As India witnesses yet another spike on 12th consecutive day, the Narendra Modi govt has asked the states to ramp up testing. Punjab is the second state after Maharashtra to report maximum number of Covid infections. A woman is seen getting tested for coronavirus in Patiala on March 22nd. (PTI photo)Coronavirus India Lockdown Live News Updates: India today marks the first anniversary of Janta Curfew. It was the first time when India realised the gravity of the situation. In a national broadcast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared a 24-hour Janta Curfew. It was a Sunday. The Janta Curfew 2020 went smoothly as people posted pics of their lazy Sunday. In his TV address, PM Modi had said that the ‘Janta Curfew’ would help people in preparing for days to come. People stayed indoors and city streets wore a deserted look. However, it was the 8 pm address aday later, PM Modi announced the national lockdown to curb coronavirus. Phase 1 of the total lockdown was observed from March 23 to April 14.
365 days later, what has changed? Nothing much, actually! Though we finally have a range of vaccines that are reasonably effective in spreading the curb of Covid-19 infections, thanks to the brilliant scientists and researchers across the world. However, as India stares at the second wave of the coronavirus, the nation needs to admit that there have been many lapses at the community level. India has witnessed the sharpest surge in fresh coronavirus cases in the last one week. Though both the Prime Minister and health experts have said that the total lockdown is not essentially the solution, what we are seeing now is an unfortunate recap of what we experienced in 2020. States after states, local authorities are clamping lockdowns, night curfews and restraining inter-state movement. Rajasthan capital Jaipur and other cities will enter in night curfew from tonight. Tamil Nadu has closed the schools. Maharashtra is seeing yet another spike. Delhi has also started reported close to 1,000 cases on daily basis.
We must realise that the virus doesn’t have a calendar! The only way we can fight coronavirus is to have stringent mask discipline, avoiding stepping out in public space as much as possible and washing hands frequently. Social distancing and saying no to large gatherings is how you can stay safe.
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Highlights
Nine persons in a government polytechnic for girls in Ahmedabad in Gujarat tested positive for coronavirus and have been quarantined, an official said on Monday. The nine, comprising three teaching staff and six from the administration side, contracted the infection last week, College Principal Bhaskar Iyer said. (PTI)
Karnataka reports 1,445 new COVID-19 cases, 661 recoveries, and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.Total cases: 9,71,647; total recoveries: 9,44,917; death toll: 12,444; active cases: 14,267. (ANI)
All restaurants/eating places will close by 11:00 PM, last order can be taken till 10:00 PM. All public Holi-Milan gatherings will be banned. Clubs, hotels, restaurants etc. will not allow any ceremonial gatherings for Holi; The State Museums, Libraries, Auditoriums, Theatres etc. run by Chandigarh Administration will remain closed till further orders. All eating places, restaurants, hotels including food joints in various Malls will run only with 50% capacity: Chandigarh Administration. (ANI)
Chandigarh reports 208 new COVID19 cases taking the total number of cases to 24,667. The number of active cases now at 1,979 and death toll stands at 363: Health Department, Chandigarh. (ANI)
All educational institutions in UT Chandigarh (schools & colleges) shall remain closed with immediate effect till March 31 but the entire teaching and non-teaching staff shall continue to attend on all working days: Directorate of Higher Education, Chandigarh. (ANI)
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Maharashtra has vaccinated 45 lakh beneficiaries till now, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday. "So far we have vaccinated 45 lakh people, every day 3 lakh people are being vaccinated. We are making arrangements so that people can get vaccinated at a place near to them," he said.
1,239 new COVID19 cases, 1766 recoveries and 12 deaths in Kerala today. Death toll stands at 4507 while 10,76,571 persons have recovered so far. (ANI)
Today Maharashtra has 2.10 lakh cases of which 85% cases are asymptomatic. Cases are rising in metro cities like Pune, Mumbai. Around 3 lakh testing per million are being conducted in Pune: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope (ANI)
Uttarakhand reported 104 new COVID19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 98,552 in the state on Monday.
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Bells tolled across the Czech Republic at noon Monday to honour those who have died of COVID-19 in one of the hardest-hit European Union countries. A 95-year-old man, who is the first known Czech victim, died on March 22, 2020, at Prague's Bulovka hospital. The death toll has reached almost 25,000 since the start of the pandemic in the nation of 10.7 million. Coronavirus infections have been on the decline since the government imposed a tight lockdown earlier this month, but new cases and death rates still remain high. Petr Pospichal, a former anti-Communist dissident who helped organise the remembrance, told Czech public radio that it was the right thing to do for people to observe a minute of silence wherever they were. Pospichal says it's also necessary to realize that the pandemic isn't over yet and people are still dying. The country has almost 1.5 million confirmed cases, and 24,810 deaths.(AP)
Sirens to ring across all districts in Madhya Pradesh for two minutes at 11am and 7pm to sensitize the public about wearing masks and social distancing, for one week from March 23, in view of COVID19 situation: Madhya Pradesh Government (ANI)
Pakistan on Monday decided to increase restrictions on various activities that were contributing to the continuous rise of coronavirus cases in the country. The decision was taken during the meeting of the National Command and Control Center (NCOC), the main national body set up to control the pandemic. Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who is also the chief of the NCOC, said that the decision to tighten the restriction was taken in the wake of rise in the new cases which is not coming down despite efforts. "In the NCOC meeting this morning we decided to increase restrictions of activities contributing to a sharp increase in COVID positivity. The provincial & ICT (Islamabad Capital Territory) administration were also directed to tighten implementation of sop's and crackdown on violations which are taking place," he said in a tweet. Earlier, Pakistan authorities fixed formulas to determine prices of imported coronavirus vaccines by the private sector as 3,669 new cases emerged in the last 24 hours, taking the national tally of cases to 630,471, according to the official data. (PTI)
Odisha's COVID-19 tally climbed to 3,38,963 as 146 more people tested positive for the disease, a health department official said on Monday. Of the new cases, 87 were reported from quarantine centres and 59 detected during contact tracing. Khurda district, of which the state capital Bhubaneswar is a part, reported the highest number of new cases at 35, followed by Cuttack (25), Mayurbhanj (13), Nuapada and Sundargarh (12 each). Several new cases were detected in an educational institute in the city, a Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation official said. "In view of the detection of a large number of COVID-19 positive cases in Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, the entire XIMB institute campus is hereby sealed until further order, the civic body said in a notice issued on Sunday. (PTI)
Maharashtra's Nagpur District reported 3,596 new Covid-19 cases and 40 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per data from Civil Surgeon, Nagpur, on Monday. As many as 1,837 patients have also been discharged. So far the district has reported 1,96,676 Covid-19 cases and still has 31,067 active cases.
