The total number of positive cases in India Saturday rose to 3,072 including 75 deaths and 212 people who have been treated and discharged so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday spoke with US President Donald Trump and he said both countries “agreed to deploy the full strength of India-US partnership to fight COVID-19 pandemic”. In a tweet, PM Modi said, “Had an extensive telephone conversation with President @realDonaldTrump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19.” He also spoke with his counterparts from Spain and Brazil and discussed the impact of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with floor leaders of various political parties via a video link on April 8 at 11 am, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
Earlier today, the health ministry said there are 1,023 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country and they are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting, which means 30 per cent of the cases are linked to one thing they couldn’t control.
The total number of positive cases in India Saturday rose to 3,113 including 75 deaths and 212 people who have been treated and discharged so far. While Maharashtra has reported 47 new cases, 25 new infections emerged from Agra on Saturday. There has been a spike of 355 cases in the country in the last 12 hours.
Globally, 58,871 people have died of the virus. The number of active cases is about to touch 11 lakh with 1,098,848 cases reported as of Saturday morning, according to John Hopkins. The US has reported the worst 24-hour death toll since the pandemic started, with nearly 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 between Thursday and Friday. The country has 277,828 active cases. Italy, meanwhile, has reported the maximum number of deaths at 14,681 followed by Spain (11,198), France (6,507), United Kingdom (3,605), Iran (3,294) and China (3,203).
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has constituted two task forces for suggestions on withdrawing the lockdown in a phased manner and to bring the state back on track. Orders in this regard were issued Friday. Gehlot formed these task forces after an appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a video conference with Chief Ministers on Thursday. Read more
In the middle of a nationwide lockdown, BJP elected representatives and senior leaders, who otherwise criss-cross states on organisational work, are coordinating community kitchens and distribution of ration to the poor, and monitoring the pandemic over telephone and through conference calls and video-conferencing. Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Janata Curfew on March 22, BJP president J P Nadda and general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh decided to shape and guide the party’s course of action — at least for a month.
On Saturday, states across the country reported 107 new COVID-19 cases and two deaths linked to the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation, held in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area.
TAMIL NADU
The state recorded two deaths and 73 new COVID-19 cases linked to the religious congregation in Delhi. Of the two deaths of COVID-19 patients reported in the state, a 51-year-old man died in Villupuram medical college on Saturday morning. The state health department said that the husband and the son of the 53-year-old woman who died in Madurai were also part of the team that travelled to Delhi for the congregation. In the state, 422 of the total 485 cases tested positive are directly linked to the congregation. Read full story
The Press Council of India has issued an advisory to newspapers to not publish any advertisement for AYUSH-related claims regarding treatment of COVID-19. “Press Council of India advises the print media to stop publicity and advertisement of AYUSH-related claims for COVID-19 treatment in order to prevent dissemination of misleading information about AYUSH drugs and services…,” said the statement. The advisory was based on an order of the AYUSH ministry on similar lines.
'I called PM Modi this morning, India makes very large amounts of hydroxychloroquine azithromycine. They have it on hold because they have 1.3 billion people and they have lots of it but they need it, however, they are making serious considerations to ship doses. We have 29 million doses,' Trump claims.
"When the brunt of it comes, which it surely is going to very soon, we want to be ready and not have spent all our resources. We will move heaven and earth to save our American citizens. We will use all our resources to get our country back to work. We want to open our country again, this country was not meant for this. Few were, but not our country. For example, we are using the Defence Production Act very carefully.," Trump said.
"The hotspots authorities are constantly in touch with us. We want distributions to be made on a fair basis, we want it to reach the entire country, not just certain areas. I want to thank everyone for what they are doing— healthcare servies, medical workers, military— they are going into a battle that they are not trained for. Since 1917, the Spanish Flu, nearly 100 million people were killed. We have some good reports coming out of Washington, areas of California; looks like New York is going to be further hit hard," Trump said.
United States President Donald Trump addressing a press conference at 1:30 IST, said, "151 nations are still fighting against Coronavirus. This will be the toughest week, this and the next week and there will be a lot of deaths in the US. We are looking at some hotspots, some really hard hit regions, like we did not expect New Jersey. We want to save lives, and save as many lives as possible. I urge media to stop spreading fake news, they are the same ones, do it all for the ratings."
