'In states where all shops are allowed to function and pedestrians are allowed to move around, there is no reason to presume that vendors are not allowed to operate. But ambiguity surrounding the operation of street vendors de jure has led the police to harass them de facto,' say Bhuvana Anand, Jayana Bedi and Prashant Narang.
In a stern two-page letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said stricter enforcement of lockdown norms was necessary to contain the spread of coronavirus in the state.
'We have 25,000 private hospitals participating in this exercise and if each of these hospitals does 200 vaccinations per day, that makes it 50 lakhs.'
Asked during a press briefing if special trains and private vehicles will also be allowed to transport these people as demanded by some states and others, Joint Secretary in the Union home ministry Punya Salila Srivastava said the orders issued at present were for 'using buses and for group of persons'.
In an order, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said buses shall be used for transport of such groups of stranded people and these vehicles will be sanitised and will have to follow safe social distancing norms in seating.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities on Sunday reiterated that stations located in containment zones, as per the status on the day of journey, will remain closed.
Beauty technicians and hairstylists in PPEs. Constant disinfection of instruments such as scissors and combs, Disposable neck-wraps and fresh towels. That's what beauty may look like now, reports Amrita Singh.
The court said it was conscious of the fact that framing of the scheme and its implementation were in the government's domain who are the best experts in such matters.
The fatality rate is down to 3.1 per cent and the recovery rate has improved to 37.5 per cent, he said.
The dichotomy between richer and poorer states is largely in consonance with the diversity in state level disease burden in the country.
Harvard Global Health Institute Director Dr Ashish Jha noted that the number of cases in India may be higher than what the data suggests because while testing has been improving, it has not been rolled out in a way that will capture all low-symptomatic patients.
The death toll due to the coronavirus infection rose to 7,466 and the cases mounted to 2,66,598 in the country.
States and Union Territories have been given the powers for delineation of Red, Green and Orange Zones as per COVID-19 situation, the MHA said. All shops, except those in containment zones and malls, will be allowed to open from Monday with staggered timings during lockdown 4.0, it said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort in New Delhi as India celebrates the 72nd Independence Day. This is Modi's fifth and final address as PM in the current tenure. During his speech, Modi reflected on the achievements of the National Democratic Alliance government and presented a report card of his four-year tenure. Here are the main takeaways from his address:
'When the virus, in a way, tires itself out, because it is not finding any more people to attack or keep itself viable, that is when the peak actually has been reached and you are on the downward limb (of the curve).'
In a video conference with the chief ministers, fourth such interaction since March 22 when he first spoke to them about the pandemic, Modi stressed on the need for the states to strictly enforce lockdown guidelines in the coronavirus hotspots zones, and strongly pitched for the mantra of 'do gaz doori' (a distance of two yards) to protect people from the infection, according to a government statement.
The SOPs, issued against the backdrop of the government's plans to open up the economy, say an entire office building need not be closed if one or two cases of COVID-19 are reported there and work can resume after disinfection as per the laid down protocols. However, if there is a larger outbreak, the entire building will have to be closed for 48 hours and all the staff will work from home till the building is adequately disinfected and is declared fit for re-occupation, the ministry said in its 'SOPs on preventive measures to contain spread of COVID-19 in offices'.
As daily testing of samples of blood and throat and nose swabs crossed two lakh for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, over 14,000 new coronavirus cases were registered in the country for the fifth day in a row to take the total count to 4,56,183, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The COVID-19 tests will be started at every polling station in the containment zones of Delhi in a few days
As India prepares for a calibrated exit from the lockdown by easing more restrictions, 'Unlock-1 -- the first of the three-phase plan for reopening of prohibited activities in non-containment zones with a stringent set of Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) -- kicks in at a time when the country recorded a daily jump of COVID-19 cases by over 9,000 for the fifth straight day on Sunday.
The lockdown in India has been a timely, graded, proactive and pre-emptive public health measure to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and has been part and parcel of the government's overall strategy, Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, and Chairman, Empowered Group 1, said at a media briefing on the COVID-19 situation.
According to aviation industry sources, around 630 domestic flights of Monday were cancelled due to the Centre's Sunday night announcement that there would be no flights in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, and limited operations at major airports such as Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reveals how the BMC has contained the spread of COVID-19 in Dharavi, India's largest slum, which WHO wants to know more about.
Around 700 migrant workers, women and children have lost their lives in this reverse migration. But what is happening today with the migrant labour is only a continuation of the policies pursued by the Modi regime during the last six years. It is not for nothing that India was ranked the most dangerous country in the world for women in 2018 by the Thompson Reuters Foundation poll, points out Rashme Sehgal.
States are now gearing up to implement the scheme, integrating it with their own public health insurance plans and tying up the loose ends.
As per a white paper, 'Aarogya Bharat 2025', India Healthcare Roadmap for next 10 years launched at NATHEALTH event on Tuesday said the country is healthier now than ever before, but its 'continued economic progress is threatened by the country's under-served and under-consumed healthcare system'.
At All India Institute of Medical Sciences, critically ill dengue patients are being treated on stretchers in corridors due to absence of beds.
Dengue menace continued to rattle Delhi with a six-year-old boy and a woman succumbing to the vector-borne disease, raising the toll to 11 even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said his government was mulling bringing a law to enable temporary takeover of private hospitals during emergencies.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances