The Union health ministry on Wednesday said that India’s coronavirus recovery rate is now 42.4%. The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 1,51,767 and the toll reached 4,337. Across the country, 64,426 people have recovered. Maharashtra’s Covid-19 tally rose to 56,948 and the toll to 1,897, while Tamil Nadu’s tally crossed 18,000.
The Supreme Court directed the Centre to identify private hospitals where coronavirus patients could be treated for free or at minimum cost. The top court’s direction came in response to a petition claiming that private hospitals across the country were exploiting patients to make a “fortune out of their miseries” amid the health crisis.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to intervene in a case pertaining to the plight of migrant labourers, stranded due to the countrywide lockdown enforced to contain the coronavirus. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that a full lockdown was damaging and the sooner we got out of it, the better. He added that life will change post the coronavirus outbreak and will alter the existing structure in the world.
The Centre said Class 10 and Class 12 students of the Central Board of Secondary Education, who have moved to their hometowns or other districts during the nationwide lockdown, can take their examinations from those places.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said people arriving in the state should either carry a negative Covid-19 test report or get tested on arrival.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said the state would like to open temples, mosques and churches after May 31. The government said that it will wait for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval.
The Indian Council of Medical Research removed the price cap of Rs 4,500 for the real-time polymerase chain reaction, or RT-PCR, test. It has now given states a free hand to negotiate with the approved list of laboratories and fix the cost.
The Union health ministry said that essential health services related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescents, or RMNCAH+N, should be continued in a restricted manner in areas defined as containment and buffer zones, adding that coronavirus testing is not mandatory in such cases.
American credit rating agency Fitch Ratings forecast that the Indian economy will contract by 5% in the current financial year of 2020-’21 because of the magnitude of the lockdown-related shock to global activity during the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 55.8 lakh coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide, including over 3.50 lakh deaths, according to a tracker by the Johns Hopkins University.
