The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 873 in India on Saturday with the death toll rising to 19, according to the Union Health Ministry. In its updated figures at 9.30 am, the ministry mentioned two fresh deaths — one each in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Thus, deaths have so far been reported from Maharashtra (5), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (2), Madhya Pradesh (2) and one each from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. According to the data, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 775, while 78 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated. The total number of 873 cases in the country included 47 foreigners, the data stated. Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 180, including three foreign nationals, followed by Kerala, where the number of cases has climbed to 173, including eight foreign nationals, according to the ministry data. Karnataka has reported 55 cases, while in Telangana, the number of cases has gone up to 48, including 10 foreigners. The number of cases in Rajasthan has climbed to 48, including two foreigners, while in Gujarat, it has gone up to 45, including one foreign national. Uttar Pradesh has reported 45 cases, including a foreigner, while the number of positive cases in Delhi has gone up to 39, including a foreigner. Punjab has reported 38 cases, while 33 COVID-19 cases have so far been detected in Haryana, including 14 foreigners. The number of cases has increased to 38 in Tamil Nadu, including six foreigners. Madhya Pradesh has recorded 30 cases, Jammu and Kashmir 18, West Bengal 15, Andhra Pradesh 14 and Ladakh has reported 13 COVID-19 cases. Bihar has recorded nine cases, Chandigarh seven and Chhattisgarh six. Uttarakhand has five cases, including a foreigner.
As the rest of Europe shuts up shop to combat the new coronavirus, Belarus remains resolutely open for business. Restaurants in the former Soviet Republic continue to serve food, and the country’s football league plays on. Despite being at the door of a Europe grappling with the deadly COVID-19, life goes on here more or less unchecked. The Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the global health crisis as a “psychosis”, and refuses to follow the example of much of the globe by imposing a lockdown. With less than 100 positive cases and no deaths in Belarus, Lukashenko this week suggested “there shouldn’t be any panic” over the virus.
China has reported 54 new imported coronavirus cases, taking their tally in the last few days to 649, while the death toll in the country has risen to 3,295 with three more fatalities confirmed on Friday, China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday. While no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were reported on Friday, the number of coronavirus infections in people returning from abroad has gone up to 649 with 54 new cases reported, it said. A total of three deaths and 29 new suspected cases were reported in the Chinese mainland on Friday.
With families across Europe confined to their homes to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, fears are rising of a surge in domestic violence. From Berlin to Paris, Madrid, Rome and Bratislava, associations that help victims of domestic violence have sounded the alarm after Europe overtook China to become the epicentre of the pandemic. “For many people, their home is already not a safe place,” says the German federal association of women’s counselling centres and helplines (BFF). But the stress caused by social isolation is exacerbating tensions and increasing “the risk of domestic and sexual violence against women and children”, the association warns.
