Health

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The daily rise in coronavirus cases in India remained below 3 lakh (300,000) for the fifth consecutive day with 259,000 new cases recorded in a single day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

With a total of 259,551 fresh cases, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 26,031,991.

The death toll climbed to 2,91,331 with 4,209 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Ballia (UP), May 20 (PTI) BJP leader and former MLA Anil Kumar died at a Varanasi hospital after suffering from a liver ailment, family sources said here on Thursday.

He was 59.

According to the family sources, the former MLA died on Wednesday while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Varanasi. He was suffering from a liver ailment.

Resident of Gurgujpur (Sanvara) of the Rasra region of the district, Kumar was elected as MLA from the Rasra seat in 1996.

He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.

Chandigarh, May 19 (PTI) The Punjab government has allowed any individual or a group to open a makeshift COVID hospital in the state with a view to ramp up the bed capacity, a senior official said here on Wednesday.

'Invest Punjab' will grant permission, subject to clearance from the health department, to interested parties in opening up temporary COVID hospital within 24 hours.

Panaji, May 19 (PTI) Dr Santiago Lusardi Girelli (42), a musician from Argentina who was a visiting research professor at Goa University, succumbed to COVID-19 on Wednesday, a former varsity official said.

"Girelli breathed his last at a private hospital in South Goa where he was being treated for COVID-19," Ramrao Wagh, former director of the Visiting Chair Professor Program of Goa University, told PTI.

Girelli had tested positive for coronavirus infection a month ago when he underwent the test as he wanted to travel to Spain to meet his family, Wagh said.

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) An AAP councillor has joined the investigation in a case wherein over 20 people were arrested for allegedly pasting posters across the city criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the COVID-19 vaccination drive, officials said on Wednesday.

A notice was sent to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor from Sitapur Praveen Kumar to join the investigation, a senior police officer said.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer plans to soon accelerate a plan that ties the further loosening of coronavirus restrictions to Michigan’s vaccination rate, her office said Wednesday, citing the federal government’s recent recommendation that fully vaccinated people can largely stop wearing masks.

An announcement will come in within days, at most a week, spokesman Bobby Leddy said.

“We feel confident that our state can begin taking even greater steps to get back to normal now that a majority of Michiganders have received their vaccine,” he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are rebelling against the requirement that they wear a mask on the House floor, stoking tensions with majority Democrats who are refusing to change the rules following updated guidance from federal health officials.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., led an effort Wednesday to get the Office of the Attending Physician to update its guidance for mask wearing for vaccinated lawmakers and staff while they are in the House chamber and in committee hearing rooms, but Democrats defeated it along a party-line vote of 218-210.

GAZA, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The main COVID-19 testing center in Gaza city was damaged due to intensive Israeli fighter jet strikes waged on the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian health official said Tuesday.

Yousef Abu al-Reesh, health ministry director-general in Gaza, told reporters that the COVID-19 testing center in the Remal neighborhood in western Gaza city has completely stopped operating due to the Israeli airstrikes on the area.

New Delhi/Lucknow, May 18 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Minister of State for Revenue and Flood Control Vijay Kashyap died from coronavirus at a Gurgaon hospital on Tuesday.

Kashyap (56), who was an MLA from Muzaffarnagar's Charthawal Assembly seat, died at Gurgaon's Medanta Hospital.

He is the third UP minister who has succumbed to the virus.

Last year, Uttar Pradesh ministers Kamal Rani Varun and Chetan Chauhan had died from the infection.

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) Singapore on Wednesday conveyed to Indian High Commissioner P Kumaran its strong objection to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's comments that a variant of COVID-19 found in that country was particularly harmful to children and could cause a third wave of infections in India.

Following Singapore foreign ministry's reaction regretting the "unfounded assertions" by Kejriwal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Delhi chief minister does not speak for India.