Coronavirus India Live Updates: Two flights carrying a total of 335 people from the Gulf countries landed in Kerala's two airports on Friday night, as India's Vande Bharat Mission to bring home its nationals stranded due to COVID-19 lockdown in various countries entered second day.
While an Air India repatriation flight from Riyadh carrying 153 passengers, including 84 pregnant women, 22 children and four infants landed at the Kozhikode airport 8 pm on Friday night, another Air India Express flight from Bahrain with 177 passengers, including 5 infants, reached Kochi airport at 11.32 pm. Two flights had landed at Kochi and Kozhikode on Thursday from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, respectively.
India reported 3,390 new cases in 24 hours, taking the total cases to 56,342, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There are 216 districts where no COVID-19 cases have been detected, and the recovery percentage is now 29.36%, it said. Till now, 16,540 patients have been cured and 37,916 patients are under active medical supervision, said a Ministry Official.
103 people died in the country during the period, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 37,916. "Around 29.35 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.
Air India's first flight that took off from Singapore carrying stranded Indian nationals onboard landed at the Delhi Airport this afternoon. Overall, 63 Air India flights will be sent to 13 countries to bring back Indians stranded their following the lockdown imposed to control the spiralling cases of coronavirus in the country.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu has recruited 2,570 nurses as it tries to control the spread of coronavirus. The The southern state has already recruited over 500 doctors and over 2,715 health inspectors to control the pandemic.
Early this morning, 15 migrant labourers, who were headed to Madhya Pradesh, were killed after a cargo train ran over them while they were sleeping on the tracks in Maharashtra's Aurangabad this morning, the railways said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the incident and assured that all possible assistance will be provided.
No migrant labourer should walk back to home in Uttar Pradesh on foot from big cities like Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed the state officials on Thursday amid coronavirus pandemic. The state government "has been actively engaged in bringing them (migrants) back safely", a statement from Chief Minister's office read.
Speaking at a virtual global Buddha Purnima event on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India is making every effort to save the life of every citizen from coronavirus, but it is also taking its global obligations during the pandemic very seriously.
At least 13 states and Union Territories, including Kerala, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, have not reported any new case of COVID-19 till Thursday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said.