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The COVID-19 situation is “especially serious” in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, the Home Ministry said on April 20, as India saw selective relaxation of lockdown in non-containment areas. Strict restrictions continue in districts declared COVID-19 hotspots.
Meanwhile, Italy, which had emerged as the epicentre of the infection in Europe, has registered the lowest number of coronavirus deaths in a month, with death toll rising by 433 in past 24 hours.The Hindu has brought out a multi-language e-book on essential COVID-19 information, in addition to covering the developments related to the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolded. Here is a collection of our daily cartoons on COVID-19.
Here are answers from experts on your queries about the virus, a list of State Helpline numbers, a State-wise tracker for COVID-19 cases, deaths and testing, and a map of confirmed cases in India.
Senior officers of the Odisha government joined their offices on Monday, nearly a month after restrictions were imposed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
While all Class-I officers resumed work from their offices, including state secretariat Lok Seva Bhavan, other subordinate staff started working on a roster basis.
As per the roster system, 33 per cent of the junior staff of different departments will be working on a rotational basis. - PTI
RT-PCR kits need to be stored in less than 20 degree temperature, ICMR spokesperson says.
Health Ministry spokesperson, on several journalists testing positive in Mumbai, requests journalists to take precautions. Sampling criteria is that anyone who needs to be tested will be sampled, he says.
The overall recovery rate in COVID-19 cases stand at 14.75%, says Health Ministry spokesperson.
In the last seven days, the doubling rate is 7.5 compared to 3.4 that was before the lockdown, he adds.
Based on data till 19th April, 18 States have shown better performance than the national average.
Doubling rates of select states:
Delhi: 8.5 days, Karnataka: 9.2, Telangana: 9.4, Andhra Pradesh: 10.6, J&K: 11.5, Punjab: 13.10, Chhattisgarh: 13.30, Tamil Nadu: 14, Bihar: 14.40
In some States the doubling rate is more than 20. Andaman-Nicobar 20.10, Haryana 21, Himachal Pradesh 24.5 days, Chandigarh: 24.50 days, Assam:25.8 days, Uttarakhand: 26.6 and Ladakh: 26.6 days.. In Kerala and Odisha it is more than 30 days.
In Goa, all patients have been recovered after treatment, he says.
Self-help group members in 399 districts of 24 States initiate mask production. About 2 crore face masks, 1 lakh litres of hand santiser, liquid soaps and over 5000 PPEs were produced. SHG women also running 10,000 community kitchens in five States, a government spokesperson says.
A spokesperson from Ministry of Agriculture says there is a 36% increase in the summer crop sowing, compared to last year.
Farming operations in field, harvesting and sowing, agencies engaged in procurement of agri-products, tea, coffee and rubber plantations are allowed with maximum 50% workers, he adds.
Fooodgrains production target for fy 2020-21 fixed at 298 MT. It was 291.1 MT last fiscal, he says.
Rs. 16,621 crore has been released to benefit 8.31 crore farmer families under PM-Kisan in the first instalment. Under PMFBY, insurance claims worth Rs. 2424 crore have been disbursed to farmers in 12 States, 18.26 lakh applications were sanctioned for loan amounting to Rs.17,800 crore. Short-term crop loans up to Rs.3 lakh allowed to repay up to May 31 at 4% PA interest without penalty, he says.
About 5,516 MT of pulses dispatched to States/UTs under Garib Kalyan Yojana.
The portals of Badrinath temple in Garhwal Himalayas, which were scheduled to open on April 30, will now open on May 15.
The decision to reschedule the opening of the temple gates was taken in view of circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dharmadhikari of the Badrinath temple Bhuvan Chandra Uniyal said. - PTI
As the lockdown guidelines are relaxed from Monday, nearly 4,000 industrial units in Gujarat have resumed operations.
This includes ceramic units in Morbi, engineering units in Rajkot and Kutch, chemical units in Ankleshwar, and automobile units in Sanand.
Prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind has appealed to Muslims to adhere to all the guidelines of the lockdown and perform all religious rituals during Ramzan, starting later this week, staying inside their homes.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind general secretary Mahmood Madani also appealed to the community to help the poor and ensure ‘sehri’ (meal before start of fasting) and ‘iftar’ (meal at breaking of fast) is made available for the needy.
“It is an appeal to the Muslims in India that they adhere to the lockdown guidelines completely. They should not leave their homes without reason,” the Jamiat appeal said. - PTI
Seventeen cases of coronavirus were detected in Kanpur city of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, taking the total number of such cases here to 74, a health official said.
Out of these 74 cases, six patients were cured and discharged on Sunday, while one lost his life due to the disease eight days ago, he said.
Presently, there are 66 active cases and they are being treated at G S V M Medical College. - PTI
Tamil Nadu becomes the third State on Monday, after Punjab and Karnataka, to announce extension of lockdown till May 3.