Two more senior government officials, including a Principal Secretary-level IAS officer, tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. This makes three people out of four members of one of the special teams, formed by the Madhya Pradesh government to fight the pandemic, have tested positive for the virus. The special team was tasked with looking after drugs, equipment and logistics to fight the pandemic in MP. An IAS officer of the 2011 batch, who had no foreign travel history, had tested positive on Thursday. A subsequent test on the officer on Friday confirmed the infection.
CHHATTISGARH HEALTH Secretary Niharika Barik says she hasn’t entered her house in nearly a month. The 49-year-old IAS officer has been living in the outhouse to minimise contact with her aged parents and teenaged daughter. Every day, she steps out into the garden to interact with her daughter, who stands on the terrace. Over 250 km away, Raigad SP Santosh Singh remains alone in the front room while at home. The toughest part, says the 37-year-old police officer, is when his infant son crawls towards him, and he has to shut the door on his face. Barik and Singh are at the forefront of the state’s battle to contain the coronavirus. But like thousands of others like them across the country, from government officials to medical professionals, they are struggling to come to terms with the personal cost.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) appealed to the people on Saturday not to consume and spit smokeless tobacco in public places.
The apex health research body said chewing smokeless tobacco products (gutka, pan masala with tobacco, pan and other chewing tobacco products) and areca nut (supari) increases the production of saliva, followed by a very strong urge to spit. READ MORE
In a significant development, the first screening test for Covid-19 conducted on the 23-year-old girl from Manipur, the first case of the state, came negative on Saturday. Dr Th. Bhimo, JNIMS director, however, said that the Covid-19 status of the patient will be declared negative after the result of a second test, which is to be conducted on Monday.
“To declare a Covid-19 patient is free from the virus two screening tests is required which is to be conducted after a gap of 24 hours”, said Dr Th. Bhimo. The JNIMS director is confident that the second result of the patient will be negative citing her improving health.
“The condition of the patient has improved a lot. She no longer has fever for the last five days. And her appetite is also improving. These are good signs”, said the JNIMS Director.
He informed that the authority will start their planning to discharge the patient if the second test came out negative. “The patient will be discharge only after she is fully recovered not only physically but also mentally”, he added.
The department also informed that all the 37 high risk co-passengers of the patient are completing 14 days of facility quarantine and they are being transferred to Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for mandatory testing on Saturday.
A nearly 100-year-old person, who had been under quarantine at a government facility in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur district, died on Saturday late evening. Udhampur Deputy Commissioner Piyush Singla said that the deceased was put under quarantine two days ago and he was asymptomatic. His samples were sent for testing and the report was awaited.
Total number of positive cases in India rose to 3,113 after 324 out of 11,182 samples tested positive today, says ICMR.
The number of coronavirus cases has risen to 445 in Delhi but the situation is under control and there has been no community transmission, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today. There were 40 cases of local transmission while a majority of other patients either had foreign travel history or were recently evacuated from Nizamuddin Markaz, he said. Sharing the data, he said 59 new cases came in last 24 hours in the national capital. Among all the patients who have coronavirus, around 11 are in ICU and five are on ventilators. "We can say that this is local transmission and not community transmission," he said. In community transmission, people do not get to know from whom they are getting infected but right now no such case has occurred in Delhi, he said, adding the situation is under control.
Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said that Centre hasn't allocated a "single penny to Delhi" even as they gave Rs 17,000 crore to other states. In a similar vein, Kejriwal had earlier today rued the fact that despite Delhi's request for more PPE kits, not even one has been given. "Right now we urgently need PPE (personal protective equipment) kits and we have already written to the central government about it yesterday. "I do not want the doctors and nurses to work without the protective gear but the centre is yet to provide us with these kits. I will request the Centre to provide us with PPE kits urgently," Kejriwal said.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo holds press conference. Coronavirus cases in the state, the epicenter of the pandemic in the US, crossed 100,000 and it recorded the highest increase in the number of deaths from the virus in a single day between April 2 and 3.
The National Health Authority (NHA) on Saturday said that testing and treatment for COVID-19 will be free of cost for Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries at private laboratories and empanelled hospitals. This initiative, the NHA said, will strengthen the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic. Read More