Covid-19 in India: Daily deaths spike again

A Covid-19 patient waits for admission outside LLR hospital in Kanpur, UP, on Friday. Pic/PTI

The daily rise in novel Coronavirus cases in India remained below 3 lakh for the fifth consecutive day with 2,59,551 new confirmation in a single day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday morning.

The single-day tally of Covid-19 casualties, however, jumped past 4,000 again, after a day of drop. The total death toll climbed to 2,91,331 with 4,209 daily deaths. The national case fatality rate increased to 1.12 per cent, but the recovery rate improved to 87.25 per cent.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to visit the United States on Monday. The five-day trip is aimed at procurement of Coronavirus vaccines and raw materials to boost domestic production.

It will be the first visit by a senior Indian minister to the US after President Joe Biden assumed office in January. Jaishankar is likely to press for further speeding up of the supply of raw materials from the US to boost vaccine production in India besides exploring the option of joint production.

"In Washington DC, the Minister will hold discussions with his counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He will also be meeting Cabinet members and Senior Officials of the Administration dealing with the bilateral relationship," the MEA said.

MP lost 1L to Covid-19 in 2 months: Kamal Nath

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath on Friday claimed that over 1 lakh people in the state died due to Covid-19 in March-April this year, and accused the BJP government of hiding the real count. "We collected figures from cremation ground and graveyards in March and April, and found that 1,27,503 bodies arrived there and 1,02,002 of these deaths were caused due to Covid-19." he said The state government, however, termed his claim as "false and misleading".

Sunderlal Bahuguna, known for Chipko movement, dies

Noted environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna died of Covid-19 at AIIMS, Rishikesh, on Friday. He is survived by his wife Vimla, two sons and a daughter. Born on January 9 in Tehri district, the 94-year-old Padma Vibhushan awardee is considered the pioneer of the Chipko movement. He also led the protests against Tehri dam construction. Uttarakhand CM, the Indian president and prime minister condoled his death. He was a big critic of the RSS.

Centre comes to the rescue of Sambit Patra

The government has objected to Twitter using ‘manipulated media' tag for tweets on an alleged Congress toolkit used to target the Centre over its Covid-19 handling, sources said. Twitter tagged a tweet of BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as ‘manipulated media'. The Centre has asked Twitter to remove the ‘manipulated media' tag as the matter is pending before law enforcement agency, and said that the social media platform cannot pass judgment when the issue is under investigation.

Also Read: Real Covid-19 death count across the world twice the reported figure: WHO

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