Coronavirus LATEST Updates: The Maharashtra government announced that syllabus for Classes 1 to 12 will be reduced by 25 percent so as to reduce the burden on students amid the coronavirus pandemic. School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said details of which lessons from textbooks have been omitted will be uploaded on the website of the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT).

Till Friday, a total of 1,58,49,068 tests for COVID-19 had been done in the country, said the health ministry.

A comprehensive town-wide lockdown will be imposed in Kalimpong Municipality for seven days, starting 9 am on Sunday to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan appealed to all those who came in contact with him, to get tested for the disease and quarantine themselves.

Over 1.58 crore COVID-19 samples have been tested so far, said the ICMR, adding 4.20 lakh samples were tested on Friday alone.

India registered 48,916 COVID-19 infections in a single day, taking the overall count to 13,36,861 on Saturday. The COVID-19 toll reached 31,358 after 757 more patients succumbed to the novel coronavirus.

Nagpur to observe ‘janta curfew on Saturday and Sunday in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection. However, essential services will be functional during these two days.

The number of coronavirus positive patients in Dharavi, Mumbai’s biggest slum, rose to 2,519 on Friday with the addition of six cases, a BMC official said.

The number of recoveries and new cases of coronavirus both, saw the highest single-day spike on Friday> While the tally of cured patients inceased by 34,602, the number of confirmed cases rose by 49,310.

The Union health ministry said that the recovery rate rose to 63.45 percent, whereas the case fatality rate declined to 2.38 percent on Friday.

According to the health ministry’s data, the total recoveries have climbed to 8,17,208, while there are 4,40,135 active cases of coronavirus in the country at present, the ministry said as the COVID-19 tally surged to 12.8 lakhs.

Meanwhile, the toll rose to 30,601 with 740 new casualties.

The ministry said as a result of constantly growing number of recoveries, the recovered patients outnumber the active cases by 3,77,073. “This difference is showing a progressively growing upward trend,” the statement said.

“With the dedicated efforts of healthcare workers, the recoveries are improving and case fatality is continuously falling, which currently stands at 2.38 percent,” the ministry added.

Over 1.5 COVID-19 tests conducted so far

A cumulative total of 1,54,28,170 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to 23 July. On Thursday, 3,52,801 samples were tested.

“This translates to 1,1179.83 tests per million (TPM) for India, which has seen a steady increase since the adoption of the ‘test, track and treat’ strategy,” the health ministry said.

The rise in TPM has been achieved with a steady rise in the number of labs (1,290 so far), and efforts by the Centre and state governments and union territory administrations to facilitate wide-spread testing through an array of options, it noted.

There are currently 897 labs in the government sector and 393 private labs.

Kerala CM says no immediate total lockdown to be imposed in state

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday said that “no immediate total lockdown” will be imposed in the state, even cases of coronavirus spiked this week.

“There were two opinions on a lockdown. Some experts wanted complete shut down, while others wanted the existing restrictions to be strengthened. I put forward the same at the all-party-meeting and the representatives were not in favour of the complete lockdown. They said that the current restrictions should be strengthened,” Vijayan said.

“Their opinion was that triple lockdown in cluster areas should be done and measures intensified. If required, we will think about a total lockdown at a later stage,” he added.

Meanwhile, seven councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation tested positive for COVID-19, following which the city mayor K Sreekumar went into self-quarantine.

Operations at Kolkata Airport to be suspended on 25 and 29 July

Flight operations at the Kolkata airport will remain suspended on 25 and 29 July due to a total lockdown planned across the state on both the days, PTI reported.

The West Bengal government has decided to impose a bi-weekly complete lockdown in the state to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.

When asked if the rule would be extended to all those days when the total shutdown is enforced, an official at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport said that was a possibility, but an announcement in this regard will be made by the state government.

“Most probably, it will be extended to all lockdown days. But the state government will make an announcement. As of now, these two dates have been confirmed. No flights to operate on 25 and 29 July,” the official added.

COVAXIN Phase 1 human trials begin at AIIMS Delhi

The phase-I human clinical trialof India’s first indigenously-developed vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Covaxin, began at the Delhi AIIMS on Friday with the first dose of the injection given to a man in his 30s.

Already, over 3,500 volunteers have registered themselves for the trial at AIIMS since last Saturday, of whom the screening of at least 22 people is underway, said Dr Sanjay Rai, professor at the Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS and the principal investigator of the study.

“The first volunteer, a resident of Delhi, was screened two days ago and all his health parameters were found to be within the normal range. He also does not have any co-morbid conditions,” he added.

Seven-day lockdown in Kohima from tomorrow

The Kohima administration will impose a seven-day complete lockdown starting from Saturday in the Kohima municipal area in view of rising COVID-19 cases in Nagaland. The lockdown will be in force till 31 July.

According to the Kohima Police, Deputy Commissioner and Chairman District Task Force Kohima have promulgated the lockdown, ANI reported.

“Deputy Commissioner and Chairman District Task Force of Kohima have promulgated the total lockdown of Kohima municipal area with effect from July 25, till 31st July,” said the Kohima Police.

State-wise cases and deaths today

According to the Union health ministry 8 am update on Friday, Maharashtra had reported 3,47,502 coronavirus cases, the highest among states and Union Territories in the country. A total of 1,92,964 cases were reported from Tamil Nadu while Delhi had recorded 1,27,364 coronavirus cases.

By Friday evening, Maharashtra state health department reported 9,615 new cases, taking the total to 3,57,116. The toll rose by 278 to 13,132.

Tamil Nadu reported 6,785 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total number to 1,99,749. There are 53,132 active cases in the state.

The total number of cured and discharged patients is at 1,43,297 while the toll stands at 3,320 in the state, according to the Tamil Nadu national health mission.

Meanwhile, 5,007 new cases and 110 deaths were reported in Karnataka. With that, the total number of cases in the state now stands at 85,870, including 52,791 active cases and 1,724 deaths

Uttar Pradesh has reported 2,712 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of active cases to 21,711.

After conducting over 50,000 COVID-19 tests daily, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked the administration to ramp up the testing benchmark to one lakh per day. He also ordered to conduct at least 2,000 Rapid Antigen Tests in districts with more than 30 lakh population.

A total of 8,147 new COVID-19 cases, 49 deaths were reported in Andhra Pradesh in the last 24 hours. The total cases in the state rose to 80,858, including 39,935 cured and discharged patients and 933 deaths, the state government said.

The COVID-19 count in West Bengal was at 51,757 on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry. This includes 18,846 active and 31,656 cured and discharged patients.

The total number of cases in Bihar has reached 33,511, according to the state health department. There are 10,519 actives cases in Bihar and 20,959 patients have been cured and discharged till now.

Meanwhile, in Meghalaya, the state government has decided to impose lockdown in Shillong agglomeration from midnight of 26 July till midnight of 29 July, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said. The state has 534 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 452 active cases.

Jammu and Kashmir reported 353 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases to 16,782, said Government of Jammu and Kashmir. 9,217 people have also recovered from the disease in the Union Territory.

Six new cases were reported in Mumbai’s Dharavi, taking the total number of cases in the area to 2,519, including 2,141 discharges and 128 active cases, as per the BMC.

Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has announced that ‘janta curfew’ will be imposed in Nagpur city on 25 and 26 July and only essential services will be allowed to remain functional.

With inputs from agencies