Archives for July 2020

New Delhi: India recorded 37,148 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing its tally to 11,55,191 while the total number of recoveries increased to 7,24,577, according to Union health ministry data on Tuesday.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 28,084 with 587 fatalities reported in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

There are 4,02,529 active cases of the coronavirus infection currently in the country, while 7,24,577 people have recovered till now. Thus, 62.72 per cent people have recovered so far, it said.

The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners.

This is the sixth consecutive day when COVID-19 cases increased by more than 30,000.

Of the 587 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 176 are from Maharashtra, 72 from Karnataka, 70 from Tamil Nadu, 54 from Andhra Pradesh, 46 from Uttar Pradesh, 35 each from West Bengal and Delhi, 20 from Gujarat, 17 from Madhya Pradesh and 10 from Jammu and Kashmir.

Nine fatalities have been reported from Rajasthan, followed by eight in Punjab, seven in Telangana, six each in Haryana and Odisha, four in Jharkhand, three in Uttarakhand, two each in Tripura and Meghalaya, and one each in Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Puducherry.

According to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,43,81,303 samples have been tested up to July 20 with 3,33,395 samples being tested on Monday.

Of the total 28,084 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 12,030 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,663 deaths, Tamil Nadu 2,551, Gujarat 2,162, Karnataka 1,403, Uttar Pradesh 1,192, West Bengal 1,147, Madhya Pradesh 738 and Andhra Pradesh 696.

So far, 568 people have died of COVID-19 in Rajasthan, 422 in Telangana, 355 in Haryana, 262 in Punjab, 254 in Jammu and Kashmir, 217 in Bihar, 97 in Odisha, 58 in Assam, 55 in Uttarakhand, 53 in Jharkhand and 43 in Kerala.

Puducherry has registered 29 deaths, Chhattisgarh 25, Goa 23, Chandigarh 12, Himachal Pradesh 11, Tripura seven, Meghalaya four, Arunachal Pradesh three, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and Ladakh have reported two fatalities each.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to co-morbidities.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 3,18,695 followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,75,678, Delhi at 1,23,747, Karnataka at 67,420, Andhra Pradesh at 53,724, Uttar Pradesh at 51,160, Gujarat at 49,353 and Telangana at 46,274.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 44,769 in West Bengal, 30,390 in Rajasthan, 27,646 in Bihar, 26,858 in Haryana, 25,382 in Assam and 23,310 in Madhya Pradesh.

Odisha has reported 18,110 infections, Jammu and Kashmir 14,650, Kerala 13,274, while Punjab has 10,510 cases.

A total of 5,756 people have been infected by the virus in Jharkhand, 5,561 in Chhattisgarh, 4,642 in Uttarakhand, 3,853 in Goa, 3,079 in Tripura, 2,092 in Puducherry, 1,925 in Manipur, 1,631 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,195 in Ladakh.

Nagaland has recorded 1,021 COVID-19 cases, Arunachal Pradesh 790 Chandigarh 737 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 684 cases. Meghalaya has reported 466 cases and Sikkim 305 cases.

Mizoram has registered 297 infections so far, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has recorded 207 cases.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,” the ministry said, adding the state-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation. 

New Delhi: The Centre has written to all states and union territories warning against the use of N-95 masks with valved respirators by people, saying these do not prevent the virus from spreading out and are “detrimental” to the measures adopted for its containment.

The Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) in the Ministry of Health, in a letter to the Principal Secretaries of health and medical education of states, said it has been observed that there is “inappropriate use” of N-95 masks, particularly those with valved respirators, by the public other than designated health workers.

The DGHS referred to the advisory on the use of homemade protective cover for face and mouth available on the website of the Ministry of Health.

“It is to bring to your knowledge that the use of valved respirator N-95 masks is detrimental to the measures adopted for preventing the spread of coronavirus as it does not prevent the virus from escaping out of the mask. In view of the above, I request you to instruct all concerned to follow the use of face/mouth cover and prevent inappropriate use of N-95 masks,” DGHS Rajiv Garg said in the letter.

The government had in April issued an advisory on the use of homemade protective cover for face and mouth, asking people to wear it, particularly when they step out of their residences.

The advisory stressed such face covers must be washed and cleaned each day, as instructed, and stated that any used cotton cloth can be used to make this face cover.