A press release from the State government said essential services continue to be exempted from the lockdown. - Dennis S. Jesudasan
Two women, who were among 127 people who went on a pilgrimage to Varanasi, have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. The pilgrims, mostly senior citizens, from Tamil Nadu were quarantined soon after they arrived in Tiruvallur district in three buses from Uttar Pradesh last Friday.
The State has breached the 700-mark in the number of positive cases as 75 new cases including three deaths were reported in seven districts. It was the highest number of cases reported in a single day so far and the tally has gone up to 722. The death toll reached 20 and 27 more persons have recovered and got discharged, according to the bulletin issued by the Health department on Monday.
So far, Kurnool reported 174 cases and Guntur reported 149 cases. Both of the districts account for 45% of the total cases in the State. - Tharun Boda
Centre gets tough on four States violating lockdown measures.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted six committees, each led by Additional Secretary rank officials, to visit the four States — M.P, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal — to ensure strict the implementation of lockdown measures.
Civil Aviation ministry will arrange for their air transportation.
BMC’s health committee member Amey Ghole has confirmed that 167 samples of media people were collected and of those 53 have tested positive.
They are in process of figuring out the logistics and may move the positive patients to hotels and guest houses.
Most are asymptomatic at present.
The Karnataka Cabinet on Monday decided to continue to the present lockdown till May 3 without any relaxation to industries or services located in rural and urban areas.
“Today’s situation will continue till May 3,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy said after the Cabinet meeting.
Accordingly, all types of industries and services would be remained closed till May 3. However, agriculture and horticulture related activities, and agricultural marketing services will be allowed.
For Kerala, when COVID-19 struck, it was not a last-minute crash course on dealing with a contagious microbe. The learning was on right from 2017, when the State had rolled out the Anti Microbial Resistance programme, in which infection prevention and control (IPC) was a strategic point.
The Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode in 2018 was perhaps the first major test of the lessons learned. And Kerala did emerge victorious in the battle, but lost nurse Lini Puthussery. This time, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja had given a mandate to health-care workers — that there should be no casualties among them. So far, a nurse at the Kottayam medical college and two field workers in Ernakulam have been affected by COVID-19. All have recovered.
Alcohol-based hand disinfectants recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are effective against the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19, according to a study.
The formulations can be prepared quickly and easily by pharmacies and help alleviate the current shortage of disinfectants, said researchers from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum (RUB) in Germany.
A newborn baby has tested positive for COVID-19 in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, an official said Monday.
“The baby born on Saturday is coronavirus positive. Her mother, father and other family members are also COVID-19 patients,” Nagaur chief medical and health officer Dr Sukumar Kashyap said.
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat resumed functioning today, 27 days after the implementation of the national lockdown, said Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu on Monday.
Essential business will continue within the norms of the lockdown, he wrote on Twitter.
Three more persons died of coronavirus Indore in the last 24 hours, taking the toll in the Madhya Pradesh district to 52, an official said on Monday.
The deceased included two men and a woman, in the age group of 42 to 47 years, Chief Medical and Health Officer Praveen Jadia said.
Besides, seven more people tested positive for COVID- 19 here, taking the total number of such cases in the district to 897, he said.
The State has reported 74 deaths so far. The total number of cases in the State stands at 1,414.
Five new cases have been reported in the State on Monday taking the total number of positive cases to 395.
All the five are from Kalaburgi and contacts of previous positive patients, according to the health department”s midday bulletin.
So far, 16 deaths have been reported. As many as 111 people have been discharged.
In a shocking repeat of what happened when a doctor from Andhra Pradesh died of COVID-19 just a week ago, a mob attacked a group of persons, including doctors, during the burial of a neurosurgeon, who had died after he tested positive for COVID-19, in a private hospital on Sunday.
The body of the 55-year-old doctor, who heads a private hospital on Poonamallee High Road, was shifted from the private hospital to Chennai Corporation’s burial ground near Kilpauk on Sunday night. However, residents gathered on the road and protested.
In view of the increasing COVID-19 positive cases in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, the municipal commissioners of the Pune and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Sunday ordered to seal all areas within their limits for the next seven days.
In their directives issued under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, PMC Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad and PCMC Commissioner Sharavan Hardikar declared the civic bodies as ‘containment zones’.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir has climbed to 354 as four more persons tested positive for the virus, officials said on Monday.
Four new cases — all from Kashmir — have been detected in the union territory, the officials said.
The officials said the total number of positive cases has now risen to 354. Five patients have died in Jammu and Kashmir and 56 have recovered.
- PTI
The death of a resident of Nagaur in Rajasthan has brought the toll in the State to 24. According to authorities, the patient suffered from hypertension and was admitted to Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital on Saturday, and tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
Seventeen more COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in Rajasthan today, taking the State's tally to 1,495. Among them, 205 patients have recovered so far and 97 have been discharged from hospitals, says the State Medical and Health Department.
