Death toll in China's coronavirus epidemic jumps to over 1,500
Beijing: The death toll in China's novel coronavirus epidemic has climbed to 1,523 with 143 new fatalities reported mostly from the worst-affected Hubei province while the confirmed cases jumped to over 66,000, health officials said on Saturday.
The country's Health Commission said it received reports of 2,641 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 143 deaths on Friday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Among the deaths, 139 were in Hubei Province, two in Henan and one in Beijing and Chongqing respectively, the commission said. Another 2,277 new suspected cases were reported Friday, said the commission.
Also on Friday, 849 patients became seriously ill, while 1,373 people were discharged from hospital after recovery, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland has reached 66,492 by the end of Friday, and 1,523 people have died of the disease, it said.
The commission added that 11,053 patients remained in severe condition, and 8,969 people were suspected of being infected with the virus.
A total of 8,096 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery. The commission said 513,183 close contacts have been traced, adding that among them 30,081 were discharged from medical observation on Friday, with 169,039 others still under medical observation.
By the end of Friday, 56 confirmed cases including one death reported in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in Macao and 18 in Taiwan.
On Friday, the Chinese government had highlighted the continued drop of coronavirus disease, officially termed by the WHO as COVID-19, all over the country except in Hubei province.
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the use of digital technology such as big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to better support epidemic monitoring and analysis, virus tracing, prevention and treatment, and resource allocation.
His call came amid deployment of robots in hospitals in Wuhan treating the virus patients to supply and other materials.
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Kantara mimicking case: HC extends interim relief given to actor Ranveer Singh till March 9
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka High Court on Monday extended the interim relief given to Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh till March 9, in a case related to mimicking a character from the movie, 'Kantara Chapter-1', and allegedly mocking a deity.
The actor had approached the High Court seeking the quashing of the FIR against him for mimicking Rishab Shetty's role as 'Chavunda' deity in the movie.
While mimicking, Singh had called the deity a "ghost". The actor was asked to appear before the court in person on Monday.
Appearing on behalf of the actor, his counsel Sajjan Poovayya said Singh was stuck in London and was unable to reach Bengaluru due to the conflict in West Asia.
The complainant, who is a lawyer, alleged that his religious sentiments were hurt by calling the deity a ghost. On the directions of a local Court, the police registered a case against the actor.
The High Court on February 24 granted interim relief to the actor with directions to the police not to take any coercive steps against him.