The colour of the fabric does not matter but one must ensure that the fabric is washed well in boiling water for five minutes and dried well before making the face cover. Adding salt to this water is recommended, it said.

It also listed the procedures of making such homemade masks, asking to ensure it fits the face well and there are no gaps on the sides.

It urges people to wash hands thoroughly before wearing the face cover, switching to another fresh one as the face cover becomes damp or humid, and never reusing it after single use without cleaning it.

“Never share the face cover with anyone. Every member in a family should have separate face cover,” the advisory stated.

India’s COVID-19 case tally crossed the 11-lakh mark on Monday, while the total number of recovered patients increased to over seven lakh, according to Union health ministry data.

The death count due to the disease rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.

The ministry data updated at 8 am on Monday showed that a record single-day jump of 40,425 COVID-19 cases had taken the total number of cases to 11,18,043.

Lucknow: Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon died at a hospital here early Tuesday morning. He was 85.

Tandon was in hospital for the past few weeks. According to his son Ashutosh Tandon, he died at 5.35 am. His last rites will be performed later in the day.

Tandon was admitted at the Medanta hospital on June 11 with breathing problems, fever and difficulty in urination.

ACTIVIST RIYAZUDDIN HAD FILED A COMPLAINT WITH NHRC AND HAD BEEN FOLLOWING IT UP FOR OVER A YEAR

Gulbarga: The efforts of a Gulbarga based Social and Human Rights Activist, Riyazuddin, who was fighting a legal battle to get ex-gratia amount for Jharkhand’s Tabrez Ansari’s family. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ordered an ex-gratia amount of Rs. Two lakh for the family of Ansari who was lynched by a mob in Jharkhand in June last year.

Ansari’s lynching had taken the country by storm as the videos of the incident wherein the victim was tortured and harassed for over 18 hours had gone viral on social media platforms. In the videos, the assaulters were also seen forcing the victim into chanting “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”. The incident had caused an uproar over the communal divisiveness in the country.

Riyazuddin, an activist from Gulbarga had filed a complaint with the NHRC after the incident, seeking immediate arrest of the accused and an ex-gratia amount of Rs. One Crore for the victim’s family. As the NHRC ordered primary ex-gratia of Rs. Two Lakh, Riyazuddin spoke to Vartha Bharati and has reacted to the development.

“When I came to know about the incident on 18 June 2019 through various news sources, I had filed a complaint with the NHRC on June 25, 2019, demanding immediate arrest of the accused, action against the police officers who were accused of dereliction of duty during the incident. I had demanded the suspension of these officers and had sought an ex-gratia amount of Rs. One crore to victim’s family” Riyazuddin told Vartha Bharati.

“The NHRC has now ordered Jharkhand Government to pay primary ex-gratia amount of Rs. Two Lakh. After the NHRC added that the police had not taken any action against the accused, now chargesheet has been filed against 13 accused. A departmental inquiry has been ordered against police officers who failed their duty during the incident and the Jamshedpur Superintendent of Police has sought report of the inquiry in six weeks” Riyazuddin informed Vartha Bharati.

“The Police personnel did not allow Tabrez to get medical attention despite him being critically injured in the incident. They also did not allow the family of Tabrez to meet him. They are all accountable for the death of Tabrez” he added.

Riyazuddin has been actively involved in similar activism and had filed similar complaints in the case of the murder of Dalit kids Roshni (12) and Avinash (10) who were killed in Madhya Pradesh in September 2019. The accused in the case Rameshwar and Hakeem were both arrested and the NHRC had ordered Madhya Pradesh Government to pay ex-gratia of Rs. 4, 12,500 each to the families of the victims.

Kanpur: After being detained for 15 days, slain gangster Vikas Dubey’s close aide Jai Bajpai and one of his accomplices were arrested on Monday morning, police said.

The arrests were made on charges of criminal conspiracy and helping Dubey in his nefarious design by providing him cash and cartridges hours before the Bikru village ambush, in which eight police personnel were killed and seven others, including a civilian, left seriously injured, the police said in a statement issued here.

A police probe revealed that Dubey had made a phone call to Bajpai on July 1. The next day, along with his aide Prashant Shukla alias Doublu, a resident of Kohna, Bajpai went to Bikru to hand over Rs 2 lakh in cash and 25 cartridges of .32 bore revolvers to Dubey, the statement said.

