Air India's flight returns to Melbourne Airport after take off

New Delhi, Jun 8: India on Monday reported the highest single-day spike of 9,983 more COVID-19 cases and 206 deaths in the last 24 hours.

With this, the country's coronavirus count has reached 2,56,611, including 1,25,381 active cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

1,24,094 patients have been cured/discharged so far and 7,135 succumbed to the deadly virus. While one patient has migrated.

With 85,975 cases, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in the country followed by Tamil Nadu at 31,667 cases.

A total of 1,08,048 samples were tested for coronavirus in the last 24 hours and overall 47,74,434 samples have been tested till now.

New Delhi, Apr 15: The Union Health Ministry has identified 170 districts as COVID-19 hotspots and 207 districts as potential hotspots, officials said on Wednesday, reiterating that there has been no community transmission of the disease in the country so far.

Addressing the daily briefing to provide updates on coronavirus situation in the country, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said that states have been asked to classify districts which have reported a higher number of cases as hotspots, the districts where cases have been reported as non-hotspots, and green zones where no cases have been reported.

"Hotspots are those districts which are reporting more number of cases or where the rate of growth of COVID-19 cases is high," Agarwal said, adding a detailed direction has been issued to states stating consolidated efforts are required to utilise this period of lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.

"Cabinet secretary held a video conference today with all chief secretaries, DGPs, health secretaries, collectors, SPs, municipal commissioners and CMOs where hotspots were discussed and orientation on field level implementation of containment strategy was given.

"They were told about large outbreak containment strategies, cluster containment strategies. Delineation of buffer and containment zone, parameter mapping, defining of entry and exit points were also discussed in detail," he said.

The joint secretary said movement of people will not be allowed in containment zones except for those related with essential services and special teams will search for new cases and samples will be collected and tested as per sampling criteria.

The officials said that health facilities in buffer zone outside the containment zone will be oriented and people facing SARI and influenza-like symptoms will be tested there.

"Special teams have been formed which will work in containment zone and do contact tracing and house-to-house surveys. Cases of fever, cough and breathlessness will be identified in the survey and requisite action will be taken as per protocol," Agarwal said, adding that there has been no community transmissions so far but some local outbreaks.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 11,439 with 1,076 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours while the death toll stands at 377, the ministry official said.

Mumbai, Apr 22: Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said none of the 101 people arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching case is a Muslim, and accused the opposition of giving a communal colour to the incident.

Terming the incident as unfortunate and a blot on humanity, Deshmukh in a Facebook address said this is not the time to play politics, and urged all to engage in collective efforts to defeat the deadly coronavirus.

Without naming any leader or party, Deshmukh, who is an NCP leader, said some people were seeing Mungerilal ke haseen sapne (referring to a fictional character from a TV show who daydreams) of returning to power in the state.

He said in the run up to the incident, a rumour did rounds in Palghar that some people were lifting children during night.

The entire episode is being investigated by a special inspector general and the probe has been handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID), he said.

"The police arrested 101 people in connection with the incident within eight hours after it took place. They had run into neighbouring jungles, but were caught by police. There is no Muslim brother among these 101 people, Deshmukh said.

The minister said someone was heard as saying oye bas (please stop) in the video clip of the incident, but it was allegedly distorted as Shoaib.

An attempt was made to give a political colour to the incident. And this is very unfortunate...communal politics is being played, Deshmukh alleged.

He said such politics is being played at a time when the entire state is engaged in a battle against coronavirus.

"It is not the time to play politics, but to fight coronavirus collectively. It is unfortunate some people are seeing 'Mungerilal ke haseen sapne' at this juncture, the minister said.

The incident took place on the night of April 16 when three men - two seers and their driver - were going from Mumbai in a car towards Surat in Gujarat to attend a funeral.

Their vehicle was stopped near a village in Palghar district where the three were dragged out of the car and beaten to death with sticks by a mob on suspicion that they were child-lifters.

The deceased were identified as Chikne Maharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70), Sushilgiri Maharaj (35), and driver Nilesh Telgade (30).

The Maharashtra government earlier ordered a high- level probe into the incident, and two policemen from Palghar were suspended on Monday for alleged dereliction of duty.