Covid LIVE: Maharashtra sees 9,350 new cases; less than 1,000 in Bengaluru

Coronavirus live updates: India records 62,597 cases, 2,726 deaths in the last 24 hours. Tamil Nadu reported 12,772 new infections, followed by Maharashtra (8,129). Stay tuned for corona-related news

Corona updates: India reported the lowest daily spike in infections since March 31 with 60,471 new cases in the last 24 hours. With this, the country's total coronavirus caseload has has reached 29,570,881. The country reported 2,726 deaths yesterday, taking the death toll to 377,031. The number of active cases of Covid-19 in India, which had swelled to over 3.72 million at the height of the second wave, has fallen below 1 million after 66 days. The test positivity rate has fallen to 3.45 per cent.

Tamil Nadu reported 12,772 new infections, followed by Maharashtra (8,129), Kerala (7,719), Karnataka (6,835), Andhra Pradesh (4,549), Delhi (131) and West Bengal (3,519).

The five most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (5,917,121), Karnataka (2,771,969), Kerala (2,735,958), Tamil Nadu (2,366,493), Andhra Pradesh (1,814,393).

World coronavirus update: Covid-19 is continuing to spread around the world, with more than 177 million confirmed cases and 3,827,272 deaths across nearly 200 countries recorded since China reported its first cases in December 2019. The US remains the worst-hit country with 34,334,181, followed by India, Brazil, France and Turkey.

To read updates from our yesterday's blog, click here

2:02 AM

EU raises €20 billion in 10-year bond to fund virus recovery

The European Commission said on Tuesday it has raised €20 billion (USD 24.2 billion) through a 10-year bond as part of its plans to finance the 27-nation bloc's recovery from the coronavirus crisis.
 

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the inaugural transaction of the NextGeneration EU program is the largest ever institutional bond issuance in Europe. The money will help finance the national recovery plans devised by member states to get their economies back on track.
 

Von der Leyen said the bond was priced at “very attractive terms" and that the European Union will pay less than 0.1% interest on it.
 

“Europe is attractive," she said. “By the end of this year, we expect to have issued around 100 billion in bonds and bills." The commissioner in charge of Budget and Administration, Johannes Hahn, said the recovery plan's first borrowing operation attracted interest from investors across Europe and the rest of the world, including central banks and pension funds.
 

To finance the stimulus, the EU's executive arm said it will raise from capital markets up to an estimated €800 billion by the end of 2026. In total, member states have agreed on a €1.8 trillion budget and pandemic recovery package.
 

2:01 AM

UK fends off demands to give workers more virus support help

The British government fended off calls Tuesday to provide more financial support to businesses and workers suffering from its decision to delay lifting coronavirus restrictions in England until July 19.
 

Although many restrictions were eased in recent weeks, allowing large parts of the U.K. economy to reopen, a number of businesses, particularly in the hospitality and entertainment sectors, have remained shuttered because it was not financially viable.
 

After months of planning, those businesses had been preparing to reopen on June 21, the date the government had earmarked for the possible lifting of restrictions on social contact. But a recent spike in new infections as a result of the more contagious delta variant upended that plan and has fueled concerns that the restrictions may persist beyond July 19.
 

Scientists advising the government reckon that the delta variant, which was first found in India, is between 40% to 80% more transmissible than the previous dominant strain in the U.K. The alpha variant first found in Britain was largely behind a winter virus surge that left the country with Europe's highest virus-related death toll at nearly 128,000.
 

2:01 AM

Thousands of Indian students have secured visa appointments for July, August: US Embassy

Thousands of Indian students have secured visa appointments for July and August since Monday, the US Embassy here said on Tuesday.
 

A senior American diplomat had said on Sunday that the US mission in India is "actively working" to accommodate as many student visa applicants as possible in July and August, and facilitating their legitimate travel remained a top priority for it.
 

"Since June 14, thousands of students have secured visa appointments for July and August. Thousands of appointments remain available and we will open thousands more in coming weeks," the American Embassy said in a tweet.
 

"We appreciate your patience as we diligently work to resolve the technical issues you have encountered," it said.
 

Don Heflin, the Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs at the US embassy, had also said earlier that the US-bound students will not require any proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter the country.
 

2:00 AM

Assam logs 3,415 new Covid-19 cases, 34 deaths in 24 hours

Assam reported 3,415 new Covid-19 cases and 34 fresh fatalities on Tuesday pushing the caseload to 4,66,590, National Health Mission (NHM) said.
 

Five deaths were reported from Tinsukia, four from Lakhimpur, three each in Jorhat and Nagaon, two each in Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Kamrup Metropolitan, Karbi Anglong, and Sivasagar, and one each in Baksa, Cachar, Hojai, Kamrup, Karimganj, Sonitpur and Udalguri in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 4,028.
 

NHM said, 1,347 more Covid-19 patients have died till now, but the government's Death Audit Board has not included them in the tally of deaths caused by the Covid-19 virus as they had other ailments too.
 

With detection of 3,415 patients against testing of 1,32,929 samples on Tuesday, Assam has reported a positivity rate of 2.57 per cent for the day, the NHM daily bulletin said.
 

The state had reported 3,678 coronavirus positive cases on Monday against testing of 1,46,046 samples.
 

Currently, the state has a total of 39,837 active cases and they are being treated at different hospitals and Covid Care Centres (CCCs). Some of the Covid-19 affected people are in home isolation.
 

1:59 AM

GIMS begins workshop to train doctors, staff for Covid 3rd wave

Preparing for a possible third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Greater Noida has started special training for its doctors and support staff in dealing with cases of children, officials said on Tuesday.
 

A two-day workshop for 30 doctors and nurses on 'Basic Skills in Pediatrics' was held on Monday and Tuesday, GIMS Director Dr (Brig) Rakesh Gupta said.
 

The GIMS, which functions as an autonomous body under the Uttar Pradesh government, has treated over 4,500 patients during the two waves of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, he said, adding the hospital is preparing for the third wave, which is expected to chiefly affect children.
 

"Lectures and hands on training were given to these participants in basic skills to identify and manage a sick child by eminent faculties. Special case scenarios were created, especially Covid-related. Hands on training for operating ventilators, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), HFNC (high flow nasal cannula), intravenous line, basic life support and advanced cardiovascular life support in pediatric perspective were also given," Gupta said.
 

He said that during the last two waves of the pandemic, the institute provided the best of care and over 4,500 patients of Covid were managed at the institute.
 

1:58 AM

Harris announces $1.25 billion for community lenders

Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that the Biden administration is distributing $1.25 billion to hundreds of community lenders in an effort to help boost the economic recovery from the coronavirus for small businesses and disadvantaged business owners.
 

“President Joe Biden and I knew that more than repair, we must re-imagine our economy,” Harris said during an event at the White House. “Small businesses, of course, are at the center of this re-imagining.” The funds are going to more than 860 community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, around the country.

CDFIs offer loans to small businesses and those who may be turned down for loans from major banks, a problem that studies have shown particularly plagues minority business owners.
 

Harris has focused on small businesses from the start of her vice presidency, and has emphasized in particular the need to support minority- and female-owned small businesses as key to a robust economic recovery.
 

On Tuesday, she lamented that “traditional banks have not always seen or understood the vision of women, small business owners, small business owners of color, small business owners who serve low income communities.” CDFIs, she said “add value to those communities, and by extension, to our entire nation.” This fund in particular comes from work she did as a California senator. The funding for the program comes from $12 billion provided for community lenders in the 2020 stimulus that was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump last December. At the time, Harris pushed to include funding for CDFIs in the final package, along with Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, and House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, both of whom joined her at Tuesday's event.
 

11:28 PM

Foreign-bound students, Olympic participants can get 2nd Covishield dose after 28 days: BMC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday issued fresh guidelines reducing the gap between two doses of coronavirus vaccine Covishield to 28 days from 84 days for citizens going abroad for studies and jobs besides participants of the Tokyo Olympics.
 

The guidelines said citizens in these three categories can get the second dose of the vaccine at inoculation centres at Kasturba Hospital, KEM Hospital, Cooper Hospital, Jumbo Covid-19 centre at suburban Dahisar, Rajawadi Hospital, Shatabdi Hospital and Seven Hills Hospital.
 

