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NEW DELHI: Even as Railways’ ‘Shramik Express’ trains ferried migrant workers to their home states, in some other places yet, the stranded workers gathered to demand the state governments to send them home resulting in clashes with the local police. Meanwhile, market places, private and public offices opened in some places with states limping back to normalcy. The highlight remained the long queues outside liquor shops. Worldwide, total cases of coronavirus stood at 3,506,729 and 247,470 deaths.
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Here are the top developments:
one
NATION
- As per health ministry, in the last 24 hours, 2,553 novel coronavirus cases were reported, taking the number of overall cases to 42,533. The total number of active cases stands at 29,453. The ministry officials maintained that Covid-19 curve is relatively flat as of now and it was not right to talk in terms of when the peak would come.
- Health Ministry said that in the last 24 hours, 1,074 COVID-19 patients have recovered, the highest number of recoveries in one day. The recovery rate stands at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now.
- Amitabh Kant, Chairman of the Empowered Group dealing with civil society, said that the 112 aspirational districts reported only 610 cases which is two per cent of the national level infection.
- The Center said on Monday that the government has not talked about charging anything from migrant laborers as 85 per cent of the transportation cost is borne by the railways and 15 per cent by state governments.
- India will begin flying back its citizens stranded abroad from Thursday (May 7) in a phased manner on non-schedule flights and naval ships. The people returning home will need to pay to be brought back.
- UPSC defers civil services preliminary exam scheduled on May 31 due to the Covid-19-induced nationwide lockdown and the new date for the test will be decided later this month.
- The convalescent plasma therapy is no “magic bullet” to deal with coronavirus, and only large-scale controlled trials can ascertain its efficacy as part of the treatment strategy, top medical experts said on Monday, even as several states are considering the use of the therapy to treat critically-ill patients.
- Several manufacturing companies, ranging from auto to textiles, breweries to chemical and fertilizers, have resumed manufacturing operations after getting permission from the respective state governments.
- Power consumption in April dipped 22.75 per cent to 85.05 billion units (BU) compared to 110.11 BU in the same month a year ago, mainly due to low demand amid the lockdown to combat COVID-19.
- Investors witnessed a wealth erosion of Rs 5.82 lakh crore in the BSE-listed companies on Monday tracking heavy sell-off in the market, with benchmark sensex plunging over 2,002 points.
- Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday held the first meeting with senior officials of the secretariat since March 25 and discussed several issues, including the oath-taking of new members and the election of chairpersons of various standing committees.
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STATES
- A commotion erupted outside many liquor vends, as scores of people thronged to buy liquor after over a month, across states. Officials had painstakingly drawn chalk circles for buyers of booze to stand in but the social distancing efforts were thwarted as people gathered from early morning. Similar scenes were reported from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan etc.
- Bihar CM Nitish Kumar made it clear on Monday that his government will bear full expenses towards the homeward journey of students and migrant workers stranded outside the state.
- Hundreds of migrant workers seeking to return home clashed with police and pelted stones at them near a village in Gujarat’s Surat district on Monday, following which the security personnel lobbed teargas shells and baton-charged the agitated workers, an official said.
- There are over 2,000 foreign nationals in Goa even after 6,000 were evacuated in the midst of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, a Foreigner Regional Registration official said on Monday.
- The Telangana cabinet will be meeting in Hyderabad on May 5 to discuss issues related to easing norms for some sectors as part of the COVID-19 lockdown exit plan, a senior official said on Monday.
- Sanitation workers in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district are not only doing their cleaning job in hospitals, but have also come forward to perform the last rites of COVID-19 victims whose family members are unable to bid them a final adieu.
- More than 500 migrant workers from other states gathered in Warje area of Pune in Maharashtra on Monday, forcing the police to use mild force to disperse the crowd, an officer said. He blamed the sudden gathering to the misunderstanding among workers that police had opened a counter to fill online forms which are mandatory to facilitate their return to home states.
- A search has been mounted in Nanded district in Maharashtra to trace four people who have gone missing after testing positive for novel coronavirus, officials said on Monday.
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WORLD
- The challenges confronting the world due to the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic have brought to the fore the inadequacies of the global governance structures, India’s former UN envoy Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin has said.
- China still faced the risk of a rebound in COVID-19 cases as 10 provincial-level regions have reported new locally-transmitted coronavirus cases over the last two weeks, a top health official warned on Monday.
- Over 500 medical staff and 40 journalists in Pakistan have been infected by the novel coronavirus so far, according to a government report on Monday.
- Sri Lanka is yet to receive any monetary foreign assistance in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic despite signing an agreement with the World Bank, a statement from the finance ministry said on Monday.
- British Sikh doctors are campaigning for a better procurement strategy by the National Health Service for personal protective equipment required on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic in hospitals after a number of them were forced away from key roles due to their beards.
- Sixteen people, including 15 who were already on quarantine after they came in contact with a religious leader who returned after attending the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi in March, have been tested positive, the health ministry has said.
- Bangladesh on Monday extended the nationwide lockdown till May 16 to contain the deadly coronavirus as the number of cases crossed the 10,000-mark in the country.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a COVID-19 survivor, opened a virtual global conference on coronavirus on Monday by calling on all countries to step up their efforts and work together on fighting the virus pandemic, the “most urgent shared endeavor of our lifetimes” .
- Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that the nationwide lockdown will be lifted gradually, asserting that Pakistan cannot afford an indefinite closure, hours after 1,083 new infections were diagnosed, taking the country total confirmed COVID-19 cases past 20,000.
- Nearly 4,800 Indian nationals, most of whom are living in dormitories for foreign workers, have been tested positive with the novel coronavirus in Singapore.
