India COVID-19 latest updates, April 22: Cases cross 20,000 mark; MHA asks states to provide security to healthcare workers

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Top developments of the day

Appoint nodal officers, take action against those attacking doctors: MHA to states

Follow Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assurance to doctors, the Ministry of Home Affairs requested all states to ensure adequate protection to healthcare professionals, medical staff and frontlines workers. MHA has also asked state governments and union territory administrations to appoint nodal officers at state or union territory level and at the district level, who would be available 24×7 to redress any safety issue on the functioning of medical professionals.

The states and union territories should also take immediate and strict action in case any incident of violence takes place, the ministry said.

Centre brings law on attacks on healthcare workers

Union Minister Prakash Javadaker during the press briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar Wednesday said the Centre will not tolerate the attacks on the healthcare workers in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic and has decided to bring an ordinance to make it a punishable offence. Javadekar said the government will amend the Epidemics Diseases Act, 1897 to make the attacks on healthcare workers a cognisable and non-bailable offence, under which a violator may be awarded a jail term of three months to five years with a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh. In cases of severe injury to workers, the jail term will be increased to six months to seven years with a fine of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Amit Shah speaks to doctors; appreciates their work, assures security

Coronavirus: Amid attacks, Amit Shah assures doctors of their safety (Twitter/@AmitShah)

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) decided to withdraw their symbolic protest after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah. Shah Wednesday interacted with doctors, appreciated their work on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, and assured them of their safety. Along with Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Shah held a video conference was held amid several reports of attacks on healthcare workers. Shah also appealed to doctors to withdraw the symbolic protest they had planned, saying the government was with them.

The IMA had announced “white alert”, a vigil at 9 pm Wednesday where doctors and hospitals would light a candle to urge the Centre to enact a law against healthcare violence.

#ImportantAlert – High powered meeting held today morning under chairmanship of Hon. Shri Amit Shah with #IMA leaders pic.twitter.com/Fzh6MOAj9i

— Indian Medical Association (@IMAIndiaOrg) April 22, 2020

Maharashtra minister admitted to hospital after staff tests positive

The NCP MLA had been self-isolation for some days now.

Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, who had quarantined himself after his security staff tested positive for novel coronavirus, got admitted to a private hospital in Mulund, early Wednesday morning. He has been admitted as a precautionary measure and will require a check-up for coronavirus. An official from Fortis Hospital official confirmed that the minister was admitted but declined to comment further. The NCP MLA had been self-isolation for some days now.

Aviation ministry employee tests positive for coronavirus

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday said an employee of the ministry who attended office on April 15 has tested positive for COVID-19. All colleagues, who came in contact with the employee, have been asked to go into self isolation as a precaution, it said. “An employee of the ministry who had attended office on 15 April, 2020, has tested positive for COVID-19 on 21st April. All necessary protocols are being stringently followed on the premises,” the ministry said on Twitter.

After Centre’s letter, Bengal assures cooperation to central teams visiting state

General Post Office (GPO) employees clean the GPO area in Kolkata

Amid the tussle between the Centre and West Bengal over lockdown violations, the Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday assured cooperation to the two Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) that landed in the state on Monday to assesses its handling of the COVID-19 situation. The development comes a day after the Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla shot off a letter to Rajiv Sinha, the Chief Secretary, asking him to comply with the Union Home Ministry’s order on easing of restrictions in the state.

India takes eight days to travel from 10,000 cases to 20,000

Coronavirus (COVID-19): By Tuesday night, the total number of positive cases in the country had reached 19,975.

Despite the large number of cases being added in the last few days, the spread of the disease in India has slowed down considerably as a result of the lockdown. India took eight days to travel from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases. Before the impact of lockdown had become evident, the country was witnessing an exponential growth in the number of cases. It had taken around two weeks to move from three cases at the start of March to 100 cases, another two weeks to reach 1000 cases, and a little more than two weeks to touch the 10,000 figure. At that rate, the country would have on its way to reach one lakh cases by the end of the month. But thanks to the lockdown, and other measures taken by the government, all indications are that the total number of cases at the end of this month would be somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000.

News from The Indian Express that you shouldn’t miss

• As the Centre and states jostle over and grapple with strategies for a staggered exit from the lockdown, the country seems — for the first time in 40 years — headed for an economic contraction in 2020-21. If that happens, it won’t be unique to India — the IMF expects the Covid pandemic to severely impact growth across regions.

Mumbai police are seen inside a full-body sanitizing Mobile Van turned into mobile sanitization chamber in Mumbai

• A day after some industries were allowed to start functioning with conditions, both small and large companies in pockets across the country have said that the interpretation of punitive measures for violation of safety procedures is proving a big deterrent in resumption of operations. In a set of suggestions sent to the government Tuesday, the CII asked it to clarify this, saying units were being threatened with up to three months of shutdown.
• A premium recruiter working in oilfield services has withdrawn its job offers to graduating students across the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil-field-services company, wrote to the IITs on April 6 that it had decided to “reduce opportunities” in a bid to adjust to the “sudden reduction” in “customers spend”.

Sanitisation in the queue for food for homeless people in Delhi

• Delhi to Madhubani on a cart: A porter can’t understand the fuss around his journey back home from Delhi to his village — 1,180 km away — in a thela (wooden cart) that he cycled for nine days. “We were okay with the one-day lockdown on March 22, but when they extended it, I knew I wouldn’t survive it. If we don’t earn, how will we eat?” he said.
• ‘Will never step out again’: It is probably the first time in a month that Jadav Gogoi has smiled. And with good reason. On Monday, Gogoi, a migrant worker from Assam, completed a journey of around 2,900 km, partly on foot, partly on a truck, battling storms, hunger and thieves to reach his hometown in Nagaon district.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected

During lockdown in Pune

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