"Those citizens who are going to undertake international travel for educational or job purpose or participating in the Tokyo Olympics and if they have taken the first dose of the vaccine, they can get the second dose in 28 days instead of 84 days," a BMC circular stated.
 

The civic body directed nodal officers at vaccination centres to ensure the two-dose gap norm for the specified categories is adhered to after beneficiaries submit necessary documents.
 

Meanwhile, 41,87,747 citizens have taken vaccines against Covid-19 so far in Mumbai, the BMC said, adding of these, 75,867 took the jabs on Tuesday.
 

Of the total beneficiaries, 8,38,487 have taken both the doses of vaccines, the civic body said.
 

11:27 PM

Green fungus infection patient found in Indore

A 34-year-old Covid-19 survivor was diagnosed with green fungus infection in Madhya Pradesh's Indore and shifted to Mumbai by air ambulance for treatment, a senior doctor said on Tuesday.
 

Dr Ravi Dosi, head of the Department of Chest Diseases, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS) told PTI that the man, who had recovered from Covid-19, underwent a test on suspicion that he had contracted the dreaded black fungus infection (mucormycosis).
 

But he was instead found to have green fungus (Aspergillosis) infection in his sinuses, lungs and blood.
 

More research was needed on whether the nature of green fungus infection in people who have recovered from Covid-19 is different from other patients, Dr Dosi said.
 

The patient was airlifted to Mumbai on Monday and admitted to a hospital there, he said.
 

The man was admitted to a local hospital two months ago with almost 100 percent coronavirus infection in the lungs and was treated in the ICU for about a month.
 

"The patient recovered. But then he started having nose bleeds and high fever. He had also become very weak due to weight loss," the doctor said.
 

11:27 PM

Delhi health minister thanks AIF for its help in tackling Covid 2nd wave

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday thanked the American India Foundation (AIF) for helping in tackling the second wave of coronavirus in the national capital.
 

He said the American India Foundation has donated 500 oxygen concentrators, 6,720 resuscitators (single-use ventilators) and 1,200 ventilator monitors to help abate the shortage of medical equipment, despite facing a heavy shortage themselves.
 

The minister thanked the AIF through a Zoom meeting for its contribution towards improving the Covid management in the capital.
 

"I am thankful to American Indian Foundation (AIF) for helping us during this pandemic by providing medical equipment in such a huge number," he said.
 

Jain said 6,720 resuscitators (single-use ventilators) were donated by the AIF.
 

"This is in itself a huge number. We have also faced a time when the monitors were unavailable. The donation of 1,200 monitors came as a huge relief. It is commendable that despite heavy shortage the American India Foundation had arranged such a huge amount of medical equipment," he added.
 

Jain hoped that the foundation would keep standing for the noble causes and extend its support to other states as well.
 

8:56 PM

Gujarat sees 352 fresh coronavirus cases, 4 more deaths

Gujarat on Tuesday reported 352 Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 8,21,078, while the day also saw 1,006 people getting discharged and four patients succumbing to the infection, an official said.

 

The state's toll is 10,007 and the recovery rate is 8,02,187, which is 97.70 per cent of the tally, leaving the state with 8,884 active cases, including 219 on ventilator support, the official said.

 

"Surat led with 71 cases, followed by 50 in Vadodara, 49 in Ahmedabad, 25 in Rajkot among other districts. Two deaths took place in Ahmedabad and one each in Surat and Junagadh," the official said. (PTI)

8:45 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra reports 9,350 new cases

8:45 PM

Covid-related deaths breach 30,000 mark in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu recorded 11,805 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, pushing the caseload to 23,78,298 while 267 deaths including that of an eight-month old girl child took the toll to 30,068.

 

According to a medical bulletin, 23,207 people were discharged Tuesday, taking the overall tally to 22,23,015 leaving 1,25,215 active infections.

 

The fresh coronavirus cases in the state included two returnees from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar respectively. (PTI)

8:39 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Telangana extends summer vacation for schools till June 20

8:19 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Rajasthan govt allows restaurants to operate with 50% capacity

8:08 PM

Coronavirus LIVE: Mumbai sees 575 new cases