An artist paints a wall at Dharavi Labour Camp with a message How to fight against corona. (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar)
Coronavirus (COVID-19) highlights: Coronavirus cases in India rose to 8,447 Sunday, with 909 infections and 34 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The toll now stands at 274, while 764 people have recovered. In the daily briefing of the Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, said 1,86,906 samples have been tested so far, of which 4.3 per cent were positive. “In last five days, on average 15,747 samples were tested per day and 584 of those were found positive per day,” he said. Agarwal also said 20 per cent of the 8346 positive cases required ICU support.
India is, meanwhile, gearing up for two more weeks of lockdown, with at least six states–Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana– already announcing the extension till April 30 in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. A broad consensus that the national lockdown should be extended by at least two weeks till April-end emerged Saturday after an almost four-hour meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Chief Ministers. (Click here to read state-wise coronavirus data)
With over 20,000 casualties, the United States has now overtaken Italy to have the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world. Public health experts have warned that the U.S. death toll could spike to 2,00,000 over the summer if unprecedented stay-at-home orders that have closed businesses and kept most Americans indoors are lifted after 30 days. Italy has the second most reported deaths at 19,468 and Spain is in third place with 16,353. Globally, the number of infections has risen to above 1.77 million, while nearly 1.08 lakh people have died
Maharashtra is among the six states that has decided to extend the lockdown beyond April 14. (Express photo by Amit Chakravarty)
Mumbai Police gets vigilant after Dharavi became a hotspot after cases surged in the area. (Express photo)
The bust of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was donned with a mask by unknown persons at Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad (Express photo Javed Raja)
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Sunday said lockdown will continue in the state after April 14, but in a different form.
The CM said procurement, rural employment guarantee scheme works and small economic activities will be allowed in districts not affected by the coronavirus outbreak, adding the state’s economy had suffered badly.
A high-level committee has been formed to suggest ways to improve the state’s economy after the coronavirus crisis is behind, he said.
Procurement of rabi crop like wheat will begin on April 15 by following strict social distancing norms.
A man who had attended a religious congregation in Delhi last month tested COVID-19 positive in Bhavanipur Khali area in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh, following which 14 adjoining villages were sealed, officials said on Sunday.
The man is from Andhra Pradesh and he was staying in a mosque here, District Magistrate Kumar Prashant said on Sunday.
"After the man tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, the district administration sealed 14 villages in the radius of three kilometres from this village. He had attended the Tabligi Jamaat event in Delhi's Nizamuddin," he said.
Prashant said the limits of the village have also been sealed, and zonal and sector magistrates deployed in the area. Essential items are being provided in the village and tests of suspected cases are being carried out, he added. PTI
Dharavi on Sunday recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 43 in 12 days since the first case was reported from the area on April 1. Of the 15, nine persons were already in quarantine at a BMC facility, as they were high-risk contacts of patients found in three slum pockets of Dharavi. While four other cases were reported from a new slum pocket, which had not seen any COVID-19 case earlier, two persons have tested posotive from a housing society in the area.
The 15 new patients – 13 men and two men – are between 18 and 66 years of age. With the new cases, there are now 13 containment zones in Dharavi.
Even as India reported 909 infections and 34 deaths in a span of 24 hours, the total number of confirmed positive cases rose to 8,447 and the death toll stands at 274 as of Sunday. In the daily briefing, an ICMR official denied availability of any vaccine yet, however, India was developing nearly 40 vaccines, he added. The health ministry official citing data, added the government is over-prepared for an emergency situation, if necessary. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu, today, became the third state to cross the 1000-mark of total positive coronavirus cases reported after Maharashtra and Delhi. Read more here
Being stuck at home due to the coronavirus lockdown, people around the world are bringing up novel and creative challenges to keep themselves entertained. Recently, the “quarantine dance” challenge has become a hit. Taking it a notch higher, a young man decided to do some quirky editing to his dance video by adding hilarious cut-outs of himself. Now, the eccentric video is breaking the internet. Aadhithya Kota Badrinath, a 24-year-old engineering designer based in Bengaluru, came up with the idea while being stuck at his home during the lockdown. What made his video stand out from the rest was the special effects he added to it — from cutouts of his face to his belly and synchronising it to his dance video as the song ‘Buttercup’ by Jack Stauber played in the background.
Governments of Assam and Meghalaya allowed the opening of liquor shops from Monday, subject to conditions of timing, social distancing and cleanliness, authorities said. A letter from SK Medhi, additional commissioner of excise, Assam, to all the deputy commissioners of the state said that the state government has approved the opening of “IMFL 'off'/ CS ‘off’ shops, wholesale warehouses, bottling plants, distilleries and breweries” from Monday. The allowed time period is 10am to 5pm. These establishments will be responsible for ensuring social distancing, cough etiquette and other hygiene norms. They are asked to function with bare minimum staff and “strictly avoid over-crowding”. Similarly in Meghalaya, a letter written to DCs by the excise commissioner said that state government has approved the opening of wine shops and and bonded warehouses from Monday to April 17, with a daily time frame of 9am to 4pm. The order placed similar restrictions like that in Assam of social distancing and asked the establishments to function with minimum staff. Both the orders note that to avoid overcrowding, the shops may direct customers to nearby stores.
Facing with “shortage” of essential commodities, the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil has shot a memorandum to Ladakh LG Radha Krishna Mathur making a slew of demands and warning of “law and order problems” if their issues are not resolved within a week.
While the country is under lockdown since March 24, the Kargil district is disconnected from the outside since November last year when the early snowfall closed the Srinagar-Kargil highway. Though the highway was thrown open on Friday, there is a restriction on the number of vehicles that could ply every day.
“We are disconnected since November and the essential items have run out. We can’t even find the pulses here, oil, sugar, flour is also not available. It is useless to think about the vegetables,” Chief Executive Councillor, LAHDC Kargil, Feroz Ahmed Khan told The Indian Express. “Though the road was opened yesterday, they (officials) are saying that only 10 trucks would be allowed to pass Zojilla tunnel every day. How would that suffice? On Saturday, the sent 18 fuel tankers when there was no need. There is no shortage of fuel but of eatables”. READ MORE
Amidst lockdown, a pregnant woman during wee hours of Sunday delivered a female child inside a police van while on her way to hospital. Around 2 am, police Control Room received a call from woman’s husband seeking help to carry his wife to hospital as no transport facility was available due to lockdown. Within five minutes, when a police party reached the couple in Channi Himmat area, the woman was already having labour pain. While being taken to SMGS Hospital, she delivered a female child in the van. After giving her first aid, both the mother and child were brought back home by the police. Identified as Sonia, wife of Raju of Uttar Pradesh, the couple already had two children. Raju, who was working as a labourer in Jammu, expressed gratitude to the police for immediately responding to his call. Jammu Kashmir Police, as part of its drive ``We Care’’ have already pressed into service its personnel to help people in distress during the lockdown. They are distributing ration, maintaining essential supplies including medicines and even taking people to hospitals, apart from their duties to enforce lockdown and carry out counter insurgency operations and other law and order duties on ground.
Employing an out-of-the-box approach to curb lockdown violations in Rajasthan’s capital, the Jaipur Police has tweeted out a warning for violators — “If you are unnecessarily roaming outside we will put you in a room & play Masakali 2.0 on loop”. On Wednesday, Bhushan Kumar’s T-series launched the remix of the song, dubbed “Masakali 2.0”, by composer Tanishq Bagchi and sung by singers Tulsi Kumar and Sachet Tandon. Singer Mohit Chauhan, who sang the original version of the song for the movie Delhi 6, told news agency PTI that there was no point in the recreated version of “Masakali” to be named after the original, as it doesn’t even sound like the track he sang for the movie.
The 23-year-old girl from Imphal West who was first tested positive for Covid-19 has been discharged from the Isolation wards of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) on Sunday. The girl was discharged around 1.45 pm and returned home escorted by a team of officials from the state health department. She had spent 20 days in the Isolation ward. “Words cannot describe how grateful we are to the doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health workers of JNIMS who even risked their own lives and put relentlessly their efforts day and night to give our daughters a new life. It is because of their sheer professionalism, dedication and compassion that today we could smile. We thank them all from the core of our hearts. May God always be with them in their serving the humanity”, said the patient’s family in a letter. The 23-year-old had tested positive on March 24 after returning from UK making her the first Covid-19 patient in the Northeast. She was evacuated to JNIMS on March 23 following a fever. On April 6, the health department informed that she was tested negative for Coronavirus after conducted two consecutive Covid-19 screening tests. The decision to discharge the patient was taken after the family was counselled by a team of doctors led by the state surveillance officers.
Vadodara reported it's third death from COVID-19 Sunday. A 27-year-old patient from Nagarwada succumbed to the virus. He was also diagnosed with dengue and was admitted with COVID-19 symptoms three days ago
Coronavirus clusters in New Delhi will now be colour-coded red and orange based on the severity of the outbreak, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sunday, announcing the Delhi government’s plan to carry out a sanitisation drive in those areas. Kejriwal said the government will notify more areas as containment zones in the next few days. At present, there are 33 such zones in Delhi, where stricter lockdown measures are in force, effectively making the rest of the city out of bounds for large chunks of the population. “Our experiment in Dilshad Garden, where we had sealed the area and carried out ‘Operation Shield’, has succeeded. We have identified many more areas to be notified as containment zones. I understand that residents of those areas are facing a lot of difficulties. But we don’t want a situation like US, where over 2,000 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours,” Kejriwal said.
As India continues to maintain a nation-wide lockdown till April 14 to contain the spread of coronavirus, a woman from Uruguay got into an argument with the Delhi police Saturday when she was stopped for violating curfew norms. The Uruguayan national, identified as Ana Valentina Obispo, was cycling in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area when she was stopped by police personnel for not wearing a mask or gloves. When the police urged her to follow the coronavirus lockdown procedures, she got into an argument with them and said she hasn’t received any guidelines from her embassy and that she could show the mail.
Health officials say 657 more people in England have died from the new coronavirus, raising the total U.K. deaths over 10,000. The National Health Service figure does not include deaths in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. A figure for the whole U.K. will be released later. The 657 deaths come on top of the 9,875 deaths of people with COVID-19 in British hospitals announced Saturday. While the number of new cases and hospitalizations appears to have plateaued, deaths are still rising. Virus death tolls in Italy and Spain have been on a downward slope, and there are growing fears that the U.K. will end up being the country with the most virus deaths in Europe.
Coronavirus cases in India Sunday crossed the 8,000-mark, with 909 infections and 34 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Sunday in its daily briefing. The toll now stands at 274, while 716 people have recovered. Health Ministry’s Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said the government was expanding the COVID-19 testing capacity in state-run as well as private medical colleges. He also asserted that the government was “extra prepared” if there was an exponential rise in the number of coronavirus patients. Here are the highlights from the Health Ministry’s briefing
Two NSA detainees shifted to Satna jail from Indore have tested positive for coronavirus, sending jail authorities in panic mode. Though the two had been kept in separate cells, they came in contact not just with jail staff, but also some prisoners. ADG (jail) Gaziram Meena told The Indian Express that the two NSA detainees have been sent to hospital. He said the people they came in contact with are being traced and all will be quarantined and tested. There are about 2,500 prisoners in Satna jail.
With as many as 909 positive cases and 34 deaths reported in India in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases on Sunday touched 8,447, as the country neared the end of the 21-day lockdown period which began on March 24. However, the Centre is considering the request of most states to extend the lockdown for another two weeks. West Bengal, Odisha, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka have already announced extension till April 30 in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Read more here
The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown imposed across the nation has sabotaged many wedding plans and businesses are also facing the brunt of the uncertainty. Among those who had to postpone their wedding was Delhi-based Gazal Bawa and Hemant Virmani. The duo were supposed to get married in Bhimtal on April 10. “The wedding was scheduled for April 10 in Bhimtal and then we decided to cancel it on March 19 seeing the COVID-19 situation,” Bawa told the indianexpress.com While the couple was disheartened by the unexpected change of plans, their friends came up with a creative way to cheer them up.
The full spectrum of the symptoms experienced by those infected with the SARS-CoV-2 is not fully known yet. Recently, research has pointed towards the neurological symptoms witnessed in COVID-19 patients. Now, in an investigation of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, researchers have recorded the neurological manifestations of the disease. Their findings were published in the journal JAMA Neurology on April 10. They conclude that neurological symptoms can be noticed in a “notable proportion” of the patients and are not uncommon.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday thanked the state-funded NHS medics and staff for their hard work through the coronavirus pandemic as he was discharged from hospital, saying he owed them his life after testing positive for the deadly virus over two weeks ago. Downing Street said that Johnson left St. Thomas' Hospital in London and will head to his prime ministerial residence of Chequers in Buckinghamshire, south east England. On the advice of his medical team, he will not be returning to work immediately, with UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to continue deputising as he recuperates. (PTI)
Tamil Nadu, today, became the third state to cross the 1000-mark of total positive coronavirus cases reported after Maharashtra and Delhi.
Around 30 nurses of a private multispeciality hospital here have been quarantined after one of their colleagues tested coronavirus positive, its office-bearer said on Sunday. A 45-year-old nurse of the Ruby Hall Clinic tested coronavirus positive on Saturday, he said. (PTI)
Vadodara reported two more positive COVID-19 cases Sunday taking the total to 101 in the city. Both the positive samples are from Bahar colony, Ajwa road. Earlier in the day, 4 samples from Nagarwada had tested positive. So far 978 samples have been tested, out of which 101 were positive and 828 negative.
In a press briefing Sunday, Delhi Chief minister said that they have identified containment zones as 'Red Zone' and high-risk zones as 'Orange Zone'. Orange Zone will be sanitised as well in the coming days.
Coronavirus cases in India rose to 8,447 Sunday, with 909 infections and 34 deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The toll now stands at 273, while 764 people have recovered so far.
A 40-year-old COVID-19 positive patient was on Sunday booked for “attempt to murder” after he allegedly spat on a doctor treating him at the government hospital here, police said. It was a serious crime under the present conditions with so many restrictions in force to prevent the spread of coronavirus, they said. The patient, admitted to the hospital’s coronavirus ward on Saturday, also removed his mask and threw it at the doctor, enraging the hospital staff and other patients.
India is, meanwhile, gearing up for two more weeks of lockdown, with at least six states–Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana– already announcing the extension till April 30 in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
(Express photo: Pradip Das)
In order to control the narrative surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, China is cracking down on the publication of academic research about the origin of the novel coronavirus, documents published online by Chinese universities show, according to The Guardian report. Websites of two leading Chinese universities appear to have published and then recently removed pages which reference a new policy requiring COVID-19 related academic papers to undergo extra vetting before being submitted for publication.
The Health Ministry added that they are working on urgent basis to expand capacity for COVID-19 testing in govt and private medical colleges across the country. Also, 14 identified institutes including AIIMS, NIMHANS will mentor medical colleges and expand COVID-19 testing capacity.
As the number of COVID-19 infections continue to rise every day, scientists across India and the world are trying to develop vaccines to combat the virus. “More than 40 vaccines under development but none have reached the next stage. As of now, there is no vaccine,” an ICMR official said at the health ministry presser on Saturday evening.
He further said that in the past five days, the average number of samples that have been tested per day was 15,747 and the average number of samples which tested positive was 584. Highlighting that the government has been planning and is prepared for emergency-like situation, a health ministry official said: “On March 29, we had 979 positive cases, now we have 8356 positive cases; of these 20% cases need ICU support. So, today too 1671 patients need oxygen support and critical care treatment. This figure is important to show that the government is planning things in being over prepared.”
The Supreme Court would hear on Monday a PIL seeking quashing of the central government’s decision of setting up of the PM CARES Fund, where citizens can donate money to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The PIL has sought a transfer of the donation amount received so far for the PM CARES fund to the Consolidated Fund of India, and also a court-monitored SIT probe into the setting up of the fund. A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices L Nageswara Rao and MM Shantanagoudar would hear the petition filed by lawyer M L Sharma through video conferencing.
"As per 9th April data, if we needed 1,100 beds we had 85,000 beds. Today, when we need 1,671 beds, then we have 1,05,000 beds in the dedicated 601 COVID hospitals", said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry in evening briefing today.
The situation regarding essential commodities is under control in the MHA control room and officials of Ministries of Civil Aviation, Consumer Affairs and Railways have been working in coordination with states to resolve logistics problems, said Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary, MHA.
Total 1,86,906 samples have been tested so far, out of which 7,953 have been found positive for COVID-19, said an ICMR official at the evening briefing Sunday.
"Now we have 8,346 positive cases; of these 20% cases would need ICU support. The government is managing everything by being over prepared, added Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.
In the last 24 hours, 909 cases and 34 deaths were reported. Total 274 deaths reported. "Out of all corona positive cases, 716 people have so far recovered", said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry.
More than 75,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Europe, with 80 percent of the fatalities occurring in Italy, Spain, France and Britain, according to an AFP tally.
At least 134 people tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, taking the state tally to 1,895, said a state health official. Among the new cases, 113 have been reported from Mumbai city and seven from Mira Bhayandar civic area in neighbouring Thane district. Besides, four cases have been reported from Pune city, two each from Navi Mumbai, Thane city and Vasai-Virar in neighbouring Palghar district, and one each from Raigad, Amravati, Bhiwandi (Thane district) and Pimpri Chinchwad (town near Pune), the official said. (PTI)
As a strict lockdown measures continue in Bengaluru to avoid further spread of the coronavirus pandemic, local civic body the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Sunday launched a dedicated helpline number to ensure essentials are delivered at the doorsteps to the residents. In its pilot version, the initiative has begun operating in areas falling under Bangalore South Lok Sabha constituency. According to BBMP officials, the helpline number is expected to aid an estimated 7.5 lakh people residing in 2.5 lakh households in the areas. As many as 1926 stores in the area have been identified by the Bengaluru City Police for the operations. Launching the same, Bangalore South Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya said, that citizens can avail services from the helpline number 080-61914960 via simple calls and via WhatsApp, without downloading any new application.
A 25-year-old man, who in a TikTok video ridiculed the use of masks for protection against COVID-19, has tested positive for the disease in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, an official said on Sunday. Authorities at the hospital where he is admitted had to seize his mobile phone as he kept posting more videos from the isolation facility even after testing positive. His condition is stable, Sagar’s Government Bundelkhand Medical College Dean Dr G S Patel told PTI.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases are rising in India amid the countrywide lockdown. The government is trying its best to prevent the spread of the virus among many more people in the country. While at home during the lockdown everyone is relying on news channels, social media platforms and Coronavirus (COVID-19) tracker apps and websites for updates related to the pandemic. But should you rely on all these trackers available on the internet? Well, we suggest trusting only the ones that have authentic and recognized data sources is the best. Previously we listed the websites and apps that show coronavirus India updates such as the number of confirmed cases, people recovered, the rate at which the virus rising or lowering, among others. Today we will list coronavirus trackers that provide live state-wise COVID-19 updates. Read more here
Reuters reported that Russia on Sunday reported 2,186 new coronavirus cases, the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, bringing the national tally of confirmed cases to 15,770. The number of coronavirus-related deaths rose by 24 to 130, the Russian coronavirus crisis response centre was quoted as saying. The number of infected people around the world crossed 1.7 million, with more than 52,000 people infected in the US, followed by Spain, Italy, and France.
