NEW DELHI, June 4: There is hope in Europe as corona slowly but definitely withdraws but elsewhere its rampage is becoming more and more overwhelming, like in Brazil. In India although the incidence of the epidemic has been increasing steadily over the past three months and there is no sign of any let-up any time soon, it could reasonably be believed that the country will not face a sudden surge in infections like that engulfed Italy, Spain and New York in no time.

Analytics pointing to a 47. 99% of recovery is reason for some consolation. Out of a total of 2,16,919 cases, 1,04,106 patients were discharged after recovery while 6,075 people died. However, there were 9,304 new cases in the last 24 hours, a few notches up from the previous day's. There is an increase in the number of new cases every day but hopefully there are no signs of a sudden surge that could go out of control despite the fact that the lockdown is almost dispensed with and there has been a massive movement of migrants in several lakhs across the States.

While the Maharashtra Government has opened up inter-district movement in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to mediate negotiations among Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to find ways for resolving the differences over restrictions each one has clamped at the border points of the Capital such as Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram.

India's worrisome epicentre continues to be the hugely congested Mumbai city where wishing for a solution is like asking for the moon. However, the Government is taking the risk of unlocking the State gradually. From Thursday there is no restriction on inter-district movement in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region that consists of Mumbai city, the suburban areas, Thane, Raigad and Palghar. Rest of Maharashtra inter-district movement will be restricted as also inter-State traffic.

In Mumbai city, from June 5, shops on the two sides of the roads and lanes will open and function fully but each side will open on alternate days. From June 8 private offices will function with 10 or fewer staff. Newspaper delivery will resume on June 7. The delivery man will wear mask, sanitise hands and maintain social distancing.

Uber has entered into a tie-up with the Mumbai municipal corporation to provide technical support for the ambulance service in order to facilitate quick transportation of corona patients to hospital.

In Maharashtra, 2,557 policemen have contracted the coronavirus infection so far, of whom 30 died. In Hyderabad, 32 doctors tested positive for coronavirus at the Osmania medical college hospitals on Thursday. In Tamil Nadu, fire service personnel are going round on bikes disinfecting the bylanes in Chennai.