Migrant labourers stand in queue to undergo medical tests before boarding Shramik Special trains to return to their home states, on Friday(Express Photo: Gurmeet Singh)
The death of 16 migrant labourers who were mowed down by an empty freight train in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad district brought the focus back to the plight of migrant workers, rendered unemployed and homeless, since a nationwide lockdown was announced to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The workers, who were walking to Bhusawal from Jalna to board a “Shramik Special” train to return to Madhya Pradesh, were sleeping on the railway line when the mishap occurred between Badnapur and Karmad stations in Nanded Division.
The empty train was heading from Cherlapally Station near Hyderabad to Panewadi Station near Manmad in Nashik. The motormen tried to bring the train to a halt but failed to do so, an official said.
The move comes almost three weeks after the ICMR on April 13 had issued a tender asking Central PSUs to act as Procurement Agency for essential supplies related to the COVID19 testing
In another news, public sector unit HLL Infra Tech Services Limited under the Ministry of Health of Family Welfare on Friday began issuing tenders on behalf of Indian Council of Medical Research for the supply of testing kits, in a major shift with respect to the procurement of testing kits in India for COVID19.
The move comes almost three weeks after the ICMR on April 13 had issued a tender asking Central PSUs to act as Procurement Agency for essential supplies related to the COVID19 testing. The April 13 decision of the ICMR had come after the agency has come under the scanner over the delay in the procurement of testing kits.
On Friday, Procurement & Consultancy Services Division of HITES, on behalf of ICMR - invited an e-tender for three medical types of equipment: RT-PCR kits, RNA extraction kits, and Viral Media Transport. The tender has been issued for a supply of 29,00,000 RT-PCR kits, 33,00,000 RNA extraction kits, and 40,00,000 Viral Media Transport.
The decision to rope in a specialised PSU for procurement of testing kits also comes in the backdrop of the ICMR increasing the testing capacity to 1 lakh tests per day by the end of June.
A visitor looks inside his bag of donated food for people in need in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The fallout of the novel coronavirus is taking a toll on developed economies. An unprecedented 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate in the US jumped to 14.7 per cent, the highest level since the Great Depression, as the coronavirus pandemic severely curtailed operations in the world's largest economy.
The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7 per cent from just 4.4 per cent in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5 per cent in February before the US was hit by the virus.
Covid-19 has so far claimed 1,981 lives in the country. (Reuters)
The state government Saturday announced that it will provide free bus services within Maharashtra to take migrant workers and other persons, including tourists and students, stranded in various parts of the state, except in Covid-19 containment zones, due to the nationwide lockdown. Read more here
On his first day in office after taking charge as the Mumbai municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal asked officials to ramp up contact-tracing in slum pockets, implement isolation aggressively and move more high-risk contacts to institutional quarantine. Read more here
Maharashtra’s Covid-19 count crossed the 20,000 mark on Saturday with 1,165 new cases. The total case count in the state is now 20,228. The state also recorded its highest single-day death toll at 48, taking the total count to 779. An assistant sub-inspector was among those who died. Read more here
A Covid19 positive patient, who is currently undergoing treatment at the GMERS hospital in Gotri in Vadodara, has delivered a baby boy. The 35-year-old patient was in her last weeks of pregnancy when she was diagnosed with Covid19 and shifted to GMERS on May 2.
A release from the district administration stated that the baby boy was born on Saturday afternoon and weighed 2.7 kilograms. "Usually, as per protocol, a pregnant Covid19 patient is advised a cesarean section for safety but the doctors of the gynaecology department ensured that the patient comfortably delivered the child through natural labour."
The mother and child are doing well, the release stated, adding that the baby has been tested for Covid19 among other vital tests for newborns as per the protocol.
At least 50 migrants from Uttar Pradesh working on the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metrorail project here are restive and waiting to go home. The project is being executed by the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation, a 50-50 joint venture between the Centre and the Gujarat government. Read more here
An alert loco-pilot of a goods train averted a mishap on Friday evening in Pune district after he applied emergency brakes to bring the train to halt about 100 metres from 20 labourers who were walking on the tracks. The incident took place the same day as the mishap in Aurangabad district, when 16 migrant labourers were killed on the railway tracks. Read More
AIIMS Director and renowned pulmonologist Dr Randeep Guleria, who reached Ahmedabad to take stock of the COVID-19 situation, said that lockdown cannot be an indefinite strategy and community participation will be the way ahead.
He observed that the high mortality rate in Gujarat could be because of the issues of late reporting of symptoms due to the stigma attached to the disease. Read More
Close to 6,000 migrant workers left Mumbai in five Shramik Special trains on Saturday with two more train, carrying another 2,000 workers, were preparing to leave. This was the highest number of trains to leave in a single day, so far. Of the five, at least two left from CSMT for the first time following a nationwide lockdown while a third one from CSMT is being planned. Read More
Chaos ensued at the Sama Sports Complex in Vadodara on Saturday afternoon as over 1,500 migrants, slated to board two different trains to Uttar Pradesh, gathered at the venue for their designated “medical screening.” The confusion, senior officials in the administration said, happened when a group that was to board a special train to Jaunpur in UP, had arrived to be screened. Around the same time, another group of migrant labourers, who were to board a train to Gorakhpur later on Saturday night, also arrived at the venue to be screened as messages of the camp went viral among migrants in the city. Read more here
Seventeen persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura on Saturday, raising the total number of COVID cases in state to 136, out of which 132 are active. All of the new patients are from Border Security Force (BSF) 86 battalion at Ambassa in Dhalai district, where 49 patients were confirmed earlier.
117 coronavirus patients were found positive till Friday from 138 battalion and 86 battalion alone while a civilian truck driver was confirmed to be carrying the virus yesterday as well.
Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath told reporters this evening that even as the MoHFW has instructed all states to mandate corona testing only for severe patients before discharging them, those in mild and very mild category would not need to undergo the test.
In Tripura, only two out of all the active cases are symptomatic and the rest are asymptomatic.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday said that the PM-CARES fun has received huge contributions from PSUs & major public utilities like the Railways, adding that it is "important to ensure that the fund is audited" and that "record of money received and spent is available to the public".
Noida on Saturday reported its second Covid-19 related death after a 62-year-old man died due to a cardio-respiratory attack. Earlier, a 60-year-old man had died on Friday after he succumbed to a cardiac arrest. Till Friday, the district had reported 216 positive cases.
The Indian Council of Medical Research in a statement Saturday announced its partnership with Bharat Biotech International Limited to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine will be developed using virus strain isolated at ICMR's National Institute of Virology, Pune, the body said in a statement.
Here are the top developments of the day:
*With India entering its 46th day of the lockdown, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said the testing capacity for COVID-19 has been scaled up to around 95,000 tests per day and a total of 15,25,631 tests had been conducted so far across 332 government and 121 private laboratories.
*Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the testing capacity for Covid-19 across the country has been scaled up to around 95,000 tests per day.
*Several migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha working at Surat’s Hazira industrial belt came on to the streets in Mora village, demanding that they are sent back to their home states, and clashed with the police.
*Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a letter to West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee has said that the state government is creating further hardships for migrants by not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach the state.
*Two Indians repatriated from the Gulf as part of ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ to bring home Indians stranded abroad have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The two new patients, flown from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Kozhikode and Kochi respectively, were among the 363 who landed in Kerala on special flights Thursday.
*Days after announcing a number of measures to relax the lockdown norms for industries, Tamil Nadu on Saturday came out with many more decisions to relax certain lockdown measures in non-containment areas in the state. From May 11 all private establishments can function with 33 per cent strength between 10:30 am and 6 pm in Greater Chennai Police limits and 10 am to 7 pm in the rest of the state.
*The Assam government has decided to increase the excise duty on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by 25 per cent.
*In a decision that will cut down India’s need for Covid-19 testing kits, the Ministry of Health in a late-night direction on Friday, said that mild and moderate cases do not need to be tested prior to discharge. As per the earlier policy, patients had to test negative twice prior to discharge.
The Godhra police on Saturday booked 11 persons, including a Covid-19 recovered man, and another group of about 50 persons for allegedly gathering to celebrate his return from the hospital.
Two jawans of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Ludhiana. They had come from Delhi for duty, and were in quarantine since May 7.
Days after announcing a number of measures to relax the lockdown norms for industries, Tamil Nadu on Saturday came out with many more decisions to relax certain lockdown measures in non-containment areas in the state. Relaxations that come in effect from May 11 said all private establishments can function with 33% strength between 10:30 am and 6 pm in Greater Chennai Police limits and 10 am and 7 pm in the rest of the state.
A recent announcement by the University of Oxford that researchers there had started testing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has raised hopes. Over the last few weeks, there have also been somewhat conflicting reports about the performance of a drug candidate, remdesivir, while Israel has announced a breakthrough in another possible line of treatment, that with antibodies.
Click here to read about the vaccine candidates around the world, including the one announced by the University of Oxford.
On May 1, 2020, the first train carrying migrant labourers set off from Lingampally in Telangana for Hatia in Jharkhand with necessary precautions implemented, including social distancing at the station. The government has estimated that it would need to run at least 500 trains to help migrants across the country return to their home states. Nine days on and dozens of trains later, however, some workers are still choosing to go home on foot.
Click here to see more pictures.
The West Bengal government is arranging special trains to bring back over 30,000 residents of the state stranded in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab due to the ongoing lockdown, a senior official told PTI Saturday. The stranded people are mostly migrant workers, patients and their attendants, students, pilgrims and tourists from West Bengal, he said.
This comes hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah Saturday accused the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government of not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach the state.
Referring to the ‘Shramik Special’ trains that are being operated by the Centre to facilitate transport of migrant workers from different parts of the country to various destinations, Shah said in the letter that the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants workers to reach home
Ten days after Delhi Police deployed imported drone cameras with night vision and an announcement system in south district, the first case of violation of the lockdown caught by the camera has been filed. Early Friday night, the camera which hovered over the Saket area caught a 33-year-old man out for a walk. The drone operator, who was with police personnel watching this, then announced,"Itni raat ko kyu ghoom rahe ho yaha pe? Lockdown chal raha hai, pata nahi hai aapko? Yeh green t-shirt waale ladke, ruko. (Why are you roaming around so late at night? Do you not know there is a lockdown? Green t-shirt guy, stop)."
Kerala reported two new Covid-19 cases on Saturday while one person recovered, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said. The two new cases are from Kozhikode and Kochi and both the patients recently returned from Gulf—one from Dubai and another from Abu Dhabi—on Thursday as part of the Vande Bharat Mission. At present, there are only 17 Covid patients under treatment in Kerala.
An Air India flight carrying 129 Indian nationals from Dhaka, Bangladesh has landed at Delhi airport. Click here to follow our live coverage of the Vande Bharat Mission.
Six more people who have tested positive for Coronavirus in Jhajjar have recovered and have been discharged today.
On the global front, the number of coronavirus cases approached 4 million with over 2,75,160 deaths. The US also has the most fatalities from the novel coronavirus at 77,180 deaths, followed by the United Kingdom (31,316) and Italy (30,201).
Top developments
-Brazil death toll cross 10,000 mark
-China reports one new coronavirus case, 15 asymptomatic cases
-Mexico to unveil economic restart next week after coronavirus lockdown
-Britain to quarantine incoming travellers for 14-days
-Indonesia reports 533 new COVID-19 cases, biggest in a day
-Spain's number of Covid-19 cases rises to 2,23,578 on Saturday from 2,22,857
-Kuwait imposes 20-day 'total curfew' from May 10 to curb coronavirus
Odisha saw its highest single-day surge of Coronavirus cases so far, reporting as many as 78 new cases on Friday to take its tally to 287. The state had been reporting low numbers of Coronavirus infections till now, but in the last two days, as many as 107 cases have been discovered, mainly amongst the migrant workers returning from other states, triggering an alarm in Bhubaneswar. Click here to read our explainer.
Despite the imposition of a 70 per cent “special corona fee” on liquor, hundreds of tipplers queued up outside liquor vends in Delhi
As migrant workers head for home across the country, as many as 1.09 lakh from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have applied on a Haryana government web portal to come to the state. Data shows 79.29% have applied to come to Gurgaon, Faridabad, Panipat, Sonipat, Jhajjar, Yamunanagar and Rewari. Little over 50,000 of them want to come to Gurgaon district. These are districts with maximum industrial activities and business establishments in the state. Officials believe the state’s low coronavirus numbers are another factor in the workers seeking to return. Till Friday, Haryana had 647 positive cases, including 14 Italian nationals, and eight deaths. Of the 647 cases, 279 have recovered. READ MORE
China is willing to offer support to North Korea within its ability against the coronavirus epidemic, state television said on Saturday, quoting President Xi Jinping as saying in a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.Xi said he was very concerned about the situation in North Korea and the health of its people, and said he was pleased that its efforts to control the respiratory illness had achieved positive results, state television said.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warned on Friday that economic forecasts could be revised down even further. The IMF’s April projection for a 3% contraction in the global economy would mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. A continuing trade war between the US and China could jeopardize a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, she added.
With no immediate medical solutions, more adverse scenarios might unfortunately materialise for some economies... It is the unknown about the behaviour of this virus that is clouding the horizon for projections,” said Georgieva.
Karnataka to have 60 labs by the end of this month to facilitate more testing. So far, the state has tested over one lakh people. The tally in the state stands at 753 cases and 30 deaths.
Arunachal Pradesh has announced that COVID-19 test is mandatory for anyone who enters the state. “To keep our Arunachal safe from #coronavirus, we have made COVID-19 test 100% mandatory for every person entering the state. Even asymptomatic ones have to undergo test.” tweeted Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu. According to the government, institutional quarantine will be compulsory for students and people coming from outside the state and RT-PCR testing will be 100 per cent mandatory too. The state currently has no active cases.
Meanwhile, under the 'Vande Bharat Mission', there will be total six flights to bring back expatriates from London. Today one flight will arrive in Mumbai.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday that recovery rate in India has climbed to 29.9 per cent. Addressing a press conference, he said, ' Our fatality rate in the country continues to be around 3.3% and the recovery rate has climbed up to 29.9%, these are very good indicators. Doubling rate for last 3 days has been about 11 days, for last 7 days it has been 9.9 days.''We do not anticipate a very worst type of situation in our country like many other developed countries but still we have prepared the whole country for the worst situation,' he added.
Odisha saw its highest single-day surge of Coronavirus cases so far, reporting as many as 78 new cases on Friday to take its tally to 287. The state had been reporting low numbers of Coronavirus infections till now, but in the last two days 107 cases have been discovered, mainly amongst the migrant workers returning from other states, triggering an alarm in Bhubaneswar. More than 80 per cent of the state’s cases, 240 of the 287, are concentrated in the five districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Baleshwar. These are the areas that have received maximum number of returning migrant workers. About 8000 workers have returned to Ganjam in the last few days, and suddenly, the district’s Coronavirus count has shot up. Read more
Kerala on Saturday recorded only 16 active cases. The total number of cases in the state stand at 503. The death toll stands at 4. As thousands of Keralites from red zones in other parts of the country wait to enter the state, the state government has decided to regulate their entry. A decision to make 14-day institutional quarantine mandatory for those travelling from red zone districts was taken Tuesday, a day after the government allowed the entry of such people. Of the 86,679 people who registered with a state government portal, Norka Roots, for an entry pass, 43.17 per cent are from red zones. Of the 45,814 people who got a pass, 19,476 are from red zones. So far, around 8,600 people from COVID-19 hotspots have reached Kerala since Monday, when restrictions were eased. Read more
The coronavirus tally in Delhi on Saturday crossed 6,000-mark to stand at 6,318. The number of coronavirus casualties reported by Lok Nayak Hospital, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College and the Delhi and Jhajjar centres of AIIMS stands at 116, according to data from these hospitals and confirmed by their officials to The Indian Express.
This is higher than the Delhi government’s official Covid-19 death toll. Read more
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the Centre is not getting any support from the West Bengal government. In a letter to West Bengal Chief inister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said that the state is not allowing trains with migrants to reach West Bengal. "Not allowing trains to reach West Bengal, is injustice with migrants. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), The number of active cases stand at 39834 and 17847 have been cured. As of now, Maharashtra has the highest number of infections at 19,063 followed by Gujarat(7,402) and Delhi(6,318).
The Ministe of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday issued revised discharge policy for covid-19 patients. The statement has been issued for patients under three categories. For patients with mild and pre-symptomatic cases, discharge can take place after 10 days of symtom onset and no fever for 3-days.
For moderate cases, patients will be discharged only after resolution of clinical symtoms and ability to maintain oxygen saturation for three consecutive days. For sever cases, patients will be discharged after they test negative by RT-PCR.
The nationwide tally increased to 59,662 on Saturday with 3,320 new cases recorded in 24 hours. The toll also increased by 95 deaths to stand at 1,981.
At the daily briefing on Friday, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said “it is important that we learn to live with the virus and practise behavioural changes”. The doubling time has come down to 10 days, from 12 days on May 5.
Cemetery workers wearing hazmat suits bury the coffin containing the remains of 71-year-old Neide Rodrigues Rosa, who died from the new coronavirus according to her son Sergio Rodrigues, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, May 8, 2020. (AP Photo)
Registered nurses Beth Andrews, top, and Erin Beauchemin work with a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center, in Seattle. (AP Photo)
*Over 45 days into lockdown, Health Ministry says 'learn to live with virus', tally crosses 56,000
*Mike Pence’s press secretary, who is married to one of Donald Trump’s senior advisers, has tested positive for coronavirus.
*Donald Trump has alleged that coronavirus is “going to go away without a vaccine”, but warned there could be “flare ups” next year.
*UK death toll passes 31,000
*Russian cases top 10,000 for sixth consecutive day
*Global cases approach 4 million as US unemployment hits 14.7%
The number of people in Italy who've died with COVID-19 infections has topped 30,000. The Health Ministry registered 243 deaths on Friday, bringing the total of those who died in the country to 30,201. Italy was the first country in Europe with a major outbreak of the coronavirus. Authorities say many more likely died with the infection at home or in nursing homes without being diagnosed. With 1,327 more cases registered in the 24-hour period ending Friday evening, Italy now tallies 217,185 confirmed coronavirus infections. Some 11,000 more people have recovered from the illness than are currently positive for the infection. Lombardy in the north continues to be the hardest-hit region, accounting for nearly one-half of the latest cases registered on Friday. Health and government authorities are concerned that partial easing earlier in the week of some lockdown measures, such as re-opening of public parks and gardens, could see an uptick in contagion if people ignore safety-distance rules.
France's daily coronavirus death toll rebounded on Friday, three days before it starts lifting its almost two-month-old national lockdown.The Health Ministry said 243 people had died of the respiratory illness COVID-19 in the space of 24 hours, compared 178 on Thursday, for a total of 26,230.France has the world's fifth highest death toll, after the United States, Britain, Italy and Spain.The number of people in intensive care units - a measure of the health system's ability to deal with the epidemic - fell by 93 or 3% to 2,868, well below the peak of 7,148 seen on April 8.
The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to launch an app this month to enable people in under-resourced countries to assess whether they may have the novel coronavirus, and is considering a Bluetooth-based contact tracing feature too, an official told Reuters on Friday.The app will ask people about their symptoms and offer guidance on whether they may have COVID-19, the potentially lethal illness caused by the coronavirus, said Bernardo Mariano, chief information officer for the WHO. Other information, such as how to get tested, will be personalized according to the user's country.Though the WHO will release a version on app stores globally, any government will be able to take the app's underlying technology, add features and release its own version on app stores, Mariano said in a phone interview.India, Australia and the United Kingdom already have released official virus apps using their own technology, with common features including telling people whether to get tested based on their symptoms and logging people's movements to enable more efficient contact tracing.
The West Bengal government on Friday said 130 more people tested positive for coronavirus – the highest spike in the last 24 hours. While on Thursday, the total number of cases was 1,548, the figures on Friday stood at 1,678. Read more here
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said his government may seek the deployment of central reserve forces in the state to provide some breather to the overstretched and overworked police personnel. Uddhav also denied that there was any plan to deploy the Army in Mumbai.
Maintaining that many were working under enormous stress for the last two months, Uddhav said that there is a need to provide some relief to such overworked workers. So far, 618 policemen in the state have been infected with COVID-19. Read more here
Maharashtra on Friday recorded 1,089 fresh Covid-19 cases taking the total count in the state to 19,209. Its total death now stands at 731 with 37 new deaths registered on Thursday. Mumbai recorded 748 new cases and 25 deaths taking its total count to 12,288 positive cases and 462 deaths. Read more here
MORE THAN a month after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh announced that 11,000 prisoners will be released to decongest prisons and prevent COVID-19 from spreading in the overcrowded jails, only half that number have been released till date. A notification for the release of the prisoners too has not been issued by the government as yet.
The delay has now come to haunt the administration with at least 103 inmates of Arthur Road jail, one of the most crowded prisons in the country, testing positive for COVID-19. Read more here
Days after a 32-year-old constable died of COVID-19 related complications, Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava created a WhatsApp group — “Let’s fight COVID-DP”— to address grievances of personnel who either tested positive for the virus or are in isolation. The decision comes even as 110 policemen have tested positive and around 150 police personnel home quarantined as of Friday. While interacting with mediapersons via video conferencing Friday, Shrivastava said they are making all arrangements as the situation is changing. Read more here
Mike Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, President Donald Trump said, delaying the vice president’s departure for a trip to Iowa. She is the second person working at the executive residence to contract the virus this week.
The White House did not officially announce Miller’s positive test and she hadn’t been identified as the infected aide until a meeting between Trump and House Republicans. In answer to a question from a reporter about the infected aide, Trump said that Pence’s “press person,” whom he identified as “Katie,” had tested positive after a reporter asked him about it. Read report by Bloomberg
At least 1,886 people have died of COVID-19 and 16,539 have recovered so far, as per the latest figures. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray admitted there has been no success yet in breaking the virus chain in the worst-affected state, while apex industry body CII sought an immediate stimulus package of Rs 15 lakh crore, or 7.5 per cent of the country’s GDP, to help the Indian economy deal with this sudden but “deep distress”.
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