Category: National

COVID-19: Govt mulls extending lockdown beyond Apr 14 following requests from states, experts

PTI

The Centre is mulling extending the nationwide lockdown beyond April 14 to contain the spread of COVID-19 following requests from several states and experts, government sources said on Tuesday, as the total number of coronavirus cases in India crossed the 5,000 mark.

With only a week left for the 21-day nationwide lockdown to end, sources, however, did not indicate if a final decision has been taken on the extension, and Joint Secretary in the Union health ministry Lav Aggarwal said, “no decision on extending lockdown as yet (taken), please don’t speculate.”

India is under the lockdown since March 25, with only essential services exempted, to contain the spread of coronavirus. While a PTI tally based on figures reported by various states as on Tuesday showed more than 5,000 testing positive across the country and at least 145 deaths, the Union Health Ministry’s evening update, however, showed 4,789 confirmed cases and 124 deaths.

According to an ILO report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis has the potential to push around 40 crore informal sector workers in India deeper into poverty, with the lockdown and other containment measures affecting jobs and earnings.

However, several chief ministers have favoured the extension of the lockdown as they feel that the country can recover from the adverse impact of the shutdown on its economy but it was necessary to save lives from the fast-spreading virus, which has killed more than 76,500 people globally and afflicted over 13.6 lakh across 183 countries.

“A lot of state governments as well as experts are requesting the Central Government to extend the lockdown. The Central government is thinking in this direction,” a source said, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked countrymen to be ready for a long battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and exhorted people to not feel tired or defeated while expressing confidence that India will emerge victorious in the fight.

Chairing a meeting of the council of ministers through video conferencing on Monday, Modi had clearly indicated that the lifting of the lockdown in one go is very unlikely while discussing the modalities of lifting it.

The Prime Minister also asked the ministers whether the restrictions should be lifted sector-wise or district-wise, a source said.

Also on Tuesday, a group of ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 recommended that all educational institutions should remain shut and all religious activities having public participation should be restricted till May 15 irrespective of whether the government extends the 21-day lockdown beyond April 14, official sources said after a meeting of the GoM.

The meeting, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, also concluded that religious centres and shopping malls must not be allowed to resume normal functioning at least for four weeks from April 14.

Several chief ministers have also favoured the extension of the lockdown, and pitched for lifting of restrictions in a phased manner.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said his government will extend lockdown, if a need arises, while his counterpart in Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot said the state cannot withdraw the lockdown immediately, and it has to be done in a phased manner.

In a statement to mark two weeks of the lockdown, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said the next one week is “critical” for evolving an exit strategy as the data regarding the spread of coronavirus will have a bearing on the decision to be taken by the government.

He also appealed to the public to abide with whatever decision the government ultimately takes, and cooperate with the same spirit that has been evident so far, even if it meant to continue with “some degree of hardship” beyond April 14.

Stating that it’s too early to take a call at present whether to lift the nationwide lockdown, Karnataka Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K, who is state in-charge of all matters related to COVID-19, however, favoured the extension of the lockdown in COVID-19 hotspots in the country by at least an additional two weeks.

“Where there are red alerts and zones, those zones, in my opinion, should continue to be in a lockdown situation at least for two weeks…till this month-end, I will request them (the Centre) to do this,” he said.

Telananga Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday appealed to Prime Minister Modi to extend the national lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19, saying it was essential to save lives.

Agreeing that continuing the lockdown would adversely impact the economy, he, however, said ways can be found to recover from it once the threat of COVID-19 goes away but human lives cannot be saved.

Favouring extension, Rao said ,”we can recover from economic problem. But, we cannot recover the lives of the people… So, I propose at least for another one-two weeks. Extension should be at least for one or two weeks more. Then we can review.”

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) report released in Geneva on Tyesday said,”in India, with a share of almost 90 per cent of people working in the informal economy, about 400 million workers in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty during the crisis.

“Current lockdown measures in India, which are at the high end of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index, have impacted these workers significantly, forcing many of them to return to rural areas,” it said in its updated report.

Since there is no vaccine to fight COVID-19, the government has stressed that social distancing is the only way to check the spread of the virus. Lockdown is considered the best way to keep people indoors.

