Coronavirus live updates: PM Modi to interact with CMs of all states and union territories on June 16 and 17

The state reported a surge in Covid-19 infections and fatalities on Thursday, adding 3,607 cases and 152 deaths, both highest for a day so far. The state’s total caseload touched 97,648— overtaking Canada’s tally of 97,472— and is inching close to the one lakh mark. Its total death toll is 3,590.

China is building hundreds of testing laboratories and stocking up on tests to ramp up screening for the coronavirus, even in healthy people, as the country looks to make testing universal. Procurement documents and official notices show it is sharply expanding its testing capability. On Monday, the National Health Commission said it would look to “normalise” nucleic acid testing. “If they’re willing to be checked, check them all,” said the policy notice.

Days after Delhi government allowed private establishments to open in the capital, Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Thursday released a standard operating procedure on preventive measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 in offices. The SOP included generic preventive measures to be followed at all times, office-specific rules, steps to be taken on occurrence of cases and disinfection procedures to be implemented.

The Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in the city will lead ‘Platina Trial’, which is a state-level clinical trial to assess the efficacy of plasma therapy to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients. Officials said more than 500 patients in the state would be given blood plasma obtained from recovered patients as part of these trials. These are being touted as the largest such trials in the world.

The three municipal corporations of Delhi came together on Thursday to claim that funerals of 2,098 confirmed Covid-19 cases had taken place till Thursday in various crematoria and burial grounds run by them in the city. Delhi government's official figure of deaths due to the pandemic was 1,085 on Thursday, just a little more than half of the figure released by the civic bodies.

India’s Covid-19 cases climbed to the fourth highest in the world, overtaking the United Kingdom on Thursday, even as the country reported another highest single-day rise in new infections and deaths. The number of fresh cases crossed 11,000 for the first time while deaths were close to 400, having gone past 8,000 in all a day earlier. By Thursday night, India had 2,98,191 cases, as per data from state governments.

As per the new guidelines, those coming from abroad can go home after giving an affidavit. But they have to strictly follow the quarantine conditions failing which police would take legal action againstthe violators, he said. In the panchayats, the containment zone may be declared at the ward-level and at the sub-ward level in the Corporation.

The decision to tighten the curbs on weekends and holidays has been taken amid apprehensions of COVID-19 reaching the community spread stage in Punjab and projections indicating that the peak in the state was still two months away. Industrial activities, however, will be allowed to function normally on all days, the CM said.