Fewer than eight people per lakh of population in India have been infected by the novel coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said this evening, pointing out that this was significantly better than the global average of 62 people per lakh. The government also said India's per lakh mortality rate was only 0.24, compared to the global average of 4.2.
Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said 42,298 people have recovered from the illness so far and that the recovery rate (recoveries as a percentage of total cases) had improved steadily through the four phases of lockdown - from 7.1 per cent in March (when it was imposed) - to 39.62 per cent today.
Domestic passenger flights will resume from Monday "in a calibrated manner", the government said today. Flights were stopped in late-March, when the country went into lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Passenger train service will expand from the existing 15 trains to more than 200 starting next month. The service will involve non-air conditioned trains, which had not been allowed so far. The 15 trains that have been running since May 12, are air-conditioned trains and the passengers are required to maintain rules of social distancing and use masks and sanitisers.
