Covid-19 Bulletin: Recovery rate improves to 56.70%, lab capacity now @ 1,000 and Fact-checking fake news

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that 2,15,195 tests were conducted by the various laboratories for Coronavirus in the country in last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the recovery rate has improved to 56.70% in the country and 2,58, 685 people have been cured so far. Presently, the total number of active corona cases in the country is 1,83,022.

According to the ministry data, 15,968 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 4,56,183.

More Corona News of the Day:

COVID-19 tests cross 2 lakhs per day; Lab capacity touches 1000

In a significant ramping of the testing facilities across the country, more than 2 lakh samples/day were tested in the last 24 hours, the highest so far. With 2,15,195 samples tested yesterday, the total number of samples tested thus far is 73,52,911. While 1,71,587 samples were tested in Government labs, 43,608 were tested by private labs. Private labs have also reached the highest per day sampling with this quantity. India now has 1000 labs across the country for testing COVID-19. This includes 730 in the government sector and 270 private labs.

The number of COVID-19 patients recovering very day is growing too. During the last 24 hours, a total of 10,495 COVID-19 patients have been cured. A total of 2,58,684 patients have been cured. The recovery rate is 56.71% amongst COVID-19 patients. Presently, there are 1,83,022 active cases and all are under active medical supervision.

Cabinet okays establishment of Animal Husbandry Infra Development Fund

In pursuance of recently announced AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan stimulus package for ensuring growth in several sectors, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved setting up of Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) worth Rs. 15000 crore. Government of India will provide 3% interest subvention to eligible beneficiaries. There will be 2 years moratorium period for principal loan amount and 6 years repayment period thereafter.

2% Interest Subvention approved on prompt repayment of Shishu Loans

Union Cabinet has approved a scheme for interest subvention of 2% for a period of 12 months, to all Shishu loan accounts under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) to eligible borrowers. This Scheme is for implementation of one of the measures relating to MSMEs, announced under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The Scheme has been formulated as a specific response to an unprecedented situation and aims to alleviate financial stress for borrowers at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ by reducing their cost of credit. The Scheme is expected to provide much needed relief to the sector, thereby enabling small businesses to continue functioning without laying off employees due to lack of funds. By supporting small businesses to continue functioning during these times of crisis, the Scheme is also expected to have a positive impact on the economy and support its revival, which is necessary for employment generation in future.

Funding scheme launched to help distressed MSME sector

Minister of MSME, Shri Nitin Gadkari today launched the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Sub-ordinate Debt (CGSSD) which is also called “Distressed Assets Fund–Sub-ordinate Debt for MSMEs”. As per the Scheme, the guarantee cover worth Rs. 20,000 crores will be provided to the promoters who can take debt from the banks to further invest in their stressed MSMEs as equity. It is expected that this scheme would provide much required support to around 2 lakh MSMEs and will help in reviving the economic activity in and through this sector. It will also help in protecting the livelihoods and jobs of millions of people who depend on them. Promoter(s) of MSMEs meeting the eligibility criteria may approach any scheduled commercial banks to avail benefit under the scheme.

20,000 Covid-19 beds in Delhi by next week

The Home Minister Shri Amit Shah has said “10,000 bed COVID Care Centre at Radha Swami Beas in Delhi will be operational by 26th June. The work is in full swing and a large part of the facility will be operational by Friday”. Shri Amit Shah said this in a tweet yesterday, stating that Delhi Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal has written to the Union Home Minister inviting him to inspect the COVID Care Centre at Radha Soami Satsang Beas campus in Chhattarpur. Delhi CM had also requested for deployment of doctors and nurses from ITBP and Army at the Centre. In his reply, Shri Amit Shah said “it has already been decided in our meeting three days back and Ministry of Home Affairs has assigned the work of operating the COVID Care Centre at Radha Swami Beas in Delhi to ITBP. He also said, “1,000 bed full-fledged hospital with 250 ICU beds for Covid patients will be ready next week”.

Railways to generate employment opportunity for migrants

Ministry of Railways reviewed progress of ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ being implemented in 116 districts in 6 states. Railway Zones and Rail PSUs participated in the review meeting about the progress of Abhiyaan. Railways to appoint Nodal officers in all the 116 districts and at the State level. This Abhiyaan of 125 days, will work in mission mode, and involve focused implementation of various categories of works/ activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Around 160 infrastructure works have been identified which are to be expedited.

Defence Minister reviews India-Russia defence co-operation

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh reviewed India-Russia defence cooperation with Mr. Yury Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russian Federation in Moscow yesterday. Mr Borisov is the co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Commission with India on Trade & Economic & Scientific Cooperation. Their discussions on bilateral cooperation and regional issues were very positive and productive. Raksha Mantri mentioned that despite all the difficulties of the pandemic, India-Russia bilateral relations are keeping good contacts at various levels.

Virtual Meet of leading experts in AYUSH from across the country

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has said that COVID pandemic has reiterated the merits of integrated medical management and added that in the times to come, serious thought would require to be given to this aspect for a more effective medical prophylaxis as well as therapeutics. Addressing a Virtual Meet of some of India’s leading experts yesterday, in AYUSH, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that even though the merits of integrated or holistic management had been realised even in the case of non-communicable diseases, Diabetes Mellitus but somehow this aspect did not receive the kind of attention that was required. In the context of COVID, Dr Jitendra Singh said that since it is a viral disease where the prognosis depends on the immunity of the patient and, therefore, the importance of building immunity was realised. The widespread use of Homeopathy and other medicines to build up immunity have generated interest in the alternative systems of medicines.

HRD Minister launches ‘YUKTI 2.0’ platform for Higher Education Institutes

Human Resource Development Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, launched an initiative ‘YUKTI 2.0’ to help systematically assimilate technologies having commercial potential and information related to incubated startups in our higher education institutions yesterday. Addressing the participants Shri Pokhriyal said that YUKTI 2.0 is logical extension of earlier version of ‘YUKTI’, an initiative of MHRD, to identify ideas relevant in COVID pandemic. He also informed that all the outcomes of earlier version of ‘YUKTI’ will be released soon. The minister appreciated the initiative and said that our Prime Minister has given us the mission of making Bharat ‘Atmanirbhar’ and, YUKTI 2.0 initiative is a very important step in that direction.

Operation Samudra Setu – INS Airavat brings back 198 citizens from Maldives 

INS Airavat, deployed by the Indian Navy for “Operation Samudra Setu”, entered Tuticorin harbour early morning yesterday, with 198 Indian nationals embarked from Male, Maldives. So far Indian Navy has brought back 2386 Indian citizens from Maldives to India. The embarkation of Indian nationals was facilitated by the Indian Mission in Maldives.With this evacuation, the Indian Navy has repatriated 3305 Indian nationals from Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran during the ongoing pandemic.

Over 3000 COVID-19 samples tested at CSIR-NEERI

CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has tested more than 3,000 samples for COVID-19 so far. The COVID-19 testing facility became operational at CSIR-NEERI from April 2020. With testing capacity of 50 samples per day, CSIR-NEERI has the requisite infrastructure to test COVID-19 samples and take all appropriate bio-safety and bio-security precautions before testing. The facility is open to testing COVID-19 samples from Nagpur and surrounding areas of Vidarbha.