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Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: A 68-year-old patient who had tested positive for COVID-19 had passed away in Pune. The cause of death is reported to be an acute respiratory failure due to ARDS with Myocarditis with COVID-19 infection. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das is expected to meet with bank chiefs on Saturday to take stock of the financial sector and deliberate on steps to be taken to boost industry amid the COVID-19 crisis, sources said.
India reported another surge of COVID-19 cases on Friday with a record 1,755 patients testing positive and 77 people dying from the novel coronavirus that has claimed over 2.33,000 lives and shattered global economies since it originated in China’s Wuhan city in December last year.
The confirmed cases in the country climbed to 35,365 while deaths reached 1,152 as the Center extended the nationwide lockdown till 17 May.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown from 25 March, which was later extended by two more weeks till 4 May to contain the virus spread.
India has been under lockdown since 25 March due to coronavirus. AP
On Friday, the Center announced a third extension but this time, it provided some relaxations for various business activities and people’s movement within areas with limited or no COVID-19 cases.
In fact, on Friday morning, the first train carrying around 1,200 people left Lingampally in Telangana to Hatia in Jharkhand by a 24-coach special train on a pilot basis, while another train carrying migrant workers stranded in Kerala left for Odisha’s Bhubaneswar on Friday night .
Later in the day, the Center announced that states and Union Territories will be able to avail “special train service” to bring stranded migrant workers, students and tourists home, provided they are willing to pay for it and both host and destination governments mutually agree to the movement of the people.
The government on Friday also announced that it has ramped up production of COVID-19 protective gear and medical equipment, giving a boost to its fight against COVID-19 and reducing it dependency on foreign countries for these items which are in high demand globally due to the pandemic.
The Center on Friday said it has placed order for 2.22 crore personal protection equipment (PPE), of which around 1.43 crore will be procured from domestic manufacturers and the rest imported.
Separately, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat announced at a special press briefing, along with the three service chiefs, that the armed forces will express their gratitude to all “corona warriors” on Sunday by conducting fly-pasts, showering petals on hospitals treating COVID-19 patients and illuminating naval vessels.
Besides, the Army will conduct mountain band displays along some COVID-19 hospitals in almost every district.
Rawat also said it is not proper to conclude that the novel coronavirus outbreak is a result of biological warfare.
US president Donald Trump has often claimed that the deadly virus originated from a virology lab, but his comments undercut a rare public statement from his own intelligence community, which stated no such assessment has been made by them, whether the COVID-19 outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.
COVID-19 cases as of Friday
In its 5 pm update, the Health Ministry said the toll due to the novel coronavirus rose to 1,152 with 77 fatalities reported since Thursday evening, while the number of cases saw a record jump of 1,755 to go up to 35,365 cases on Friday.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 25,148 while 9,064 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
“Thus, around 25.63 percent patients have recovered so far,” a health ministry official said.
The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.
A total of 77 deaths were reported since Thursday evening, of which 27 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, 17 from Gujarat, 11 from West Bengal, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, three from Delhi, two from Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and one from Karnataka.
Of the 1,152 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 459 fatalities. Mumbai on Friday recorded 751 new COVID-19 cases, the highest in a day, taking the number of coronavirus positive cases in the city to 7,625, civic officials said.
Gujarat reported 214 deaths, follwed by Madhya Pradesh at 137, Delhi at 59, Rajasthan at 58, Uttar Pradesh at 41 and West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at 33 each.
The death toll reached 27 in Tamil Nadu, 26 in Telangana, while Karantaka has reported 22 deaths.
Punjab has registered 19 fatalities so far. The disease has claimed eight lives in Jammu and Kashmir, four in Kerala while Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.
Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to ministry data.
According to the ministry’s data updated in the evening, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 10,498 followed by Gujarat at 4,395, Delhi at 3,515, Madhya Pradesh at 2,719, Rajasthan at 2,584, Tamil Nadu at 2,323 and Uttar Pradesh at 2,281.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,463 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,039 in Telangana.
The number of cases has risen to 795 in West Bengal, 614 in Jammu and Kashmir, 576 in Karnataka, 497 in Kerala, 426 in Bihar and 357 in Punjab.
Haryana has reported 313 coronavirus infection cases, while Odisha has 143 cases. A total 111 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 57 in Uttarakhand.
Chandigarh has reported 56 cases, Assam has 42 while Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have registered 40 infections each so far.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 33 COVID-19 cases while Ladakh has reported 22 infections so far.
Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, Puducherry has eight cases while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases.
Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,” the ministry said on its website adding, “393 cases are being assigned to states for contact tracing.”
States wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
Center extends lockdown till 17 May, names 130 districts as red zones
While several countries including Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand, Austria and various states of the US have begun easing their respective lockdowns, the MHA on Friday announced that the nationwide lockdown will extended by another two weeks, starting from 4 May, a day after the second phase ends, till 17 May.
The MHA’s announcement came after the Ministry of Health issued a new list of districts categorized into red, orange and green zones depending on the virus-load. The updated list shows 130 districts in red zone, 284 in orange zone and 319 in green zone.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and UTs till 10 May and the will be revised on a weekly basis or earlier if required.
All major urban centers including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have been designated as red zones in the new classification.
Announcing the guidelines to be followed for third phase of the lockdown, the MHA said that some activities such as air travel, rail, metro and inter-state movement by road, running of educational and training institutions, hospitality services, cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums and sports complexes, will remain prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zone.
All social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings and religious places or places of worship for public will also remain shut, as per an order issued by the Union Home Ministry.
Outside the containment zone falling within red zones, certain more activities will be prohibited and these include plying of cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, running of taxis and cab aggregators, intra-district and inter-district plying of buses, as also barber shops, spas and saloons.
Activities allowed in red zones with restrictions would include movement of individuals and vehicles for permitted activities, with a maximum of two persons (besides the driver) in four-wheelers and with no pillion rider in two-wheelers.
E-Commerce activities in red zones are permitted only for essential goods. Private offices can operate with up to 33 percent strength as per requirement, with the remaining persons working from home.
Commercial and private establishments allowed in red zones include print and electronic media, IT and IT enabled services, data and call centers, cold storage and warehousing services, private security and facility management services, and services provided by self-employed persons, except for barbers .
In orange zones, taxis and cab aggregators will also be permitted with one driver and one passenger only, while inter-district movement of individuals and vehicles will be allowed for permitted activities only. Four-wheeler vehicles will have maximum two passengers besides the driver and pillion riding will be allowed on two-wheelers.
In green zones, all activities are permitted except those prohibited throughout the country irrespective of the zone. However buses and bus depots can operate with maximum 50 percent capacity.
MHA allows movement of stranded migrants, students, pilgrims by special trains
On Friday, the MHA also announced that states will be able to use trains for ferrying people stranded due to the nationwide lockdown to their respective states.
Exercising the powers conferred under the Disaster Management Act, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places is allowed by special trains to be operated by the Ministry of Railways (MoR) .
The MoR will designate nodal officers for coordinating with the states and Union territories for their movement, he added
“The MoR will issue detailed guidelines for sale of tickets, and for social distancing and other safety measures to be observed at train stations, platforms and within the trains,” the home secretary said.
These trains will run provided “on request from both the Originating and Destination State Governments”.
News agency PTI quoted railways officials as saying that state governments will be charged the fare of ferrying stranded people in special trains back to their native places.
Joint Secretary in the MHA Punya Salila Srivastava said that states and the Railway Board will make the necessary arrangements for the transportation of stranded people.
Underlining that some problems are cropping up in the movement of trucks and load carriers, Srivastava also said the MHA has again written to the states, reiterating that no separate pass is needed for trucks and load carriers, including the empty vehicles.
Center orders 2.2 crore PPEs; 1.43 crore to be manufactured in India
The Center on Friday said it has placed order for 2.22 crore personal protection equipment (PPE), of which around 1.43 crore will be procured from domestic manufacturers and the rest imported.
“Earlier, there was no domestic manufacturing of PPE in the country and almost all of them were imported. We now have 111 indigenous manufacturers,” said PD Vaghela, the Secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals and Chairman of the Empowered Group-3, adding that the number of PPEs ordered is higher than the projected demand of two crore PPEs.
Vaghela also said about 19,398 ventilators are available in India and orders have been placed for 60,884 more, and of these 59,884 will be made by domestic manufacturers.
The Ministry of Health has indicated a projected demand of 75,000 ventilators till June, 2020.
“Against the same, the present availability is about 19,398. Out of the total orders placed, 59,884 ventilators have been ordered to domestic manufacturers and imports are to the tune of 1,000 ventilators,” he said.
He said of the total 2.49 crore N-95 / N-99 masks to be procured, 1.49 crore have been ordered from domestic manufacturers and about one crore N-95 masks are being imported.
On production of drugs and other medical equipment, he said, “HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) production has increased from 12.23 crore to 30 crore (tablets) per month.”
He further said that over four lakh oxygen cylinders are available which is “sufficient for today’s requirements”.
“Orders for more than 1 lakh oxygen cylinders have been placed and industrial oxygen is being converted into medical oxygen,” I added.
He also informed that against a demand for 35 lakh combined RT-PCR testing kits, the ICMR has ordered more than 21 lakh and close to 14 lakh kits have already been received.
With inputs from agencies
Updated Date: May 02, 2020 09:26:56 IST
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