NEW DELHI: The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 826 and the number of cases climbed to 26,917 in India on Sunday, according to the Union health ministry. The death toll increased by 47 and the number of cases has gone up by 1,975 since the ministry last updated its data.

The number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 20,177 while 5,913 people were cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.

Here is a look at the latest updates on the outbreak of coronavirus from India and around the world —

UK records month's lowest daily Covid-19 toll at 413

The UK recorded its lowest daily death toll from the novel coronavirus in a month at 413 on Sunday, with its total number of hospital deaths climbing to 20,732.

UK environment secretary George Eustice announced the update during the daily Downing Street briefing in London and revealed that hospitalisations from Covid-19 had continued to register a downward trajectory as it fell to 15,953.

The minister, however, warned that it was still too early to start discussing any let up in the strict lockdown measures in place.

Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra cross 8,000-mark; overall death toll 342

The number of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed the 8,000-mark on Sunday after 440 more people, 358 of them from Mumbai alone, were found infected, a health official said.

On Saturday, the state had reported 811 coronavirus positive cases, the highest single-day rise.

With 440 new cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in the state mounted to 8,068, the official said.

Millions of children at risk with immunisation services disrupted

Millions of children are in danger of missing life-saving vaccines against measles, diphtheria and polio due to disruptions in immunisation service amid the spread of COVID-19, the UNICEF has warned.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, measles, polio and other vaccines were out of reach for 20 million children below the age of one every year, the UN Children's Fund said on Saturday.

Given the current disruptions, the UNICEF warned that this could create pathways to disastrous outbreaks in 2020 and well beyond.

Iran says virus cases pass 90,000

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Iran has passed 90,000, according to official figures released Sunday, as Tehran announced its lowest number of new deaths in weeks.

Health authorities have registered 1,153 new cases of the Covid-19 illness since midday Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 90,481.

Sixty additional fatalities were recorded, with the overall death toll reaching 5,710, he added.

It is the country's lowest number of officially declared deaths since March 10.

Gurgaon MNCs may have to work from home till July end

MNCs, BPOs and IT enabled services (ITES) in Gurgaon may have to allow their employees to work from home till the end of July, says Gurgaon Metropolitan Development Authority CEO V S Kundu.

Kundu, who is also additional chief secretary of Haryana, added that several real estate projects, including those of DLF, have got the green signal to resume construction but within the norms of social distancing.

Gurgaon, which is part of the National Capital Region, is known as the millennium city and is home to many BPOs, MNCs and technology giants, including Infosys, Genpact, Google and Microsoft.

Nations prepare to ease lockdowns as virus deaths pass 200,000

Spanish children were allowed outside on Sunday for the first time in six weeks as countries prepared to ease lockdown measures and reopen economies gutted by the coronavirus despite the worldwide death toll surpassing 200,000.

Governments from Belgium to the United States are gearing up for a partial reopening in an attempt to restore normality for nearly half of humanity forced into some form of confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coronavirus cases around the world rose to 2.86 million and deaths have doubled since April 10, with well over half of them in Europe, according to an AFP tally.

Spain's daily virus death toll drops to 288, lowest in a month

Spain's daily coronavirus death toll dropped to 288 on Sunday, the lowest since March 20, as the country eased its lockdown to allow children outside for the first time in six weeks.

The health ministry said the figure dropped from 378 on Saturday and brought Spain's total toll to 23,190, the third highest number of deaths after the United States and Italy.

Modi says India's fight against coronavirus people-driven

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India's "people-driven" battle against Covid-19 is the only way for the country to overcome the pandemic, and asked people to shun any complacency that they will not be infected by the coronavirus because it has so far not affected the places where they live or work.

In his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' broadcast, Modi said the country is in the middle of a 'yudh' (war) and asserted that people have to continue being careful and take precautions.

India records 6% growth in 24 hours, lowest daily rate since crossing 100 cases, says Govt

India recorded a six per cent growth in new cases on a single day, from 8am Friday to 8am Saturday, which is the lowest daily growth rate recorded since the country crossed 100 cases, the government said on Saturday. Since Friday morning, an increase of 1,429 cases has been reported.

With 208 R&D projects, IITs lead India’s fight against Covid-19

India’s scientific effort to contain and eliminate the threat of the novel corona virus is being led by 18 IITs with experts engaged in 208 dedicated R&D projects under seven different categories. As some of their work starts yielding results, IIT-Guwahati has shown the way cornering the biggest pool of projects, followed by IIT-Madras and IIT-Hyderabad. Nearly 50% of the key research in India’s premier technical schools are happening in six of the old IITs.

After Delhi, 5 more states want lockdown extended beyond May 3

A day after the Delhi government said the lockdown would have to be continued till May 16 in the national capital, five states — Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Punjab and Odisha — on Saturday veered towards extending curbs in hotspots of their respective states beyond May 3.

Evacuation exercise gathers steam across states

As the national lockdown entered its fifth week, an unprecedented cross-country evacuation exercise to bring back migrant workers and other people stranded in different states appeared to gather momentum on Saturday with Punjab sending 80 buses to ferry back Sikh pilgrims stuck in Maharashtra and UP preparing to bring back at least 9,500 labourers from Haryana by Sunday.

Close to 6,300 Indians infected in 50 countries, toll stands at 40

Close to 6300 Indian nationals abroad have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, posing a serious logistical challenge to the government as and when it decides to evacuate Indians stranded overseas. The number has almost doubled in the past 8-9 days as it stood at 3,336 on April 16. The number of deaths of Indian nationals caused by Covid-19 abroad has also shot up to 40 from 25 during this period.



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