Coronavirus India Updates: Total Cases Top 1.18 Lakh; Deaths Near 3,600

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has allowed home delivery of liquor in containment areas.

The liquor shop owners have been asked to follow these guidelines:

• Under no circumstances over the counter sales of liquor can be permitted from such shops.
• E-commerce platforms may be utilised by the liquor shops permitted to do home delivery.
• The guidelines issued by state government and the state excise department shall be followed scrupulously.
• The jurisdictional state excise officers and ward officers will ensure compliance of these orders in its totality.

A top official charged with formulating India’s Covid-19 response today said that the country cannot remain in a perpetual state of lockdown but instead will have to move on with life while taking all precautionary measures.

“Lockdown cannot go for an unlimited time. It was meant for a purpose and it has broadly achieved that purposes,” said VK Paul, Chairman of the empowered group of officials to tackle Covid-19. “Now it is very important that we continue in a manner which is creating headwinds for the virus. We need to maintain the balance between resuming livelihood and containing the virus.”

Still, Paul said that it is no time to relax yet. “We don’t have herd immunity yet, and there are a lot of things that we still don’t know about the virus.”

Uber said on Friday it has resumed its operations in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, and Hubballi, in compliance with Lockdown 4.0 guidelines issued by the Government.

Riders in Bengaluru can book UberAuto, UberGO, Premier, Intercity, Hourly Rental, UberXL, Access, and Assist on their Uber App. UberAuto, UberGO, Premier, and Intercity are available in Mysuru, UberGO and Intercity services in Mangaluru, and UberAuto services in Hubballi.

Uber Intercity operations will be limited to travel with necessary authorisation and within state boundaries and permissible zones only, the company said in a statement.

Uber said it has launched comprehensive measures such as the distribution of PPE kits, including masks, sanitisers and disinfectants to drivers and the introduction of mandatory educational video courses for them.

Source: PTI

Source: PTI

With Assam witnessing a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases ever since inter-state travel was allowed, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the state government will implement a "ruthless quarantine strategy with a humane heart".

The total number of positive cases in Assam went up to 212 on Friday morning with two more persons found to be infected with coronavirus. Of these, 151 cases are active, while 54 people have recovered. Four persons have died due to coronavirus in the state and three have migrated.

Sarma on Thursday had said that with air travel set to resume, there will be more challenges before the government as "we will have to deal with people coming in by three modes - roads, rail and air - but we will ensure strict quarantine of all".

More than 40,000 people already entered the state by road and rail since May 4 and another 12 lakh are waiting to come.

"We have positive patients mostly coming from outside the state and cases will increase for which we have to implement our quarantine policy effectively or else it will spread to the community," Sarma had said.

Sarma said to ensure that the quarantine policy is strictly implemented, "we have adopted the approach of ruthless quarantine with a humane heart".

"All coming from other states will have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine and then after the test results, if found negative, will be allowed home quarantine," he said.

"We are not restricting people from coming back to their state, but an appeal to them to come in batches over a period of time, so that we can ensure proper quarantine facilities and prevent the spread of the disease to the community," the minister added.

Source: PTI

Global Update

Brazil had another record day of deaths, with 1,188 fatalities, as President Jair Bolsonaro reached a rare moment of consensus with state governors to back a financial aid package to help cope with the pandemic. A third of U.S. adults, about 94 million people, have delayed or avoided getting medical care during the outbreak, the Census Bureau estimates.

A report from a London college estimates 4.1 percent of the U.S. population is infected and that the epidemic isn’t under control in much of the country.

Total cases globally have topped 5 million with more than 3,31,000 dead.

Track all the news updates on the coronavirus situation in India here: