Coronavirus updates for July 4
Here's a roundup of YourStory's coverage today of how India and the world are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
With another high of more than 22,700 cases recorded in 24 hours, India's coronavirus case count has crossed the 6.5 lakh mark — just shy of Russia's total cases. Across the world, the number of COVID-19 cases are now more than 11 million, out of which around 5 million are active.
Punjab has cancelled university and college examinations in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the students will now be promoted on the basis of previous years' results. West Bengal has stopped all flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai, and Ahmedabad for a period of two weeks starting from July 6. Dadra and Nagar Haveli administration shut down Sun Pharma — the manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine tablets — after 18 of its employees tested positive.
With several lockdown restrictions still in place and industries struggling to get back on track, the economic ramifications of the lockdown are becoming apparent. State IT employee unions in Karnataka and Chennai have alleged that IT services firm Cognizant is doing mass lay offs, after benching nearly 18,000 employees. Ride-hailing platform Uber has shut down its Mumbai office as part of its restructuring efforts. The Indian Railways, India's largest employer, has said that certain job profiles of its employees will change in the coming days, however, there will be no job losses.
Here's a roundup of YourStory's coverage today of how India and the world are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
Pivot and Persist: How Pune-based startup PadCare Labs is using UV technology to combat coronavirus
Pune-based sanitary waste management startup PadCare Labs developed two products—UVSATHI and UVHANDY—to disinfect surfaces and inanimate objects using UV-C technology.
Meet Indian rap icon Raja Kumari who recently released a single during lockdown called peace
Raja Kumari is an Indian American singer, rapper lyricist, actress, and dancer, from Claremont California, whose mission it is to inspire through her powerful vocals. Her new track 'Peace' was released amidst the lockdown. It is an English R&B song that builds on the theme of positivity.
Khushal Katara, founder MotivatedSteps, launched free online mental health counselling programmes with counsellors during the lockdown in order to help those who are struggling to cope with the new norms due to the pandemic. Here’s what he has to say about mental health problems in the country.
How COVID-19 is changing behavioural patterns of home buyers
The current lockdown situation has led to new consumer trends that have been noticeably altering the consumption of residential realty.
Uber shuts Mumbai office; services for riders to remain unaffected
Globally, Uber had announced a reduction of customer support and recruiting teams by about 6,700 full-time employee roles, and attributed the move to lower trip volumes and current hiring freeze.
