Domestic manufacturers have reached the capacity of producing nearly 2.5 lakh PPE and 2 lakh N-95 masks per day which is sufficient to meet the country's requirement in dealing with the novel coronavirus pandemic in the near future, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 has been informed. The GoM, which held its 14th meeting under the chairmanship of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday, discussed various aspects pertaining to the ?performance, impact and benefits of the Aarogya Setu application. It also highlighted the need for ensuring stringent measures for quality control of personal protection equipment (PPE), masks, ventilators among others.

A Shramik Special train carrying nearly 1,200 migrant workers left from neighbouring Navi Mumbai for Rewa in Madhya Pradesh in the wee hours of Wednesday, the Central Railway said. The train left from Panvel station of Navi Mumbai at 12.45 am, carrying passengers "registered and nominated by the state government", the Central Railway (CR) informed on its Twitter handle. Nearly 1,200 migrants boarded the 24-coach special train while maintaining the physical distancing norms, a CR spokesperson said. On Tuesday night, the Central Railway operated two Shramik Special trains from Kalyan junction in neighbouring Thane district.

The United Nations chief says the world’s one billion people with disabilities are among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video and report Wednesday that the coronavirus crisis is revealing the extent of exclusion that the most marginalized members of society experience.

The coronavirus-induced fatalities has reached 257,000 Wednesday globally and the number of infections stood at 3,663,824. Several countries around the world saw a spike in cases as they seek ways to reopen their economies and ease lockdown restrictions. Britain on Tuesday became the first country in Europe to touch 30,000 Covid-19 deaths and surpassed France to become the world’s fourth worst affected country. Infections rose sharply again in Russia. China and South Korea each reported only two new cases.

# Australia seeks to re-start economy by July: As Australia is starting to lift curbs ad ease restrictions, the government is seeking ways to reopen businesses as soon as July. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will discuss health protocols at the National Cabinet meeting Friday that could enable businesses to open in a “COVID-safe environment”, with the government saying the shutdown was costing the economy A$4 billion ($2.6 billion) a week.

# Colombia extends lockdown till 25 May: Colombia’s mandatory quarantine will be extended for another two weeks with some sectors being allowed to restart their work, President Ivan Duque said Tuesday. “Between May 11 and May 25 we will extend the obligatory preventative isolation but recover space for productive life,” Duque said.

# UK launches trade talks with the US: The United States and Britain launched formal negotiations on a free trade agreement Tuesday, aiming to work quickly to seal a deal that could counter the economic fallout of the pandemic. The talks will be conducted virtually and will involve over 300 UK and US staff and officials in nearly 30 negotiating groups.

# Disney to reopen its park in Shanghai: Disney Tuesday said that it would reopen Shanghai Disneyland to a reduced number of visitors on May 11 after reporting profit cuts by $1.4 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic and closed theme parks around the world. The park would enforce strict social distancing measures on rides and in restaurants.

Despite over 71,000 deaths and 12 lakh positive coronavirus cases in the country, the Donald Trump administration is mulling winding down the White House Task Force on Covid-19 and delegating its responsibilities in a phased manner to the relevant federal agencies. There has, however, been a sharp decline in the number of new cases and deaths in the US in the last one week, as per Johns Hopkins University, which perhaps prompted Trump to say that the country has been able to flatten the curve. And with this decline, quite a few states have started to open up.

Hiring across India has declined by 62 per cent in April 2020 as compared to last year. The worst-hit are the hotel, restaurant, travel, airlines with a decline of over 91 per cent followed by auto or ancillary, retail, and accounting and finance, according to the latest report by Naukri.com – a job site. Even with a decline of 51 per cent in hiring the IT-software industry was among the least affected industries followed by BPO/ITES/KPO, pharma, biotech, healthcare, and teaching and education industry, as per the report.

For 14 hours, 15-year-old Firdos’s body lay under a red bedsheet in a tiny paint workshop in Bandra’s Bharat Nagar slums as his father Kasim Ansari ran from doctors and civic officials to the police and ambulance owners for documents to travel 1,900 km back home to Giridih, Jharkhand, where his teenage son will be buried.  Read More

While there is debate on how much the lockdown has helped in “flattening the Covid-19 curve”, one thing is clear: It has led to a flattening of prices through a “leftward shift in the demand curve”. The best way to illustrate this is through two agricultural commodities — potato and milk — that were experiencing significant production shortfalls. In ordinary circumstances, it would have resulted in prices shooting up at this time. Instead, they have remained flat or even collapsed, thanks to the demand destruction from lockdown. READ MORE

Anganwadi worker Heena Shafi hands a pregnant woman two packets. One, for the 21-year-old expectant mother carries a hot water bag, towels, a set of comfortable nightwear and slippers. The other is for the baby — a soft, furry pink blanket, wipes, diapers, clothes, soap and few other essentials.

At the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) office at the Old Secretariat in Srinagar, Heena is part of an all-woman team of anganwadi workers who have been reaching out to pregnant women amidst the nationwide lockdown.