The Centre on Monday said the COVID-19 situation is “especially serious” in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In a communication to state governments and union territories, the home ministry said there have been several incidents of violence against COVID-19 frontline healthcare professionals, complete violation of social distancing norms and movement of vehicles in urban areas. These should be stopped, it said.
The situation is “especially serious” in Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Kolkata, Howrah, East Medinipur, North 24 Parganas, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, the ministry said.
- PTI
Personal protective equipment or PPE is crucial to keep healthcare workers on the COVID-19 pandemic's frontline safe. But what exactly does it include?
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced New Zealand’s lockdown will last another week.
For nearly four weeks, nonessential workers have been able to leave their homes only to buy groceries or get exercise.
From next week, workers at some businesses such as construction and manufacturing will be able to resume their jobs, and some schools will reopen, although parents will be encouraged to continue having their children learn from home.
- AP
The second COVID-19 patient in Manipur tested negative for the virus again on Sunday, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) director Prof Ahanthem Santa Singh said in Imphal.
With this, Manipur no longer has any active COVID-19 case, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said on Twitter.
The patient, who is undergoing treatment at RIMS, had tested negative for the virus on Saturday as well, the director told PTI.
“Good news: the second #COVID19 patient who is undergoing treatment at RIMS, Imphal has reported negative of Novel Corona Virus disease. Now Manipur has zero positive case of COVID-19 as on date as the two cases of Manipur have been reported negative (sic),” the CM tweeted.
- PTI
The number of COVID-19 infections in Gujarat continues to see sharp rise on Monday, with 108 new cases and four deaths.
The total number of cases in the State is now 1,851 cases and the number of deaths is 67.
Three of the four who died were men. Two hailed from Ahmedabad and the ther two from Surat. So far, 34 people have died in Ahmedabad and 10 in Surat.
The Punjab government has ruled out any relaxation in the curfew till May 3 barring wheat procurement.
The move came after Chief Minister Amarinder Singh reviewed the current situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak with senior officers from the administration and police department.
The Odisha government has placed an inspector-in-charge of a police station for allegedly entering Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, in violation of the lockdown imposed to curb COVID-19.
The suspended officer identified as Deepak Kumar Jena IIC of Badachana police station under Jajpur district was accused of entering the 12th century temple with his family members on Sunday evening.
The U.S. wants to send a team of experts to China to investigate coronavirus, President Donald Trump has said, a day after he warned Beijing of “consequences” if it was knowingly responsible for the spread of COVID-19 which has killed more than 165,000 people globally, including over 41,000 in America.
Describing the coronavirus as a plague, Mr. Trump, during his White House news conference on Sunday, said that he is not happy with China where the pandemic emerged in December last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Three more COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in Bihar. With this, the total toll in the State is now 96.
The three new patients are aged 30, 36 and 52 years, and are residents of Jamalpur in Munger District.
Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Monday wrote to all States, reminding them to follow the March 31 observations made by Supreme Court that all States must comply with the guidelines issued by the MHA. He said that some States are allowing activities not permitted as per MHA guidelines.
The MHA has written to Kerala givernment regarding the dilution of lockdown guidelines, pointing out that the Kerala government has allowed functioning of local workshops, barber shops, restaurants, book stores, MSMEs in municipal limits, and bus travel in the cities/towns for shorter distance etc which amounts to violation of guidelines issued by MHA under Disaster Management Act, 2005.
India has 17,265 confirmed cases of which 14,175 are active, according to the latest update from the Health Ministry.
As many as 2,546 people have been discharged. The death toll stands at 543, according to the Ministry.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the United States rose by almost 2,000 in the past 24 hours to reach 40,661 on Sunday, a tally from Johns Hopkins University showed.
The rise in deaths, by 1,997, is marginally above the 1,891 which Johns Hopkins data showed a day earlier for the previous 24-hour period to Saturday.
Sunday's figure came on the same day that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the epidemic in his hardest-hit state is “past the high point.”
- AFP
Seven more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha, taking total number of cases detected in the State to 68.
Number of active cases stands at 43. Twenty four people have recovered and one person has died, said the State Health Department.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took to networking site LinkedIn to speak to young professionals that adapting to new technology in the times of COVID-19 can help create new business models and lead to the engagement of a large segment of Indians, including the poor, with technical solutions.
“COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or border before striking. Our response and conduct, therefore, should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood,” said Mr. Modi, adding that this has to be so, as the virus has affected across class, communities.
The Capital on Sunday reported 110 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths, taking the total number of cases to 2,003 and deaths to 45. On Sunday, 83 people recovered, taking the total number of people who have recovered to 290.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said as COVID-19 was still spreading in the Capital, the government has decided not to provide any relaxation to the ongoing lockdown.
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