(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: Recovery Rate improves to 52.96%; Dr. Harsh Vardhan launches India’s First Mobile I-LAB (Infectious Disease Diagnostic Lab)

During the last 24 hrs, 7390 COVID-19 patients were cured. A total of 1,94,324patients, so far, have been cured of COVID-19. The recovery rate rises to 52.96%. Currently, 1,60,384 active cases are under medical supervision.The number of government labs has been increased to 699 and private labs has been increased to 254 (A total of 953). In the last 24 hours, 1,65,412 samples were tested. The total number of samples tested thus far is 62,49,668.

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched India’s first mobile I-Lab (Infectious disease diagnostic lab) for COVID-19 testing for last mile testing access. It will be deployed in remote, interior and inaccessible parts of the country and have capability to perform 25 COVID-19 RT-PCR tests/Day, 300 ELISA tests/day, additional tests for TB, HIV etc. as per CGHS rates.

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PM launches Auction process of Coal blocks for Commercial mining

Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi launched the auction process of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining through video conference today. It was part of the series of announcements made by the Government of India, under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. A two stage electronic auction process is being adopted for allocation of the coal mines.Speaking on the occasion, Shri NarendraModi said that India will overcome the COVID -19 Pandemic and the nation will turn this crisis into an opportunity. He said that this crisis has taught India the lesson of becoming AatmaNirbhar, i.e. Self-Reliant. He said an AatmaNirbhar Bharat means reducing dependency on imports, and saving foreign currency on imports. It entails that India develop resources domestically so that the country does not have to rely on imports.

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English rendering of PM's address at virtual launch of auctioning of Coal Mines for Commercial Mining

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PM Modi to launch GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan on 20th June to boost livelihood opportunities in Rural India

Government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan’to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens. PM Modi will launch this Abhiyaan on 20^th June, 2020 at 11 am through Video-Conference in presence of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. The Abhiyaan will be launched from Village – Telihar, Block- Beldaur of Khagaria District of Bihar. Chief Ministers of other five States and Union Ministers of concerned Ministries will also participate in the virtual launch. This campaign of 125 days, which will work in mission mode, will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand, with a resource envelope of Rs. 50,000 crore.A total of 116 Districts with more than 25,000 returnee migrant workers across six States, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 Aspirational Districts

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Curtain Raiser Press Conference held on GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan to be launched by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi on 20th June 2020

Curtain Raiser Press Conference was held today on the GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan to be launched by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi. Addressing the Press Conference, Finance Minister Smt. NirmalaSitharaman said that workers from all over the country, both men and women, after COVID lockdown have returned to their villages in large numbers. Government of India together with the State Governments have mapped the districts where these migrant workers have largely returned and it is seen that approximately 116 districts spread over 6 states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have received substantial numbers of returnees.Smt. NirmalaSitharaman said that the Government of India together with the concerned State Governments has carried out mapping of skill sets of these migrant workers and majority of them have been found to be skilled in some kind of work. Based on this and to mitigate their difficulties during next 4 months, Government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘GaribKalyanRojgarAbhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

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Slew of steps taken to tackle the COVID situation in Delhi pursuant to series of review meetings chaired by the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah recently,
In pursuance of decisions taken by the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah during a series of meetings held on June 14^th-15^th, to handle the COVID-19 situation in Delhi, sample testing has been doubled immediately. A total of 16,618 test samples were collected on June 15^th-16^th. Daily collection of samples varied between 4,000-4,500 till 14^th June. Door-to-door health survey of residents has been undertaken in 242 Containment Zones of Delhi. The report of high level Expert Committee headed by Dr. V.K Paul on rates to be charged by testing laboratories has been received in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the same has been sent to Delhi Government for further necessary action. Committee has fixed rate per test at Rs 2,400. A total of 169 centers have been set up in Delhi for collection & testing of samples.

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CSIR-CDRI’s candidate drug Umifenovir secures DCGI approval for Phase III Clinical Trial against COVID-19

CSIR constituent lab CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute(CDRI) Lucknow, has received permission for carrying out Phase III randomised, Double blind, Placebo controlled trial of efficacy, safety and tolerability of antiviral drug Umifenovir. The Phase III Clinical Trials will be carried out at King George's Medical University (KGMU), Dr. Ram ManoharLohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) and ERA's Lucknow Medical College & Hospital, Lucknow.This drug has a good safety profile and acts by preventing entry of virus into human cells and also by priming the immune system. Umifenovir is mainly used for treatment of influenza and is available in China and Russia, and has recently come into prominence due to its potential use for Covid19 patients.

