(Contains Press releases concerning Covid-19, issued in last 24 hours, inputs from PIB Field Offices and Fact checks undertaken by PIB)

Updates on Covid-19 from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; GOM reviews containment measures of COVID-19

The 16th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 was chaired by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare today.The GOM was briefed about the latest status, response and management of COVID-19 in the country. GoM was also apprised about the growing medical infrastructure in the country. As of 9th June 2020, the COVID related health infrastructure has been strengthened with the availability of 958 dedicated COVID Hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU beds and 73,469 oxygen supported beds. 2,313 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,33,037 Isolation beds; 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. Moreover, 7,525 COVID Care Centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country. The ventilators available for COVID beds are 21,494.The Centre has further placed an order of 60,848 ventilators. ICMR’s testing capacity has increased through 553 government and 231 private laboratories (total of 784 labs). More than 49 lakh cumulative tests have been conducted in the country, as on date. Also, 1,41,682 samples have been tested in the last 24 hrs.

So far, a total of 1,29,214 people has been cured. 4,785 patients were cured in the last 24 hours. This takes the total recovery rate to 48.47%. The total number of active cases is now 1,29,917 .

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Central teams deployed to over 50 municipal bodies facing high COVID-19 case load

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has deployed high level multi-disciplinary Central teams to 15 States/UTs, with more than 50 districts/municipal bodies that are witnessing high case load and high spurt of cases. They will assist the State Governments by providing technical support for containment and facilitate management of COVID-19 outbreak. These States/UTs are: Maharashtra (7 districts/municipalities), Telangana (4), Tamil Nadu (7), Rajasthan (5), Assam (6), Haryana (4), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (4), Uttarakhand (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), West Bengal (3), Delhi (3), Bihar (4), Uttar Pradesh (4), and Odisha (5). These teams are working in the field and visiting health care facilities to support the State health department in implementation of containment measures and efficient treatment/clinical management of cases within the districts/cities. 

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COVID Emergency Credit Facility covers all companies and not just MSMEs: Finance Minister

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs SmtNirmalaSitharamanhas said that the COVID Emergency Credit Facility covers all companies, and not just MSMEs. Addressing the FICCI National Executive Committee members, SmtSitharaman assured the industry of all possible Government support with the intent of supporting Indian business and reviving the economy, and said, “We are committed to support/intervene if any of your members have a problem”.She also said that every Government department has been told to clear dues and if there is any issue with any department, the government will look into it.The Finance Minister also said that the Government will consider an extension in the deadline for availing the 15% corporate tax rate on new investments.

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Highest ever allocation of Rs. 1,01,500 crore made under MGNREGS during financial year 2020-2021; a sum of Rs. 31,493 crore has already been released

A provision of Rs. 1,01,500 crore has been made under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the current financial year 2020-2021. It is the highest ever provision of funds under the programme.A sum of Rs. 31,493 crore has already been released in 2020-2021. A total of 60.80 crore person days has been generated so far and work has been offered to 6.69 crore persons. Average number of persons to whom work offered in May 2020 has been 2.51 crore per day.A total of 10 lakh works have been completed so far during the current Financial Year 2020-21. A sustained focus is on taking up works related to water conservation and irrigation, plantation, horticulture and Individual Beneficiary works for livelihood promotion.

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Indian Railways to continue to give Shramik Special Trains to States as demanded

So far, more than 4347 Shramik Special services have been operated by Indian Railways to transport approximately 60 lakh persons to their destination states. Shramik trains are being run since 1st May 2020.Indian Railways has informed the State governments that it shall continue to provide Shramik Special Train within 24 hours after the demand is received from the States. Railway Ministry has requested State Governments to indicate their requirements about Shramik Special Trains and see that projected demand for movement of residual persons by rail mode is well chalked out and determined.

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EPFO settles 36.02 lakh claims during lockdown

Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), a statutory body under Union Ministry of Labour& Employment, despite the lockdown restrictions, settled a staggering 36.02 lakh claims thereby disbursing Rs. 11,540 crore to its members during the months of April and May 2020. Out of this, 15.54 lakh claims, disbursing Rs. 4580 crore to claimants, were related to the recently introduced COVID-19 advance under Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyanYojana.A look at wage slab-wise data points out that more than 74 % of total claimants during the lockdown period belonged to slab of less than Rs.15,000 wage.

