India registered a record 95,735 coronavirus cases in 24 hours taking the total number of infections to over 44.65 lakh, government data showed today. The country also recorded the highest deaths in a day with 1,172 fatalities. The last recorded highest spike was on Tuesday when India registered 90,802 cases. The highest deaths were recorded a day later with 1,133 fatalities. There have been 72,939 recoveries in the last 24 hours - total recoveries stand at 34,71,783. There are over 9.19 lakh active cases in India, which is the second most affected nation due to the deadly virus in the world.
Maharashtra, the most affected state in the country recorded 23,577 cases in 24 hours - the highest in the country. The state also registered the highest number of deaths with 380 fatalities.
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu followed Maharashtra. Total cases in 24 hours in these states are: Andhra Pradesh- 10,418, Karnataka- 9,540, UP- 6,568 and Tamil Nadu- 5,584.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases:
The Navratri festival that involves temple visits and fasts for nine days will begin from October 17. It will culminate with Vijaya Dashmi or Dussehra on October 25.
The festival of Diwali will be celebrated in the month of November.
Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia on Thursday said that activities have to begin during the unlock phase in the battle against coronavirus and everyone has to take precautions to fight the pandemic.
"Delhi government is of the opinion that we should learn to live with corona. While the activities have to begin during the unlock phase, everyone has to take precautions to fight the pandemic," Mr Sisodia said.
Mr Sisodia met the representatives of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India and heard about their challenges. They presented about the different issues pertaining to hotel business in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.
An official release said the Chief Minister suggested innovative ideas that ensured safety as well as helped in revenue generation.
Punjab approaches Centre to block 45 social media links for misinformation campaign
US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that he never lied to Americans about the dangers of coronavirus after a bombshell new book by journalist Bob Woodward revealed that he deliberately tried to downplay the crisis.
Trump's taped admission to Woodward that he minimized the pandemic in public, while being aware of the unique danger from Covid-19, has set off alarm bells less than eight weeks before election day.
Asked bluntly at a hastily organized White House press conference "Why did you lie to the American people?" Trump responded: "I didn't lie."
The Republican, who is down in the polls against Democrat Joe Biden and faces overwhelming disapproval from Americans on his handling of the coronavirus crisis, insisted that he'd softened the dangers in public so as to preserve calm.
"I think we did a great job, Trump said. "I don't want to jump up and down and start screaming 'Death! Death!'"
The government has admitted to a problem with the supply of oxygen, but has also insisted that the deaths had nothing to do with that issue.
"We made an inquiry. They (Amaltas Hospital) have 400 cylinders and they use almost 200 on a daily basis. On Tuesday night, however, there was some problem loading the vehicle in Bhopal (which is around 160 km away), which led to some miscommunication. That is why there was a crisis," Dr MP Sharma, Chief Medical Officer (Dewas), said.
Assam reported 2,739 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, out of 35,369 tests done in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases to 1,35,805, said Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The number of recovered cases stands at 1,03,504, active cases at 31,884 while the death count has reached 414.
India's COVID-19 tally stands at 44,65,864 including 9,19,018 active cases, 75,062 deaths and 34,71,784 cured/recovered/migrated cases.
The much-awaited findings of the first national serosurvey conducted by the ICMR, published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, indicated that 0.73 per cent adults in India were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, amounting to a total of 6.4 million infections by early May.
The survey was conducted from May 11 to June 4 and covered 28,000 individuals whose blood samples were tested for IgG antibodies using COVID Kavach ELISA kit.
Also, seropositivity was the highest in the age group of 18-45 years (43.3 per cent), followed by those between 46-60 years (39.5 per cent) and it was the lowest among those aged above 60 (17.2 per cent).
A total of 64,68,388 adult infections were estimated in India by the early May, the survey report said.
The result of a serosurvey in Andhra Pradesh has shown that 19.7 per cent of people have developed antibodies to COVID-19. It also revealed that a high percentage of people who had contracted the coronavirus were asymptomatic, said the State government.
