Covid Watch: India crosses 3 lakh cases

The Hindu Newsletter - India's COVID-19 tally crosses 3 lakh Friday 12, June 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap [Here are the big news stories of the day]( [alt_text]( Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying home and staying safe. Here are the big stories that you need to follow today: Covid Watch: India crosses 3 lakh cases The number of coronavirus cases in India had risen to 3,06,309 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 8,738. As India’s case count crosses the 300,000 mark today with a surge of over 10,000 cases in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said the doubling time of coronavirus cases in India has improved to 17.4 days, from the 15.4 days that it was a couple of weeks ago. At the time the lockdown was imposed on March 25, the doubling rate of Covid-19 cases was 3.4 days, it said. Amid a spurt in cases, the cabinet secretary held a meeting of chief secretaries, and health and urban development secretaries of all the states and asked them to pay special attention to the emerging epicentres. They have also been asked to take stringent containment measures to check the contagion, the Ministry said. Situation in Delhi ‘horrendous, horrific, pathetic’: Supreme Court The Supreme Court today came down hard on the Delhi government, describing the Covid-19 situation in Delhi as “horrendous, horrific and pathetic”. The Bench, comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, S.K. Kaul and M.R. Shah, wanted the Delhi government to explain why its Covid-19 testing drive has dipped from 7,000 to 5,000 a day when other equally affected cities such as Chennai and Mumbai have increased their daily testing from 16,000 to 17,000. Requests for coronavirus tests cannot be denied, the top court said, adding that the “procedure can be simplified so that more and more tests are done”. [Workers rest on carts at Fatehpuri Market in New Delhi on June 12, 2020.] Workers rest on carts at Fatehpuri Market in New Delhi on June 12, 2020. The court also expressed concern over the manner in which the dead bodies of Covid-19 patients are being disposed of by hospitals in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Noting that people are being “treated worse than animals”, the court said there is no adherence to the guidelines for disposal of bodies, no due care or concern shown to the dead, and that relatives are not even informed of the death for several days. Surge in T.N. continues Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, reported 1,982 new cases, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 40,698. This is the biggest single day surge in cases in the state. Earlier in the day, there was some panic when the Madras High Court asked the state government about the viability of imposing another tight lockdown to control the surge of cases. However, intensifying the lockdown is not a move that the government is considering right now. The Hindu’s Tamil Nadu bureau chief Ramya Kannan writes today that such a move would only prolong the epidemic. “[A lockdown has certain limited, albeit important purpose]( — it slows down the transmission in order to help health systems gear up to meet the upcoming demands on healthcare facilities. Global experience does show that a lockdown does not spell the end of the epidemic, it only postpones the inevitable — a rise in the number of cases,” she writes. Supreme Court allows wage settlements The Supreme Court today gave private factory owners and other private establishments an option to negotiate terms and enter into settlements with their staff on payment of wages during lockdown. A Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan observed that industry could not survive without its labourers and workers. The court urged employers and employees to sort out their differences and resume work in a congenial atmosphere. It said those employers whose factories had continued to work during the lockdown, though not to full capacity, may also enter into talks. With this, the court continued its existing order that no coercive action should be taken against private factory/industry owners unable to pay full wages to workers during the 54 days of lockdown. The case would be taken up again in the last week of July. One killed, two injured on India-Nepal border One person was killed and two were injured when the Nepal police allegedly resorted to firing at the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district on Friday. The deceased, Vikesh Kumar Rai, and the injured, Umesh Ram and Uday Thakur, are Indian nationals. One Lagan Rai is said to have been detained by the Nepal police. Today’s incident follows some weeks of tension between the two countries. [ Injured residents are shifted to a hospital after a firing by Nepal Police at the Lalbandi-Janki Nagar border near Saitmarhi district of Bihar on June 12, 2020. ] Injured residents are shifted to a hospital after a firing by Nepal Police at the Lalbandi-Janki Nagar border near Saitmarhi district of Bihar on June 12, 2020. Locals said the firing took place after a clash between people working in their agricultural field at the Lalbandi-Janki Nagar border in Pipra Parsain panchayat under the Sonebarsha police station of the district. Rai died on the spot, they stated. GST council halves interest on delayed filing In a relief to small taxpayers with turnover up to ₹5 crore, the GST Council on Friday halved the interest on delayed filing of GST returns for February, March and April to 9%, provided the returns are filed by September 2020. Also, the deadline for filing returns for May, June and July has been extended till September, without any interest or late fee, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said after a meeting of the Council. Sitharaman said no late fee will be levied for delayed filing of GST returns by registered entities with nil liability between July 2017 and January 2020. In Brief: Movement of people will remain prohibited across the country from 9 pm to 5 am during the ongoing ‘Unlock 1’, but there are no restrictions on the plying of buses with passengers and goods trucks on highways, the Centre said today. In a communication to all states, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the purpose of restricting movement of individuals at night was to prevent congregations of people and ensure social distancing. But there would be no hampering of supply chains and logistics, he said. [In a screenshot from a video tweeted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former U.S. diplomat and Harvard professor Nicholas Burns is seen during a virtual conversation with Mr. Gandhi. Photo: Twitter/@RahulGandhi] In a screenshot from a video tweeted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former U.S. diplomat and Harvard professor Nicholas Burns is seen during a virtual conversation with Mr. Gandhi. Photo: Twitter/@RahulGandhi Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, in conversation with [former United States diplomat Nicholas Burns]( on Friday said the ‘DNA of tolerance’ that India and the U.S. had was disappearing and those responsible for divisions in society were now claiming to be nationalists. 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