Inter-state travel by public transport, including trains and buses, is banned, and so is domestic and international air travel.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has urged 10 states to allow sale of alcoholic beverages saying that a blanket ban during the lockdown to contain coronavirus has resulted in sale of illicit and spurious liquor while causing burden on exchequer.

It said the need to close on-shops (bars) is well understood in light of social distancing, but noted that the nationwide lockdown has resulted in the shutdown of all wholesale and retail shops selling alcoholic beverages also.

The CIABC, which is the apex body of the Indian alcoholic beverage industry, has sent letters on Monday to chief ministers of 10 states — Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated

The Group of Ministers on COVID-19 recommends that closure of all educational institutions and restrictions on all religious activities having public participation be extended till May 15.

PTI

The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said the country has registered 13 deaths and 508 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 124 with 4,789 cases nationwide.

A total of 326 persons have recovered from the infection, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Lav Agrawal said at the daily press briefing.

Amid calls from the States on the need for a calibrated lifting of the lockdown, a meeting of the Group of Ministers on COVID-19, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, recommended that the closure of all educational institutions and restrictions on all religious activities having public participation be extended till May 15, irrespective of the government decision, official sources said.

The recommendation came as State Health Departments reported 20 more deaths, taking the nationwide toll to 165, with 5,126 confirmed cases.

Maharashtra reported 12 more deaths, taking the tally of the deceased so far to 64, with 1,018 confirmed cases.

Four more deaths were reported from Gujarat, while Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir and Tamil Nadu reported one death since Monday.

In Rajasthan, which saw the number of active cases touching 283 with 24 new cases, Health Minister Raghu Sharma said the government had decided to step up screening in hotspots using rapid testing kits. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that one lakh random rapid anti-body tests would be conducted in the city’s hotspots.

Stating that India had moved from local transmission phase to the next higher scale of large outbreaks amenable to containment phase, Mr Agarwal said three types of health care facilities have been set up for various categories of COVID-19 cases for triaging and decision-makingfor identification of the appropriate dedicated facility and for providing care to patients.

State government have now been asked to offer COVID Care Centres (CCC) for mild to very mild cases, dedicated COVID health units or blocks for moderate cases and dedicated COVID hospitals for cases clinically assigned as severe.

“These [last] facilities should either be a full hospital or a separate block in a hospital with preferably separate entry\exit and fully equipped ICUs, ventilators and beds with assured oxygen support,’’ added Mr. Agarwal.

He added that there was no clear decision so far on continuing or lifting the on-going 21-day lockdown and assured that there is no shortage of the preventic drug hydroxychloroquine for use in the country.

“We have issued guidelines for cluster outbreak containment and this strategy is working well in areas like Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Pathanamthitta, Bhilwara and East Delhi which saw large number of cases recently. Government has been adopting a strategy for cluster containment and for outbreaks that are amenable to management. This strategy is producing positive results,’’ he said.

“Indian Railways has prepared 40,000 isolation beds in 2,500 coaches and they are making 375 isolation beds daily and this is going on across 133 locations across the country,’’ he added.

The Ministry added that technology-led initiatives for undertaking surveillance, monitoring quarantine facilities, tracking the health of suspected patients and their contacts placed under home quarantine, providing up-to-date information to citizens, making predictive analytics using heat maps, with real-time tracking of ambulances and disinfection services are being conducted across various districts.

Speaking about the number Raman R Gangakhedkar, head, Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases-I, Indian Council of Medical Research said: “So far we have conducted over a lakh test for COVID-19 and 11,795 tests were done in last 24 hours.”

New Delhi: In a bid to curb the flow of misinformation in COVID-19 times, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday announced to introduce a new limit on frequently forwarding messages where a WhatsApp user can forward such messages to one chat at a time.

This limit kicks in once a message has been previously forwarded five times or more, the company said in a statement.

WhatsApp which has over 400 million users in India last year introduced users to the concept of messages that have been forwarded many times.

These messages are labeled with double arrows to indicate they did not originate from a close contact.

In effect, these messages are less personal compared to typical messages sent on WhatsApp.

“We are now introducing a limit so that these messages can only be forwarded to one chat at a time,” the company said in a statement.

The company said it bans two million accounts per month for attempting to send bulk or automated messages.

WhatsApp set global limits on forwarded messages to constrain virality in January last year where it restricted forwarding messaging to five times from an individual or a group.

“We set limits on forwarded messages to constrain virality which led to a 25 per cent decrease in message forwards globally at the time,” informed WhatsApp.

In recent weeks, people have also used WhatsApp to organize public moments of support for frontline health workers.

“However, we”ve seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation,” WhatsApp noted, adding that it”s important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation.

WhatsApp is working with NGOs and governments, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and over 20 national health ministries, to help connect people with accurate information.

It has also announced the WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub. (IANS)

Orders from other countries for hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol will be cleared only after meeting all domestic requirements, people familiar with the development said.

HT

India has said it will supply paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine to countries ‘particularly badly affected’ by the coronavirus pandemic even as US President Donald Trump warned of ‘retaliation’ if the Indian government did not allow the export of anti-malarial drugs.

“In view of the humanitarian aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been decided that India would licence paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on our capabilities,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

“We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would, therefore, discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter,” Srivastava said.

India has partially eased restrictions on the export of hydroxychloroquine. People familiar with developments said orders from other countries for hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol will be cleared only after meeting all domestic requirements. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

This came hours after Donald Trump requested the lifting of the hold on hydroxychloroquine exports during a telephone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

Trump also warned of retaliation if India did not take up his request to lift the hold on US orders of the antimalarial drug.

“I said we’d appreciate you allowing our supply to come out. If he doesn’t allow it to come out, that would be okay but, of course, there may be retaliation,” Trump said. “Why wouldn’t that be?”

The orders for the medicine were placed by the United States in March.

“I don’t like that decision… I didn’t hear that that was his [Modi’s] decision. I know that he stopped it for other countries. I spoke to him yesterday [Sunday]. We had a very good talk, and we’ll see whether or not that’s his decision. I would be surprised if he would you know because India does very well with the US,” Trump said.

India had banned the export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine on March 25 with immediate effect to ensure sufficient availability of the medicine within the country.

India had allowed exports earlier as well to other countries on humanitarian grounds on case to case basis on the recommendation of the ministry of external affairs.

It was also allowed in case of shipments where an irrevocable letter of credit had been issued or in a case where full advance payment has been received by the exporter in India against specific shipment.

The task force for Covid-19 has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for infections among “asymptomatic healthcare workers involved in the care of suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19” and “asymptomatic household contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases”.

The initial idea of playing audio clips at religious places after every four hours was given by Sunni cleric Maulana Kahlid Rasheed Farangi Mahali.

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked various religious leaders of the state to stand united in the fight against coronavirus. He spoke to around 377 religious leaders from different faiths in Lucknow on Sunday evening and asked them to rise above differences in such a time when the world is witnessing a pandemic and lend a helping hand to the government.

Speaking to religious leaders through video conferencing on Sunday evening, Adityanath said, “The coronavirus will not look at your religion, faith or face before striking, hence it will be best to stand united against it.” The chief minister further said the state government will soon be providing audio clips, which should be played at religious places, in order to sensitise people on how to keep themselves protected during the pandemic.

The initial idea of playing audio clips at religious places after every four hours was given by Sunni cleric Maulana Kahlid Rasheed Farangi Mahali. The recorded audio clips will soon be provided to the religious leaders, who ensured full co-operation with the government.

Adityanath also emphasised that all the religious leaders should put their influence to good use and make guide people on how to stay safe.

He also said that India’s response to the pandemic has been better than some other countries. “The number of deaths in United States has already crossed 15,000 while in Spain 12,000 people have died. India so far has been better in managing the spread of COVID-19 due to the efforts of PM Narendra Modi. Currently we are in stage 2 of this pandemic and if we are able to control it now, a lot of lives will be saved,” Adityanath said.

“The state government was successful in containing the spread but all of a sudden there was a surge in the cases due to the Tablighi Jamaat, however, the situation is still under control. The lockdown in the state might be removed in a phase-wise manner and then too religious leaders will be playing a role in appealing people not to crowd at public places,” he added.

At a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Modi asks for suggestions.

Nishtula Hebbar

As the nation entered the 13th day of a 21-day lockdown on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his Council of Ministers on just how to do a calibrated exit from the confinement, especially since the cases related to the Tablighi Jamaat Centre and the country’s own tally of COVID-19 positive cases are ballooning.

At a meeting of the Council of Ministers, just before a first-ever Cabinet meeting over videoconferencing, Mr. Modi asked for suggestions, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that any rollback of the lockdown on April 14 will only be partial and with many caveats.

“Prime Minister Modi asked all of us for suggestions, including after speaking to district-level officials and stakeholders on how the rollback of the lockdown could be effected without a huge impact on positive cases. Actually, the calculations for our peak cases and its timing are now awry as they have to factor in the Tablighi Jamaat cases, which are still being followed up,” said a Minister who was at the meeting.

“The peak for India, which was supposed to have manifested itself this week has now been pushed to the next week or more because we are still tracking the contact chain of the Tablighi Jamaat cases,” the source said.

“We have been asked to think in terms of micro plans for districts and specifically focus on the harvest season now on as well as how best procurement can be done from farmers. Also, he asked us for suggestions on how some industry can be restarted where labour can work with adequate social distancing safe guards,” said the source.

Government sources told The Hindu that all sorts of suggestions were at the discussion table, but it seemed as though reopening of schools and colleges would not be done in a hurry, not least because many are now shelters for the homeless and migrant labour and quarantine centres.

Even railway and air traffic are unlikely to resume anytime soon, possibly in a staggered manner.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath extended Section 144 (which bars assembly of more than four persons in public) to the entire State till April 30.

With inputs from The Hindu

(Disclaimer: This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed)

Massive fire breaks out after flying lantern falls on a hut in Jaipur

India Today

massive fire broke out on Sunday after a flying lantern fell on a hut in Jaipur’s Vaishali Nagar in Rajasthan. No casualty or injury has been reported so far.

The incident took place after the people of the country switched off their lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm to show their support to the frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal.

PM Modi had appealed the citizens of the country to switch off their lights and lit up oil lamps and candles for nine minutes to show collective resolve and solidarity in its fight against coronavirus. Some, however, resorted to bursting firecrackers and lighting flying lanterns.

A house close to the hut also burned down in the incident. The fire has now been doused.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed)

K. Vijay Kumar, Senior Security Advisor in Home Ministry, goes into quarantine.

PTI

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General A.P Maheshwari and 14 senior officers who had gone into self-quarantine have tested negative for COVID-19.

They had gone into self quarantine a day ago after it was found that they came in indirect contact with the Chief Medical Officer of the CRPF who had tested positive for virus symptoms on April 2. The CMO reportedly contracted the virus at a transit guest house in Saket while he was on leave. It was this guest house that an officer who met Mr. Maheshwari had visited. The said officer, who was the primary contact, has also tested negative.

On Sunday, Mr. Maheshwari tweeted, “Intermediate and linked personnel including self have tested negative as per reports flowing today. However, further protocols will be followed as per medical advice.”

The CRPF is one of the largest central armed police forces (CAPF) deployed for internal security in the Maoist-affected areas, Jammu and Kashmir, northeast and other parts of the country.

He had earlier said as a precautionary measure he had restricted his movements as part of “responsibility to break the chain” adding that he was working from home till further clarity.

K. Vijay Kumar, Senior Security Advisor in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) who had met Mr. Maheshwari, has also gone into quarantine.

Both the officers had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla at Mr. Shah’s residence on March 29 to hand over a cheque of ₹116 crore as a contribution from all paramilitary forces to the PM-CARES fund.

Mr. Shah has not gone into a quarantine and an officer clarified that the meeting took place much before.

New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) : The Delhi Police on Sunday advised people not to come out of their homes to celebrate Shab-e-Barat on April 8 and 9 in view of the nationwide lockdown due to cornavirus crisis and warned of stern action against lockdown violators.

Shab-e-Barat is observed by the Muslim as a night when the fortunes of individuals for the coming year are decided.

The police took to Twitter and said: “Attention young men and parents. This Shab-e-Barat, do not come out of homes. Support us in the fight against Covid-19. Lockdown is in force even on the sacred night.”

It also urged people not to come out on bikes and create chaos on the streets of the national capital. “Unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. Violators will face stern legal action.”

Delhi Police also sought cooperation from religious leaders and residents welfare associations in maintaining the lockdown. “Observe the occasion solemnly. Stay home, stay safe.”

The directions came in the backdrop of a congregation organized by Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin area in mid-March, following which there has been a spoke in corona cases in the country.

IANS