From a drive-in worship service in South Korea to Reverends leading the Sunday Mass without any devotees in India, here's how the world celebrated Easter this year. See more here
Nagpur witnessed a huge jump in corona positive cases on Sunday with as many as 14 new cases coming to the fore. Eight of the new patients are said to be from Mominpura locality while six have a merkaz connection, sources said. All of them are said to be quarantined in the city's MLAs' hostel.IIndira Gandhi Government Medical College Deputy Medical Superintendent Sagar Pande confirmed that there are 14 new positive reports but said he had no travel history of the patients. This has taken the total tally of corona positive cases in the city to 41. Of them, eight have so far been treated and discharged. One had succumbed to the virus.
Two more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Faridabad Sunday, while 2 others have recovered, said officials from the district administration. "The two people who have tested positive are a resident of the city who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, and the son of another person who had attended the same gathering, and tested positive earlier. The man's sample had been taken after his father tested positive. The district now has 31 cases of coronavirus, of which 26 are active," said a spokesperson of the district administration. The two people who have recovered and been discharged, meanwhile, are a 54-year-old woman who is the wife of an employee at a Noida firm, where several people had tested COVID-19 positive last month. Her husband and son had also tested positive. While her son was discharged with her Sunday, her husband had already recovered earlier this week.
Two deaths were registered at Sassoon General Hospital on Sunday taking the toll to 31 deaths due to COVID-19. A 58-year-old woman from Lumbini Nagar who was admitted on April 9 died on Sunday. She had co morbidities or hypertension and diabetes. According to authorities, she was morbidly obese and has obstructive sleep apnea. In the second death, a 56-year-old woman from Somwar peth was admitted to Sassoon General Hospital on April 5. She also had co-morbidities of diabetes and hypertension and tested positive with COVID 19. She died due to multiple organ dysfunction. There are 267 cases in Pune district.
Indonesia on Sunday reported 399 new cases of the coronavirus, its biggest daily jump so far, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,241, according to data provided by a health ministry official, Achmad Yurianto. Yurianto said there were also 46 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the total to 373.
The Philippines recorded 50 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, its highest in a single day, taking the toll to 297. In a bulletin, the health ministry said 220 new infections took the tally of virus cases to 4,648. But 40 more patients recovered, for a total of 197 recoveries.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he owes his life to the staff of Britain's state-run National Health Service, in his first comments since being released from intensive care for treatment for COVID-19. Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas's Hospital in central London a week ago, suffering from persistent symptoms of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. On April 6 he was moved into intensive care, where he remained until April 9. "I can't thank them enough. I owe them my life," Johnson said of the staff at the hospital, which is just across the River Thames from the Houses of Parliament. The comments were released to journalists and confirmed by his office on Sunday.
Three deaths were reported in Madhya Pradesh today. An 80-year-old patient tested positive after his death in Bhopal. The Bhopal CMHO Prabhakar Tiwari said the octogenarian had breathed his last before he was brought to Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal on April 8. The sample was collected as a precautionary measure. The test report came on Saturday. He was suffering from asthma. Samples of all those who came in contact with him have been sent for tests and they have been quarantined. Meanwhile, two more deaths were reported from Indore, the worst affected city in Madhya Pradesh. Indore CMHO Dr. Pravin Jadia said the death toll in Indore has climbed to 32. The death rate in the biggest city of MP is nearly three times more than the national average. Indore has so far reported 298 positive cases. The state toll increased to 43.
The British Airways will operate three flights from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) Airport in Ahmedabad in the next few days to take back 900 UK nationals stranded in Gujarat due to the lockdown, authorities said on Sunday. Two aircraft will arrive from the Heathrow Airport in London and leave for the UK capital on April 13 and 15. The third aircraft will arrive in Ahmedabad from Hyderabad on April 17 and depart for London the same day, it said.