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ER’S ASANSOL Division develops automatic bag sanitiser machine
As a part of Eastern Railway’s(ER) endeavour to resist spread of COVID-19, an Automatic Bag Sanitiser Machine has been developed in ER’s Asansol Division.The automatic bag sanitizer machine has a air blower pump with spray container and nozzle for fog type sanitizing.

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Union Road Transport Minister Shri NitinGadkari says, India will be a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles within five years

Union Minister for Road Transport& Highways and MSMEs Shri NitinGadkari has expressed confidence that in the next five years, India will become a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles. He said, the Government is trying to extend best possible concessions to this sector, and has lowered the GST on electrical vehicles to 12 per cent.Addressing a webinar on ‘India's Electric Vehicle Roadmap post-COVID-19’ today, the Minister said, he was aware of the issues facing the EV sector, but was also sure of the things to change as the sales volumes increase. He said, the world is no more interested in doing business with China, which is a very good opportunity for Indian industry to pick up the shift in business.

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NRDC Licenses NavRakshak PPE Suit Manufacturing Know-how to Five MSMEs Developed by Indian Navy

National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), an enterprise of DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, has licensed the manufacturing know-how of a PPE Suit being named as NavRakshak to five MSME clients to meet the ongoing country wide demand of quality PPE kits. These manufacturers put together are planning to mass produce more than 10 million PPEs per year.The manufacturing know-how of NavRakshak PPE has been developed at the Innovation Cell of the Institute of Naval Medicine, INHS Asvini Hospital (Mumbai). The PPE has been tested and certified at the INMAS, DRDO which is one of the nine NABL accredited labs authorised by Ministry of Textile currently in India for PPE prototype sample testing as per the prevailing ISO standards and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare/Ministry of Textile guidelines and has been found to meet the synthetic blood penetration resistance criteria for both the fabric, suit, and seam. It is cost effective as it does not require any major capital investment and can be adopted even by gown manufacturing units using basic stitching expertise.

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Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurates an International Workshop on Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic for International Civil Servants

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh today said that “Awareness not Anxiety” is key to fight the global pandemic of COVID-19 and international collaboration is the need of the hour. He was speaking after inaugurating an international workshop through a webinar, jointly organized by Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, Ministry of External Affairs and National Centre for Good Governance, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.Dr. Singh reiterated that the roadmap ahead for Nations in winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic lies in restarting the economy and strengthening cooperative federalism. He said that the thrust is for stronger institutions, stronger e-Governance models, digitally empowered citizens and improved healthcare.

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SERB supported study shows that collapse of respiratory center in the brain may cause breakdown of COVID-19 patients

The team of researchers at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Kolkata has explored the neuro-invasive potential of SARS-CoV-2 and suggested that the virus may infect respiratory centre of the brain and attention should be focused on the respiratory centre of the central nervous system to search for mortality due to COVID 19.

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INPUTS FROM PIB FIELD OFFICES

