Covid-19 Daily Update - June 5

515 cases from Karnataka of which 204 cases were reported from Udupi today. The Supreme Court hears a PIL to allow private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients. And in our series of conversations looking to the future, Samiksha Goel speaks to Shipra Dawar from IWill, who tells us that the impact of Covid-19 on mental health in the country has been unprecedented.The daily update with Suraksha Pinnu.

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Hello. This the daily Covid update from Deccan Herald. I’m Suraksha.

On the bulletin today:
Karnataka reports an unprecedented 515 cases today, Udupi tops the list at 204 cases...A PIL at the Supreme Court asks for Covid-19 treatment facilities at private hospitals, and...Later in the bulletin, we’re joined by Shipra Dawar, CEO and Head of Innovation of mental health app IWill, to talk about the mental health crises during the pandemic and how for startups in the in the digital space, teleconsultations could be the next big thing.

But first, a look at the daily figures...
India currently has more than 1 lakh active cases and if India continues to add new cases at the present rate of growth, it could surpass Italy, UK and Spain to become the fourth worst-hit country worldwide within the next one week.

A look at the national news before the numbers from Karnataka...
Despite the start of Shramik trains or road transport, the list of problems for migrants is far from over.

A third round of surveys conducted by researchers among migrant workers have once again highlighted the troubles they are facing.

63% of those who participated in the exercise said that they have less than 100 rupees left with them, while more than three-fourth still do not have access to rations.

According to the report prepared by Stranded Workers Action Network, 11% of those surveyed took trucks, lorries and other such modes of transport while 6% percent made the journey on foot.

With work being suspended, the report said, 48% of the people surveyed through calls had taken loans between 2000 and 5000 rupees.

Another 30% took loans of more than 5000 rupees. More than 15.1% of those surveyed took loans higher than 8000 rupees.

The report was prepared by the Stranded Workers Action Network, after analysing 821 distress calls corresponding to 5,911 migrant workers, and telephone chats with 1,963 others during May 15 and June 1.
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Moving on, the Supreme Court has asked the Union government to respond to a PIL, in which the petitioner has asked guidelines to be framed for treatment of Covid-19 in private hospitals, and more importantly, at uniform charge.
The petitioner, Avishek Goenka has also asked for the constitution of a joint expert committee to examine and recommend best global practices to treat Covid-19. He further asks that these recommendations must be binding on all states. He sought a direction to the government to allow those who could afford private hospitals and quarantine facilities, to avail these.
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The big news today is - of course from Karnataka...the state has reported an unprecedented 515 new Covid-19 cases today.
Of these 482 are interstate passengers.
476 have a travel history to Maharashtra.

All the cases from Udupi, Bengaluru Rural, Dakshina Kannada, Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Bagalkote, and all except one case each from Yadagiri, Kalaburagi, Bidar, Mandya and Uttara Kannada, have recently returned from Maharashtra.

The other districts have also reported cases from Maharashtra as well as other states such as Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Delhi. One patient has returned from Indonesia. A few are contacts of those in containment zones and a few are primary contacts of previously diagnosed patients.

No deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours. With this, Karnataka has recorded over 4,835 cases of the novel coronavirus this year. The state currently has 3,088 active cases and has recorded 57 deaths.

Udupi was a green zone until less than a month ago, until on May 15th five returnees from Dubai tested positive. In just 17 days, the district zoomed past all 29 districts of Karnataka and now has the highest number of cases -- 768. According to the state war room, the number of days taken to double cases is just four in Udupi as on Friday.

Another worrying statistic is out of the 768 cases, only 31 aresymptomatic, 737 are asymptomatic which is 95% of the cases. Udupi also has the highest positivity rate at 9%, that means for every 100 people tested, nine test positive.
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Moving on, in our series of conversations looking to the future, we take a look at the mental health crisis in the country today and the impact that the pandemic has had. Following the launch of medical teleconsultation, startups in the digital space have been able to address the concerns around mental health without the fear of stigma...and it could possibly be the only good thing to come from this crisis. My colleague Samiksha Goel caught up with Shipra Dawar - CEO and Head of Innovation of mental health app IWill, to get a sense of what’s going on.
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That's all from us today. For the latest updates, log on to deccanherald.com. Stay safe and we’ll see you tomorrow.