Coronavirus live updates: Will decide in July on international flights' resumption, govt says

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding discussions with chief ministers and Lt governors of 21 states and union territories on Tuesday on ways to check the spread of coronavirus as thousands of fresh cases are being reported daily. This is Modi's sixth interaction with the chief ministers since the outbreak of the deadly virus.

Delhi govt attaches it to Sir Gangaram Hospital and directs it to isolate all their rooms & place them at disposal of hospital with immediate effect for accomodating Covid patients.

US Ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster on Tuesday said that ventilators provided by the United States to India will prove to be a life savour for many patients. "The patients whose lungs are not giving proper oxygen, this vital support will be life savour. These ventilators will complement India's ongoing work to get quality health work to all those who need it," said US Ambassador. Ambassador Juster's remark came after the US handed the first tranche 100 ventilators to India here at the Indian Red Cross Headquarters. "Covid-19 pandemic is a great threat to all of us. With partnership and cooperation, we will be able to give better health to our people. The US has been providing access to medical supplies and Ventilators to countries which need medical support," he added. He further said, "I want to get close with the work done by the health professionals and front line workers in India and US who have been helping to fight the disease." The first lot of ventilators, which arrived on Monday, is high technology are manufactured by Zoll US-based firm and are arriving from Chicago in the US.

This facility should be operational with 120 beds in the next 2-3 days and will gradually be ramped up to 250-300 beds. In Delhi, 30-35 hotels will be requisitioned; we will be able to add 3000-3500 beds: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

In the post-Covid world, India and the US should take concerted and focused efforts to advance the remarkable business and people-to-people linkages between the two countries, according to New Delhi's top envoy here. Speaking on the occasion of the release of the report “Indian Roots, American Soil” by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Monday, India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu noted that the coronavirus pandemic has given both countries new opportunities to step up bilateral cooperation. "In the post-Covid world, we will need concerted and focused efforts to advance these remarkable business and people-to-people linkages between our two countries,” he said. “The current pandemic has presented us with new opportunities for cooperation and has made us recognise the need for collaborations more than ever before,” he said.

Scientists have discovered antibodies in the blood of recovered Covid-19 patients that provide powerful protection against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease, when tested in animals and human cell cultures. Injections of such antibodies could, in principle, be given to patients in the early stage of Covid-19 to reduce the level of virus and protect against severe disease, according to the researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in the US. Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the Chief Ministers and heads of 21 States and Union Territories on Tuesday. The meeting with heads of Punjab, Assam, Kerala, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, among others, is scheduled for 3 pm today. A similar meeting with heads of the rest 15 states and UTs is also scheduled to take place tomorrow. Read more

Father of Somalia-born US Representative Ilhan Omar died on Monday night of complications from the novel coronavirus, local media reported. "It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father," the Minnesota congresswoman tweeted late on Monday. "No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him." Omar and her father Nur Mohamed came to the United States as refugees in 1995 from Somalia during the country's civil war and eventually settled in Minneapolis, according to Politico. Omar was elected along with Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaiin in November 2018 making them among the first two Muslim women to serve in the US Congress.