In Karnataka, a fully-cured patient was given a warm farewell by doctors at KC General Hospital. The doctors clapped for the patient and presented him with a bouquet. The patient, in turn, touched the feet of the doctors as a mark of gratitude
Pakistan's coronavirus cases have reached 5,038 with 254 new infections reported, while 14 more people died due to the disease, taking the death toll in the country to 86, health officials said on Sunday. The Ministry of National Health Services reported on its website that 1,026 patients had recovered while 37 were reported to be in critical condition. In the last 24 hours, 14 people have died due to COVID-19, taking the total number of dead in Pakistan to 86, it said. The number of coronavirus cases has reached 5,038 with 254 new infections reported in one day, it said. The nation-wide breakdown of the patients showed that Punjab has 2,425 cases, Sindh 1,318, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 697, Balochistan 228, Gilgit-Baltistan 216, Islamabad 119 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 35.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has made a special appeal to religious leaders of all faiths to join forces and focus on the common battle to defeat COVID-19, underscoring that it is time to work for peace and renew “our faith in one another.” The secretary-general said his appeal comes at a special time on the spiritual calendar when Christians are celebrating Easter, Jews are marking Passover and Muslims all over the world will soon begin the holy month of Ramadan. “Today, I want to make a special appeal to religious leaders of all faiths to join forces to work for peace around the world and focus on our common battle to defeat COVID-19,” Guterres said.
A 60-year-old man died due to COVID-19 in Jharkhand, becoming the second casualty in the state. The man from Hindpiri had come in contact with another COVID-19 patient in the area. "He was admitted to a hospital two days ago after he exhibited symptoms of the disease. The 60-year-old's condition deteriorated, following which he was put on a ventilator. He died this morning," Principal Secretary (Health) Nitin Madan Kulkarni said. The first case from Hindpiri locality was reported when a 22-year-old Malaysian woman tested positive for the disease on March 31.
Gujarat reported 25 new cases of COVID-19 and one death on Sunday morning, taking the total number of infections in the state to 493. The death toll has reached 23. 23 out of 25 cases reported today are from Ahmedabad alone and two from Anand district. The death has been reported from Ahmedabad. The new cases reported from Ahmedabad are from areas included Behrampura, Kalupur, Ghodasar, Maninagar, Danilimda, Jamalpur and Ranip. Among the 23 total deaths, the deceased with foreign and interstate travel history are three each while the remaining and the highest number of 17 were infected through local transmission.
A 75-year-old male COVID-19 patient from Ghodasar area in Ahmedabad who was admitted at LG Hospital died late Saturday night. He had hypertension comorbidity.
Out of 493 total COVID-19 cases in Gujarat, principal secretary health Jayanti Ravi stated that 422 are stable while 4 are critical and 44 have been discharged, so far. Principal secretary health also informed that the state has now started collecting samples and testing in areas other than hotspot areas in Gujarat. Some of these areas are districts of Navsari, Valsad, Junagadh, Tapi, Aravali, Jamnagar, Surendranagar and Mahisagar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday extended Easter greetings and prayed that the day gives added strength to successfully overcome COVID-19. "Best wishes to everyone on the special occasion of Easter. We remember the noble thoughts of Lord Christ, especially his unwavering commitment to empowering the poor and needy," the prime minister wrote on Twitter "May this Easter give us added strength to successfully overcome COVID-19 and create a healthier planet," he said.
A policeman’s hand was severed and two of his colleagues were injured after a group of Nihangs (Sikhs armed with traditional weapons) attacked them at Sanaur vegetable market in Punjab’s Patiala district on Sunday, the police said. The group was travelling in a vehicle when the police stopped them near a vegetable market by Mandi board officials. An argument erupted between them after the Nihangs failed to show them curfew passes. Read more