Authorities also said the recovery rate of COVID-19 patients was improving consistently in India and it was in a much better position in handling the pandemic, which has seen more than 63 lakh people testing positive for this virus since its emergence in China last December and over 3.7 lakh having lost their lives.
The doubling time of coronavirus cases has slowed down to 13.9 days in the last three days.
'India's sizeable foreign exchange reserves should serve as a buffer.'
India is going into the longest lockdown in the world, with the least amount of notice given to its people and the least preparation by its government.
The National Health Commission (NHC) said that 32 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Thursday of which 28 were domestically-transmitted and four were imported. Of the domestically-transmitted cases, 25 were reported in Beijing, two in Hebei province and one in Liaoning province, it said in its daily report.
'Those who were not co-operating are co-operating now.' 'Now, our facilities are fit, our doctors are fit and we have a better protocol of how to do isolation, how to do the collection.'
Of the 2,109 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 472 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 215, West Bengal at 171, Rajasthan at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 74, Delhi at 73, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at 44.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 6,039, as many as 515 people have been cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. The total number of cases include 71 foreign nationals.
Addressing the daily press briefing on the actions taken, preparedness and updates on COVID-19, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health Lav Agarwal said 92 new cases and four deaths due to coronavirus have been reported in India since Sunday, taking total cases to 1,071 and the number of deaths to 29.
China's Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events.
On Friday, barring a few, most of the team members returned to their native places after being granted the break.
Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan held a high-level review meeting through video conference with the chief secretaries, health secretaries and National Health Mission (NHM) directors of these states, the health ministry said. 'These states are witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases since the last three weeks as lockdown rules have been eased and inter-state migration has been allowed,' the ministry said in a statement.
Authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.
was on a 21-match unbeaten run before the season came to a halt in early March, winning the ATP Cup with Serbia, an eighth Australian Open title and a fifth Dubai Tennis Championships crown.
An order issued by Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta on Monday said wearing face covers or masks, maintaining social distancing, restricted gatherings, and other measures shall continue to prevail.
The demand for milk and milk products slumped during the Covid-19 lockdown mainly from hotels, restaurants, sweetmeat shops which were shut to control the spread of the disease.
'Due to the ongoing pandemic and lockdown, we the sports bodies are unlikely to get any sponsorship and hence we may find it very difficult to restart our activities effectively'
Sure we understand that isolating affected communities is part of the pandemic protocol, but we don't wish our life and freedom to be tossed aside at the slightest excuse, states Shyam G Menon.
Talking about the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, Agarwal said, "If the Tablighi Jamaat incident had not taken place and we compare the rate of doubling -- that is in how many days the cases have doubled, we will see that currently it is 4.1 days (including Jamaat cases) and if the incident had not taken place and additional cases had not come then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days."
Italy, previously Europe's worst-hit, has recorded 33,600 COVID-19 deaths.
Fans return to English grounds, but told not to celebrate goals too much.
'We will need more than 21 days of lockdown for sure.'
During this period, all government and private offices, shopping complexes, malls, bars, sports complexes, pubs and beauty parlours will remain closed.
"We have decided not to allow people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu till May 31, but allowed in stages (staggered manner)," the CM said said.
Doggedly persisting with its much-criticised zero-Covid policy, China has slipped deeper into the coronavirus quagmire as it reported a record 31,444 infections on Thursday with many of its cities, including Beijing, resorting to community lockdowns to stem the virus amid worsening wintery weather.
'Villages are much better prepared than towns as far as COVID-19 is concerned.'
Our men are deputed in the dedicated control rooms of states so that we are on the same page with the local authority in terms of the information, work and tasking, he added.
He further said that stern action will be taken against people who do not wear masks and do not follow social distancing norms in the national capital.
The prohibitory order, issued by a senior police official, says restrictions on movement of residents for non-essential work will remain in force till July 15.
He said the lockdown rules will not be relaxed in haste.
The constable, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, was posted at the Bharat Nagar Police Station in northwest Delhi, police said. He lived with a colleague at a rented house in Gandhi Vihar area.
Pappu Qureshi, a good samaritan in Mumbai, helps feed more than 50 migrants, mostly daily wagers and their children, but with the 21-day national lockdown looming large, time is running out.
The suggestions submitted to the Centre on Thursday evening also recommended restarting construction activities and allowing movement of labourers within the city, sources said.
'But to see the effects of that, it will take a week or two more.'
Rahul Dasgupta's collection The Sea is a visual interpretation of how the human eye perceives the sea.
On Monday, the ministry had put the recovery rate from COVID-19 at 22.17 per cent.
Also, the recovery rate in COVID-19 patients has progressively improved from 13.06 per cent to over 25 per cent in the country over the last 14 days. Addressing a press briefing, Joint Secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in several states is better than the national average.
According to a new set of guidelines issued on Monday, the patient should be clinically assigned as a very mild case or pre-symptomatic case by the treating medical officer.
In his televised address to the people, a day after the state government extended the coronavirus-induced lockdown till May 31, Thackeray said that 50,000 industrial units have already resumed their activities in the state.
Kiren Rijiju said the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, forced his ministry to delay the resumption of the training camps at Sports Authority of India (SAI) centres. The lockdown was earlier meant to end on May 3.
