Coronavirus India LIVE Updates:
Globally, 5,103,278 people have been infected with the virus, while 332,925 have died. The United States has recorded almost 95,000 deaths so far. As scientists across the world work frantically to find a vaccine against COVID-19, all eyes are on US-based company Moderna's encouraging early results on a small group of healthy volunteers.
Domestic passenger flight operations are expected to commence from Monday, May 25 in a calibrated manner, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said in a tweet. To this extent, the Ministry of Civil Aviation will share standard operating procedures with all airports and airlines.
To which destinations will flights operate?
While the earlier indications were that flights may start between airports situated in green zone areas, airlines had raised the issue of viability for operating such flights. Even as most major centres such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, etc are still classified as red zone areas, a green light from certain state governments will ensure flights can be operated from these areas.
Will flying be any different?
A detailed set of standard operating procedures is being worked on by the government in consultation with the aviation industry and going by the initial feedback, a number of new rules and regulations are expected to be put into place that will change the flying experience.
These new guidelines include mandatory social distancing at airports, revisions in the way security procedures are conducted to ensure minimal contact, use of face masks and personal protective equipment by passengers and employees, among others. A variety of new health checks may also be instituted that could result in longer queues at airports and increased wait times.
Seventeen Jan Shatabdis, five Durontos and a number of traditionally popular mail or express trains to various parts of India are among the list of 100 trains to be reintroduced from June 1 in the second phase of graded resumption of passenger train operations in India.
Sources said the decision has been taken with the twin objective of opening up the options for willing migrants to come back to the states of work from their home states in the interest of resumption of economic activity, along with giving the stranded and others willing to travel the option.
New lockdown rules from today, no special exemptions for Mumbai
Meanwhile, starting Friday, when the state starts implementing new guidelines for designated red zones and non-red zones, Mumbai does not get any relaxations, barring the opening of non-essential shops from 9 am to 5 pm for non-commercial purpose of upkeep or maintenance of material, plant and machinery.
Also, pre-monsoon works at both public and private properties will be allowed to begin, but only with permission from the local ward office. The Maharashtra government had on Tuesday issued revised guidelines for lockdown 4.0, keeping in place most of the curbs for red zones.
“My wife Seema (31) has not slept for a second. She can’t forget the sight of the girl’s body after it came under the truck. She sat wailing on the highway, with the girl in her lap. How can we get the image out of our heads?” said Shikhwar (35), who lost his six-year-old daughter in a road accident on Tuesday. Priyanka was crushed by a truck in Kisni police station area of Mainpuri district.
Sixteen people, including five children, had on Monday started from Gosgarh village in Gurgaon, where they worked, for a 580-km journey back to Baburi village in Sitapur dictrict. Read more here
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Three migrant labourers on their way to Gopalganj district in Bihar were killed in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh on Friday after a truck ran over them while they were sleeping on an empty patch of land.
The three, who were cousins, had hired a car for Rs 70,000 to take them from Mumbai to their home in Bihar. Their families had cobbled together the money by borrowing from moneylenders in their village. Read more here
Sixty five critically ill Covid-19 patients have been enrolled in a multi-centre clinical trial across the country to assess the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy.
So far, 34 patients have received plasma therapy, and three have succumbed to the infection, said Dr R R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Disease division of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “The study had received the go-ahead from the Covid-19 National Ethics Committee on April 29 and the duration of the trial is estimated to be six months,” he told The Indian Express. Read more here
Until May 13 — 54 days since Gujarat reported the first case of Covid-19 — Amreli district had managed to keep coronavirus at bay. However, a 67-year old woman tested positive in Amreli on May 13, followed by an 11-year old boy on May 17, after which the district declared its first containment zone. Both had come from Surat after the district opened its borders to bring home its migrants from Surat and Ahmedabad, the twin districts which are among the Covid-19 hotspots in the country. Read more here
PUNJAB RECORDED only one new coronavirus case on Friday. According to the bulletin issued by the Punjab government, the lone new patient from the state was an Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel from Ludhiana, taking Punjab tally of Covid cases to 2,029.
Six RPF personnel posted in Ludhiana tested positive on Friday. Of them, three are natives of Haryana (Karnal, Sonipat, Faridabad) and one each from Jammu, Punjab (Jalandhar) and Himachal Pradesh (Kangra). Till now, 45 personnel from the 6th Battalion (Delhi), three from 15th Battalion (Udhampur) and nine from RPF Ludhiana post have tested positive in Ludhiana, a total of 57 personnel.
Meanwhile, the recovery rate of the state further improved to 91 per cent as 1,847 Covid patients have recovered. The number of active cases further reduced to 143. Punjab has reported 39 Covid deaths so far. Of 62,399 samples, 55,777 have tested negative and results of 4,593 are awaited. (Express News Service)
The number of coronavirus cases in Pune crossed the 5,000 mark on Friday. As many as 358 new cases were detected on a single day, taking the number of patients to 5,167. A total of 15 deaths due to the infection were reported on Friday, with the toll climbing to 257.
Of the 15 deaths, six took place on Friday, and the deceased included a 90-year-old man and a 93-year-old man. The 90-year-old, from Yerawada, was admitted on May 15 to Jehangir Hospital. The 93-year-old man from Bhawani Peth was admitted on May 14 at Inlaks and Budhrani Hospital. Read more here
Urging Governors to open churches across states, US President Donald Trump Friday declared places of worship as essential places that provide essential services. The US is under a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus that has so far claimed over 95,000 lives in the country.
A flyover in Jalandhar has becomes home to hundreds of migrants for the past ten days in hope of getting a nod to enter a Covid screening centre which the last stop for Shramik train journey. This screening centre just across the road is where Shramik train tickets are issued after medical check-up.
Near this flyover at the Pathankot bypass on National Highway-1 in Jalandhar, there are no public toilets and no facility for washing hands. But over the last 10 days, makeshift huts have come up. Read more here
Amid the spread of coronavirus, Punjab is bracing up for locust attack after warning by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of possible egg-laying of locusts and swarm attack in eight districts of Punjab bordering Rajasthan and Pakistan.The fears have been confounded after a swarm attacked crops in Gharsana in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, 125 km from Punjab’s Fazilka during the last few days.
The agriculture department of the state has sounded an alarm to all districts bordering Rajasthan and Pakistan after FAO warnings and attack in the neighbouring Rajasthan.
Kanchan Vasdev reports from Chandigarh
A day after the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation allowed shops at market places to open, confusion prevailed among shopkeepers in Pimpri market about which parts of the market were allowed to be open on day one. The few customers who turned up did wear masks but didn’t bother keeping a distance from each other.
In an order issued on Thursday, Pimpri-Chinchwd Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar had allowed opening of all shops, including salons, beauty parlours and garages, from 9 am to 5 pm. The order also allowed all key markets in the twin city, where non-essential shops sell an array of articles and clothes, to re-open.
Raja Sawant, a local activist, said,”PCMC did a good thing by allowing Pimpri market to open. For the last two months, the shopkeepers and their families have suffered a lot. But since it was the first day, social distancing was not observed. We will be going around the market tomorrow and trying to spread awareness about social distancing”.
Addressing a meeting of 22 opposition parties to discuss the situation arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, Congress president Sonia Gandhi came down heavily on the government and accused it of functioning unilaterally.
“The government has abandoned any pretence of being democratic and all power is now concentrated in only one office — the PMO,” Gandhi said in the meeting held via video-conferencing.
Stating that “the spirit of federalism, which is an integral part of our Constitution, is all but forgotten”, Gandhi said there is no indication either as regards whether Parliament or its standing committees will be summoned to meet to discuss the situation.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan took charge as the chairman of the WHO Executive Board on Friday and asserted that a worldwide crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for strengthening global partnerships to re-energise investment in global public health.
Vardhan’s elevation to the chairmanship of the 34-member World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board comes amid growing calls, including by US President Donald Trump, to investigate how coronavirus originated in China’s Wuhan city and subsequent action by Beijing.
Tensions are running high within the UN health body after Trump warned WHO that he would reconsider America’s membership and “permanently freeze” the body’s funding if it does not demonstrate its “independence” from China in the next 30 days.
Of the over 2,800 labourers working for the Pune Metro project in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, nearly 1,600 have left for their home states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar Jharkhand and West Bengal in the last 15 days, since Shramik Special trains and buses started plying. But officials of Maha-Metro, the implementing agency for the project, said Metro work will continue despite the departure of hundreds of workers.
“The work will slow down for sure. But we will not stop the work, it will continue,” Maha-Metro spokesperson Hemant Sonawane told The Indian Express on Thursday.
Maha-Metro officials said they tried to convince the workers to stay back, but they refused to do so. “We held several round of meetings with them. We urged them to stay as Metro had ensured all facilities for them, besides taking care of their health. We even urged them to go back in batches… however, they refused to heed our pleas. We don’t know the exact reason but we guess… they wanted to be with their loved ones at this point of time,” said Sonawane.
Despite the Karnataka government attempting to close down one of Bengaluru’s biggest camps sheltering nearly 6,000 migrant workers since May 4 by putting them on trains to their home states or convincing them to return to their workplaces, groups of migrant workers continue to arrive at the camp.
The number of workers at the camp at the Bengaluru International Exhibition Centre – a sprawling convention facility converted into an emergency camp for migrant workers on May 4 after large numbers of migrant workers began thronging railway stations in Bengaluru in the hope of catching trains home – has dwindled but workers continue to arrive at the centre.
As the number of COVID-19 cases increased in Manipur, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has appealed to the people not to panic asserting that his government is fully prepared to tackle the situation. Stating that all necessary precautionary and preventive measures are in place, the Chief Minister said the primary task of the state is to prevent community spread of the disease. “All the positive cases so far detected in the state are imported and there has been no single report of further spread of the virus these cases. This is possible due to the cooperation of the people who strictly adhere to advisories and guidelines issued by the Centre, ICMR and state”, he said.
The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state has increased to 26 on Friday with one more tested positive for the virus. The 22 year old from Churachandpur district had returned from Delhi by road. With the latest positive case, the number of active cases stands at 24. All those who have tested positive are returnees.
Singh said that the number of tests conducted at the laboratories in RIMS and JNIMS has been increased to over 200 per day against the earlier around 100 samples a day. The state government is planning to further increase the testing to 1500 samples daily. This was done in view of the government’s plans to commence domestic flights amid the evacuation by the train and road, Singh added. He said that a total of 700-800 samples are being collected every day and as such the number of freezers storing samples has also been increased.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Friday allowed home delivery of liquor in Mumbai, except in containment zones. The civic body, however, said over-the-counter sale of liquor will not be allowed.
This comes a week after the Maharashtra government allowed liquor to be home delivered in the state barring certain districts in Mumbai, Aurangabad and Beed.
“E-commerce platforms may be utilised by the liquor shops permitted to do home delivery,” said the BMC order.
The sale of liquor was earlier completely banned in the city, which is among the worst affected by Covid-19.
Mumbai recorded 1,751 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day jump so far, pushing its tally above 27,000.
On Friday, Assam reported 46 fresh cases of COVID-19. The bulk of the cases were reported from the Sarusajai Quarantine Centre in Guwahati where hundreds of people returning to the state are currently being kept. “Alert ~ In the biggest one-time spike in cases, 26 cases are confirmed #COVID19 +. They are all from Sarusajai Quarantine Centre” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Friday. Earlier in the day, cases were reported from Cachar, Tezpur and Jorhat districts. All had travel history and were already in quarantine. Total reported cases in Assam are now at 256, with 195 active cases and four deaths.
Claiming that people in Gujarat are following social distancing norms and wearing masks, the state government on Friday said that it was keen to give more relaxations in the coming days.
Ashwani Kumar, Secretary to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, said that there has been “a lot of improvement” regarding the crowding scenes witnessed on Monday. “People are following social distancing norms and almost all of them are wearing masks… The government is keen to give more relaxations in the coming days,” Kumar said.
The official said that the shops selling essential items and services need not follow the “odd-even” rule which is applicable to other shops and can remain open everyday. “Similarly, petrol pumps on highways do not have to follow the 8 am-6 pm timings and can remain open for longer hours,” he said.
As flights begin operations this Monday, passengers will no longer be required to get their tickets physically verified or go through frisking.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which handles security at all major airports in the country, has worked out a system of contactless ticket verification and security check where adequate distance between passengers and security personnel would be maintained at all times.
Now, there will be a glass partition at all airports between the CISF personnel and passengers at the gate. “The passengers will be required to show their tickets and IDs from across this barrier. At certain airports such as Hyderabad, technology is available for bar code reading or blowing up the ticket and ID on a screen through use of cameras. There even further distance can be maintained,” CISF DG Rajesh Ranjan told The Indian Express.
The Longding district administration in Arunachal Pradesh has restricted movement of people from Assam, after Sonari town in that state reported two new COVID-19 cases, officials said. The district has proximity to Assam through Sonari town in Sibsagar district. Longding Deputy Commissioner Chesta Yadav, in an order issued on Friday, prohibited unauthorised entry of labourers and other people from Assam following the reports of the fresh coronavirus cases on Thursday. The order also said no pass would be issued to any individual for travel to Assam and back, except for medical emergencies. -- PTI
Two police stations have been sealed partially after a head constable was tested positive for COVID-19. According to police, the infected head constable was overseeing the arrangements to quarantine people who came from Mumbai.
"Yes," Superintendent of Police of Mandya district Parashurama K told PTI when asked about the head constable
being tested positive for COVID-19. He said the two police stations have been sealed to disinfect them. -- PTI
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday allowed the home delivery of liquor in Mumbai except in the containment zones.
The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it has reached an agreement with authorities in Ukraine to allocate USD 5 billion to help the country cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.
This will ensure that Ukraine is well-poised to return to growth and resume broader reform efforts when the crisis ends. The arrangement is also expected to catalyze additional bilateral and multilateral financial support, said Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, the IMF official at the helm of the negotiations with Ukraine.
She added that the agreement with Ukraine was reached on staff level and requires approval by the IMF executive board.
Earlier this year, Ukraine adopted laws lifting the ban on the sale of farmland and preventing former owners of nationalised or liquidated banks from regaining ownership or receiving state compensation.
A week after the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) allowed resumption of industrial activities, four workers in the workshop of a German MNC tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday. PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar said they have taken up disinfecting the premises and a decision about the matter will be taken after studying the matter.
Last week, Hardikar had allowed the resumption of industries with just 33 per cent man power. Units were not allowed to get their employees from outside the boundary of the civic body and workers had to maintain social distancing while working. Mask, sanitisers were to become permanent features. Hardikar, while interacting with the media and industry had said in case Covid positive patients were found on the premises, decision about closure or seal would be taken after studying the situation. The commissioner had hinted that a portion of the workshop would be sealed and rigorous contact tracing would be undertaken on the premises. The civic body had not ruled out complete closure also if the need the arises.
Hardikar confirmed that they have received the test reports of four employees of the company which had resumed operations on Friday. The company in question had undertaken elaborate sanitisation and social distancing norms to protect their workers. “We have received the reports in the afternoon. Sanitisation of the premises will be undertaken and further decision will be taken after due consideration,” he said.
In a country of over 1.15 lakh coronavirus infections, the serene and calm islands of the union territory (UT) of Lakshadweep remain an outlier with no positive cases so far. Nagaland and Sikkim are the two other Covid-free states.
Health officials of the UT, whose 64,000 population is highly dependent on Kerala for their medical needs, attribute the success so far to early preparedness, mandatory testing of its residents and strict quarantine. The achievement is especially remarkable as there had been constant movement of people and essential supplies between Kerala and the islands till mid-March.
“Very early on, we had started restricting the entry of people, beginning with the foreign tourists and then the domestic tourists. We subsequently stopped all passengers. When the lockdown was imposed, the people of Lakshadweep who wanted to come back were all tested for Covid through RT-PCR in Kochi and Mangalore. We brought them back only if they tested negative. All of them tested negative,” said Dr S Sundaravadivelu, the health secretary in Lakshadweep.
The Karnataka government Friday decided to bear the travel cost of migrant workers in the state going back to their home towns in Shramik Special trains till May 31.
“The Government has considered the plea of migrant workers who were unable to bear the travel expenditure to go back to their hometown. The government considers migrant workers, who have come from far-flung parts of our country, as our own people and it is my firm belief that they too must be supported by the State,” Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said in a tweet.
Welcoming the move, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President D K Shivakumar said, “Thank you CM Yediyurappa for favourably considering the Congress party’s demands to take up the cause of our nation builders.”
More than 10,200 people — including children between the ages of five and 12 and adults over 70 — will be enrolled for the second phase of clinical trials to develop a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, the University of Oxford has said in a statement.
The first phase of trials was initiated in April and involved 1,000 healthy adults aged 55 and under. While a trial of the vaccine on monkeys was allegedly successfully completed, the scientists behind the vaccine have said that this does not confirm whether it will work on humans.
The second phase of the study aims to assess the immune response to the vaccine in people of different age groups. The third phase will judge the effectiveness of the vaccine in a large number of people over the age of 18, researchers at the University of Oxford have said.
Students residing in the containment zones will not be allowed to appear in the Karnataka SSLC exams scheduled to be held from June 25. State Education Minister S Suresh Kumar today said, “We will not conduct SSLC examinations for students residing in containment zones. They will be instead treated as fresh candidates and will be allowed to attend the exams later.
A section of the Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders stranded abroad would now be able to travel back to India as the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday relaxed the travel restrictions for certain categories of these OCIs specified by the ministry.
According to the MHA notification, the categories of the cardholders who would be permitted to travel to India are:
A total of 597 people have recovered from Covid-19 infection in Karnataka so far. With 138 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the number of positive cases has risen to 1,743.
Twelve people tested positive for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on Friday, taking the number of cases in the state to 165, officials said here. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 102. Fifty-three of these are from Hamirpur, 28 from Kangra, five each from Solan and Bilaspur, four from Mandi, two each from Sirmaur, Una and Chamba, and one from Kullu, the officials said. Four patients were also discharged in Kangra during the day, taking the number of those who have recovered from the disease so far to 59, they added. -- PTI
Five more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar on Friday, taking the number of cases in the district to 307, officials said. Also, five people, including an 80-year-old woman, were discharged from hospitals after recovery from COVID-9, the officials said.
District Surveillance Officer Sunil Dohare said 62 test results were obtained from the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and 10 from the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) on Thursday, while others were from private labs.
"All results from GIMS were negative. One from NIB was found positive, while five from private laboratories were also found positive," he said. -- PTI
Even by a simple model, at least 14-29 lakh coronavirus cases and between 37,000 and 71,000 deaths have been averted, said the Centre Friday, highlighting how India has been able to contain the virus through early implementation of nationwide lockdown.
In a routine press briefing to apprise media about the coronavirus situation in the country, Praveen Srivastava, a senior officer with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), said the government has shared publicly available data with independent experts to model the impact of lockdown, adding that “in pandemic like this there are no parallels to compare”.
“Two independent economists have estimated that we have averted 23 lakh cases and 68,000 deaths. According to some retired scientists about 15.9 lakh cases and 51,000 deaths have been avoided, my ministry worked with Indian Statistical Institute and found 20 lakh cases were averted,” said Srivastava. “The way we are opening up economy, the way people are sensitised, it will have significant impact,” he added.
Lockdown cannot go on forever, its meant for a purpose which we have achieved to a very large extent. Now we have to make things difficult for the virus, said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. "It is unethical, immoral to stigmatise the disease, please ensure early care seeking, handwashing etc. This is a long haul not of weeks and months. Goal will be to stop the spread with minimum deaths, he added.
Aarogya Setu is our kavach to save ourselves, do disease surveillance fight the virus. Over 10 crore people have downloaded it, said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul.
In less than two months we have 1,093 facilities with 1,85,306 beds; 2402 facilities with 1,38652 beds with oxygen facility. "It has been used only in some places but preparation is national", said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. He added there are 6.5 lakh beds in the facilities where patients are just kept for observation. Seven companies have started production of testing kits. "Our indigenous kit production capacity is going to become 5 lakh per day in the coming days, Dr Paul added.
"Globally 80% of cases in 5 countries and 90% in ten countries. We have limited the virus by the Union govt, state govt and people; 60% of our cases in five cities, 70% in ten cities", said Niti Aayog member Dr V K Paul. He added that there is a big gain made in the preparations that we have made in the lockdown period for the future.
The growth rate of COVID19 cases has witnessed a steady fall from April 3, 2020 when the lockdown was able to put a brake on the speed of growth. The number of cases today would have been much higher, had lockdown not been implemented, said VK Paul, Chairman of Empowered Group 1.
In today's evening briefing, the Union Health Ministry said that 3,234 patients have recovered in last 24 hours. 48,534 COVID-19 patients, which is about 41 per cent of total cases, have recovered so far.
According to Boston Consulting Group, cases could have been 36 lakh-70 lakh without the lockdown, the Public health Foundation of India shows 78,183 deaths have been avoided, said Praveen Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. He added that two independent economists have estimated that we have averted 23 lakh cases and 68,000 deaths. Even by a simple model, 14-29 lakh cases have been averted, deaths averted vary between 37,000 and 71,000, he said.
Doubling time has slowed down from 3.5 days to 13.5 days because of the lockdown, said Niti Aayog's Dr V K Paul. He added that the growth rate of the virus was controlled by the country. "You can imagine how it would have been if growth had continued at 22%", he said. The effect of Lockdown 2 was visible till May 15; deaths were increasing at a faster rate. There is clear difference between pre and post lockdown, he added.
Key points from the presser:
Key points from the presser:
Karnataka government will bear the travel cost of all migrant workers and stranded people to their respective states in Shramik Special Trains up to May 31.
Two women tested positive for COVID 19 on Friday pushing the tally of the number of active cases up to 19, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao said.
One woman (43) had returned to Puducherry from Chennai and been admitted to the Indira Gandhi Government medical college hospital after she tested positive for the pandemic, the Minister told reporters. The other woman (46) was now in quarantine in Chennai after she tested positive for the infection. Although she is in Chennai she is enlisted as a patient in the number of cases of Puducherry region.
With this the number of active cases in the union territory has risen to 15. -- PTI
Amid the devastation that has been caused by COVID-19 — social and economic — what’s relatively untold is that it also tipped the world of performing arts on its axis. Art and artistes almost immediately fell into the ‘non-essential category’ and several artistes saw their livelihoods wiped out in just a few hours. While some classical artistes are organising online concerts and attempting to adopt a more modern approach to teaching an extremely traditional art form, the trauma of the pandemic has put several others in a very difficult position.
Performing artistes are the bulwarks of the cultural history of any country and integral to the national, economic and social fabric of a nation. In recent months, countries such as Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have announced funds and aid packages for their cultural sector, which is being equated with national heritage. In India, so far, there has been no concentrated effort in the same direction. While the zonal offices of Sangeet Natak Akademies have reached out to some folk and tribal artistes who are registered with them, the situation is particularly grim for artistes who are not government employees or affiliated to Sangeet Natak Akademies of the various states — many of them include instrument makers, nadaswaram players in temples, sound and light technicians, instrument tuners, music teachers who teach from home, accompanying artistes, theatre artistes, dancers, costume designers, make-up artistes among others.
Former White House butler Wilson Roosevelt Jerman, who served under 11 United States presidents, has succumbed to COVID-19, as per reports. The long-serving employee began working in the White House in 1957 under then-President Dwight D Eisenhower, and retired in 2012 during Barack Obama’s presidential tenure.
Tributes from former first families poured in after the demise of the 91-year-old retired White House butler was announced by his granddaughter Shanta Taylor Gay. “With his kindness and care, Wilson Jerman helped make the White House a home for decades of First Families, including ours,” former First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement to NBC News.
“Bill and I were saddened to hear of the passing of Wilson Roosevelt Jerman at the age of 91 from COVID-19. Jerman served as a White House butler across 11 presidencies and made generations of first families feel at home, including ours. Our warmest condolences to his loved ones,” Hillary Clinton tweeted.
The Railways has ferried over 31 lakh migrant workers on board 2,317 Shramik Special trains since May 1, almost seven lakh more than the initial projection of 24 lakh, according to official data.
The initial estimation of migrant workers to be transported back to their home towns were based on details provided by various state governments to the zonal offices of the Railways in late April when it was deciding on protocols to run the special trains, officials said. However, the national transporter said that it does not have current details of the total numbers of stranded migrant labourers who want to return to their homes and are operating trains based on the requirements of the states.
The Shramik Special trains are being operated primarily on the requests of the states which want to send the migrant workers to their home states. The Railways is bearing 85 per cent of the total cost of running each of the trains while the share of the states is 15 per cent. -- PTI
As the number of COVID-19 cases steadily surges past the 5 million mark globally, and health experts across the world work frantically towards finding a cure, a top US scientist has warned that a vaccine may not be developed in the near future.
William Haseltine, the scientist behind groundbreaking research on cancer, HIV/AIDS and human genome projects, has said that governments must be cautious while lifting and easing lockdown measures as a vaccine to combat the illness may not be possible in the near future. He advised countries to enforce strict contact tracing and self-isolation mechanisms.
“While a COVID-19 vaccine could be developed, I wouldn’t count on it,” Haseltine told Reuters. Previously developed vaccines for other types of coronavirus had failed to protect the mucous membranes in the nose — which is the area through which the virus enters the body, Haseltine said. Read more here
The MHA order allowed the following categories of OCI cardholders, who are stranded abroad, to come to India:
(i) Minor children born to Indian nationals abroad and holding OCI cards.
(ii) OCI cardholders who wish to come to India on account of family emergencies like death in family.
(iii) Couples where one spouse is an OCI cardholder and the other is an Indian national and they have a permanent residence in India.
(iv) University students who are OCI cardholders (not legally minors) but whose parents are Indian citizens living in India.
The Indian government on Friday allowed OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) cardholders to travel to the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. India has attached certain conditions while allowing OCI cardholders to come to the country. Minors, students, spouses and cardholders have been given the relaxation.
Taiwan's unemployment rate hit 4.1% in April, a more than six-year high, the government announced on Friday, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll on the export-dependent economy.April's jobless rate was the highest since December 2013.Taiwan's government is rolling out an economic stimulus package that will eventually be worth T$1.05 trillion ($34.98 billion), including a T$30,000 wage subsidy for workers whose income was impacted by the virus and interest-free personal mortgages of up to T$100,000.Unemployed workers are entitled to claim 60% of their monthly income, as well as subsidies of up to T$24,000 for their children's tuitions.Taiwan's largest carrier, China Airlines, in April announced a three-month pay cut of 15% to 25% for all employees starting from May, to reduce costs as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic weighs on the aviation industry.
Congress leader Sanjay Jha said on Friday he has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and will self- quarantine for the next 10 days. “I have tested positive for Covid-19. As I am asymptomatic I am in home quarantine for the next 10-12 days (sic),” Sanjay Jha tweeted. "Please don’t underestimate transmission risks, we are all vulnerable. Do take care all,” the Congress spokesperson said.
Advising Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to shun political drama over COVID-19, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday they should instead become part of 'team India' to fight the pandemic as an united force. "These people (opposition leaders) have to only put blame on the Centre for anything. They indulge in theatrics ('unhe sirf natak karna hai'). There should not be any political drama at least during coronavirus pandemic-like situations," PTI quoted Chouhan as saying. Chouhan hit out at Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, accusing her of "doing drama" by offering buses to the Uttar Pradesh administration for ferrying the migrants.
A day after the Congress-led Rajasthan government sent a bill of over Rs 36 lakh for facilitating the return of stranded students of Uttar Pradesh from Kota, the Yogi Adityanath government cleared the dues on Friday, an official said. Amid the controversy over Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi's offer to provide 1,000 buses to ferry migrant labourers in Uttar Pradesh, the Rajasthan government had on Thursday sent a bill of Rs 36.36 lakh for sending Kota students back home in Uttar Pradesh amid the lockdown. "In mid-April, the Uttar Pradesh government had decided to bring students of UP stranded in Kota due to lockdown back home. Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses were deployed for bringing them back, but the number of students there was more than our estimate and we needed additional buses," UPSRTC Managing Director Raj Shekhar said. --PTI
Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Friday accused the UP government of doing petty politics over the issue of buses for migrants, while another state minister demanded that Yogi Adityanath be booked for allegedly defying the Centre's orders on plying of vehicles. Rajasthan Transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas said the UP chief minister first gave clearance for entry of buses but later created "hurdles" by saying that permit and fitness of buses was not valid. -- PTI
Travel firm Thomas Cook India on Friday welcomed the government's decision to resume domestic commercial passenger flights from May 25 and said it will provide impetus to tourism in the country. About a third of domestic flight operations will resume from May 25 under strict norms. All commercial passenger flights were suspended with effect from March 25, when the country came under a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. "We welcome the government's announcement to reopen domestic commercial passenger flights in a calibrated manner commencing May 25, 2020. We believe that the government's detailed guidelines/SOPs will serve well to address essential Health and Safety protocols," Thomas Cook (India)Chairman and MD Madhavan Menon said in a statement. -- PTI
At least 25 COVID-19 patients, who are in a semi-critical condition at Pune's government-run Sassoon General Hospital, will be administered tocilizumab, a drug which has proven effective in treating the infection, an official said on Friday. The new drug, an injection which costs around Rs 20,000, will be given to 25 patients in the first phase and depending on the results, the Pune Municipal Corporation will decide on its further use, municipal commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said. A special task force of specialist doctors, set up under the chairmanship of Dr D B Kadam, recommended tocilizumab for COVID-19 patients in case their condition worsens, he said. -- PTI
Nepal reported 30 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking the total number of infections in the country to 487. The coronavirus has so far claimed three lives in the country, which continues to impose a nation-wide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. The Health and Population Ministry on Friday said another 21 COVID-19 patients had fully recovered and discharged from hospitals. The total number of coronavirus recovery cases stand at 70. Of the 30 new COVID-19 cases, nine were from Kapilvastu district -- eight men aged between 24 and 53 and an eight-year-old girl, the ministry said. --PTI