A month after the efforts to conduct the sero surveillance began in Andhra Pradesh as instructed by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the result of the survey across all the 13 districts are out.
With nine more districts being surveyed, the overall districts' results revealed 19.7 per cent had antibodies to the virus.
"Little less than 20 per cent of the population in nine districts have developed antibodies and they are immune. The rise of infection is low but there is a chance that cases will continue to come for some time," said Katamneni Bhaskar, Andhra Pradesh Health Commissioner.
Preparations are underway at the metro stations of Kolkata as they gear up to resume services from September 14 for the public, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the metro stations prepare to welcome passengers amid the ongoing pandemic, necessary measures to ensure social distancing have been taken up.
Tapes have been marked at several places at the stations to ensure physical distancing is maintained by all the commuters.
The "Do not sit here" stickers have also been fixed on alternate seats to maintain social distancing inside the metros.
This is the third consecutive day that the southern state is reporting over 3,000 cases on a single day.
Another Uttarakhand BJP MLA tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, days before the commencement of the monsoon session of the state assembly from September 23.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, religious places reopened across Himachal Pradesh as part of Unlock 4 on Thursday.
People have started reaching temples this morning. Local residents and tourists visited the Hanuman Jakhu Temple, located at an altitude of over 8,000 feet above sea level, here at the top of Shimla city.
However, the Christ Church in Shimla wore a deserted look.
As many as 535 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura on Thursday, pushing
Karnataka's Minister of Animal Husbandry, Prabhu Chauhan has tested positive for COVID-19 and is under home isolation.
"I have tested positive with Covid-19 and I am under home isolation," said the minister on Thursday in a media statement.
The Uttarakhand government and temple samiti on Thursday granted permission to offer water at the sanctum sanctorum of Shri Chandreshwar Mahadev temple in Rishikesh.
The government has allowed only a single person at a time for offering water and making masks mandatory while performing religious practice. This comes as part of the relaxation of norms in Unlock 4.
As many as 147 more people, including 17 security personnel, have tested positive for
said.
Ladakh has reported 40 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
According to the Department of Information and Public Relations, the Union Territory has reported 40 new COVID-19 cases.
"The total number of cases stands at 3,142 including 778 active cases and 2,329 recoveries," said the Department.
"As many as 41 patients have been cured and discharged," it added.
September 10 (ANI): While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been endeavouring a safe, COVID-free environment across the country, Chennai International Airport has resumed safe operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the airport officials, with relaxation in movement norms, there has been an increase in Chennai based flight operations.
The airport is focusing on its re-equipped entry protocols with touchless points, hand hygiene and thorough disinfection of travellers luggage. Authorities have also set up isolation rooms with emergency facilities within the premises.
Effective preventions have also enabled the airport to resume its international operations with Dubai bound flights. Authorities attribute the success to both staff and passengers who they say are informed and have been instrumental in keeping the virus at bay.
COVID-19 cases in Telangana surged past the 1.5 lakh mark with the addition of 2,534 new
Jharkhand's COVID-19 tally rose to 56,897 on Thursday as 1,601 more people tested positive for

India registered a record 95,735 coronavirus cases in 24 hours taking the total number of infections to over 44.65 lakh, government data showed today. The country also recorded the highest deaths in a day with 1,172 fatalities. The last recorded highest spike was on Tuesday when India registered 90,802 cases. The highest deaths were recorded a day later with 1,133 fatalities. There have been 72,939 recoveries in the last 24 hours - total recoveries stand at 34,71,783. There are over 9.19 lakh active cases in India, which is the second most affected nation due to the deadly virus in the world.
Two undertrial prisoners, who had tested positive for COVID-19, escaped from a temporary jail set up by Yerawada Central Prison in Pune early morning on Saturday, jail officials informed.
Both inmates were kept into a quarantine facility of the jail.
The incident came to light at around 1 am on Thursday.
Jail authorities have converted a hostel building into a temporary prison where new prisoners are kept in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 inside the jail.
Search is on by the police to arrest the prisoners.
With 141 new COVID-19 cases reported in Mizoram, the total number of coronavirus cases in the State reached 1,333 on Thursday, said the State Health Department.
"There are 583 active COVID-19 cases in the State, while 750 patients have been discharged after getting cured of the viral infection. Mizoram has not reported any deaths due to the novel Coronavirus," said the State Health Department.
Headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some Covid-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain, according to a study published Wednesday.
The research is still preliminary -- but offers several new lines of evidence to support what was previously a largely untested theory.
According to the paper, which was led by Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, the virus is able to replicate inside the brain, and its presence starves nearby brain cells of oxygen, though the prevalence of this is not yet clear.
S Andrew Josephson, chair of the neurology department at the University of California, San Francisco, praised the techniques used in the study and said "understanding whether or not there is direct viral involvement of the brain is extraordinarily important."
A total of 2,243 COVID-19 cases were reported in Assam on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 1,33,066 in the state, Health Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The total number of cases includes 1,01,239 recoveries, 396 deaths and 31,428 active cases in the state.
India's COVID-19 case count has crossed the 43-lakh mark with a spike of 89,706 new cases.
As many as 1,601 new COVID-19 cases and 9 deaths were reported in Jharkhand on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 56,897 in the state.
As many as 1,297 recoveries were also reported in the state.
The total number of cases includes 40,659 recoveries, 512 deaths and 15,726 active cases, the state health department said.
The global death count from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 900,000 since the respiratory disease first appeared in China last year, according to an AFP tally.
As the fatalities climbed, US President Donald Trump admitted he had tried to minimise the seriousness of the Covid-19 threat at the start of the pandemic, in audio recordings released Wednesday from interviews with veteran journalist Bob Woodward.
"I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward on March 19, according to a CNN preview of the book "Rage", due to be published this month.
"I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," he said in the recorded conversation with Woodward.
There have been more than 27.7 million confirmed virus cases worldwide, according to an AFP count based on official statistics, with the worst-hit region Latin America and the Caribbean, followed by Europe.
Maharashtra reported 23,816 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday taking the total count of COVID-19 cases in the state to 9,67,349.
According to a bulletin of Maharashtra Health Department, the death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 27,787 after 325 deaths were reported on Wednesday. The case fatality rate in the state stands at 2.87 per cent.
As many as 13,906 patients were discharged from hospital after recovering from COVD-19. The number of recovered persons stand at 6,86,462. The recovery rate in the state stands at 70.96 per cent.
There are 2,52,734 active COVID-19 cases in the state. At present 16,11,280 people are in home quarantine and 37,644 people are in institutional quarantine, the bulletin said.
The Punjab government on Wednesday said the lockdown will now remain in force only on Sundays in all 167 municipal towns of the state till September 30.
There will be no lockdown on Saturdays.
A spokesperson for the Punjab government said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh directed the relaxation of some of the lockdown restrictions in urban areas after reviewing the Covid-19 situation in the state.
He said the movement of individuals for all non-essential activities would remain prohibited between 9:30 pm to 5:00 am within municipal limits of all cities of Punjab throughout the week.
Essential activities and services such as the movement of persons and goods on national and state highways, inter-state and intra-state movements, unloading of cargo and travel of persons to their destinations after disembarking from buses, trains and aeroplanes, however, would be permitted.
The first dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Kerala, built by the Tata Group, was inaugurated in Kasargod on Wednesday by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who said it was an excellent example of how Public Private Partnership can be put to good use.
Built by the Tata Group using prefabricated containers in just five months at a cost of Rs 60 crore, the 551 bed hospital has 36 ventilators for the patients.
The Chief Minister, who inaugurated the hospital through video conferencing, thanked the Tata Group for showing interest in the health sector of Kerala.
"The Covid hospital constructed by the Tata group, which will take care of the people during the pandemic, is an excellent example of how Public-Private Partnership can be put to good use," Mr Vijayan said.
The 80,000 sq ft-hospital has been built on five acres of land at Thekkil village in Kasaragod.