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Validity of motor vehicle documents further extended till 30th September, 2020

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Shri NitinGadkari today announced further extension of the validity date of motor vehicle documents till September this year. Accordingly, the Ministry of RTH has issued an advisory to all States and UTs to this effect.The State/UTs have also been requested to consider provisions available under the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 or other such provisions available under other Acts, for considering relaxation in requirement of permit, or fees or taxes for renewal / penalty for permits etc to provide relief during these extra ordinary circumstances of COVID-19.

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Government rolls out facility of filing of NIL GST Return through SMS

In a significant move towards taxpayer facilitation, the Government has today onwards allowed filing of NIL GST monthly return in FORM GSTR-3B through SMS. This would substantially improve ease of GST compliance for over 22 lakh registered taxpayers who had to otherwise log into their account on the common portal and then file their returns every month. Now, these taxpayers with NIL liability need not log on to the GST Portal and may file their NIL returns through a SMS.

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Shri Ram Vilas Paswan reviews sugar sector related issues

The Union Minister for Food & Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan held a review meeting with senior officials of the Department of Food & Public Distribution. In the review meeting, issues like sugar production, outstanding payments arrears of sugarcane farmers, ethanol production and other related issues were discussed. Shri Paswan directed officials to issue necessary guidelines for timely payments of outstanding arrears of sugarcane farmers. The Minister was informed that this year sugar production is expected to reach 270 LT.Several measures have been taken for providing assistance to sugar industry in current sugar season by the Government
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Income generation activities for tribals pick up as states take up MFP procurement at revised MSP in right earnest

There has been an encouragingly positive response from the States as the government continues its efforts to help the poor and marginalized people find their feet in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.17 states have initiated procurement and MFP worth approximately Rs. 50 Cr. have been procured by the states under the scheme. Moreover due to these efforts, private agencies in 7 States have procured MFP at prices above the MSP to tune of over Rs.400 Cr.The timely announcement of the MSP measures and the revisions in the MSPs by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and these concerted efforts of TRIFED have resulted in the tribals getting a higher value realization in the market, at rates which are even higher than MSP.

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Curtain Raiser of IDY 2020 to be telecast on DD News on 10th June

Ministry of AYUSH in association with Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga will host a television event as curtain raiser of the International Day of Yoga 2020 which will be telecasted on DD News on 10^th June, 2020 from 07:00 PM to 08:00 PM. This will also be streamed live on Ministry of AYUSH’s Facebook page.The curtain raiser would mark out a 10-day official countdown to IDY 2020.

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INPUTS FROM PIB FIELD OFFICES

