No corona positive case reported from 13 states, UTs during past 24 hours: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Thirteen states and Union Territories, including Kerala, Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, have not reported any new case of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday.
Informing reporters that 3,561 new coronavirus cases have been reported and 1,084 patients have recovered in 24 hours since Wednesday morning, he asserted that “in comparison with other countries, India is in a better state as the fatality rate is 3.3 percent and recovery rate is 28.83 percent.”
Of the total 35,902 active cases, 4.8 percent patients are in ICU, 1.1 percent on ventilators and 3.3 percent are on oxygen support.

Two Air India flights bring back over 360 Indian expatriates from UAE

Two special Air India flights carrying over 360 stranded Indians nationals from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) landed in Kerala last night. The flights were a part of India's massive exercise named as Vande Bharat Mission to bring back its citizens stuck in different parts of the world in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The first flight from Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, landed at Kochi International Airport at 10:13 pm. It had 181 passengers on board.

The second flight from Dubai with 182 passengers landed at Kozhikode International Airport at 10:32 pm.

Extensive preparations have been made to ensure the Covid-19 evacuation protocol at the airports.

The passengers barring pregnant women and children and elders, will be shifted to various quarantine centres across the state after conducting COVID-19 PCR tests at the airport.

Visakhapatnam gas leak: Death toll rises to 11

The death toll rose to 11 in the gas leak mishap in Visakhapatnam, said SN Pradhan, Director General of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Thursday.
Addressing a joint press conference with members of NDMA and Director of AIIMS on the incident, Pradhan said, “The incident occurred at 2:30 am at night. Initially, people were affected in terms of throat irritation, skin irritation and toxic gas smell. Local villagers tried to contact local administration. The initial response was from local admin and fire services.” “Around 5:30 am, the local NDRF unit stationed in Vishakhapatnam was informed. They were on the spot in 30 minutes. They undertook two tasks — neutralising the gas inside the factory and evacuation of villagers near the factory site,” he added.