Coronavirus live updates: 204 railway coaches deployed in 4 states to boost Covid-19 capacity

US health officials on Friday urged Americans to continue adhering to social distancing and other Covid-19 safety measures, and warned that states may need to reimpose strict restrictions if Covid-19 cases spike.In recent weeks, experts have raised concerns that the reopening of the US economy could lead to a fresh wave of infections. About half a dozen states, including Texas and Arizona, are grappling with a rising number of coronavirus patients filling hospital beds.Officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the public should continue to maintain 6 feet of social distance, wash hands regularly and wear facial coverings to reduce the risk of infection.

Sao Paulo's municipal funeral service said in a statement Friday that the remains of people who died at least three years ago will be exhumed and put in numbered bags, then stored temporarily in 12 storage containers it has purchased. The containers will be delivered to several cemeteries within 15 days, the statement said.

India's COVID-19 tally breached the three-lakh mark on Saturday with a record single-day spike of 11,458 infections, while the death toll rose to 8,884 with 386 new fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said. With a COVID-19 caseload of 3,08,993, India is now the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic, according to the Worldometer, a coronavirus statistics website.

South Korea has reported 49 new coronavirus cases. Most most of them are in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where health authorities have been struggling to slow transmissions linked to entertainment and leisure activities, church gatherings and low-income workers who can't afford to stay home.The figures released Saturday brought national totals to 12,051 cases and 277 deaths.

A Chinese official said on Saturday Beijing's Fengtai district was in "wartime emergency mode" following a spike in novel coronavirus cases centered around a major wholesale market there.

"Restaurants & liquor shops will continue to remain open till 8 pm & movement will continue till 9 pm," he said.

Hindu Rao Hospital, the biggest healthcare facility run by north corporation, may soon be turned into a Covid-19 designated unit. Plans are afoot to transfer patients out and make necessary infrastructure arrangements to cater to those infected by the novel coronavirus. “They discussed the infrastructure availability and problems associated with Hindu Rao, Kasturba and Rajan Babu TB hospitals. With a steep increase in Covid-19 positive cases, the hospitals are being made ready for any contingency,” the official added.

The closure of the Xinfadi wholesale market at 3am local time on Saturday (1900 GMT on Friday), came after two men working at a meat research centre who had recently visited the market were reported on Friday as having been infected by the novel coronavirus. It was not immediately clear how the men had been infected.Concern is growing of a second wave of the new virus, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread.

Nitin Bhardwaj, a resident of Burari in north-east Delhi, got his father admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital for Covid-19 treatment three days ago. The 30-year-old alleges that no nurse or doctor visited him throughout the day, and for food his father was dependent on what they would get him from home. "I could not let him stay like this. So I fought with the hospital to get him discharged, and last night (Thursday), we brought him home," Bhardwaj told TOI .

Three out of the four states with the highest number of Covid cases — Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu — have announced regulation of charges for Covid treatment in private hospitals. Delhi is the only exception with no regulation despite numerous complaints of overcharging by private hospitals and a significant proportion of Covid-hit getting treated in the private sector.

The forthcoming exchange of views, the first since the beginning of the “unlock” phase, will be spread over two days. The exercise has been planned amid steady rise of infections in certain parts and indications about the virus getting stubbornly entrenched in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and parts of West Bengal.

Testing levels in several states have gone down during periods when their positivity rate - the proportion of tests yielding a positive result -- is increasing. This is the opposite of what you would expect, which is that states ramp up testing as their positivity rate increases. In Delhi, for instance, between June 3 and June 11, the seven-day average of daily tests went down from 6,540 to 5,001 even as the positivity rate kept rising from 18.3% to 27.7%. Delhi incidentally now has the highest percentage of tests turning positive, over a quarter of them.