Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has appealed to all states to permit the operation of migrant special trains so that the stranded can reach home in the next three to four days. (Representational)
Coronavirus in India highlights: After 50 days of suspension of its passenger operations due to COVID-19 lockdown, the Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12 initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys). These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.
As India enters the last week of the third phase of the lockdown, which is scheduled to end on May 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold another meeting with state Chief Ministers via video-conference on Monday afternoon at 3 pm. This will be his fifth meeting with CMs to discuss the post-lockdown strategy. The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases has neared the 63,000-mark including 2,109 deaths and 19,358 recoveries. Of the 62,939 cases, 41,427 are active. Earlier today, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had appealed to all states to permit the operation of migrant special trains so that the stranded can reach home in the next three to four days. “As per the directions of Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi ji, Railways is fully geared up to run 300 Shramik Special trains everyday at short notice since the last six days,” he tweeted.
Globally, there are over 4 million coronavirus cases, with deaths exceeding 2,79,000. Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster” during a conversation with ex-members of his administration. Boris Johnson will unveil a virus alert system, similar to the color-coded terror-threat scale, in a Sunday address to Britain that will set out some conditions for removing restrictions on the economy.
Scientists are seen working at Cobra Biologics on a potential vaccine for COVID-19, (File/REUTERS/Carl Recine)
The measures include 24-hour sanitisation of premises; temperature check of all employees twice daily; providing face shields, masks and PPEs
After remaining free of coronavirus for about two months, Wardha registered its first Covid-19 death after an asthma patient, who died on way to hospital, was found to have contracted the virus.
Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar said, “The deceased was a 36-year-old acute asthmatic patient from Hivra Tanda village in Arvi tehsil bordering Amravati district. She was bed-ridden for the past six months and was being taken to Vinoba Bhave Medical College and Hospital at Sawangi Meghe near Wardha on May 8 but died on the way. Her test report came positive on Sunday.” Read More
The number of samples tested for COVID-19 has seen a decline in Vadodara for the past one week – while 228 samples were tested on May 4, it has dropped to 125 in the last 24 hours.
Till May 4, more than 200 samples were taken for testing every day, while it has been less than 200 in the last few days. Read more here
The failure to adhere to the testing protocol laid down by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the delay in testing samples, which at times are sent 670 km away to labs in distant Nagpur, are leading to undetected spread and increasing fatalities in Malegaon, claim local residents and activists in the city. Malegaon, a town of 6 lakh residents located 280 km north of Mumbai, as of Saturday, had a total of 472 positive cases and 20 fatalities since the first case was registered on April 8. Read More
The number of samples tested for COVID-19 has seen a decline in Vadodara for the past one week – while 228 samples were tested on May 4, it has dropped to 125 in the last 24 hours.
Till May 4, more than 200 samples were taken for testing every day, while it has been less than 200 in the last few days. Read more here
The South Eastern Railway has decided to reduce the speed of all goods and special trains to 40 km per hour in its Kharagpur-Bhadkar section till Monday morning owing to the movement of migrant workers at different places along the railway tracks, an official said here on Sunday. All staff in the section, including Railway Protection Force (RPF), gateman and trackman, have been asked to be vigilant regarding the movement of migrant workers along railway tracks, the official said.
Speed of the trains has been reduced to 40 km per hour between 8 pm of Sunday and 8 am on Monday in the Kharagpur- Bhadrak section across West Bengal and Odisha after migrant workers were spotted walking along the tracks at different places, he said.
Loco pilots have also been instructed to run trains with a strict vigil and have been asked to blow long whistles during movement, the official said. The superintendent of police of Birbhum district also urged the Eastern Railway authorities to provide advance intimation about the movement of trains in order to prevent any incident like that of Aurangabad in Maharashtra where 16 migrant were killed after being run over. PTI
Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad was on Sunday discharged from Fortis hospital where he was recovering after testing positive for Covid-19 in April. In a series of tweets, Awhad said he has been advised to stay at home for a month.
“My fight with Covid-19 over the past few days has turned out to be successful and I am going home today. I will soon be back with the same enthusiasm to work for my state. The doctors have advised me bed rest for a month… hence, I will not be able to meet anyone,” he tweeted in the morning. Read More
Two days after BMC amended its testing protocol again to allow private doctors to prescribe a Covid-19 test, lack of communication on the updated protocol to private laboratories led to multiple instances where patients were refused the test.
Father of a two-month-old baby, who requires an urgent hernia procedure, said he has been trying to get his daughter tested for Covid-19 since three days. Even though the baby has no symptoms of the virus, the test is a prerequisite for surgery to relocate her ovary. Read More
After eight months apart, the last three of which were spent in extreme anxiety, Devendra Dagaliya will have to wait another two weeks more to bring his daughter home. For now though, he is simply relieved that she is back on Indian soil.
Dhwani Dagaliya (18) was among the 572 passengers who were flown back home by Air India from London and Singapore on Sunday. While 329 passengers returned from London, 243 arrived from Singapore in the afternoon. Read More
After remaining free of coronavirus for about two months, Wardha registered its first Covid-19 death after an asthma patient, who died on way to hospital, was found to have contracted the virus.
Wardha Collector Vivek Bhimanwar said, “The deceased was a 36-year-old acute asthmatic patient from Hivra Tanda village in Arvi tehsil bordering Amravati district. She was bed-ridden for the past six months and was being taken to Vinoba Bhave Medical College and Hospital at Sawangi Meghe near Wardha on May 8 but died on the way. Her test report came positive on Sunday.”
“We are trying to trace the origin of her infection. We came to know that a relative, who is a nurse at Nagpur, had come to visit the family about 15 days ago. The police are also investigating if she may have got it from neighbouring Amravati district as her husband was allegedly involved in illicit liquor business,” Bhimanwar added.
