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Corona Updates You Must Track: Highest Single-Day Spike In COVID-19 Cases, New Rules For Workplaces
India reported 5,611 fresh coronavirus cases and 140 deaths in the last 24 hours. Indian Railways will run 200 non-AC trains from 1 June
With public transport resuming partially and private offices being allowed to run at full capacity in many states, economic activity is slowly picking up pace even as India reported its biggest single-day jump in COVID-19 cases. With more than 5,600 cases recorded in the last 24 hours, India’s coronavirus tally climbed to 1,06,750 cases.
Meanwhile, cyclone Amphan is set to make a landfall near Sunderbans on Wednesday—West Bengal and Odisha, which are already witnessing a surge in COVID-19 numbers since the past week, are on alert mode.
Follow all the important developments on coronavirus and Lockdown 4.0 here:
India cases and toll: India’s total confirmed coronavirus cases surged to 1,06,750 on Wednesday morning, according to the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MohFW). In the highest single-day spike, India recorded 5,611 new cases in the last 24 hours while 140 people succumbed to the illness.
Currently, there are 61,149 active cases while 42,297 people have recovered and 3,303 lost the battle against the virus. Maharashtra (37,136), Tamil Nadu (12,448), Gujarat (12,140) and Delhi (10,554) continue to report a bulk of fresh COVID-19 cases. States like West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka and Odisha, which have seen their migrant workforce returning, are also reporting a surge in COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 tracker/Photo: @MIB_India/Twitter
New guidelines for workplaces: With private offices allowed to run at 100 per cent capacity in Lockdown 4.0, the MoHFW has issued a set of guidelines for workplaces. These include physical distancing of at least 1 metre, mandatory use of face masks, frequent hand washing and self-monitoring of health and reporting any illness at the earliest.
The direction says,“If there are one or two cases reported, the disinfection procedure will be limited to places/areas visited by the patient in past 48 hours. There is no need to close the entire office building/halt work in other areas of the office and work can be resumed after disinfection as per laid down protocol.”
However, in case of a larger outbreak, the entire building will have to be closed for 48 hours after thorough disinfection. The staff will work from home till the building is adequately disinfected and declared fit for re-occupation.
200 Non-AC trains to run from 1 June: In addition to the Shramik specials and the 15 air-conditioned (AC) trains, the Indian Railways will run another 200 non-AC trains from 1 June. The ticket booking for these non-AC trains can be done online. Till 19 May, 1,595 special Shramik trains have ferried nearly 21 lakh passengers to their home states.
COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in early stage: More than a 100 vaccines aimed to protect people against COVID-19 are under different stages of development. Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna’s experimental vaccine has shown promising results in a safety trial. According to a Reuters report, the vaccine produced antibodies against the virus in the small batch of volunteers who were part of the study.
Global corona update: The confirmed coronavirus count is set to reach the 5 million-mark (or 50 lakh cases). According to worldometer, a website that tracks COVID-19 numbers real-time, the total confirmed coronavirus cases are at 49,86,395 with the recoveries at 19,58,496. Globally, more than 3.24 lakh people have succumbed to the infection.
In the US, the death toll is now well over 90,000 with more than 1,500 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The country’s COVID-19 case tally stands at 15,70,583. Russia, which surpassed Spain and Italy in confirmed coronavirus count, has reported nearly 3 lakh cases so far.
South Korea, which has seen a slowing down of the infection, has allowed schools to restart from Wednesday in a phased manner. Meanwhile, Brazil continues to be under the global radar for the unrelenting spike in its COVID-19 cases—the Latin American country has 2,71,885 confirmed cases with 17,983 deaths.
Story of hope: Future Hope, a Kolkata-based NGO which has been working with children living on the streets for the last 30 years, decided to widen its scope of work in the wake of the nationwide lockdown. The NGO has provided ration kits to more than 2,000 families across Kolkata. It also got in touch with the police and the area councillor to identify the most vulnerable families and help them. Read more on this story here.