Gurgaon malls, Kolkata metro to reopen

No commercial intl flights till July 15; record 17,296 corona cases in a day

Though the daily alarming rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases shows no sign of slowing down, several states are considering restarting commercial activities and public services.

As India on Friday registered its biggest singleday increase with 17,296 coronavirus infections, taking the overall tally to 4,90,401, officials said that shopping malls in Haryana’s Gurugram will reopen from next week, and West Bengal chief minister said that though the lockdown in the state has been extended until July 31, she wants metro services in Kolkata to start from July 1.

Malls and metro will have to adhere to strict

standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

With 407 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of lives lost to coronavirus in India now stands at 15,301.

However, there is some positive news, too. The number of recovered cases of Covid-19 in the country now exceed active cases by 96,173, taking the recovery rate to 58.24 per cent. During the last 24 hours, 13,940 Covid19 patients were discharged, taking the cumulative figure of cured patients to 2,85,636. Globally, India is now ranked fourth in recovery rate. Presently, there are 1,89,463 active cases under medical supervision.

Meanwhile, the government said on Friday that international passenger flights to and from India will continue to remain suspended till July 15 in view of global novel coronavirus pandemic. This restriction will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specially approved by the DGCA.

However, while extending the suspension of scheduled international passenger flights, aviation regulator DGCA said that some international scheduled services on selected routes may be permitted on a case to case basis.