Fearing another lockdown in the wake of a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat, migrant workers and their families have started leaving Surat and Ahmedabad, two of the state's most severely affected cities.
With India's health system crumbling, several states have enforced stringent restrictions, including night curfews and lockdowns.
Amarinder said predictions by health experts about the spread of the pandemic are 'horrendous and frightening'.
The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, paving the way for mass vaccinations against the deadly novel coronavirus.
The task force then recommended that the state government implement measures like a stricter lockdown to stem the rise in coronavirus positive cases.
The outcome ratio of COVID-19 -- the ratio of recoveries and deaths of closed cases -- was recorded at 90:20.
COVID-19 has accomplished what the UN failed to do in the last 75 years by making mankind rally around a mask of unity, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Dr Ashish Sarangi, 32 from Texas, USA offers some helpful tips to stay mentally fit during the lockdown.
The government's Rs 20.97 lakh crore COVID-19 package lacks in addressing the immediate concerns of the economy as the actual fiscal impact of the additional stimulus is only about 1 per cent of the GDP as opposed to the claim of 10 per cent, Fitch Solutions said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12 announced a stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore, or nearly 10 per cent of GDP, to deal with the economic fallout of COVID-19. The contents of the package were broad-based and announced in five tranches.
The Madras high court judges made it clear that they raised the question about lockdown as citizens of the state and the city in the interest of the public and were not initiating any public interest litigation (PIL) proceedings suo motu (on its own).
Testing only those with symptoms is not such a great idea. A lot of asymptomatic people are also positive. Its also important to do some amount of random testing in the clusters. You need to do lot more testing. The more you test, the more positives you get. Only redeeming feature is that the number of those getting into ICU or dying is not huge, she said.
The telecast was viewed by 197 million Indians, higher than the Indian Premier League final which was watched by 133 million, reports Sohini Das.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,00,79,599, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated.
While some CMs suggested reopening economic activity in phases, others pitched for the extension of the coronavirus lockdown, but with a carefully crafted exit strategy
'Most of the testing capacity in India is in the private sector.' 'Whether it is the established RT-PCR test for COVID-19, or it is other innovations in testing that are now coming up, all these are fully within the capabilities of the private sector.' 'Health policy should harness these capabilities,' says Ajay Shah.
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
The 93-year-old British monarch and Head of the 54-member Commonwealth of nations which includes India, acknowledged the grief, pain and financial difficulties being faced the world over during this "time of disruption" and expressed the hope that the whole world was uniting in a 'common endeavour'.
Asian Games gold-winning former boxer Dingko Singh has recovered from COVID-19, testing negative for the deadly virus on Friday over a month after the cancer-stricken legend was hospitalised in Imphal. Back at his home, but in isolation for the next fortnight, Singh spoke about the ordeal he endured, including five positive tests since his hospitalisation in the last week of May.
According to the data sourced from the Union health ministry and Worldometers, in the US, coronavirus infection cases increased from 100 to 1,00,000 in 25 days, while it took 30 days for the cases to reach the 1 lakh-mark in Spain.
Before the novel coronavirus brought its pandemic to New Delhi, Mohammad Aamir Khan was one of tens of thousands of people making a living in the Indian capital as a taxi driver. But that work dried up during the nearly three-month lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. With cases rising in India even before the government lifted the lockdown, a friend suggested perhaps the only business now booming in the country -- driving a private ambulance.
Shubhankar Sharma believes he will be in better form when he tees up for what will be his first professional tournament in four months.
The state had witnessed a record single-day spike of 7,014 cases on Sunday.
Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish has been charged with multiple driving violations after being involved in a car crash during the COVID-19 lockdown in March, police said on Thursday. British media had reported that police had opened an investigation after the Villa midfielder was pictured leaving an estate in Birmingham following a traffic accident on March 29.
Of the 56 deaths reported since Friday evening, 18 were in Maharashtra, 15 in Gujarat, nine in Madhya Pradesh, three each in Delhi and West Bengal, two each in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh and one each in Punjab and Kerala.
While India's mortality rate is 3.13 per cent, the mortality rate in Maharashtra due to coronavirus is at 4.24 per cent.
The government has held back the release of complete data of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for April, as was done for the same month last year due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Last year in June, the National Statistical Office (NSO) had held back the release of complete IIP data due to the effect of the nationwide lockdown on factory output. This year too industrial production was hit due to lockdown restrictions imposed by states to curb the second wave of the pandemic.
Rediff reader Amit Jain, 43, from Raipur, Chhattisgarh offers a smart solution to fight the pandemic.
The challenges in a post COVID-19 world were new and unusual but unlike other Indian sports, cricket could partially redeem itself, thanks to the deep pockets of the BCCI
Police naik Sandhya Sheelvant, attached to the Shahu Nagar police station in central Mumbai, has been performing the last rites -- four in one day and and her dedication to her duty was admirable.
The central probe agency had on Friday carried out a fresh round of searches in connection with the case, they said.
'I'm not a doctor, but whatever we did was very basic and organic.'
Partial lockdown measures may impact movement of labour & goods, they say.
The Centre on Saturday issued fresh guidelines relaxing the nationwide lockdown, the fourth phase of which ends on May 31.
The government is also considering if those who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus can be allowed to travel by local trains in Mumbai, he said.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said there will be a move towards greater "personal responsibility" as the UK prepares to end lockdown restrictions from July 19.
In his second national broadcast in a week on the pandemic raging across much of the world with the number of infections rising in India, Modi made a fervent appeal to the countrymen not to cross the 'lakshman rekha' of their homes in the next three weeks.
Modi's Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan or Self-reliant India Mission is about 10 per cent of India's GDP in 2019-20 and would rank behind Japan, the US, Sweden, Australia and Germany. But unlike most of the relief packages announced globally, Rs 20 lakh crore is not entirely in new spending and includes Rs 1.7 lakh crore package the government had announced in March as well as the steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) such as liquidity enhancing measures and interest rate cuts.
The GoM was apprised that as of now, the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while the recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better than most of the countries and may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country, along with the cluster management and containment strategy.
Maintain at least 2 metre distance from each other; this will help in reducing the spread of COVID 19, says Dr Sharanya Rajan.
