Bengal Eases Curbs: Shops, Restaurants Allowed to Operate in 'Normal Hours'

Chhattisgarh’s COVID-19 tally reached 10,05,511 on Saturday with the addition of 26 new cases, while the death toll rose to 13,570 with one more person succumbing to the infection, an official said. The recovery count reached 9,91,726 after seven people were discharged from hospitals and 14 completed home isolation during the day, leaving Chhattisgarh with 215 active cases, he said. Durg and Raigarh districts recorded five cases each while four districts, including Raipur, witnessed two cases each and six districts, including Bilaspur, saw one cases each. No fresh case was reported in 16 districts in Chhattisgarh on Saturday.

After a four day gap, Kerala logged below 10,000 cases on Saturday — 9,470–, and 101 deaths, taking the caseload to 47,84,109 and the toll to 26,173. The state had on October 5 logged 9,735 cases, which shot up to 12,616 the following day, touched 12,288 on October 7 and came down to 10,944 on October 8. Kerala has been showing a declining trend in daily fresh cases after crossing the 30,000 mark post Onam festival in August. State health minister Veena George said there are 1,13,132 active COVID-19 cases in the state now, out of which 10.4 per cent patients have been admitted in hospitals. Among the districts, Ernakulam reported the highest number of cases on Saturday–1,337, followed by Thiruvananthapuram with 1,261 and Thrissur, 930.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Goa increased by 60 and reached 1,77,040 on Saturday, while the day also saw one patient succumbing to the infection and 74 getting discharged, an official said. The toll in the coastal state stands at 3,326 and the recovery count is 1,72,981, leaving it with an active tally of 733, he said. With 4,658 samples being examined in the last 24 hours, the number of tests in Goa went up to 13,91,366, he said. Goa’s COVID-19 figures: Positive cases 1,77,040, new cases 60, death toll 3326, discharged 172981, active cases 733, samples tested till date 13,91,366.

Owners of fine dining restaurants in the city have urged West Bengal government to extend the closing hour by another hour from 10:30 pm during Durga Puja days in view of the lifting of night curfew during the festive season. The restaurant owners have taken their appeal to the state chief secretary. “We have urged the government to extend the closing time, which is now 10.30 pm, by an hour as many pandal hoppers will not be hitting the road in way they did in the pre-COVID years with the Calcutta High Court and administration declaring the pandals as no entry zones,” Nitin Kothari, the owner of the famous ‘Peter Cat’ and ‘Mocambo’ restaurants in downtown Park Street, told

The national capital recorded zero death due to COVID-19 and 30 fresh cases in a day with a positivity rate of 0.05 per cent, according to data shared by the Delhi health department on Saturday. One death due to coronavirus infection has been recorded so far in October. Last month, five fatalities were reported in Delhi. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi stands at 25,088. On Saturday, 30 cases were reported with a positivity rate of 0.05 per cent. A total of 62,450 tests — 43,170 RT-PCR and 19,280 rapid antigen tests — were conducted a day ago.

Puducherry clocked 84 fresh cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours ending 10 a.m on Saturday taking the total caseload to 1,26,977. The new cases were identified at the end of examination of 4,685 samples and the cases were spread over Puducherry 57, Karaikal 18, Yanam two and Mahe 7. Puducherry region registered one more fatality and the deceased had comorbidities. With this death the toll shot up to 1,846. The active cases were 637 of whom 102 patients were in hospitals and the remaining 535 were in home isolation. Director of health department G Sriramulu said the test positivity rate was 1.79 percent while fatality and recovery rates were 1.45 percent and 98.04 percent respectively.

Odisha on Saturday registered 526 new COVID-19 cases, just two more than the previous day, which pushed the state’s tally to 10,31,044, a health department official said. The new cases which were detected in 25 of the state’s 30 districts, included 68 children. The rate of infection among the children and adolescents in the age group of 0 to 18 years was recorded at 12.92 per cent against Friday’s 14.31 per cent. Of the 526 new cases, 303 were reported from different quarantine centres while the remaining 223 were local contact cases. Khurda district of which state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, recorded the highest of 233 new cases followed by Cuttack (63). Both the districts accounted for 56.27 per cent of the single day new cases, he said.

The Kerala government on Friday decided to include 7,000 more Covid-19 deaths in its official list after protest by the opposition alleging under-reporting of Coronavirus deaths in the state. State Health Minister Veena George said 7,000 more deaths, which occurred before the hospitals started uploading the data of such deaths online, will be added to the COVID death list in the state. The hospitals started uploading the COVID-19 deaths online in June this year. READ MORE

Single-day recoveries surpassed fresh COVID-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh, where the coronavirus tally rose to 54,865, a senior health department official said on Saturday. Fifty more patients were discharged since Friday, while 21 new infections were registered during the period, he said. As many as 54,196 people have recovered from the disease so far, State Surveillance Officer Lobsang Jampa said. The death toll in the frontier state increased to 280, after a 75-year-old man succumbed to the virus on Friday. Arunachal Pradesh now has 389 active cases.

Five fresh COVID-19 cases have been reported from Ladakh, taking the virus tally to 20,848 while the active cases in the union territory stands at 60, officials said. Ladakh has registered 208 Covid-related deaths — 150 in Leh and 58 in Kargil — since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Two patients of coronavirus were cured and discharged from a hospital in Leh, thereby taking the number of recoveries to 20,580, the officials said.

The union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands did not record any new COVID-19 case in the last 24 hours, a health department official said on Saturday. The COVID-19 tally in the archipelago remained at 7,629, he said. The union territory now has 10 active COVID-19 cases and all the patients are in the South Andaman district. The other two districts – North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar – are now COVID-19 free. One more person recuperated from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 7,490.

Cases of depression and anxiety surged by more than a quarter globally during the first year of the pandemic, especially among women and young adults, a major study showed. In the first worldwide estimate of the mental health impact of Covid-19, researchers estimated that 2020 saw an additional 52 million people suffer from major depressive disorder, and an additional 76 million cases of anxiety. These represent a 28- and 26-percent increase in the two disorders respectively, according to the study, published in The Lancet medical journal.

Assam reported 318 new COVID-19 cases, which was 23 more than that of the previous day, while the recovery rate from the infection was 98.34 per cent, the National Health Mission bulletin said. The 318 new cases pushed the tally to 6,04,536, it said. Kamrup Metropolitan accounted for the highest number of new cases with 137 detected during the day, followed by Jorhat (42), Barpeta (19), and Kamrup Rural (18). Five more fatalities due to the infection raised the toll to 5,916. The fresh COVID-19 deaths were reported from Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup Metropolitan, Karbi Anglong, and Nalbari districts.

Kerala government decided to include 7,000 more victims of Covid-19 pandemic in its official death list after protest by the opposition alleging under-reporting of Coronavirus deaths in the state. State Health Minister Veena George said 7,000 more deaths, which occurred before the hospitals started uploading the data of such deaths online, will be added to the COVID death list in the state. READ MORE

India saw a single-day rise of 19,740 COVID-19 infections, taking the country’s total tally of cases to 3,39,35,309, while the number of active cases has declined to 2,36,643, the lowest in 206 days, according to Union health ministry data. The death toll has climbed to 4,50,375 with 248 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily rise in new coronavirus cases has been below 30,000 for 15 straight days, the ministry said. The active cases have declined to 2,36,643 and comprise 0.70 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March last year. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.98 per cent, the highest since March last year. There has been a decrease of 3,578 cases in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, the ministry’s data stated.

India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage at nearly 94 crores, with more than 79.12 lakh (79,12,202) doses administered in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The coronavirus infection tally in Thane district of Maharashtra increased to 5,61,401 with the addition of 270 cases, while the death toll rose by one to 11,428, an official said. These cases and fatality were reported on Friday, he said. The district’s mortality rate currently stands at 2.03 per cent, the official added. In neighbouring Palghar district, the case count has gone up to 1,37,106, while the death toll is 3,278, another official said.