NEW DELHI: Coronavirus infected patients developing severe illness or having compromised immunity will have to test negative through RT-PCR test before being discharged by a hospital, the Union health ministry has said in its revised discharge policy for Covid-19 cases. The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 1,981 and the number of cases climbed to 59,662 in the country on Saturday, registering an increase of 95 deaths and 3,320 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.
Here are the top developments:
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India
- The health ministry said moderate cases of Covid-19 and pre-symptomatic, mild and very mild cases need not undergo tests before being discharged after resolution of symptoms. According to the rules till now, a patient was considered fit to be discharged if he or she tested negative on day 14 and then again in a span of 24 hours.
- The testing capacity for Covid-19 has been scaled up to around 95,000 tests per day and a total of 15,25,631 tests have been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said.
- Vardhan said that there is no need to anticipate worst case situation with regard to Covid-19 pandemic in India like in developed countries. Vardhan added that India is improving its battle against Covid-19.
- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Rs 18,253 crore has been disbursed to 9.13 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.
- The Indian Railways has operated 302 ‘Shramik Special’ trains since May 1 and ferried home more than 3 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
- The return of migrant workers to West Bengal has become another flashpoint between the Centre and the TMC-led state government with home minister Amit Shah alleging that the state government is not allowing special trains. The West Bengal government, however, alleged tha