India on Saturday reported a spike of 73,272 new Covid-19 cases and 926 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 69,79,424 including 8,83,185 active cases, 59,88,823 cured/discharged/migrated cases and 1,07,416 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry
A total of 11,64,018 samples were tested for Covid-19 on Friday. Till October 9, a total of 8,57,98,698 samples tested in the country according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The number of active coronavirus cases in India for the first time in a month has fallen below the nine lakh-mark, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday. The ministry also said the active cases comprise merely 12.94 per cent of the total positive cases of the country.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday appealed to the people to avoid bursting firecrackers during Diwali in view of health hazards, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sikkim on Friday reported 32 new Covid-19 cases and two more deaths, an official said. East Sikkim registered 26 cases, while South Sikkim reported five cases, the official said. West Sikkim reported one case, he said. There are 504 active cases in the state at present and 2,640 patients have recovered, he said. Eighty-one patients have migrated out of the state, the official said. A two-month-old girl was among the two deaths reported in the last 24 hours, he said.
A 35-year-old IAS officer of the Tripura-cadre died of COVID-19 on Friday, authorities at a private hospital here said. The official, who was being treated at a hospital in Aurangabad in central Maharashtra, was shifted to Pune but was declared `brought dead' on arrival at Ruby Hall Clinic here on Friday afternoon, they said. The 2015-batch IAS officer who hailed from Maharashtra had recently returned to his home in Parbhani district on leave.
Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee has been shifted to intensive care in a private hospital where he is undergoing treatment for COVID-19 after his health condition worsened, a senior doctor at the facility said on late Friday night. The 85-year-old actor was at an "acute confusional stage" following which the neurologist advised him to be shifted to the ITU, he said.
The Delhi government's decision to do away with the practice of pasting cautionary posters outside the homes of people infected with Covid-19 and isolated inside, will help reduce the stigma attached to the disease, experts said on Friday. However, they also said this has some "disadvantages too". Official sources had said on Thursday that there will be no sticking of posters outside the houses of Covid-19 patients under home-isolation in the national capital.
Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Friday said his government is taking initiatives to ensure that the supplies of food items are not disrupted during the Covid-19 crisis. Inaugurating nine foodgrain storage facilities across the state, he urged officials of the civil supplies and consumer affairs department to make efforts so that Mizoram has enough stock of rice and other essential commodities. Food supplies minister K Lalrinliana said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 19.22 crore for the construction of 10 food storage units in different parts of the state.
Kolkata Police on Friday asked Durga Puja organisers in the city to rigorously follow all Covid-19 regulations and ensure that revellers mandatorily wear masks while entering the marquees during the five-day festival which will begin on October 23. City Commissioner of Police Anuj Sharma also said that puja committees should ensure that revellers adhere to the physical distancing norms inside pandals and are given masks by puja committees if they do not have them. He asked organisers to mark spaces for revellers near the pandals in keeping with the physical distancing norms and make separate entry and exit points in them.
Source: India Today
BDST: 1648 HRS, OCT 10, 2020
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