Kashmir has so far recorded 678 Covid cases and seven deaths, and the ICDS team in Srinagar and the administration are taking no chances.

Shobha Devi, Token Number 72, took her spot inside one of the white squares outside the General Post Office (GPO) near Ghantaghar in Dehradun. Her husband Rajkumar Pasnath queued at another post office, the Saharanpur Chowk, around 3 km away. The couple are among several people, mostly from Bihar, who have been queueing up over the last few days outside post offices in Uttarakhand to open accounts to avail of the Bihar government’s Rs-1,000 cash transfer scheme. The Bihar government had announced the scheme for migrants from the state stranded across the country.

The Covid-19 pandemic has left its impact on all sectors of the economy but nowhere is the hurt as much as the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) of India. All anecdotal evidence available, such as the hundreds of thousands of stranded migrant workers across the country, suggests that MSMEs have been the worst casualty of Covid-19 induced lockdown. It has also been reported that just like the first relief package, called the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, which was announced by the government on March 26, the second package, too, would primarily focus on the MSME sector. Here's a closer look at the anatomy of the MSME sector explains why MSMEs are so vulnerable to economic stress.

Punjab government has ordered the opening of liquor vends in the state from Thursday with a provision to deliver liquor at the doorstep of residents. The vends would be opened only during the relaxation hours amid curfew. In an order issued by the government Tuesday evening, not more than two litres of liquor would be allowed to be delivered to a single buyer. Only two persons in a group of contractors would be allowed to deliver the wine at home. The delivery boys will require a curfew pass, ID proof and the vehicle used for delivery would also require permission from the district authorities. --reports Kanchan Vasdev

First suspected COVID-19 causality reported in Delhi Police. A 31-year-old constable, posted with North-West district, died on Tuesday evening in RML hospital. He tested positive when he was examined in Deep Chand Bandhu hospital after he complained of fever and cough. He again complained on Tuesday evening that he was feeling unwell, and was rushed to RML hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. His COVID test reports are awaited. Cops working with him have been asked to go for home quarantine.

#JUSTIN:First suspected Covid causality reported in @DelhiPolice. A 31-year-old constable, posted with North-West district, died on Tuesday evening in RML hospital. He complained of fever & cough,was examined in Deep Chand Bandhu hospital,tested for COVID-19. 1/2.@IndianExpress

— Mahender Singh (@mahendermanral) May 6, 2020

On Tuesday, Gujarat crossed the 6000-figure mark, while Delhi reached 5000 and Madhya Pradesh 3000. Incidentally, Gujarat reported 49 deaths on Tuesday, the most that any state has done on any single day till now. Thirty nine of those deaths happened in Ahmedabad, which too is the highest single-day number for any city. On its worst day, Maharashtra had reported 37 deaths, while Mumbai had 27 on one day.

For the last few days, Tamil Nadu has been adding to its Coronavirus numbers at a very fast pace, its number has nearly doubled in the last one week, from 2058 to 4058. The state reported over 500 new cases on each of the last two days and was the single biggest contributor to the national numbers after Maharashtra.

Unlike some other states like Punjab or West Bengal, where the sudden surge in the numbers in recent days could be attributed to specific reasons, it is not clear what is causing the rise in numbers in Tamil Nadu. After all, the number of new cases were increasing at a much more modest rate in Tamil Nadu earlier. Its previous doubling had taken 17 days.

A few hours after Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa ‘requested’ migrant labourers to stay back, the state government decided to cancel all trains arranged to transport migrants to other states. The state government Tuesday wrote to the South Western Railway (SWR) withdrawing their request to arrange for train services scheduled for Wednesday.

China has reported two confirmed coronavirus cases and 20 new asymptomatic infections, including three imported ones, taking their total number to over 960, health authorities said on Wednesday. The National Health Commission (NHC) said on Wednesday that no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 were reported on Tuesday across the Chinese mainland. However, two confirmed cases arriving from outside the mainland were reported in China's Shaanxi Province, it said. Twenty new asymptomatic infections of the novel coronavirus were reported Tuesday, including three imported ones, the NHC said.

When President Donald Trump finally left his White House quarantine Tuesday to tour a plant in Arizona that makes protective equipment, he declined to wear a mask, something he’s been reluctant to do since the outbreak began. During a tour of a Honeywell plant making N95 respirators for health-care workers, the president donned safety goggles but no face covering, making good on his remarks that he didn’t need to do it and probably wouldn’t.

From stocking portable air filters to realigning beds according to the Nightingale ward philosophy and implementing epidemic SOPs reviewed by a microbiologist, all this was part of the process of bringing a COVID-19 hospital to life. Dr Ira Almeida, medical superintendent of Hospicio hospital in Margao, recalls a disaster drill on March 22, the day of Janta Curfew. But this drill was different. “It was specific… it was for an incoming pandemic,” she says. “Not the regular trauma drills we conduct where a bus falls into a steep valley.”