The total number of infections crossed the 74,000-mark Wednesday to reach at 74,281. (File)
Coronavirus in India Live updates: The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund Wednesday has decided to allocate Rs 3,100 crore for the fight against Covid-19, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said. “Out of Rs 3100 crore, a sum of approximately Rs.2000 crore will be earmarked for the purchase of ventilators, Rs. 1000 crores will be used for the care of migrant labourers and Rs.100 crores will be given to support vaccine development,” the PMO said.
Meanwhile, earlier today, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an economic package worth Rs 20 lakh crore or 10 per cent of India’s GDP in 2019-20, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press conference announced a slew of measures to help businesses, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), recover from the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
With India reporting 122 deaths and 3,525 cases in the last 24 hours, the coronavirus pandemic casualties rose to 2,415 on Wednesday while the total number of infections crossed the 74,000-mark to reach 74,281 including the 24,385 people who have been treated and discharged so far.
Globally, 2,91,942 people have died and 4,261,747 have been infected so far. As many as 1,493,414 people have been cured across the world. The United States has recorded the maximum number of deaths and cases at 82,376 and 1,369,574 respectively.
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The Prime Minister’s Office in a statement said that an amount of Rs 1,000 cr will be given to states and UTs from PM-Cares Fund to “strengthen existing measures” taken for the welfare of migrants and poor.
"For augmenting the infrastructure to tackle COVID-19 cases across the country, 50,000 ‘Made-in-India’ ventilators will be purchased from PM CARES Fund at a cost of approximately Rs. 2,000 crore," the Prime Minister Office said in a statement.
“These ventilators will be provided to government-run Covid-19 hospitals in all States/UTs, for better treatment of the critical cases, it added.
The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund Wednesday has decided to allocate Rs 3,100 crore for the fight against Covid-19, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said. "Out of Rs 3100 crore, a sum of approximately Rs.2000 crore will be earmarked for the purchase of ventilators, Rs. 1000 crores will be used for the care of migrant labourers and Rs.100 crores will be given to support vaccine development," the PMO said.
Jammu on Wednesday reported its first Covid-19 related death after a 75-year-old man died at his home on Tuesday and was tested positive this morning. According to Dr Dara Singh, Medical Superintendent of the Government Medical College Hospital, the deceased had been ill for the past few months. His son, however, had a travel history of coming from Delhi. The family had brought the man to the hospital Tuesday evening, where he was declared dead on arrival. The doctors, as a precautionary measure, had decided to take a sample for a Covid-19 test which later turned out to be positive.
On Wednesday, Guwahati reported 15 new cases of the novel coronavirus traced to a 50-year-old man who had tested positive on Monday in the city’s busiest commercial hub, Fancy Bazaar. Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed the new cases through a tweet: “Alert ~ 15 persons are tested #COVID19 + in Kamrup Metro. All are related to patient from Guwahati's Fancy Bazaar, who tested + recently.” He also said that those who tested positive were quarantined and asked people not to panic. These new cases now bring the total number of Covid-19 cases in the state to 79, out of which 39 have been discharged and 37 are active.
Following the lead from states like Delhi and Goa, Kerala Wednesday effected a major hike in liquor prices by raising the duty on all brands. While beer and wine brands will see an increase in retail prices by 10%, other IMFL categories will see a hike of up to 35%, a top official of Kerala State Beverages Corporation (BEVCO) confirmed. The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Wednesday.
Rail Bhavan, which is the headquarters of the Indian Railways in Central Delhi, will be shut for the next two days after an RPF staffer tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, officials said. The employee, working as a clerk in Railway Protection Force (RPF) Director General Arun Kumar's office on the fourth floor of Rail Bhavan, was in quarantine since May 6, they said. According to an order issued on Wednesday, the building, which houses the Railway Board, will be shut on May 14 and 15 and intensive sanitisation of all the rooms and common areas will be done.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday slammed the Union government, claiming the special economic package announced by it has nothing of help to the states and is "a big zero". Banerjee alleged the central government was "misleading people" during the COVID-19 crisis.
"The special economic package announced by the Union government is nothing but a big zero. It is an eyewash to fool the people. There is nothing for the unorganised sector, public spending and employment generation," she said while addressing a press conference here. "Yesterday, when the PM announced Rs 20 lakh crore package, we were hopeful that the interest of the states will be looked into, the FRBM limit would be increased. But today, after the Union finance minister made the announcements, it was found that everything that was said yesterday was a bluff," she said.
Hitting out at the Centre for allegedly not offering anything to the financially starved states, The Trinamool Congress supremo claimed it was trying to "bulldoze" cooperative federalism.
The number of coronavirus cases in Mumbai's Dharavi, considered to be the biggest slum of Asia, rose to 1,028 on Wednesday with 66 new patients being detected, said an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The death toll due to the pandemic in the area rose to 40 on Tuesday from 31, but no new COVID-19-related death was reported thereafter, he said.
These nine deaths had taken place on different dates but the information was collated on Tuesday, the official said. Dharavi recorded its coronavirus patient on April 1, 20 days after the first case of coronavirus infection was reported in Mumbai. (PTI)
Giving a major relief to the tax payers of the country, badly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, the government on Wednesday extended the date for filing of Income-tax return for FY 2019-20 from 31st July, 2020 & 31st October, 2020 to 30th November, 2020 and Tax audit from 30th September, 2020 to 31st October, 2020. READ MORE
The first train carrying over 1000 stranded Manipuris from Chennai arrived at Jiribam railway station on Wednesday. Official sources said the special train with 1140 Manipuris onboard reached the station around 1 pm. Soon after the arrival of the train, a medical team of Jiribam began screening of passengers, district wise, in 12 screening counters set up at the station. Food and water were also provided to the passengers by the district authority. From the station, the passengers will head to their respective districts in buses arranged by the transport department of Manipur. Altogether 150 buses are being arranged by the department to ferry returnee. Passengers of Ukhrul district was the first to leave from the station. The buses carrying the Ukhrulites left the station around 4 pm followed by Senapati district. Jiribam station, bordering Assam, is the only railway station in Manipur which is about 216 km from Imphal.
As per the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the Government any passengers found symptomatic would be separated while the asymptomatic will be kept at community quarantine centres set up in their respective district for 14 days under strict surveillance of the health officials. However, there was no report of detection of symptomatic till the time of filing this report. Manipur Chief Secretary Dr. J Suresh Babu, said special train carrying around 1200 stranded Manipur will leave Punjab on Thursday. The train is expected to arrive at Jiribam railway station on Saturday, he said. This will be followed by another train carrying a similar number of stranded state natives from Bangalore. The train will leave the city on Friday, said Suresh Babu.
“The state Government is giving its best effort to bring the stranded back home safely. We are also planning to bring one more train from Chennai and Baroda. I appealed to the people to co-operate”, said the Chief Secretary. He also urged the stranded state natives who want to return home to get themselves registered in state’s official portal and also the portal of the respective state where they are stranded.
Statutory PF contribution of both employee and employer will be reduced to 10% each from existing 12% for all establishments covered by EPFO for next 3 months
CPSEs and State PSUs will however continue to contribute 12% as employer contributions
This scheme will be applicable for workers who are not eligible for 14% EPF support under PM Garib Kalyan Package
This will provied relief to about 6.5 lakh estabilishments covered under EPFO and about 4.3 cr such employees
Will provide liquidity of Rs 6750 cr to employers and employees over 3 months
Indian MSMEs and other companies have often faced unfair competition from foreign companies
Global tenders will be disallowed in government procurement tenders upto Rs 200 cr
Necessary amendments to be brought about in General Financial Rules
Manufacturing and services are now one classification.
Micro: Investments less than Rs 1 cr and turnover of less than Rs 5 crores
Small: Investment less than Rs 10 cr and turnover less than Rs 50 crores
Medium: Investment less than Rs 20 cr and turnover less than Rs 100 crore
Defination of MSMEs revised. Investment and revenue parameteres revised.
Rs 52,606 crore transferred to 41 crore Jan Dhan account holders, Rs 18,000 crore grain transfers; Ujjwala, divyang and old age also benefited, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman.
FM lists business reforms: public sector bank clean up, recap, FDI liberalisation, Ease of Doing, IBC, GST, and NHAI TOT, power sector reforms, privatisation of airports, cleaning up of coal mining sectors.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) is developing a low-cost, portable and battery-operated device to test coronavirus, the varsity said in a statement. According to JNU, the device can complete testing in 50 minutes while it takes 120-180 minutes through the conventional method.
It has designed a chip-based spatial reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) where PCR has been integrated with an in-built detection system containing LED and diode detector, the university stated.
“The detection of the infection of coronavirus is being majorly done by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCT) by using real-time PCR machine, a very accurate lab test for detection, tracking and study the coronavirus. But this technology is expensive, requires high-end laboratory-based equipment and is time-consuming,” the vice-chancellor said in a tweet. READ MORE
Four trains carrying around 4,500 passengers reached the New Delhi Railway Station on Wednesday morning.
Passengers who reached Delhi on trains originating from Patna, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Howrah, were asked to undergo mandatory thermal screening on reaching the city. “At the time of boarding, they were also asked to download the Aarogya Setu application and we will be tracking any contact with someone who has tested positive through it,” said a senior Northern Railways official.
Apart from the four trains that arrived in Delhi, nine will be leaving from the station for different parts of the country. The first set of trains departed from Delhi on Tuesday and carried over 3,200 passengers.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the Donald Trump administration’s top infectious disease expert, warned Tuesday that cities and states could “turn back the clock” and see more coronavirus deaths and economic damage alike if they lift Covid-19 stay-at-home orders too fast. His response stands in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s wishes to halt the downward spiralling economy.
The United States has seen more than 80,000 deaths alone, the world’s highest toll.