• Chandigarh: The Administrator appealed to the residents not to stigmatize the residents of BapuDham Colony and to give them full opportunities for integrating into the society. He directed Labour Department to take up the matter with the private employers, so that their pending wages could be paid and job opportunities increased.
• Punjab: To cope up with the problem of labour scarcity amid COVID-19, the Punjab farmers are now enthusiastically switching over to Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR) instead of traditional transplantation of paddy this year and nearly 25% of total area under paddy sowing is expected to come under this innovative technology which will help to slash cultivation cost, in terms of both labour and water. To promote the technology of DSR and motivate the farmers to adopt it in a big way, the State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has sanctioned 4000 DSR machines and 800 paddy transplanting machines to farmers on subsidy ranging from 40% to 50%.
• Haryana: Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Minister has said that during Unlock-1, the State Government has allowed the reopening of sports stadiums with certain conditions, during which focus will be on personal fitness and social distancing norms will be followed. He said that players and coaches in Haryana State have again fully immersed themselves in their games and all efforts will be made to cover the loss that has been incurred in the past.
• Maharashtra: 2,553 new COVID-19 cases have been reported on Monday, taking the state tally of coronavirus positive cases to 88,528, out of which 44,374 are active cases. Hotspot Mumbai reported 1,314 new infections which took the total cases in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to 49,863. There are 3,510 active containment zones in the state where 17,895 squads have completed surveillance of 66.84 lakh people.
• Gujarat: 477 new COVID-19 cases have been reported from 19 districts, taking the state tally of  positive cases to 20,574, out of which 5,309  are active cases. 31 patients have lost their lives during the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 1280.
• Rajasthan:144 new COVID-19 cases have been reported today, taking the state tally of coronavirus positive cases to 10,876, out of which 8,117 patients have been cured and 246 have died. The Health Department has achieved the target of conducting 25 thousand COVID 19 tests every day. A total of 5,18,000 samples have been tested in the state so far. Currently, COVID samples are being tested at 25 places in 15 districts of the state. Soon, this facility will be extended to 10 more districts, stated the State Health Minister Dr. Raghu Sharma. The recovery rate of COVID 19 in the state has also increased to 74.6 percent.
• Madhya Pradesh: 237 new COVID-19 cases have been reported, taking the state tally of coronavirus positive cases to 9638, out of which  2688 are active cases and 414 patients have died so far. Out of the total 52 districts of Madhya Pradesh, coronavirus cases have been found in 51 districts so far but no new COVID 19 case was found in 27 districts.
• Chhattisgarh:  104 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in all on Monday, taking the state tally of coronavirus positive cases to 1197, while the number of active cases are 885. A total of 92,598 tests have been performed in the state till Monday.
• Goa: 30 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Goa  the state tally of coronavirus positive cases to 330, out of which 263 are active cases and 67 patients have recovered in the state so far.
• Kerala: Malls, restaurants and places of worship opened in Kerala this morning after over two-and half months of lockdown. Various temples, including the Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor, a few churches and mosques opened for the devotees. MoS External Affairs V. Muraledharan has come down heavily on Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan over the decision to reopen temples in the state. He demanded that the government should withdraw the decision to reopen temples under Devaswom Board. However, Devaswom Minister KadakampallySurendran said temples were opened after discussions with religious leaders and apart from following the Central government directions, all security measures are strictly followed in the worship centers. Three more Keralites have died due to COVID-19 in the Gulf taking the toll past 200.  91 new cases and one death were reported in the state yesterday taking the toll to 16 and total number of active cases to 1,174.
• Tamil Nadu: Convalescent plasma trial begins at Madurai's Government Rajaji Hospital. State cancels Class 10 exams in Tamil Nadu in the wake of Covid situation, opposition welcomes move. Health Minister puts an end to rumours on bed shortage in the State; Minister said that the recovery rate is 56 per cent and currently, only six patients are there on ventilators in the State. 1562 new cases, 528 recoveries & 17 deaths reported yesterday. 1149 cases from Chennai. Total cases: 33229, Active cases: 15413, Deaths: 286, Discharged: 17527. Active cases in Chennai are 11817.
• Karnataka: Department of Health and Family welfare issued protocol for inter-state travellers to Karnataka during phased re-opening of unlock one. Self-registration on SevaSindhu portal for all travellers before entering Karnataka and health screening of all incoming persons at entry points have been made mandatory. Meanwhile it has also issued guidelines for Resident welfare Associations to be followed during Covid. 308 new cases, 387 discharges & three deaths were reported yesterday. Total positive cases till yesterday: 5760, Active cases: 3175, Deaths: 64, Recovered: 2519.
• Andhra Pradesh:CM assures of providing government schemes to people within time. CM reviews Spandana programme, directs officials to open sand reaches.  Tollywood delegation to arrive in Vijayawada to meet CM YS Jagan shortly to discuss over shooting of films. 125 new cases and 34 discharges reported yesterday. Total cases till yesterday: 3843. Active: 1381, Recovered: 2387, Deaths: 75.
• Telangana:  The state government has decided to move the Supreme Court against the Telangana high court order to conduct tests for coronavirus on dead people. A few days ago, the high court had directed the state government to conduct tests on all dead. Total confirmed Covid19 cases as on 8th June are 3742. As of now 448 migrants and foreign returnees tested positive.

FACT CHECK

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