9. Odisha’s COVID-19 tally crossed the 6,000-mark on Friday, with 218 more people, including seven NDRF personnel, testing positive for the infection, a health department official said.
10. Defence Research Body Develops Baggage Disinfector For Airports, Railway Stations
A virus obliterating conveyor for the disinfection of baggage has been developed by Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), the Kochi based laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The automated stand-alone system uses UV bath for disinfecting baggage and other such items within seconds.The disinfector is based on a roller based conveyor carriage that carries baggage through a chamber equipped with accurately calibrated and optimally placed UVC sources.