Coronavirus LIVE: Nearly 48,000 cases in Karnataka; positivity rate at 32%

Coronavirus live updates: Hospitals around India have been overwhelmed by a fresh wave of infections with oxygen supplies running short in medical facilities due to the sudden surge in demand.

10:30 AM

Meghalaya reports 11 new Covid-19 deaths, 375 fresh cases

Meghalaya reported 11 new COVID-19 fatalities, the highest single-day deaths, pushing the toll in the state to 210, a senior health department official said on Sunday.

 

Of the 11 deaths reported on Saturday, seven were from East Khasi Hills district, three from West Jaintia Hills and one from Ri-Bhoi district, the official said. The COVID-19 caseload in the state rose to 19,302 as 375 more people tested positive for the infection on Saturday, Health Services Director, Aman War said.

 

The state now has 2,678 active COVID-19 cases, while 16,414 patients have recovered from the disease, he said.

10:21 AM

103-year-old man recovers from Covid in Maharashtra's Palghar

A 103-year-old resident of Palghar in Maharashtra has recovered from Covid-19 despite being in the vulnerable age group, PTI reported on Sunday quoting government officials. Shamrao Ingle was admitted to a rural Covid-19 hospital after he contracted the infection. According to doctors, Ingle responded well to the medical treatment. He was discharged Saturday.

9:56 AM

India's Covid-19 tally tops 22 million

India on Sunday reported 4,03,738 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s total infection count to 222,96,414. It reported 4,092 new deaths to take total fatalities to 242,362. The number of active cases stands at 3,736,648 and 18,317,404 people have recovered since start of the pandemic, said the health ministry. It is the fourth consecutive day when the number of daily infections went above 400,000.

9:34 AM

Farmers defy restrictions, protest in Punjab

Famer unions in Punjab on held Saturday marches and motorcycle rallies to protest against lockdowns, violating restrictions to break the chain of infection. Protests were held in 87 towns in 15 districts of Punjab, the Indian Express reported quoting unions. The unions had given a call ‘lockdown todo, bazar kholo’ (end lockdown, open shops), but few shops opened during the protests.

 

8:23 AM

India's test positivity rate at 20%, says report

More than 40 per cent of India’s 741 districts, or 301 of them, had a Covid-19 test positivity rate of 20 per cent or more for the week from May 1 to May 7, reported the Times of India quoting data by the health ministry on Saturday. These districts spread across 31 of the country’s 36 states and union territories. Test positivity rate is total confirmed cases as a share of the total number of people tested

7:44 AM

Health ministry sleeping through crisis: IMA

The Indian Medical Association, a group representing doctors, accused the health ministry of "extreme lethargy and inappropriate actions" during the second wave of infections. "IMA demands the health ministry to wake up from its slumber and respond to mitigate the growing challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said in a statement.

6:54 AM

Top doctors named for Supreme Court's task force on oxygen

The Supreme Court on Saturday set up a 12-member National Task Force (NTF) to facilitate public health response to Covid-19, including streamlining of oxygen distribution in the country, based on scientific and specialised domain knowledge. According to the Indian Express, ex-officio members named to the NTF are: Bhabatosh Biswas, former Vice-Chancellor, West Bengal University of Health Sciences, Kolkata; Dr Devender Singh Rana, Chairperson, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi; Devi Prasad Shetty, Chairperson and Executive Director, Narayana Healthcare, Bengaluru; Gagandeep Kang, Professor, Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, Tamil Nadu; J V Peter, Director, CMC; Naresh Trehan, Chairperson and Managing Director, Medanta Hospital and Heart Institute, Gurugram, Rahul Pandit, Director, Critical Care Medicine and ICU, Fortis Hospital, Mulund and Kalyan (Maharashtra); Saumitra Rawat, Chairman & Head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital; Shiv Kumar Sarin, Senior Professor and Head of Department of Hepatology, and Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), Delhi; Zarir F Udwadia, Consultant Chest Physician, Hinduja Hospital, Breach Candy Hospital and Parsee General Hospital, Mumbai; and the Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

 

6:40 AM

South Africa finds India variant of Covid-19

A variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in India has been found in four people in South Africa. Two cases of the B1.617.2 variant were identified in patients in the central Gauteng province and another two in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, and all of them were isolated to prevent its spread, the health department said in a statement on Saturday. This is according to a Bloomberg report

6:38 AM

EU urges Biden to allow export vaccines

European Union leaders urged U.S. President Joe Biden to lift restrictions on exports of Covid-19 vaccines to address the desperate needs of developing countries before embarking on complex discussions about patent waivers, Bloomberg reported.

 

6:37 AM

Assam reports record 5,756 fresh cases, 50 deaths

Covid-19 infections in Assam rose to 2,89,069 on Saturday as the state reported its highest single-day spike of 5,756 new cases, according to a bulletin issued by the National Health Mission in Guwahati. The death toll rose to 1,628 after 50 more people succumbed to the disease, PTI reported quoting the bulletin.