The body of the woman was sent to her village before the test report came. As several people attended her funeral, the administration is now tracing and quarantining all of them. The authorities have also sealed areas in a three-km radius of the village and is doing contact tracing.
The district also recorded its second coronavirus case on Sunday with a 64-year-old man from Washim, who had come to the same hospital for treatment, testing positive. He had come to the hospital for treatment of pneumonia.
The Tripura police Sunday lathi-charged a group of people protesting the setting up of a Covid-19 hospital at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Yuba Awas in Agartala city.
Residents of Goalabasti, Bholagiri and adjoining areas had set up a blockade on the busy VIP Road in front of the new 300-bed hospital Sunday afternoon, demanding to speak with authorities. They claimed the hospital posed a major health risk to people living in nearby areas and demanded to know why it wasn’t set up somewhere outside residential areas. Read more here
Railways is planning to gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys.) These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, and Jammu Tawi. For answers to all your questions, read more here
Sixteen more persons tested positive with COVID-19 in Tripura on Sunday. The state has now got 152 cases in total, out of which 148 are active.
132 BSF jawans and their relatives were tested positive with the virus from 86th battalion and 138th battalion, both posted in and around Ambassa. However, no community transmission among civilians was seen, even in the worst affected Dhalai.
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb took to Twitter and informed about the development writing, "ALERT! 16 persons found #COVID19 POSITIVE in Tripura from 86th-Bn #BSF (Official:1, Female:6, Children: 9). We are conducting max number of tests. 75 Samples from 3rd-Bn BSF tested but all reports are NEGATIVE. Total active cases:148. Transferred out:02. Recovered:02". Two patients, an ambulance driver and a trucker had departed to Siliguri in West Bengal and Karimganj of Assam respectively before their test reports arrived. They are being treated as 'transferred patients'.
Nearly two months after it suspended its passenger operations in view of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the Railways on Sunday announced that it will gradually restart its passenger train operations from May 12. The decision was taken a day ago at a high level meeting of government and states with Cabinet Secretary, sources said, adding that the final touches of the crucial move were prepared on Sunday evening. In the midst of the lockdown, Railways has so far operated its freight services to transport essential goods across the country and ‘Special Shramik’ trains to ferry stranded migrant workers to their home states.
In the midst of the lockdown, Railways has so far operated its freight services and 'Special Shramik' trains. But where all will it operate passenger trains now? Here's everything you need to know.
As Tamil Nadu on Sunday reported 669 confirmed cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of cases to 7,204, a number of cases linked to the Koyambedu vegetable market cluster has exceeded the total number of cases originated from state’s controversial cluster of cases originated from a Tablighi Jamaat conference held in Delhi. According to comprehensive data of cases compiled on Saturday evening, the total number of cases linking “Koyambedu cluster” was 2,005 against 1,350 cases linked to the congregation.
While the Tablighi cluster’s 631 primary contacts had infected 719 secondary contacts, 875 primary contacts of ‘Koyambedu cluster’ had infected another 1,130 close contacts, according to the state health department’s contact tracing data updated till Saturday evening.
Kerala Minister for Health, K K Shailaja informed that seven new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Kerala today. Three of the positive cases are in Wayanad district, two from Thrissur district, and one each in Ernakulam and Malappuram districts. Three of them are Pravasi Malayalees who came back from Abu Dhabi on May 07 by the first evacuation flight to Kerala, two have returned from Chennai and two are cases of local transmission.
At the same time, four patients under treatment for Coronavirus tested negative today. Two patients from Kannur district and one each from Palakkad and Kasargod districts are those who have recovered from the infection. With today’s results, Kasargod district, which once had the highest number of patients is Covid free. So far, 489 patients have been cured of this infection in the State and 20 patients are presently under treatment in different hospitals.
26,712 persons are now under surveillance in various districts in the State. Of these, 26,350 are under quarantine at their homes and 362 are isolated at hospitals. 135 people were admitted to hospitals today.
Manipur Government on Sunday issued a strict Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for people returning to the state by train in order to facilitate smooth transportation and screening of the returnee. As per the SOP issued by the Home department, all the returnees shall remain under strict quarantine for 14 days under designated district quarantine centres.
A different protocol will be followed in case of any suspected passengers as per the order of the department, it said. Earlier, the state has announced that the returnees who are symptomatic will be referred to RIMS and JNIMS while the non-symptomatic will be escorted to institutional quarantine centres in Imphal. They (returnee) shall have to spend a day at the centre as their samples will be sent for testing.
During the testing, if anyone is found negative they will be sent to their homes for home quarantine.
According to reliable sources from the Government, 14 days quarantine was made mandatory for all the returnee taking into consideration the new challenges the health department may face in testing a large number of people in a day. Among other guidelines issued by the department are that registration of names in the Manipur Government official web portal www.tengban.in and in the web portal of the respective state, they are located, have also been made mandatory. The final list of the passengers will be notified at the state government website, it said.
In case the train arrives late evening, screening shall be done inside the coaches of the trains and as such passengers are asked to stay in the train overnight until buses to ferry them back to Imphal are made in the morning.
After 50 days of suspension of its passenger operations due to COVID-19 lockdown, the Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12 initially with 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys).
81 more inmates at Arthur Road jail tested positive for covid-19, taking the total number to infected inmates to 58, apart from 26 jail staffers, who had also tested positive.
The decision was taken Saturday at the highest level of the government, and states were sounded out on Sunday in a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary, sources said. The final touches for the crucial move were prepared Sunday evening.
Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11, and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/). Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) will be issued, Railways said.
Further details, including train schedule, will be issued separately in due course. Read more here
These trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi.