Category: National

PTI

New Delhi: Serum Institute of India (SII) on Thursday said it is pausing clinical trials of AstraZeneca Oxford COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the country.

Earlier this week, AstraZeneca said it had paused the trials because of ‘an unexplained illness’ in a participant in the study.

However, SII on Wednesday said it was continuing with the trials and had not faced any issues.

SII’s latest announcement also comes against the backdrop of the central drug regulator DCGI issuing a show-cause notice to SII for not informing it about AstraZeneca pausing the clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate in other countries.

“We are reviewing the situation and pausing India trials till AstraZeneca restarts the trials,” SII said in a statement.

The Pune-based vaccine maker also said it is following instructions of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), it added.

In the show-cause notice, DCGI V G Somani had asked SII as to why the permission granted for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the vaccine candidate in the country be not suspended till patient safety is established.

Meeting between ground commanders to solve stalemate remains inconclusive.

As Indian troops are engaged in a standoff on the south bank of Pangong Tso (lake) for the past one week, a massive build-up had again begun in the Finger area of the north bank, a senior government official told The Hindu.

The ground commanders met on Wednesday to solve the stalemate but it remained inconclusive. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had occupied the ridge lines and amassed troops on the north bank, where Fingers 4-8 are located, the official said.

There was a worrying concentration of troops on both sides, with China dominating the area, the official noted.

The development comes a day before the Foreign Ministers of both countries are expected to meet in Moscow on the sidelines of a meeting of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

As reported, China has ingressed about 8 km in the Finger area of the north bank. India has not been able to patrol beyond Finger 4 since April last week when China amassed troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Earlier, Indian troops could patrol up to Finger 8.

Several rounds of meetings at the military and diplomatic levels have not yielded any results. China partially retreated to Finger 5 and as per the agreement, Indian troops were pulled back to Finger 2.

‘China dominating area’

“China is dominating the ridges in the Finger area of Pangong Tso for the past four months. Since last evening, it has rushed additional forces. We have had no option but to match the presence,” said the official.

The build-up on the north bank comes even as the attention has shifted to areas south of the lake, where for the past one week, the Indian Army has been dominating the ridges and hills in the Chushul area. 

For the first time in 45 years, aerial shots were fired along the disputed LAC. The Indian Army said on Tuesday that Chinese troops fired some rounds in the air on September 7, as they attempted to close in on one of India’s forward positions and “intimidate” troops deployed there to dislodge them.

Brigade Commander-level talks were held at Chushul on Wednesday in the wake of Monday’s firing incident which, a defence source said, were routine ground-level talks to de-escalate the situation. Both sides agreed to hold another round of Corps Commander-level talks, for which the date was yet to be finalised, the source added.

China has repeated its accusations of India firing first. A Chinese source said that during the talks, both sides agreed that there should not be further incidents of firing.

Tensions have been high since August 29, when Chinese troops engaged in a “provocative action” trying to change the status quo on the south bank, which forced India to take pre-emptive moves. India has since occupied the key heights in the area.

On Tuesday, some pictures of the Chinese troops deployed on the south bank surfaced. They showed the soldiers carrying spears, rods and clubs.

The official said the issue was raised with the Chinese commander. “The Chinese say that the rods and spears are for construction work to build temporary sheds on their side of the LAC. But it is evident that such tools serve no such purpose,” the official pointed out.

In the past fortnight, three top officials — Army Chief Gen. M.M Naravane; Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Director General S.S. Deswal; and Secretary, Border Management, Sanjeeva Kumar, visited Ladakh.

On Wednesday, China’s State media reported that the PLA was “mobilising forces, including bombers, air defence troops, artillery, armoured vehicles, paratroopers, special forces and infantry units from different parts of the country to the bordering plateau region” after the latest tensions.

Bombers mobilised

Bombers and transport aircraft from the Central Theatre Command, which is responsible for Beijing and surrounding provinces, and an air defence brigade from the Eastern Theatre Command, which is focused on Taiwan and Japan, have been mobilised to the Tibetan plateau and linked up with the Western Theatre Command, which covers Tibet, Xinjiang and the India border.

The Central Theatre Command said in a statement that it had deployed H-6 bombers and Y-20 large transport aircraft to the Tibetan plateau for training missions as part of the mobilisation. The Eastern Theatre Command had mobilised an air defence brigade to the northwest and “held live-fire confrontational drills with anti-aircraft guns and missiles”, State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported. It said the military was conducting “long-distance manoeuvres, deployment exercises and live-fire drills” last week.

The Communist Party-run Global Times said the manoeuvres were taking place “after India crossed the LAC near the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake and near the Reqin Mountain pass on August 31”.

(With inputs from The Hindu)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Despite 18 meetings over the last few years, and two informal summits between them, the two leaders have not spoken yet during the current crisis.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reached Moscow on Tuesday night to attend a meeting of the 8-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is expected to prepare for the SCO summit later this year, possibly in October.

All eyes, however, are on an expected meeting between Mr. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the meeting (September 9-10), amidst a sudden escalation in military tensions at the Line of Actual Control after the first gunshots fired there in 45 years. This would be the first face-to-face meeting between the two foreign ministers since the beginning of tensions four months ago.

“The Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Moscow will review the preparations for the forthcoming SCO Summit and also exchange views on international and regional issues,” said a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). “External Affairs Minister’s visit in Moscow will include the participation in the Council of SCO Foreign Ministers and other bilateral meetings,” it added.

While officials would not confirm the timing for the India-China meeting, Mr. Jaishankar had acknowledged last week that he would meet with Mr. Wang whom he had known “for a very long time”. On Monday, he said the “very serious situation” at the LAC called for “very, very deep conversations between the two sides at a political level”.

The meeting between the foreign ministers will follow a week after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe, also in Moscow, to discuss easing LAC tensions, but made no breakthrough.

The diplomatic challenge ahead of Mr. Jaishankar is heightened by a number of factors, including the fact that the current situation at the LAC is unprecedented, said experts, with undertones of the run-up to the previous India-China war in 1962.

“The Chinese have taken a rather boiler plate approach so far, talking about “rights and wrongs” just as they did in 1959 as relations began to deteriorate. But political level contacts must continue even as the EAM said yesterday that the crystal ball is pretty clouded at the moment. The situation is not looking good,” said former foreign secretary and former Ambassador to China Nirupama Menon Rao. “I don’t believe there is ground for much optimism on outcomes for such a meeting given the positions taken by each side,” she told The Hindu.

The gunshots fired on Monday, which India has blamed the Chinese PLA for starting, were the first firearms used since 1975 at the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh, and the first in Ladakh since the 1962 war. In addition, the killing of soldiers at Galwan in June were also the first since 1975, while the death of an SFF soldier, who stepped on a vintage landmine while patrolling near Pangong Tso last week, was the first publicly known killing of a Tibetan soldier at the LAC in Ladakh.

It remains to be seen whether the Jaishankar-Wang meeting in Moscow will yield a disengagement and de-escalation of the hostilities between both sides. Officials would not comment on whether that could even require an intervention from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had stepped in during the Doklam crisis of 2017, and had met on two occasions, including once in Hamburg while the standoff was underway.

Despite 18 meetings over the last few years, and two informal summits between them, the two leaders have not spoken yet during the current crisis. They are currently slated to meet next during the G-20 summit in Saudi Arabia in November, unless the SCO FM meeting beginning Wednesday in Moscow decides on a date for the SCO summit prior to that.

With inputs from The Hindu

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Brigadier-level talks have been on-going to discuss the new stand-off in the Chushul sector.

China’s military in a statement late on Monday accused India of “outrageously firing warning shots” in a new confrontation on September 7 on the south bank of Pangong Lake in the Chushul sector, which has seen escalating tensions for the past week.

File photo shows an Indian Army truck crosses Chang la pass near Pangong Lake in Ladakh region. | Photo Credit: AP

While the Indian Army was yet to confirm the events as of Monday night, China’s military described Monday’s confrontation as “a serious military provocation”.

No shots have been fired along the India-China border since 1975.

The Chinese statement suggested the on-going stand-off south of Pangong Lake marks the most serious escalation in the recent tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since the June 15 clash in Galwan Valley, when 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed. Shots were not fired during the Galwan clash.

In a late-night statement released at 01.30 am Beijing time (11 pm IST), PLA Senior Colonel Zhang Shuili, spokesperson of the Western Theatre Command, said “on September 7, the Indian army illegally crossed the LAC and entered the south bank of Pangong Lake and the Shenpao mountain area in the the western section of the Sino-Indian border.”

He accused Indian troops of “outrageously firing shots on Chinese border patrols soldiers who were about to negotiate,” the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper reported.

“The Indian side’s move seriously violated related agreements reached by both sides, stirred up tensions in the region, and would easily cause misunderstandings and misjudgments, which is a serious military provocation and is very vile in nature,” the statement said. “We demand the Indian side to immediately stop dangerous moves, withdraw personnel who crossed the LAC at once, strictly control frontline troops, seriously investigate and punish the personnel who fired the provocative shot and ensure similar incidents won’t take place again.”

It added that the “PLA Western Theatre Command troops will firmly fulfil duties and missions and resolutely safeguard national territorial sovereignty.”

Tensions have been high in this sector since August 29. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said last week Chinese troops engaged in “provocative action” on August 29 trying to change the status quo in the south bank, which forced India to take pre-emptive moves. India has since occupied key heights in the areas in Chushul sector.

India has said that the latest tensions on the south bank of the Pangong Lake followed China’s similar moves along the the border since early May, where it has sought to redraw the LAC in the Galwan Valley, Depsang Plains, north bank of Pangong Lake and in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, in addition to mobilising large number of troops.

The Foreign Ministers of the two countries are expected to meet on Thursday in Moscow, where they are attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The two Defence Ministers met in Moscow on Friday at an SCO Defence Ministers’ meet, but the talks failed to make headway.

Brigadier-level talks have been on-going to discuss the new stand-off in the Chushul sector, but have also not yet appeared to have achieved a breakthrough.

With inputs from The Hindu

It says PLA troops attempted to close in on one of India’s forward positions

Chinese PLA troops armed with spears near Mukhpari area and North of Rezang La on the south bank of Pangong Tso on September 7. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Hours after the Chinese Army claimed that Indian troops opened fire along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, the Indian Army stated on Tuesday morning that it was actually Chinese troops that fired a few rounds in the air.

Following fresh tensions on the south bank of Pangong Tso (lake), Army Chief Gen Manoj Naravane briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the ground situation, a defence source said.

“In the instant case on September 7, it was the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops who attempted to close in with one of our forward positions along the LAC, and when dissuaded by our own troops, the PLA troops fired a few rounds in the air in an attempt to intimidate our troops,” an Army spokesperson said in a statement. “However, despite the grave provocation, own troops exercised great restraint and behaved in a mature and responsible manner”.

Chinese PLA troops armed with spears near Mukhpari area and North of Rezang La on the south bank of Pangong Tso on September 7. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

No shots have been fired along the disputed boundary between India and China since 1975.

India was committed to disengagement and de-escalating the situation on the LAC, the spokesperson asserted. “China continues to undertake provocative activities to escalate. At no stage has the Indian Army transgressed across the LAC or resorted to use of any aggressive means, including firing.”

In a late night statement on Monday, the PLA accused the Indian Army of illegally crossing the LAC and entering the south bank of Pangong Tso and the Shenpao mountain area and “outrageously fired warning shots”.

Two official sources said Chinese troops attempted to come close to an Indian-held peak on the south bank near Mukhpari area between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday. Their attempt was to dislodge Indian troops from one of the dominating features, one of the sources said.

PLA’s aggressive manoeuvres

The PLA had been “blatantly” violating agreements and carrying out aggressive manoeuvres, while engagements at the military, diplomatic and political levels were on, the Army spokesperson said, adding that the statement by the PLA Western Theatre Command was an attempt “to mislead their domestic and international audience.” 

“The Indian Army is committed to maintaining peace and tranquillity; however, it is also determined to protect national integrity and sovereignty at all costs,” he noted.

Brigadier-level talks have been going on for de-escalation in the area but have made no progress.

Tensions have been running high on the south bank since September 29. In a pre-emptive move on the night of August 29 and 30, the Army occupied some unoccupied heights in the Chushul sector from Thakung to Rechin La within the Indian perception of the LAC, to foil the PLA’s attempts to dominate the heights. 

The Army had said PLA troops carried out aggressive moves on the night of August 29 to change the status quo and they were thwarted.

With inputs from The Hindu

PTI

Dehradun: BJP MLA from Dwarahat, Mahesh Negi, has been booked for rape and criminal intimidation weeks after a woman accused him of the crime in a police complaint, police said.

An FIR was registered against Negi at the Nehru Colony police station here on Sunday under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC in compliance with the orders of a local court, Dehradun Superintendent of Police (City), Shweta Choubey, said.

The legislator’s wife Rita Negi has also been booked for criminal intimidation, she said.

However, the MLA described the allegations against him as part of a conspiracy to defame him, saying some Congress leaders were also involved in it. He also expressed his readiness to face any probe and accused the woman of also framing others in false cases in the past.

He said he is gathering evidence against the woman which he will submit to the police.

The woman had lodged a police complaint on August 16 accusing the MLA of raping her and fathering her daughter. She also demanded that a DNA test should be conducted if the law enforcing agencies doubted the veracity of her charge.

An FIR was lodged last month against the woman on the basis of a complaint by the legislator’s wife that he was being blackmailed by the woman as he had refused to pay her Rs 5 crore which she was trying to extort from him.

PTI

New Delhi: The Delhi Metro resumed services with curtailed operations on the Yellow Line on Monday after being closed for over five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as both the DMRC and the commuters trod with caution amid the new normal in the rapid transport system.

The trains will operate in batches of four-hour each from 7-11 am in the morning and 4-8 pm in the evening, officials said.

The services resumed at 7 am with strict safety and social distancing measures in place. The first trains left from Samaypur Badli station to HUDA City Centre station and simultaneously from HUDA City Centre to Samaypur Badli, a senior official of DMRC said.

“We are on our way. It’s been 169 days since we’ve seen you! Travel responsibly and commute if it’s only necessary. #MetroBackOnTrack,” the DMRC tweeted and posted a video clip of the first train leaving HUDA City Centre

No stations on the Yellow Line were closed as none is in proximity to any containment zone, the official said.

As the day began, some riders wearing protective masks were seen entering the premises of key stations like Kashmere Gate and Hauz Khas on the Yellow Line, which connects Samyapur Badli in Delhi to HUDA City Centre in Gurgaon.

“A few happy faces from our first journey after more than 5 months. #MetroBackOnTrack,” the DMRC said in another tweet and posted pictures of some commuters wearing masks inside train coaches.

On the station premises, passengers were permitted to enter the concourse only after temperature checks with thermal guns and sanitisation of hands.

Hundreds of Delhi Metro ground staff and Central Industrial Security Force personnel wore face shields, masks and gloves as preventive measures against the pathogen.

The Home Ministry had recently issued guidelines allowing metro services in the country to resume operations in a graded manner, following which the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had said it would be done in three stages from September 7-12.

Under stage one, Yellow Line or Line 2 and Rapid Metro were made operational with restricted service hours, a DMRC official said.

Metro services in the National Capital Region were closed since March 22 due to the pandemic.

The DMRC has appealed to people to use the rapid transport only if urgently needed.

Wearing of masks inside train coaches and station premises is mandatory, and those found violating the guidelines would be fined by authorities.

The metro services resumed a day after Delhi registered 3,256 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day spike in 72 days, taking the tally to over 1.91 lakh.

Commuters are returning to the Delhi Metro stations and coaches after a huge gap of 169 days, with COVID-19 completely changing the paradigm of operations.

Use of Aarogya Setu App by commuters is advisable, the DMRC has said.

In keeping with the new normal, the Delhi Metro has taken a slew of measures to ensure least physical contact for riders, like automated thermal screening-cum-sanitiser dispenser and lift-calling system driven by a foot pedal at several stations.

Inside coaches, commuters are to sit on alternate seats and maintain prescribed distance even while standing. Stickers have been put up on alternate seats and on platforms so that riders adhere to social-distancing norms.

Special posters have been put up inside coaches and on station premises to raise awareness, besides regular announcements on safety norms.

The DMRC had also appealed to commuters on Sunday to “talk less inside trains to prevent the possibility of short-range aerosol transmission”.

Officials of the urban transporter had earlier cautioned that “trains may not stop at some of the stations” if social-distancing norms were not adhered to by passengers.

“This is a new normal and an evolving scenario, so we will anyway be assessing the situation as we go along,” an official said.

The DMRC has 10 lines spanning 242 stations, and 264 stations, including the Rapid Metro in Gurgaon.

“Today and tomorrow, only the Yellow Line (49-km span with 37 stations — 20 underground and 17 elevated ones) will remain operational for a period of four hours each in the morning (7 am to 11 am) and evening (4 pm to 8 pm),” the DMRC said.

“Trains will be available with a headway (frequency) varying from 2’44” to 5’28” (at different stretches) with 57 trains performing around 462 trips. The same will be further extended in a graded manner from September 9-12 along with other lines,” it said on Sunday.

Over a period of next five days, rest of the lines will also be made operational with all safety measures, officials said.

In lifts, only three people at maximum can ride at a time. The stoppage duration of trains at a station has been increased from 10-15 seconds to 20-25 seconds, and at interchange facilities, from 35-40 seconds to 55-60 seconds.

“Commuters showing COVID-like symptoms will not be allowed to travel and they will be directed to the nearest heathcare facility,” the official said.

Inside stations, entries to which have been heavily curtailed, the CISF staff performed “contactless frisking” and red lines drawn at a gap of 1 ft near automated fare collection gates and on the concourse.

Only smart card users were allowed to travel, which can be recharged digitally without any human interface, the official said, adding tokens were not to be issued as per the plan.

Recharge or purchase of smart cards at ticket vending machines or customer care centre will be through cashless mode only, the official said.

On regular days, the average daily ridership of the Delhi Metro is over 26 lakhs.

Company Leader Nyima Tenzin, military sources say, was killed in an accidental mine blast during patrolling in Ladakh last week

BJP leader Ram Madhav pays tribute to Company Leader Nyima Tenzin. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In a signal of what could be a major shift in the Government of India’s policy on publicly acknowledging the 58-year old “Special Frontier Force” (SFF), BJP general secretary Ram Madhav attended the funeral of Company Leader Nyima Tenzin who, military sources said, was killed in an accidental mine blast during patrolling in Ladakh last week.

The funeral of Tenzin, who belongs to the Choglamsar Tibetan refugee settlement outside Leh, was held on Monday morning. Soldiers wearing the SFF uniform gave the last salute, and Mr. Madhav laid a wreath. Chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” (Long live India) and “Tibet desh ki Jai” (Long live the Tibet nation), along with slogans of the “Vikas Regiment” (as the SFF’s seven battalions or “Establishment 2-2” are known), were raised after the bugle was played at the funeral.

“Attended the funeral of SFF Company Leader Nyima Tenzin, a Tibetan who laid down his life protecting our borders in Ladakh,” wrote Mr. Madhav in a tweet on Monday, adding, “Let the sacrifices of such valiant soldiers bring peace along the Indo-Tibetan border. That will be the real tribute to all martyrs.” The tweet was later deleted.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the funeral, and whether the public funeral of the Tibetan soldier denoted a departure from the past. A senior MEA official told The Hindu that Mr. Madhav “does not represent the government,” adding that as there had been “no official communication, only media reports” of the funeral, it did not signify a change in the government’s position.

Amid the stand-off

The presence of Mr. Madhav, a senior leader of the ruling party, at the funeral and the public acknowledgement of the SFF’s role in operations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) was seen by many commentators as a strong message by New Delhi to Beijing, at a time the Indian and Chinese forces are engaged in a four and a half month stand-off along the LAC in Ladakh. India has traditionally recognised the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) as a part of China, and although it is home to Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and more than a lakh of Tibetan refugees, maintains that they do not organise or engage in any political activity.

“This is part of larger signalling to China — Tentative steps to convey we won’t be overly concerned about their sensitivities if they continue to ignore ours”, said Ashok Kantha, Director of the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) and former Ambassador to China.

Former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said, “While mourning the unfortunate death of the brave Company leader Nyima Tenzin, it would have been wise to avoid unnecessary publicity about the SFF and their ostensible Tibet ‘connection’ in an atmosphere already charged along the LAC between India and China” This probably was the reason for the tweet being deleted later, she added.

Other former officials handling Tibetan issues said the government policy should not be changed frequently as this sent conflicting signals internationally as well as to the Tibetan community in India.

“This can be quite meaningless and even misleading if not backed by a firm commitment to a practical, robust and coordinated policy,” said Amitabh Mathur, who was the government’s advisor on Tibetan affairs, referring to the widely publicised funeral.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in in May 2014, the government invited the Sikyong or Prime Minister of the Tibetan “Government in Exile” Lobsang Sangay to the ceremony, and in 2016, the Dalai Lama was invited to a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, in 2018, an MEA order reminded all public officials that it was against the government’s policy for them to take part in functions with the Tibetan community in India, and subsequently a number of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet to India, and an international parliamentary conference on Tibet were cancelled.

With inputs from The Hindu

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The five reportedly strayed beyond the LAC.

Kiren Rijiju. File photo: V. Sudershan

Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju said that the Indian Army has sent a hotline message to the People’s Liberation Army of China for returning the five boys who had apparently strayed beyond the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The five boys, belonging to the Tagin community and hailing from the Nacho area of the Upper Subansiri district, had gone missing on Friday. The district falls under the Arunachal West parliamentary constituency, represented by Mr. Rijiju.

“The Indian Army has already sent a hotline message to the counterpart PLA establishment at the border point in Arunachal Pradesh. Response is awaited,” the Union Minister tweeted on Sunday.

Families lodge complaint

The district police said they have launched a probe after the families of the missing boys lodged an informal complaint. The officer-in-charge of the Nacho police station visited the spot from where the boys went missing, but the report is expected to take time for completion because of the terrain that needs to be covered.

Nacho is about 130 km from district headquarters Daporijo, with a high-altitude jungle stretching further uphill.

The five were said to have gone hunting — a way of life for the people there with poor access to electricity, road and telecommunication networks. But Prakash Ringling said his brother Prasad Ringling – one of the missing five – was working as a porter for the Army.

The other missing boys were identified as Toch Singkam, Dongtu Ebiya, Tanu Baker and Ngari Diri.

There have been several instances in the past of people “abducted” or captured by the Chinese soldiers from the LAC.

In March, 21-year-old Togley Sinkam was taken away at gunpoint from the Asapila sector of the district while two of his friends managed to escape. The Chinese Army released him after 19 days in captivity.

With inputs from The Hindu

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

PTI

New Delhi: India’s COVID-19 tally of cases went past 42 lakh with a record 90,802 people being infected in a day, while 32,50,429 people have recuperated so far, pushing the national recovery rate to 77.30 per cent on Monday, according to the Union health ministry data.

The total number of coronavirus cases mounted to 42,04,613, while the death toll climbed to 71,642 with 1,016 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.70 per cent.

There are 8,82,542 active cases of the infection in the country which comprises 20.99 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and it went past 40 lakh on September 5.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 4,95,51,507 samples have been tested up to September 6 with 7,20,362 samples being tested on Sunday.