Coronavirus LIVE: Kerala records 6,820 new Covid-19 positive cases

Coronavirus update: Maharashtra has 1,698,198 coronavirus cases, Karnataka 835,773, Andhra Pradesh 833,208, Tamil Nadu 734,429 and UP 489,502. Stay tuned for coronavirus India LIVE updates

1:47 AM

Odisha reports 1,385 new Covid-19 cases, 14 fresh fatalities, 1460 recoveries

1:47 AM

Greece announces 3-week nationwide lockdown to contain Covid

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a three-week nationwide lockdown on Thursday as part of measures to contain the further spread of the novel coronavirus.

 

"I opt to take drastic measures sooner rather than later. I will not put the lives of our citizens at risk," the Greek prime minister stated in an address broadcast live on public broadcaster ERT, Xinhua news agency reported.

 

He explained that he took this decision due to the exponential growth of Covid-19 cases in the last week.

12:25 AM

Ladakh records 112 new Covid-19 cases, 3 deaths

Three more Covid-19 fatalities took the death toll in the Union Territory of Ladakh to 79 while 112 new cases pushed the virus caseload to 6,553, officials said on Thursday.

 

A total of 71 patients recovered from the disease, bringing down the active cases to 702 -- 581 in Leh and 121 in Kargil. Of the discharged patients, 60 were from Leh and 11 from Kargil, they said.

11:53 PM

Assam coronavirus cases and deaths update

11:23 PM

UN calls special General Assembly session on pandemic -- focused on international coordination -- from December 3-4

11:14 PM

Delhi govt to increase homeless shelters to ensure social distancing

The Delhi government will set up 250 temporary shelters, four times more than the usual number every year, for the city's homeless people this winter season to ensure social distancing norms are followed amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an official statement said on Thursday.

 

Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said the people will be fed three meals including breakfast everyday, it said.

 

The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) will set up 250 tents having fire retardant and waterproof quality with basic amenities at locations of homeless concentration, said the statement.

10:34 PM

Delhi records 6,715 new cases, 66 deaths; govt to ramp up medical infrastructure

Delhi recorded 6,715 new Covid-19 cases and 66 fatalities on Thursday, the highest single-day spike in around four months as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a ban on firecrackers, deployment of mobile testing vans, and augmentation of bed capacity in hospitals to deal with the situation.

 

Health Minister Satyendar Jain, however, said that the national capital was doing much better than all other metro cities and was on the 17th position in terms of Covid-19 deaths per million population.

 

"Delhi is on the 17th position in Covid-19 death per million population. Far behind all metro cities," Jain posted on Twitter.

 

The positivity rate stood at12.84 per cent on Thursday while the infection tally rose to over 4.16 lakh even as 66 new fatalities, the highest in around four months, pushed the death toll to 6,769.

10:19 PM

WHO seeing "explosion" of coronavirus cases in Europe, mortality rates also rising: Regional director Kluge

10:17 PM

Karnataka reports 3,156 new Covid cases, 31 related fatalities, taking number of infections to 838,929

9:03 PM

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to brief foreign envoys on India‘s Covid-19 response tomorrow

9:00 PM

Health Minister backs mandatory retesting of all symptomatic RAT negative cases in Delhi

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday expressed concern over the surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi and pressed for mandatory retesting of all persons who test negative in rapid antigen tests and develop symptoms of Influenza-like illness and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) later. He said false negative results of the disease might give way to complacency among the coronavirus infected.

 

During a meeting, Vardhan interacted with Lt Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Kumar Jain in presence of senior officials, mayors, municipal commissioners and district magistrates of the city.

 

Vardhan expressed concern over the rise in the number of cases and the high positivity rate in the north, central, northeast, east, northwest and southeast districts of Delhi.

 

"We are particularly concerned over the rise of the positivity rate in these six districts," he said. In the meeting, he was told that 77 per cent of the tests are RAT-based while RT-PCR comprises only 23 per cent of the total tests.

 

8:34 PM

480 more Covid-19 cases in Uttarakhand, tally goes past 64,000-mark

Uttarakhand's COVID-19 tally rose to 64,065 on Thursday with 480 more people testing positive while nine more infected patients died, official data showed.

 

Pauri district reported the highest number with 118 cases, Dehradun 84, Rudraprayag 73, Nainital 47, Almora 41, Haridwar 25, Tehri 19, Bageshwar 19, Chamoli 19, Pithoragarh 14, Udham Singh Nagar 10, Uttarkashi 9 and Champawat 2, a state health department bulletin said.

 

Meanwhile, nine more COVID patients died in the state taking the death toll to 1,047, the bulletin said. So far, 58,823 infected people have recuperated, 515 have migrated out of the state while 3,680 patients are still under treatment.

8:30 PM

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan expresses concern over surge in Covid-19 cases in Delhi

8:28 PM

Covid-19 LIVE: 990 new coronavirus cases in Gujarat, seven deaths

Gujarat recorded 990 new cases of coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 1,77,598, the state health department said on Thursday evening. The death toll due to coronavirus in the state stands at 3,747 with seven more persons succumbing to the infection, it said.

 

At the same time, 1,055 patients also recovered during this period. Gujarat's COVID-19 figures are as follows: Positive cases 1,77,598, new cases 990, death toll 3,747, discharged 1,61,525, active cases 12,326 and people tested so far 63,13,668.

8:17 PM

No crackers this Diwali as Covid-19 cases, pollution rise: Delhi CM

With rising COVID-19 cases and air pollution level, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced a ban on firecrackers in the national capital ahead of Diwali.

 

Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said that the coronavirus situation in Delhi was reviewed with the chief secretary, health officials and district magistrates, after which it was concluded that the COVID-19 cases in Delhi were rising due to the festive season and increasing pollution in the region.

 

The Delhi government has also decided to ramp up medical infrastructure, including oxygen facility and intensive care unit beds in the government hospitals.