Corona updates 21-4-2020 India

1. Around 100 people working at the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex have been quarantined after a sanitation worker tested positive for coronavirus, sources have said.
2. The doubling rate of coronavirus cases - considered a marker of how fast the infection is spreading - has slowed down, the government said on Monday. Based on the last seven days, India's doubling rate has improved to 7.5 days from 3.4 days before the lockdown, senior health ministry official Lav Agarwal told the media. On that basis, the government earlier said the three-week nationwide lockdown proved effective and extended it till May 3.
3. Delhi reported the country's first plasma therapy success story on Monday. A 49-year-old man who got treatment at a private hospital in the city has recovered. The patient is now off ventilator support, the Saket branch of Max Hospital said.
4. Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of coronavirus patients, will allow the use of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in parts of the state, including Dharavi - Asia's largest slum- as a precautionary measure against the disease, the state government has said.
5. Across India, restrictions were eased on Monday in the non-containment zones to boost economic activity in line with announcements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week. The central government, however, has told states and union territories that the guidelines on the countrywide shutdown cannot be diluted.
6. India's top medical body - the Indian Council of Medical Research - has said it would replace all the defective COVID-19 testing kits in West Bengal after the state raised the issue. The state government had said that faulty kits supplied by ICMR were throwing up inconclusive results and delaying the pace of testing.
7. Telangana is the first state to extend the lockdown till May 7. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said the lockdown will be enforced in a stringent manner, and the food delivery mobile applications will not be allowed. "The cabinet will take stock of the situation on May 5," he said.
8. After Uttar Pradesh, five more states will make arrangements to bring back their students stranded in coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan because of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday. Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Assam are ready to take their students back from Kota, Mr Gehlot said.
9. Worldwide, more than 24 lakh people have coronavirus, nearly 170,000 have died. US has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 230,000 cases, more than 42,000 deaths have been reported from the country.
10. The 193 members of the UN General Assembly on Monday adopted by consensus a resolution that calls for "equitable, efficient and timely" access to any future vaccines developed to fight coronavirus. The resolution also highlights the "crucial leading role" played by the World Health Organization, which has faced criticism from Washington and others about its handling of the pandemic.

Corona updates 20-4-2020 India

1. India has seen an improvement in the recovery rate that indicates the number of people who have successfully fought off the illness, according to Union Health Ministry. The rate stood at 14.75 per cent this morning, an improvement over 14.19 per cent on Sunday, 13.85 per cent on Saturday, 13.06 per cent on Friday, Thursday's 12.02 per cent, Wednesday's 11.41 per cent and Tuesday's 9.99 per cent. More than 2,500 patients across the country have recovered from the highly infectious illness so far.
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the COVID-19 pandemic affects everyone equally. "COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or border before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together," PM Modi said in a post on LinkedIn.
3. "Coronavirus has significantly changed the contours of professional life. These days, home is the new office. The Internet is the new meeting room. For the time being, office breaks with colleagues are history... I have also been adapting to these changes. Most meetings, be it with minister colleagues, officials and world leaders, are now via video conferencing," said the Prime Minister, who has been holding video conferences with chief ministers and other leaders to review the lockdown and the road ahead.
4. In Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has announced extension of the coronavirus lockdown till May 7. He said the lockdown will be enforced in a stringent manner, and the food delivery mobile applications will not be allowed starting Monday. "The cabinet has decided to extend the lockdown in the state till May 7. The cabinet will take stock of the situation on May 5," he said.
5. All airlines have been told by the aviation regulator - Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA - to not take bookings after May 3 when the second phase of lockdown is scheduled to end. Air traffic and passenger trains were suspended last month, days before the nationwide shutdown began on March 25.
6. West Bengal government has said that faulty kits supplied by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), the country's nodal body for COVID-19 testing, have been throwing up inconclusive results and delaying the pace of testing. While an ICMR response is awaited, the director of the Council's nodal body in Kolkata said that the matter was being seriously addressed.
7. More relaxations are likely if India tackles coronavirus crisis well, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told news agency PTI on Sunday.
8. There are 54 districts in 14 states that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days, Union Health Ministry official Lav Agarwal said on Sunday during a press briefing, news agency PTI reported.
9. More than 4,000 cases reported across India have been linked to the congregation held in south Delhi's Nizammudin last month by the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat, the government said on Saturday. "A total of 4,291 COVID-19 cases or 29.8 per cent of the 14,378 coronavirus infections reported till Saturday morning are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation," Union Health Ministry's Lav Agarwal had said on Saturday.
10. India may touch its peak of coronavirus cases in the first week of May, after which the number will decline, sources in the Home Ministry have said.

Corona updates 19-4-2020

1. The recovery rate that indicates the number of people who have successfully fought off the illness is improving, Union Health Ministry has said. The rate stood at 14.19 per cent this morning, an improvement over 13.85 per cent on Saturday, 13.06 per cent on Friday, Thursday's 12.02 per cent, Wednesday's 11.41 per cent and Tuesday's 9.99 per cent. So far, 2,231 patients in India have recovered from the highly infectious illness.
2. There are 22 new districts in 12 states that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days, Union Health Ministry official Lav Agarwal said on Saturday during a press briefing, news agency PTI reported.
3. More than 4,000 cases reported across India have been linked to the congregation held in south Delhi's Nizammudin last month by the Islamic sect Tablighi Jamaat, the government said on Saturday. "A total of 4,291 COVID-19 cases or 29.8 per cent of the 14,378 coronavirus infections reported till Saturday morning are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation," Union Health Ministry's Lav Agarwal told reporters.
4. With over 3,600 COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra continues to remain the worst hit state in the country. The number of cases in Mumbai's Dharavi, Asia's largest slum rose to 117 on Saturday.
5. In Delhi, one of the worst affected cities in the country, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday warned people of the dangers of not following social distancing advice during the lockdown by citing the case of a neighbourhood in the national capital, where 26 people were found infected with COVID-19. "In Jahangirpuri, 26 people of the same family tested positive. They lived next to each other and despite containment measures, they continued visiting each other. We are worried for you," Mr Kejriwal said in a video briefing.
6. In Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddha Nagar district, one of the worst affected in the state by the outbreak, the top medical officer has been replaced for the second time in a month. The twin cities of Noida-Greater Noida are a part of this district.
7. Two districts in Jammu and Kashmir where over 300 coronavirus cases have been reported including five deaths have flattened the curve, officials have said. There is no active COVID case in Rajouri and Kishtwar districts after four COVID positive patients recovered and no new case has been reported in the last 10 days.
8. Amid the fight against COVID-19, attacks continue on health workers and those providing essential services. In the latest incident, a group of sanitation worker in Madhya Pradesh were attacked by a mob of locals in Dewas district on Friday when they went to a neighbourhood to clean the streets. In Bihar, four such cases of attack on health workers were reported across the state within 24 hours on Thursday. PM Modi has repeatedly urged people across the country to support those providing essential services in doing their jobs
9. India may touch its peak of coronavirus cases in the first week of May, after which the number will decline, sources in the Home Ministry have said.
10. Worldwide, over 1.5 lakh people have died due to coronavirus, which originated in China's Wuhan city in December; more than 20 lakh are infected. The global economy, already "sluggish" before the coronavirus outbreak, is now bound to suffer a "severe recession" in 2020, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has warned and said the current crisis posed "daunting challenges" for policymakers in many emerging markets and developing economies.
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