The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic has spread across 185 countries and territories. Today is the 38th day of India’s nationwide lockdown, which has been extended till May 3. During his interaction with chief ministers on April 27, PM Modi reportedly hinted that restrictions may continue in hotspots.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stand at 35,043. The death toll from the outbreak in India is at 1,147. Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi have reported the highest number of cases.
Globally, there have been over 32.5 lakh confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 2.33 lakh people have died so far. The United States, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK are the most-affected countries. Catch the latest updates here:
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | PM Modi:
I welcome the announcements by the Chief of Defence Staff today. India has waged a strong fight against COVID-19 due to courageous frontline warriors who have cared and cured many. They are spectacular. India applauds them and their families.
Our Armed Forces have always kept the nation safe. Even in times of disasters, they are out there helping people. Now, our Forces are, in a unique way, saying a big thank you to our frontline COVID-19 warriors for their endeavour towards making India COVID-19 free.
Coronavirus in Rajasthan LIVE updates:
82 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in Rajasthan taking the total number of cases to 2666; 62 deaths due to the virus recorded in state till date.
Coronavirus in Maharashtra LIVE updates:
1008 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in Maharashtra today, taking the total number of cases to 11,506.
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates | MHA:
Sale of liquor, paan, tobacco to be allowed after ensuring minimum six-feet social distancing; not over 5 persons at one time at shop.
Consumption of liquor, paan, gutka, tobacco etc. is not allowed in public places during lockdown.
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates | MHA:
Aarogya Setu app must for people living in COVID-19 containment zones
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates | Activities allowed in Red Zones:
#
Industrial andconstruction activities in rural areas
# MNREGA works, food processing and brick kilns
# All agriculture activity permitted
# Animal husbandry fully permitted
# All health services to be fullyfunctional
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates: Activities prohibited in Red Zones
# Plying of cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws; running of taxis and cab aggregators; intra-district and inter-district plying of buses; and, barber shops, spas and salons.
#E-Commerce activities, in the Red Zones, are permitted only in respect of essential goods
#Private offices can operate with up to 33% strength as per requirement, with the remaining persons working from home
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates:
Public transport allowed in Green Zones, not in red or orange. In Green Zones, buses can operate with up to 50% seating capacity and bus depots can operate with up to 50% capacity.
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates: Activities that remain prohibited
Travel by air, rail, metro and inter-State movement by road;
running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/ coaching institutions;
hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants;
places of large public gatherings, such as cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes etc;
social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings; and, religious places/ places of worship for public
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates:
The Green Zones will be districts with either zero confirmed cases till date; or, no confirmed case in the last 21 days. The classification of districts as Red Zones will take into account the total number of active cases, doubling rate of confirmed cases, extent of testing and surveillance feedback from the districts. Those districts, which are neither defined as Red nor Green, shall be classified as Orange zones.
The classification of districts into Red, Green and Orange Zones will be shared by MoHFW with the States and Union Territories (UTs) on a weekly basis, or earlier, as required.
While States and UTs can include additional districts as Red and Orange Zones, they may not lower the classification of a district included by MoHFW in the list of Red or Orange Zones.
Lockdown Extension LIVE updates:
MHA also issued new guidelines to regulate different activities in this period, based on the risk profiling of the districts of the country into Red (hotspot), Green and Orange Zones. The guidelines have permitted considerable relaxations in the districts falling in the Green and Orange Zones.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | BREAKING:
Ministry of Home Affairs issues order under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to further extend the lockdown for a further period of two weeks beyond May 4.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat:
As a gesture of gratitude and solidarity for our frontline warriers (doctors, other medical health care professionalsdelivery persons for essential services, media, etc), on May 3, the IAF will be do a fly pass across the length and breadth of the country (from Srinagar to Thiruvanathapuram; and from Dibrugarh to Kutch). Besides, helicopters will shower petals over hospitals.
The Navy will light up the ships and make formations, while the Indian Army will do mount back displays along the COVID hospitals of the nation, and lay the wreath at the Police Memorial.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates:
Newspaper industry could face losses of up to Rs 15,000 crore if relief not provided, theIndian Newspaper Society (INS) told thegovernment. (PTI)
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | Health Ministry:
Total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India rises to 35,365 including 9,064 cured/discharged and 1152 deaths.
There has been a spike of 1,755 new COVID-19 positive cases and 77 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Sharp drop in digital payments as lockdown holds up economy
Digital payments have seen a big drop with the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, which has broughtthe economy to a standstill and putting non-essential businesses on hold across the country.
For the first time in many months, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has declined more than 17 percent to less than a billion transactions in April compared to more than 1.2 billion in March. The all-India lockdown started on March 25.
Even Immediate Payment System (IMPS), a bank account-based fund transfer mechanism, slipped to 122 million transactions against more than 216 million in March, a drop of 43.5 percent.
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Coronavirus in West Bengal LIVE updates | Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar:
West Bengal is the only state where Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) faced problems in carrying out their work.When the entire country is fighting against COVID-19, and theIMCT team came to assess the situation, we should have received it with red carpet.
As per the State Govt, 105 people died due to coronavirus,but this number is more than that. Why do we want to hide the actual number of deaths? People will be more careful when they would realise that situation is grim. (ANI)
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates:
PM Narendra Modi meets key ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman apparently to discuss lockdown exit strategy. (PTI)
Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh LIVE updates | Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad:
Number of COVID-19 cases reaches 2,281 in Uttar Pradesh, out of which 1,685 cases are active. 41 patients in the statehave succumbed to the infectionso far.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | PD Vaghela, Chairman, Empowered Group-3:
Production of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has increased to 30 crore tablets from 12.23 crore tablets. A total of 16 crore HCQ tablets have been released into the market.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | PD Vaghela, Chairman, Empowered Group-3:
Demand for PPE kits has been projected at 2.01 crore in India. We have placed orders for 2.22 crore kits out of which 1.42 crore kits are being procured in the domestic market. 1.87 lakh kits are being produced daily in the country.
Besides, we have ordered2.49 crore N95 masks.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | Health Ministry Joint Secy Lav Agarwal:
We have to ensure that districts are demarcated into red, orange or green properly.
State and district administration to ensure through focused efforts that 'Red' and 'Orange' zone districts, break the chain of transmission through effective and stringent containment measure.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | Health Ministry Joint Secy Lav Agarwal:
Recovery rate in India has improved to 25.37 percent.
In the last 24 hours, 1993 positive cases reported; the total number of positive cases is now 35,043.
Of these, 8,888 COVID-19 patients, which is 25.37 percent of total cases, have recovered so far.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates | Home Ministry Joint Secy Punya Salila Srivastava:
The movement of goods carriers is being disrupted in some parts of the country. MHA clarifies that goods trucks, even if they are empty, should not be stopped at state borders. They do not need seperate passes.
In addition, the Home Ministry has reached out to the Railway board for the inter-statemovement of migrant labourers, students, pilgrims to their native place.
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Lockdown restrictions in Maharashtra to be lifted zone-wise: Uddhav Thackeray
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said that the coronavirus-induced lockdown restrictions will be lifted in the state in a zone-wise manner and the rules will be relaxed cautiously. In a live webcast, he said the lockdown rules will not be relaxed in haste.
"We will tread cautiously. It is in nobody's Interest to lift the lockdown in the (COVID-19) red zones like Mumbai, Pune region, Nagpur and Aurangabad where the number of positive cases is on the rise," he said.
Thackeray said that the lockdown has acted as a "speed breaker" in the virus chain, and added that the number of positive cases in the state increased due to aggressive testing.
Coronavirus Bangladesh LIVE Updates | Bangladesh factories resume work, risking new coronavirus cases
Bangladesh has reopened hundreds of its garment factories this week after nearly one month of closures to fight the coronavirus pandemic in a move critics say risks igniting a sharp increase in infections among workers.
An industry group said about 850 factories are operating with fewer workers than usual and following safety guidelines. Labor advocates say not enough is being done to ensure safety for the 4 million workers in Bangladesh’s roughly 4,000 garment factories.
The number of factories that have reopened is in dispute. Activists and analysts said Friday about 2,000 garment factories have restarted production. Read more here
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | COVID-19 onslaught: India's hospitals look down the barrel of the gun
There is a good chance that many hospital chains could become open to acquisitions by private entities or even the government, once the crisis is over.... Read More
Coronavirus Global LIVE Updates | COVID-19 Map by Johns Hopkins University (JHU)
Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)... Read More
Coronavirus Global LIVE Updates
| Total confirmed COVID-19 cases are at 3,267,867 with 233,688 deaths recorded. The number of recovered patients is 1,021,185, as per Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre
(Last updated at 2 pm on May 1)Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Mahindra & Mahindra reports zero sales in domestic market in April
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on May 1 said it has sold zero units in the domestic market in April due to coronavirus-led nationwide lockdown. It, however, dispatched 733 vehicles to overseas markets during the last month. Read more here
Coronavirus LIVE updates | BREAKING:
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is hoping that China will invite it to take part in its investigations into the animal origins of the novel coronavirus.
– AFP
Coronavirus in West Bengal LIVE updates:
West Bengal Principal Health Secretary Vivek Kumar writes to the Union Health Ministry, informing it that there are only 4 red zones in the state as against '10 shown in the presentation during the Cabinet Secretary's video conference with states on April 30'.
Coronavirus in Haryana LIVE updates | CMO:
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has approved the issue of Haryana consolidated revised guidelines for easing of lockdown in the state with immediate effect.
As per the revised state guidelines, activities shall be allowed on automatic route after obtaining a self-declaration from industrial units, commercial establishments andconstruction projects, online, of complying with SOPs as provided by the Union Govt.
In Ambala, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mahendergarh, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Yamunanagar, immediate automatic self-generated approvals would be accorded within moments of submission of application on portal.
Coronavirus in India LIVE updates:
Some zones of the Railways have received requests from State Governments to run special trains to carry migrant workers back to their native States. The Railways has not taken any decision on their requests so far.
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Zoom reaches out to government after MHA flags security concerns: Report
Zoom Video Communications, whose video-conferencing app was recently hit by security concerns, has reached out to the Indian government. India is an important market for Zoom, whose user base has increased after most people began working from home due to the the COVID-19 outbreak.
The company is “trying to find out what exactly are the concerns (of the government) because if you look at the sort of advisories which were given... (spoke) in terms of how to use the platform in a secure manner," Sameer Raje, India head, Zoom said. He added that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have been approached. Read more here
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Here are some changes coming into effect in banking, ATM, railways and airline services from May 1
Amid the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country, banks, ATMs, railways, airlines have enforced new rules/practices that have been brought about due to COVID-19 from May 1.... Read More
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Karnataka to have 60 labs for COVID-19 by end of May
Seeking to ramp up its testing capacity for COVID-19, the Karnataka government propose to increase the number of labs in the state to 60 by this month end as against existing 26, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Friday.
The existing labs have a capacity to test about 5,000 samples a day, he said. "We have boosted our COVID10 testing capabilities. Gadag, Vijayapura & Tumakuru get their own COVID-19 testing labs. From just 2 in Feb, we now have 26 labs & capable of testing 5,000 per day. We will have 60 labs by end of May," Sudhakar tweeted.
Coronavirus Lockdown | Trapped at home? Game on!
With so much of life transported online, there is huge satisfaction in the tactility of board games, an almost indecent pleasure in rolling dice, dealing cards, hopscotching a game piece to a square ~ via the New York Times
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Pharma companies offer incentives to get people to report for work
Indian pharma companies are being forced to provide incentives along with assurances of disinfected factories premises in order to bring workers to production lines. The move comes amid augmented demand for drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, chronic therapy medications in both domestic and offshore markets. In addition to this, companies are also facing issues related to logistics due to the ongoing coronavirus induced lockdown.
Coronavirus Europe LIVE Updates | Ryanair to cut 3,000 jobs as the coronavirus crisis drags on
Ryanair plans to cut 3,000 jobs and talk to Boeing about delaying plane deliveries as it does not expect European air traffic to recover fully from the coronavirus crisis until 2022, the Irish airline said on May 1,
Two weeks ago, Europe's biggest budget airline said it could make bumper profits in 2021 and had no plans to defer jet orders. But in an unscheduled update, Ryanair pushed back the start of a return to normal scheduling to July from June and said it would only fly 50% of planned capacity in the three months to the end of September, usually its busiest season.
The airline said it was now reviewing growth plans and plane orders and was in talks with Boeing and aircraft lessors to cut the number of deliveries over the next 24 months. Read more here
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | No petrol, ration in Goa to those not wearing masks, decides State Executive Committee
The Goa government has decided that people not wearing masks will not be given fuel at petrol pumps or ration at fair price shops in the state.... Read More
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | 12,794 migrant workers in Andhra Pradesh willing to return home
More than 12,700 migrantsin Andhra Pradesh, are ready to go back to their native states as the restrictions on movement during the ongoing coronavirus lockdown have been eased.
"We have mapped 13,255 migrants working in various sectors in different districts of AP. Of them, 12,794 expressed willingness to return to their home state and only 461 wanted to stay back. Accordingly, we have written to the Chief Secretaries for permission to facilitate the migrants journey," state Transport Principal Secretary M T Krishna Babu said.The government would initiate further action based on the response from various states, he said.
The highest number of 2,602 migrant workers were from Uttar Pradesh, followed by 1,110 from Bihar, 1,086 from Telangana, 822 from Karnataka, 745 from Madhya Pradesh and 499 from West Bengal, he said. Most of these workers were engaged in industries, agriculture sector, hotels and restaurants in the state.
- PTI
Coronavirus Sri Lanka LIVE Updates | Sri Lanka has curbed 27 COVID-19 clusters, says official
Sri Lankan authorities on May 1 said that out of the 31 main coronavirus clusters, 27 have been totally curbed, including a naval base that became the biggest cluster of the COVID-19, which has infected over 600 people in the country. "The health officials have identified some 31 clusters. Out of those 27 have been totally curbed. Even among the four which are active, three of them are being slowly tackled," Deputy Inspector General of Police Ajith Rohana said.
Sri Lanka currently has 665 confirmed cases of which over 140 have completely recovered, officials said, adding that 16 more positive cases were reported on April 30, which included 9 more Naval personnel.
Sri Lanka is currently on a total lockdown with an all island curfew being imposed till May 4. Officials are expected to relax lockdown rules from May 4 in order to revive the economic activities.
- PTI
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | MG Motor retails zero units in April due to lockdown
The company, which reports only retail sales figures, has recorded zero retail sales for the month of April 2020, as its showrooms were closed due to nationwide lockdown, MG Motor India said in a statement.... Read More
Coronavirus China LIVE Updates | Asymptomatic cases in China climb to 981, of these 631 are in Hubei province
China's asymptomatic coronavirus cases have increased to 981, including 631 in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly virus outbreak, while the government has stepped up vigil to contain the spread of the infection during the 5-day May Day holidays. China's National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday said 25 new asymptomatic cases were reported in the country, taking the total tally to 981, including 115 from abroad, who were still under medical observation.
While the confirmed cases were steadily on the decline in China, including in Wuhan, prompting the government to resume normal operations all over the country, the steady rise in asymptomatic cases continued to be a cause of concern. Asymptomatic cases refer to people who tested positive for the coronavirus but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. They are infectious and pose a risk of spreading to others.
- PTI
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Google COVID-19 Community Mobility report: Indians are staying home during the lockdown
The Mobility report for India shows that, until April 26, places that fall under the retail and recreation category witnessed a decline of 86 percent in terms of footfall. The Community Mobility Report aims at providing insights into what has changed in response to policies aimed at combating COVID-19. Read more here
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Is your city a COVID-19 hotspot? Find out here
Some districts have been classified as Hotspot or Red Zone as they are reporting a large number of COVID-19 cases and/or high growth rate of such cases.... Read More
Coronavirus India LIVE Updates | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal addresses media
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said the state will continue clinical trails of plasma therapy as its initial results are good. "One patient, whose condition was serious, was discharged from hospital after undergoing plasma therapy," he said.
On ration, the CM said free ration being provided to the needy in Delhi will be doubled to 10 kg from 5 kg.
