Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi
India’s coronavirus deaths rose to 433 on Monday, with 402 active infections, the union health ministry said in its latest update.
“The junta curfew was successful. The nation participated with high enthusiasm. Everybody participated in thanking our essential services workforce for working relentlessly,” the health ministry said in a media briefing.
The ministry also said there were 12 private laboratory chains with 15,000 collection centres all over India that have been registered to help with the testing.
The health ministry said the central government was trying to ensure that essential supplies are not hit.
“We are also trying to make sure that people don’t crowd shops selling essential supplies by encouraging people to make phone-in orders,” health officials said.
The Indian Council for Medical Research, India’s nodal insitutition framing COVID-19 testing policies for the country, decided to rope in private testing laboratories in the light of the growing number of cases in India.
The alarming rise in cases has led to several states issuing lockdown orders. The central government has warned of strict action against people violating the restrictions.
The official death tally stands at seven, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed a coronavirus death in her state on Monday.
Curfews and lockdown
Governments of Punjab and Maharashtra issued curfew orders as the number of coronavirus cases rose exponentially in both states.
Punjab became the first in the country to impose curfew in the entire state with no relaxations and only exempted essential services to prevent the infection, which has killed seven people in the country so far.
Punjab’s coronavirus case rose to 23, and Maharashtra’s went up to 89.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said he was forced to order a statewide curfew from midnight on Monday and seal all district borders within the state as people had disobeyed the government’s order to stay and home and were moving about.
While lauding the people for making Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Janata Curfew on Sunday a success, Thackeray said it was not enough to eradicate the coronavirus.
“Simply clapping will not make the virus go away,” the chief minister said.
The administration of the union territory of Chandigarh also issued similar orders.
The Arunachal Pradesh became the latest state to order a lockdown. Anurnachal government has announced a lockdown in the state from Monday evening till March 31 in view of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Monday.
All essential services will be allowed during the period, according to a notification issued by Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar on Sunday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked state governments to ensure that rules and regulations of the coronavirus lockdown are enforced as he noted that many people are not taking the measure seriously.
“Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please save yourself, save your family, follow the instructions seriously. I request state governments to ensure rules and laws are followed,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Faced with unprecedented situation arising out of the coronavirus breakout, the Centre and state governments have decided to take extraordinary measures and impose restrictions.
Delhi, Jharkhand, and Nagaland declared a statewide lockdown while similar curbs were announced in a number of districts in Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Several states, including Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, had earlier imposed a partial or complete lockdown.
Those living in 80 districts across the country, including in the national capital Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai have been placed under travel and movement restrictions with authorities suspending all passenger train and inter-state bus services till March 31.
The Centre has issued directions to state governments, asking them to take legal action against those who are found violating the lockdown orders.
“States have been asked to strictly enforce the lockdown in the areas where it has been announced. Legal action will be taken against violators,” tweeted the Press Information Bureau, government’s communication wing.
West Bengal’s first death
A 55-year-old who tested positive for coronavirus recently died at a private hospital in Kolkata on Monday, sources said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed the death later, and said that the victim and his family had recently returned from Italy—the country that has been most hit by the deadly virus and has reported a staggering 5,000 deaths all within this month.
This is the first death reported in West Bengal.
The country’s tally includes 41 foreign nationals. Gujarat, Bihar and Maharashtra reported a death each on Sunday.
Four fatalities were reported earlier from Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra and Punjab, the ministry said, adding the total numbers also includes 24 people who have been cured, discharged or migrated.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said 18,383 samples have been tested till 10 am on Monday.
Till Monday morning, Delhi had reported 29 positive cases, including a foreigner, while Uttar Pradesh recorded 28, also including a foreigner, it added. Rajasthan reported 27 cases, of which two are foreigners. Telangana reported 26 cases, including 11 foreigners. Karnataka has 26 coronavirus patients, the ministry said.
Maharashtra, where the number of cases jumped to 89, reported 15 more coronavirus positive cases reported in the last 24 hours—14 are in Mumbai and one in Pune—officials said.
Filipino becomes 2nd foreigner to die in India
A 68-year-old man from the Philippines who tested positive for coronavirus infection and later recovered died at a hospital in Mumbai, the city civic body said on Monday.
This is the third death reported from Mumbai in connection with the coronavirus.
The man had initially tested positive for coronavirus and was under treatment at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital here. He was later shifted to a private hospital after his test report came out negative, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said in a statement.
He died at the private hospital on Sunday night, it said.
“He had diabetes mellitus and asthma and was admitted to the Kasturba hospital on March 13. He had developed acute renal failure and respiratory distress,” the civic body said.
He became the second foreigner to die in India.An Italian tourist died last week contracting the virus.
Lucknow anti-CAA protest suspended
Women protesters staging a round-the-clock sit-in at the historic Clock Tower here against the CAA and the NRC have suspended their dharna in view of the coronavirus scare.
The women protesters have submitted a letter to the police commissioner, saying they were suspending their 66-day-long protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) temporarily in view of the outbreak.
They added that they would be back after the lockdown enforced by the government ended.
The global pandemic has so far claimed 14,500 lives of the reported over 2,00,000 infections. –