Dubey had briefed Bajpai about his plan to launch an attack on the police party that had gone to the village to arrest him. He had also asked Bajpai to arrange for at least three sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for him and his gang members.

Accordingly, Bajpai took three SUVs to pick up Dubey and his men and take them to safer places, but failed to do so due to intensive police patrolling, the statement said.

On July 4, Bajpai left his vehicle in the Kakadev area and went underground, a police official said.

Soon after seizing the three vehicles, police raided the possible hideouts of Bajpai and nabbed him within hours, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.

Subsequently, he was handed over to the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police and taken to its headquarters in Lucknow, where he was kept in detention for 15 days, the official said.

Bajpai was handed over to the Nazirabad police on Sunday and subsequently let off, another official said, adding that he was arrested again following frequent tweets and posts on social media platforms about his release.

A police communique confirmed that Bajpai and Shukla were booked under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 395 (Punishment for dacoity), 412 (dishonestly receiving property stolen in the commission of a dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment (CLA) Act read with section 120B (criminal conspiracy), IPC.

A separate FIR under sections 29 and 30 of the Arms Act has also been registered against Bajpai for providing cartridges to Dubey illegally, the police statement said.

Dubey, the prime accused in the killing of the eight policemen in Kanpur’s Bikru village on July 3, was killed in a police encounter on July 10.

Mumbai: Phone tapping is an assault on personal freedom and bringing down a democratically-elected government using money amounts to “treachery”, the Shiv Sena said on Monday referring to the Rajasthan political crisis.

It needs to be decided which one of this is a bigger crime, an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ said, claiming the Rajasthan telephone tapping episode has exposed many.

It said a lot of revelation will come to the fore in case someone hears secretly the conversations among Congress leaders and those (conversations) reach party leader Rahul Gandhi’s ears, and claimed some people are hell-bent to not let the Wayanad MP work properly.

This, in effect, hurts the entire opposition, the Shiv Sena said.

Its comments came in the wake of the Centre seeking a report from Rajasthan chief secretary on allegations of phone tapping after two audio clips of conversations purportedly regarding a conspiracy to topple the states Congress government emerged.

The FIR registered by Rajasthan Polices Anti- Corruption Bureau mentions details of conversations of (Congress rebel MLA) Bhanwarlal Sharma with Gajendra Singh (Congress claims it is a reference to Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat) and a third man called Sanjay Jain.

The BJP on Saturday asked if the Congress government in the state resorted to unconstitutional methods to tap the phones of politicians, and demanded a CBI probe into what it called a saga of illegalities and concocted lies.

Rajasthan plunged into a political crisis after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s deputy Sachin Pilot rebelled. The Congress later removed Pilot as the deputy chief minister and also as the party’s state unit head.

“Phone tapping is an offence and assault on personal freedom. It is treachery to bring down a democratically- elected government using money. Hence, it needs to be decided which one is a bigger crime, the Shiv Sena said.

“The deal which was on between the BJP and Sachin Pilot was to the extreme of exchanging money. That means it was decided that the Rajasthan government would be brought down by offering money and purchasing majority engaging in horse trading,” it alleged.

“Chief Minister Gehlot exposed that Sachin Pilots rebellion against injustice was a lie (not genuine) and for that, brought to light the phone conversation between Pilot and BJP leaders. It is shocking and equally sensational,” it further said.

“The central powers pressure and money was used to bring down the Gehlot government,” the Shiv Sena charged, adding that the Congress foiled it.

It further said phone tapping is an assault on one’s personal freedom and the Centre ordering a probe into the episode was right.

“Now the question is what was the emergency in the country or the state that led to the Gehlot government hearing the conversations? Activities were on in Rajasthan to bring down a majority government and MLAs were being bought at increasing prices, the Shiv Sena alleged.

Pilots rebellion was driven more by money than morality. This is nothing but corruption and the Gehlot government has registered an offence against Union minister Shekhawat based on evidence, it said.

The BJP is not ready to speak about the serious offences and allegations against Shekhawat, it further said.

Why those who are seeking President’s rule in Rajasthan have not made Shekhawat resign? First, make Shekhawat resign, atone for poaching of MLAs and then point a finger towards the Gehlot government, the Shiv Sena said.

It said phone tapping is not limited to Rajasthan only.

Allegations are being made about shadows of invisible Emergency hovering over the country, it said.

“Games are being played these days to debilitate opponents politically, socially and mentally by dislodging them from their governments (in the states), it claimed.

The Shiv Sena, which formed government in Maharashtra with the NCP and Congress last year, alleged that the dramatic events, unfolding before the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime was established in the state, were tinged with phone tapping of leaders of the three parties.

It also said disputes within the Congress are unending and are raked up by certain people, as if to not let Rahul Gandhi succeed.

The Congress lost power in Madhya Pradesh out of such disputes, while the Rajasthan government has been saved for the moment, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

The Rajasthan phone tapping episode has exposed many.

But a lot of revelation will come to the fore if someone hears secretly conversation among Congress leaders and takes it (conversation) to Gandhi. Some people have been hell-bent on not letting Gandhi work properly. This is hurting the entire Opposition, it said.

New Delhi: India saw a record single-day jump of 40,425 COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally past the 11-lakh mark on Monday, while the total number of recoveries crossed 7 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll due to the disease rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.

The data updated at 8 am on Monday showed that the total number of COVID-19 cases stands at 11,18,043.

India’s COVID-19 tally crossed the 11-lakh mark, just three days after it crossed the ten-lakh mark.

There are 3,90,459 active cases in the country, while 7,00,086 people have recovered and one person has migrated. The recovery rate stands at 62.61 per cent.

The total number of confirmed cases includes foreigners.

This is the first time that the single-day spike has crossed the 40,000-mark.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 1,40,47,908 samples have been tested up to July 19 with 2,56,039 samples being tested on Sunday.

Of the 681 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, 258 were reported from Maharashtra, 91 from Karnataka, 78 from Tamil Nadu, 56 from Andhra Pradesh, 38 from Uttar Pradesh, 36 from West Bengal, 31 from Delhi, 20 from Gujarat and 15 from Madhya Pradesh.

The total fatalities in one day include nine from Bihar, eight each from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, six each from Rajasthan and Telangana, five each from Haryana and Odisha, four from Assam, three from Jharkhand, two from Kerala, and one each from Goa and Ladakh.

Of the total 27,497 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 11,854 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,628 deaths, Tamil Nadu 2,481, Gujarat 2,142, Karnataka 1,331, Uttar Pradesh 1,146, West Bengal 1,112, Madhya Pradesh 721 and Andhra Pradesh 642.

So far, 559 people have died of COVID-19 in Rajasthan, 415 in Telangana, 349 in Haryana, 254 in Punjab, 244 in Jammu and Kashmir, 217 in Bihar, 91 in Odisha, 57 in Assam, 52 in Uttarakhand, 49 in Jharkhand and 42 in Kerala.

Puducherry has registered 28 deaths, Chhattisgarh 24, Goa 22, Chandigarh 12, Himachal Pradesh 11, Tripura 5, Arunachal Pradesh 3, while Meghalaya, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Ladakh have reported two fatalities each.

The Health Ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 3,10,455 followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,70,693, Delhi at 1,22,793, Karnataka at 63,772, Gujarat at 48,355, Uttar Pradesh at 49,247, Andhra Pradesh at 49,650 and Telangana at 45,076.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 42,487 in West Bengal, 29,434 in Rajasthan, 26,164 in Haryana, 26,569 in Bihar, 23,999 in Assam and 22,600 in Madhya Pradesh.

Odisha has reported 17,437 infections, Jammu and Kashmir 13,899, Kerala 12,480, while Punjab has 10,100 cases.

A total of 5,535 have been infected by the virus in Jharkhand, 5,407 in Chhattisgarh, 4,515 in Uttarakhand, 3,657 in Goa, 2,878 in Tripura, 1,999 in Puducherry, 1,911 in Manipur, 1,483 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,178 in Ladakh.

Nagaland has recorded 988 COVID-19 cases, Chandigarh 717, Arunachal Pradesh 740 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 605 cases.

Meghalaya has reported 450 cases, Mizoram 284, Sikkim has registered 283 infections so far, while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has recorded 203 cases.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,” the ministry said, adding, state-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation.