Coronavirus Updates: 7 Things You Need To Know Today

India’s confirmed cases of Covid-19 neared the 19,000 mark, the Union health ministry said in its last update on Tuesday.

The ministry’s 5pm update said that out of 18,985 cases, 15,122 people were under treatment while the death toll was 603.

According to the Press Trust of India’s tally of state government figures, confirmed cases stood at 19,867 while the death toll reached 646, as of 9pm.

Coronavirus updates you need to know today

1. Bengal govt, central team butt heads over visit to state

Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) constituted by the Union home ministry of Home Affairs to visit hotspots was not allowed to visit risk zones in West Bengal, team leader Apurva Chandra told ANI .

“We came here yesterday morning and since then we’ve been asking the state govt to give us support and now it has been more than 1 day. We have only visited Nabanna and NICED,” he said .

Derek O’Brien of the state’s ruling party TMC said the team had not followed process in informing the state government about its visit.

“If you wanted adventurous tourism without informing the state government, calling up a CM 3 hours after you have arrived and the Chief Secretary half an hour before, then that is not the spirit of federalism,” he said .

“States are fighting the virus, the centre is fighting against some States,” he said .

2. ICMR asks states not to use rapid testing kits for 2 days

The ICMR has advised states advised not to use rapid testing kits distributed by the Centre for two days after Rajasthan raised problems of accuracy while using them.

“There are a lot of variations, the kits will be tested and validated by on-ground teams and we will give advisory in the next 2 days,” ICMR’s Dr R Gangakhedkar said.

“We formed a committee of the Head of our Microbiology Dept & Head of our Medicine Dept to see if these tests are effective. Its accuracy was supposed to be 90% but it turned out to be 5.4%,” Rajasthan’s health minister said earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, joint health secretary Lav Agrawal said the Centre has issued detailed guidelines to all states “that while we focus on COVID19, all other services need to be provided, be it for dialysis,HIV/cancer treatments etc. At the same time required infection management prevention should be in place.”

3. 25 journalists test positive in Tamil Nadu

Over fifty had tested positive in Mumbai on Monday. The Delhi government has said it will conduct COVID-19 tests on mediapersons in the national capital as a precautionary measure. 

4. Karnataka gets approval for plasma therapy

5. Resident at Rashtrapati Bhawan estate tests positive, 100 families quarantined

Over 100 families residing at the President’s Estate are under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker’s relative tested positive for coronavirus, officials told PTI on Tuesday.

The relative of the sanitation worker, who is a resident of the estate that houses Rashtrapati Bhavan, has been admitted to a Delhi hospital for treatment, they said.

The sanitation worker’s mother had died of COVID-19 infection a few days ago at the BL Kapoor hospital, the officials said.

“The mother used to live outside the President’s Estate. After she was tested positive, all her relatives were quarantined and their test was done. The test report came negative,” an official said.

However, after the death of the sanitation worker’s mother, initially around 25 families were under self-isolation. Now there are around 100 odd families who are observing self-isolation as a preventive measure, the official said. (PTI)

6. WHO chief says worst of virus is still ahead

The head of the World Health Organization has warned that the worst is yet ahead of us in the coronavirus outbreak, raising new alarm bells about the pandemic just as many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t specify exactly why he believes that the outbreak that has infected nearly 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, could get worse.

Tedros alluded to the so-called Spanish flu in 1918 as a reference for the coronavirus outbreak.

“It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening ... like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people, he told reporters in Geneva. But now we have technology, we can prevent that disaster, we can prevent that kind of crisis. Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us, he said. Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.” (AP)

7. Indigenous PPE kit production may start this week, says Haryana university

Haryana-based World University of Design on Monday said it along with IIT Delhi, AIIMS and a few textile mills in Chennai have developed indigenous personal protection equipment kits for healthcare workers in the fight against coronavirus infection.

The prototypes of PPE kits are currently undergoing the second round of testing in a Chennai hospital and are expected to go into production within this week, World University of Design Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Gupta said in a statement.

“The design and production of these kits is open source, therefore any small or medium scale factory interested can take the design from us and start manufacturing them.

“The key feature of this design is the ease of doffing, where the garment can be taken off by the person without touching the infected outer surface. The prototypes for these kits have been created following the required protocol,” Gupta said.

The World University of Design is a private university in Haryana.