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Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST updates: Six out of the nine total coronavirus confirmed cases in Bihar have no travel history, the Bihar Health Department said on Friday. IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was quoted by Reuters as saying that ‘it is clear’ that the world has ‘entered a recession as bad or worse’ than the global financial crisis over a decade earlier. Singapore on Friday called off the Shangri-La Dialogue for the first time in its history due to the coronavirus outbreak, the top-level forum was scheduled for June, ANI reported. A 65-year old woman died on Friday due to the COVID-19 at Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, the Maharashtra health ministry said. This is the fifth death in the state due to the virus. An 85-year-old doctor, a likely COVID-19 positive case, also died at a private hospital in Mumbai, the statement said. Assam excise minister Parmal Suklabaidiya said that as per Assam health department’s demand, around five crore bottles of 200 ml hand sanitiser will be supplied by excise factories of the state free of cost. 11 companies have started producing sanitizer in the state. UK health minister Matt Hancock on Friday tested positive for the coronavirus soon after Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a statement saying he had contracted the infection. “Following medical advice, I was advised to test for coronavirus. I‘ve tested positive. Thankfully my symptoms are mild and I’m working from home and self-isolating,” Haddock said. The BMC on Friday said that nine more cases of coronavirus have been reported in Mumbai. Five have travel history and four are close contacts. Six of them are from Mumbai and three are from other places. The total number of positive cases in the city now stands at 86. PTI quoted officials as saying that the Centre will clear entire pending wages of Rs 11,499 crore under MGNREGA by 10 April. On 3 March, at the unveiling of the UK’s action plan against the coronavirus pandemic, reports quoted UK prime minister Boris Johnson as saying that he is constantly shaking hands with people, even with coronavirus patients. On Friday, he became the first prime minister in the world to test positive for the infection. Earlier, he had said, “I’m shaking hands continuously. I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know. I continue to shake hands. We already have a fantastic NHS, fantastic testing systems and fantastic surveillance of the spread of the disease … I want to stress that for the vast majority of the people of this country, we should be going about our business as usual.” UK prime minister Boris Johnson posted a video on Twitter saying that he has tested positive for the coronavirus and is self isolating. “I have developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus, that is to say a temperature and a persistent cough. I am working from home and self isolating. But be in doubt that I can continue leading the fight against coronavirus via video conferencing,” he said. Twelve more people (contacts of earlier positive cases) have tested positive for coronavirus in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, ANI reported on Friday. The state has a total of 147 positive cases, the public health department said. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has told state governments to step up the surveillance of international passengers who reached India before the government banned commercial flights from abroad from landing in the country. Gauba, the country’s senior-most bureaucrat, said there was a gap in the number of passengers who should have been monitored and the actual number. “This may seriously jeopardise our efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, given that many amongst the people who have tested positive so far in India have a history of international travel,” the Cabinet Secretary said in a letter to all chief secretaries on Thursday. Tamil Nadu on Friday reported six new coronavirus cases, taking the state’s total tally of confirmed cases to 35. According to Pradip Das, Director of Rajendra Memorial Research Institute here, an ICMR centre, test reports of two staff members of a private hospital in the city, where a coronavirus patient was admitted last week before being shifted to AIIMS-Patna where he died, have been positive. Besides, another patient admitted to the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH) here hailing from Siwan, has tested positive, he added. “There are a total of 39 Coronavirus positive cases in Delhi today, 29 of them had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these are cases of local transmission,” said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal begins his address to people on coronavirus crisis and 21-day-long nationwide lockdown to curb the further spread of the virus on Friday. The RBI on Friday cut LAF by 90 bps to 4 percent. It also announced that the Reverse repo-rate has been reduced by 90 basis points to 4 percent. India has locked down economic activity. Keeping finance flowing is the ‘paramount objective’ of the RBI, while India has locker down economic activity and financial activity is under severe stress, noted the RBI chief. Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor on Friday said that if COIV19 case prolongs and the supply chain could get disrupted and it could jeopardise India’s growth. ‘We hope that drop in crude oil prices will help India, he said. The RBI governor Shaktikanta Das announced that the RBI repo rate was cut by 75 basis points. The cut has been made to encourage banks to give more to business rather than deposit it with RBI. We hope to mitigate the negative effect of COVID-19 on the economy with these efforts. RBI chief Shaktikanta Das will address media at 10 am, the central bank has tweeted, as economic uncertainty prevails amid nationwide lockdown over coronavirus pandemic. Three COVID-19 patients from Pune’s Pimpri-Chinchwad in Maharashtra have tested negative in their repeat samples on Friday. The total number of coronavirus cases in Pune district is now at 32, out of which 5 have been already cured and discharged. According to an analysis by Times of India, prepared by the state department on the first 122 COVID-19 cases in the state, has found out that almost half of the patients were in the age group of 31-50 years. India saw the highest rise in novel coronavirus cases in a single day on Thursday, even as the Central Government announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore fund aimed mainly at underprivileged sections of the society. A COVID-19 positive patient, who had comorbid conditions including diseases relating to kidney and blood pressure, had died in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara early Friday morning. The fund included free food grain and cooking gas to the poor for three months, and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens — all part of a bid to ease the economic impact of the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. India joins countries — from the US to Singapore — that have pledged spending to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic that has infected almost 5 lakh people globally and left over 21,000 dead. The health ministry said that 88 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in the country in a day, taking the total number of infections in India to 694. Modi noted the alarming social and economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic in his remarks at the G20 virtual summit. He added that 90 percent of the COVID-19 cases and 88 percent of deaths were in G20 countries, even as they share 80 percent of world GDP and 60 percent of world population, the Ministry of External Affairs said.
‘Don’t want anyone to remain hungry’: Sitharaman
While over 80 crore poor ration card holders will each get 5 kgs of wheat or rice and one kg of preferred pulses free of cost every month for the next three months, 20.4 crore women having Jan Dhan bank accounts would get one-time cash help of Rs 1,500 spread over three months. [caption id=“attachment_8190811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] Over 8.3 crore poor women, who were handed out free cooking gas connections since 2016, will get free LPG refills for the next three months, while poor senior citizens, widows and disabled will get ex-gratia cash of Rs 1,000. The package included advancing the payment of one-third of the Rs 6,000 a year pre-2019 general election cash dole scheme for farmers, government contributions to retirement funds for the next three months of small companies with 90 percent of staff earning less than Rs 15,000, and a Rs 50 lakh insurance cover to healthcare workers. For rural workers, the daily wage under the MNREGA employment guarantee programme has been increased to Rs 202 from Rs 182, benefiting 5 crore workers of about Rs 2,000 in all. “The lockdown has been in force (since Wednesday), and therefore, we have come out with a package which will immediately take care of the concerns and welfare of the poor and suffering workers and those who need immediate help,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a news conference. The package, she said, is being announced within 36 hours of the 21-day nationwide lockdown announced by the Prime Minister to protect the nation’s 130 crore people from the fast-spreading coronavirus. “We do not want anyone to remain hungry,” she added also hinting at more announcements if a need arises. Responding to the measures, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said:
The Govt announcement today of a financial assistance package, is the first step in the right direction. India owes a debt to its farmers, daily wage earners, labourers, women & the elderly who are bearing the brunt of the ongoing lockdown.#Corona
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 26, 2020
State-wise picture
Four more people, including a doctor couple, tested positive for COVID-19 in Telangana on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 45 in the state, even as the government initiated steps to contain the spread of the virus. Those tested positive are a 49-year old male resident of Qutbullapur in Medchal district, a 36-year-old doctor and her 41-year-old husband, also a doctor, and a 45-year-old man, resident of Secunderabad, a medical bulletin on COVID-19 said. It said the four had not travelled to any foreign country, while all the 45 confirmed cases had a history of travel or contact with suspected or confirmed cases. “There is no evidence of community transmission”, it said. In Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar, a 65-year-old man died, becoming the first fatality in the newly formed Union Territory due to coronavirus. “As we share the sad news of our first #Covid19 fatality, my heart goes out to the family of the deceased. We stand with you and share your grief,” Mayor of Srinagar Junaid Azim Mattu tweeted. Government spokesperson Rohit Kansal also confirmed the death via Twitter. Two more persons have tested positive for coronavirus in Rajasthan, taking the total number of confirmed cases of the infection to 40 in the state , officials said. The persons aged 45 years and 35 years have a travel history to West Asia. The former is a resident of Jaipur while the latter belongs to Jhunjhunu. The state authorities have initiated an extensive contact tracing at both these places to contain the spread of the deadly virus. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra has gone up to 124 as two more persons tested coronavirus positive on Thursday, health officials said. “Both are from Mumbai city. We are finding out if they have any travel history,” an official said. Till Tuesday, 2,988 people were admitted to isolation wards of hospitals since 18 January, while 932 persons were in hospital quarantine for suspected exposure to the virus. As many as 14,502 people were put under home quarantine, officials said.
Migrants struggle to return home
Hit by a sudden 21-day lockdown and no transport, hundreds of migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are walking for days to reach their homes from the Delhi-NCR region and Gujarat, about 200 to 300 kilometres away. And some elsewhere tried to make the desperate journey crammed inside container trucks. Maharashtra Police on Thursday found over 300 migrant workers holed up inside two container trucks meant for carrying essential commodities from Telangana to Rajasthan. The shocked officials found that the workers, who hailed from Rajasthan, had chosen this clandestine and dangerous mode of travel as they were desperate to return home. Migrant labourers elsewhere in the country like in Kerala and Karnataka who are yearning to go home in the absence of any work to make living say they have no choice but to stay back and be at the mercy of authorities. With hundreds of hapless daily-wagers trudging along desolate inter-state highways on the way back to Rajasthan from adjoining states, mainly Gujarat, the Gehlot government is facilitating their return home from the border after screening for any coronavirus infection. With inputs from agencies
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