Covid-19 Daily Update - May 29

Two days before Lockdown 4.0 is to end, Karnataka reports its highest single day spike with 248 cases.And in our series of conversations looking to the future, Shemin Joy speaks to Shruti Batra from Jagori about the impact of the pandemic on domestic workers.

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Hello. This the daily Covid update from Deccan Herald. I’m Suraksha.
On the bulletin today:
Karnataka records its highest single day spike with 248 new cases...the Union Home Ministry meets Chief Ministers to decide on Lockdown 5.0 and in our series of conversations looking to the future, we speak to Shruti Batra to understand the demands of domestic workers.

But first, a look at the daily figures...
At the time of this recording, India has over 85,000 active cases in the country and is headed towards 5000 deaths.
The sudden drop in the number of active cases from yesterday, is due to the discharge of nearly 8,500 people from various hospitals in Maharashtra. Details are awaited.
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Delhi reported its highest single day spike today, with 1,106 cases. It also added 82 deaths, nearing the 400 mark. Of the 82 deaths, only 13 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours while rest 69 took place over a period of 34 days prior to that, which were "reported late" by hospitals.
Meanwhile, in Maharashtra, Asia's biggest slum cluster of Dharavi plus its neighbouring areas of Dadar and Mahim have, so far, reported over 35,000 cases and 1150 deaths.
Nearly 25,000-plus are among the active cases.
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We reported yesterday, that according to an analysis done by Dr Giridhar Babu, an epidemiologist in the technical advisory committee in Karnataka, that each Covid-19 patient in Karnataka now infects less than one person now. The Ro value assigned to this, was shown to have decreased from 1.5 on March 28th to 0.85 on May 27th.
However a statistical model developed by Sitabhra Sinha, a scientist at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai suggests otherwise. According to him, Karnataka and Bihar are the two Indian states that have experienced an exponential growth in Covid-19 infected patients in the last two weeks and both states have reported an R value of 1.62 in the May 16-24 period, which is way above the national average of 1.23.
This number is also higher than Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
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A day before Lockdown 4.0 ends, Home Minister Amit Shah has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the broad contours of the next phase of restrictions. He also discussed the apprehension that many Chief Ministers feel at lifting the lockdown in one go. While the Goa Chief Minister would like the lockdown increased until June 15th, he has also asked that relaxations should be given to hotels and gyms. Maharashtra has indicated that it would like the lockdown to continue while Chhattisgarh wants to keep its borders sealed.
Himachal Pradesh has already extended the lockdown in two districts until the end of June.
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A Mumbai-based activist who wanted to know expenses incurred to combat the Covid 19 pandemic outbreak has received an unusual reply to his RTI query from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In its response, the Ministry has said that it has no specific information to provide, the response was provided 22 days after the query was filed.
The Central Public Information Officer has said that it is not required to furnish information which requires making an assumption, or to solve the problem raised by the applicant, or to furnish replies to hypothetical questions.
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Moving on to the numbers from Karnataka…
The state has registered its highest single day spike with 248 cases being reported today, out of which 227 have a domestic travel history.
207 new cases are from those who have returned from Maharashtra.
Raichuru, Kalaburagi, Yadagiri and Udupi - have reported the highest number of cases today and each of the new cases have returned from Maharashtra.
The source of infection is being traced for 7 new cases in Bengaluru and 1 in Chikkaballapura.
Ballari has reported 9 cases, all of whom have returned from Rajasthan. All the other districts have reported cases in single digits.
The state registered one Covid-19 death today. A 50-year-old woman from Chikkaballapura, who was admitted due to a head injury, caused by a road accident, later developed pneumonia and acute kidney injury, tested positive yesterday and passed away today.

Karnataka has recorded 2,781 cases of the novel coronavirus this year, and has successfully treated 894 patients. The state currently has over 1800 active cases of which 15 are in the ICU.
48 people have died to the virus, while 2 have committed suicide after testing positive and have not been added to the state’s death tally. The state has tested 12,411 samples in the last 24 hours.
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And finally, in our series of conversations looking to the future, we take a look at what the new normal will mean to domestic helps, an indispensable part of many Indian households. My colleague Shemin Joy speaks to Shruti Batra from Jagori.
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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.