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Coronavirus LIVE news updates: “seal” orders triggered panic purchases in some areas of Noida on Wednesday. (Express photo of Gajendra Yadav)
Coronavirus LIVE news updates:
According to a government statement, Modi emphasized that various state governments, district administrations and experts had lobbied for the blockade to be extended. However, he said he would hold another round of discussions with the chief ministers on April 11 before making a final decision. Last week Modi had told chief ministers to formulate a common but staggered exit strategy to lift the blockade.
“The Prime Minister stressed that the situation in the country is similar to a” social emergency. “The country has been forced to make difficult decisions and must remain vigilant,” the statement said. This was Modi’s first interaction with political party leaders after announcing the 21-day closure on March 24.
According to sources, the prime minister stressed that he had found no opinion to suggest that lifting the blockade at this juncture is “advisable.” The point of view that has been emerging so far, he said, is that lifting the blockade is not going to be “simple” and the rules to guarantee social distancing must be strictly applied.
Utensils placed in circles in a queue in a slum area when Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) began supplying food amid a national closure.
Coronavirus curves upward, blocking impact may take a while
Two weeks after the shutdown period, there is still no indication that the world’s largest quarantine exercise is having the desired effect of slowing the spread of COVID-19 disease.
Scientists using computer models to measure the spread of an infectious disease say they have not yet noticed a “flattening of the growth curve.” However, this does not mean that blocking was a lost exercise. It is too early to reach such a conclusion.
Planned pooled tests in zero-case districts to get a real picture
Pressing to increase the tests, the health authorities are ready to carry out grouped tests in some of the 436 districts of the country from which no case of COVID-19 has been reported. This will be done to obtain a “realistic estimate” of the spread of the disease, highly located government sources said, and the areas will be selected based on available information.
In the third week of the 21-day shutdown, the government realizes that without adequate testing in COVID-free districts, there is an inherent risk in making any decision about the shutdown. That is why the information from two databases, from the Aarogya Setu application and surveillance, will be merged to choose the areas where the tests will be carried out grouped among symptomatic people. These tests will be done using RT-PCR, the nucleic acid-based test that India has been using from the start, and not the fastest recently introduced serological testing option, the sources said.
Residents of an apartment building watch street musicians playing in their yard as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in Prague, Czech Republic (REUTERS)
“We’ll have a lot of body bags if we don’t behave”: WHO chief on Trump’s criticism
The head of the World Health Organization made a strong defense of his agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to criticism and suggestions by United States President Donald Trump that Washington could review its funding for the agency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity and an end to the “politicization” of the global health crisis, specifically urging China and the United States to show “honest leadership”.
Fact check: monitoring the coronavirus curve in India
The first three novel cases of coronavirus infection in India occurred on January 29, and none thereafter for more than a month. New cases began to emerge in the first week of March, but for more than two weeks they came slowly, even as many other parts of the world were struggling with thousands of cases appearing every day.
Latest Coronavirus Live News Updates: Road painted in West Bengal with “Stay Home, Stay Safe” message.
However, in recent days, the growth in numbers in India has begun to look prominently at what is so characteristic of the spread of an infectious disease: an exponential curve. If we ignore the first three cases in Kerala and January, it took India 13 days after a new case appeared on March 2 to cross the 100 mark. Over the next 14 days, India had more than 1,000 cases. By April 7, or another nine days, the numbers had crossed the 5,000 mark, and at this rate, India is on track to touch 10,000 cases in about a week.
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Here is an Express Explained Coronavirus Quick Guide to keep you up to date: What can make a COVID-19 patient relapse after recovery? The | The COVID-19 blockade has cleared the air, but this may not be good news. Here’s why | Can alternative medicine work against coronavirus? The | A five-minute test has been prepared for COVID-19, India can also get it | How India is building defense during the blockade | Why do only a fraction of people with coronaviruses suffer acutely? How do healthcare workers protect themselves from infection? The | What is needed to establish isolation rooms?