• Chandigarh: Department of Social Welfare, Chandigarh Administration, distributed Take Home Ration in the form of Nutritious Weaning Food and BesanPanjiri, at the doorstep of approx. 22,586 beneficiaries i.e., Children between the age of 06 months to 06 years, Pregnant Women, Nursing Mothers and Adolescent Girls. In addition to the Nutritious dry ration, eggs, bananas and milk were also distributed to the beneficiaries of 53 Anganwadi Centres. Take Home Ration was also distributed to approximately 350 beneficiaries of the Slum Areas and Construction Sites at various locations in the city.
• Punjab: In a bid to further check the spread of Coronavirus, the Revenue Department of the Punjab Government has allocated Rs. 300 Cr. to the various departments and Deputy Commissioners. Out of Rs.100 crore allocated to the Deputy Commissioners, Rs.98 Cr. has been spent on sending the migrant workers to their home states, distributing dry rations, and on Quarantine facilities.
• Himachal Pradesh; The Chief Minister said that the State has been effectively fighting the Corona pandemic and therefore the situation was far better than most of the neighbouring states. He said that the sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases was due to the return of about two lakh people stranded in different parts of the country. These people were being kept in quarantine and people need not to panic. He further said that under Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojanaRs. 500 per month have been transferred into the accounts of 5.90 lakh eligible women of the State for the month April, May and June this year. He said that 1.37 lakh workers were provided Rs. 2000 per month for the period of two months as assistance and now the Government has decided to provide another Rs. 2000 in the accounts of registered workers of H.P. Buildings and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.
• Maharashtra; 3307 new patients have been identified as COVID-19 positive on Wednesday, thereby taking the state tally of coronavirus positive patients to 1,16,752, out of which, 51,921 are active  cases. 114 deaths have also been reported, which takes the COVID-19 fatality count in the state to 5651. Also, 59,166 patients have been cured in the state so far, as per latest report.
• Gujarat: In last 24 hours, 520 positive cases of COVID-19 and 27 deaths have been reported in the state. State tally stands at 25,148 including 17,438 cured and discharged and 1561 deaths.
• Rajasthan: 84 positive cases have been reported today morning, which takes the state tally of COVID-19 cases to 13,626. Also, 326 new cases were reported till Wednesday night. However, 10,582 patients have been cured till date in the state recording highest recovery rate. Most of the new cases have been reported today, are from Bharatpur district, followed by Jaipur district.
• Madhya Pradesh: 161 new cases have been reported on Wednesday evening in the state, which took the total cases to 11,244. Most of the new cases have been reported from Bhopal (49) followed by COVID-19 hotspot Indore (44).
• Chhattisgarh: 71 new coronavirus cases have been identified in the state on Wednesday, which takes the state tally of COVID-19 to 1864, out of which, 756 are active cases.
• Goa:  27 new cases have been identified and 11 recoveries took place in the state on Wednesday. The total number of COVID-19 cases now stand at 656, out of which, 560 are active cases. CM PramodSawant said that a lot of testing is being conducted in the border areas and all containment zones. But only 8-10 patients are symptomatic. Goa has categorised the patients for going to COVID hospitals or COVID care centres.
• Kerala: State reported one more Covid death today taking the toll to 21. The deceased, a 28-year-old- driver with the Excise Department, was under treatment at the Govt. Medical College Kannur. Attempts are on to trace the source of his infection. A Civil Police Officer in Kochi has been tested Covid positive. The officer was assigned to visit the houses of the home-quarantined people and ensure that they are following the quarantine protocol. Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said the insistence of state govt. on Covid negative certificate for Vande Bharat will only land expats in more crisis. Meanwhile, two more Keralites succumbed to the COVID-19 outside the state.  Yesterday there were 90 recoveries and 75 new cases. As many as 1,351 patients are still under treatment in different hospitals across the State.
• Tamil Nadu:Karaikal of Puducherry UT intensifies border vigil to stop trespassers from Tamil Nadu to curb Covid-19 spread. State to treat absence of TN govt staff between March 25 to May 7 as on-duty. Intense lockdown for 12 days to be enforced in Chennai and parts of neighbouring districts, from tomorrow. 2174 new cases, 842 recoveries & 48 deaths reported yesterday. 1276 cases from Chennai. Total cases: 50193, Active cases: 21990, Deaths: 576, Discharged: 27624, Active cases in Chennai: 16067.
• Karnataka: State observes 'Mask Day' today to raise Covid-19 awareness. State govt has informed High Court that so far 267 Shramik Trains have taken 3,79,195 migrant workers back to their native places. 204 new cases, 348 discharges & eight deaths reported yesterday. Total positive cases: 7734, Active cases: 2824, Deaths: 102, Discharges: 4804.
• Andhra Pradesh:  299 new cases after testing 13,923 samples with two deaths reported during last 24 hours, 77 discharged. Total cases: 5854, Active: 2779, Recovered: 2983, Deaths: 92. Total number of inter-state cases is 1353, with 611 of them active and 51 discharged in the last 24 hours, while 242 of the 289 cases from abroad remain active.
• Telangana: Private hospitals in Telangana say they will petition the state government over the upper limit fixed by it regarding the treatment of a Covid-19 patient in their hospitals; As chaos reigns supreme outside the Gandhi hospital mortuary, the hospital administration is struggling to set things in order at the morgue to avoid goof-ups like the one that happened on Thursday when the morgue staff released the body of a Covid19 victim to a wrong family -- the second such incident in the recent past; Total cases till now 5675; Active cases 2,412; Recovered 3071.
• Assam: 82 new COVID19 positive cases in Assam. Total cases stands at 4777, active cases 2111, recovered 2658 and deaths 9.
• Manipur: Manipur State has enhanced testing of COVID19 samples with 5 RT PCR machines and 3 TRUENAT machines. Cumulative number of tests done in the State till date stands at 29,865.
• Mizoram: 9 COVID19 patients from Kolasib district in Mizoram have tested negative twice.They are expected to be discharged from Zoram Medical College tomorrow, says State Health Minister.
• Nagaland:Dimapur-Kohima taxi service in Nagaland resumed under odd even rule. Small cars to carry upto 3 passengers while big vehicles may carry upto 5 people. Scientists from Jorhat district, Assam arrived to train technical team of BSL-2 Lab in Dimapur. TRUENAT machines installed at Longleng&Tuensang.

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