Strict restrictions are being imposed to contain the second wave of COVID-19, but the situation still doesn't warrant semi-lockdown or full-fledged lockdown, Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Monday. Urging more people to get vaccinated, he indicated that a decision will be taken regarding educational institutions if the cases increase after discussing with the Chief Minister. The government is strictly screening incoming travellers from high caseload states of Maharashtra and Kerala. If there is no negative RT-PCR test, they are subjected to tests at the border, Sudhakar said. Increasing penalty for not wearing a mask is also being discussed, he said. Noting that Home Ministry's support is required for strict screening at borders, the Minister said, the Chief Minister has already conducted a meeting in this regard. "Semi-lockdown or lockdown is not considered for now. We need to learn from past mistakes," he was quoted as saying by his office in a release. (PTI)
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AstraZeneca Executive Ruud Dobber said, We'll file for U.S. EUA in first half of year, Reuters reported citing CNBC report.
Britain said on Monday it would remind the European Union of its commitment to allow vaccine manufacturers to fulfill orders, including the export of shots to Britain, after speculation of a vaccine trade war heated up. “One thing I think we can do is remind the EU of the commitments they have made, and particularly Ursula von der Leyen, the EU president, made the commitment to the prime minister that the EU would wouldn’t block companies from fulfilling contractual obligations to supply vaccinations,” social care minister Helen Whately told Sky News. (Reuters)
Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil and some 40-50 of his party workers were booked for alleged violation of COVID-19 norms during a protest held at Pune's Alka Chowk, police said on Monday. The protest demanding the resignation of state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, who is facing corruption allegations from IPS officer Param Bir Singh, was held on Sunday and was led by Patil. A case was registered against Patil and 40-50 party workers on Sunday night for unlawful assembly, flouting COVID-19 norms and violating orders under IPC, Disaster Management Act and Mumbai Police Act provisions, an official said. (PTI)
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi takes his first dose of the COVID19 vaccine in Hyderabad.
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Tokyo Olympic organisers said on Monday that Japan would not allow in volunteers from overseas except for some who are deemed essential, after it decided to bar international spectators amid public concerns over the novel coronavirus. Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto told a news conference that it was "regrettable" but that organisers wanted to decide now so that there would not be confusion for volunteers overseas who were waiting for a decision. Some 600,000 Olympic tickets purchased by overseas residents will be refunded as will another 30,000 Paralympic tickets, Tokyo organisers said on Saturday after deciding not to allow in foreign spectators during the Games. Muto said exceptions would be made for volunteers with expert and specialised knowledge about specific sports and that these people would receive individual notifications. - Reuters
A South African business lobby group called on Monday for the government to shift the emphasis on its vaccine programme to target the elderly and vulnerable sooner, to prevent hospitals being overrun in a third wave of COVID-19 infections. South Africa is behind schedule in the first phase of its vaccination programme, aimed at inoculating health care workers. Those over 60 or with co-morbidities are not meant to be vaccinated until a later second phase, along with other essential workers and people who work in crowded settings. - Reuters
4 States/UTs report zero COVID19 related deaths in last 24 hours, says latest health data.
The European Union has not formally blocked the shipment of Astrazeneca vaccines from a Netherlands factory to the UK because no export request has been made but such a request would not be approved, an EU official said. The official said the strains between Britain and the EU over supplies of vaccines was not the fault of either side, but due to Astrazeneca's failure to deliver the doses it contracted to supply. "The UK is not to blame. The EU is not to blame. It's Astrazenca," the official said. "Astrazeneca has to deliver doses to its EU customers." - Reuters
The "upheavals" generated by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic can become a "breeding ground" for new variants of electronic and cyber crimes in the coming days, the head of India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has said in a latest report. The federal organisation had last year created a special unit to deal with high-risk or important suspect transactions. "Financial year 2019-20 was a rather challenging year for the global economy on account of COVID-19 pandemic," FIU-India Director Pankaj Kumar Mishra wrote in the recently released annual report for the agency (2019-20). - PTI
Alarmed by the fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday directed officials to launch an awareness campaign in a big way about the importance of wearing masks. The CM also asked officials to rope in religious leaders, cadets of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), and workers of National Service Scheme (NSS) to reach out to people. - PTI
Actor Kartik Aaryan on Monday said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and asked his fans to pray for him. The 30-year-old actor, on Saturday, walked the ramp for designer Manish Malhotra at the ongoing Lakme Fashion Week, in Mumbai. He was joined by his upcoming "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2" co-star Kiara Advani. Aaryan took to Twitter and shared a picture of a first aid medical sign, writing, "I am positive. Pray for me." The actor was also shooting for "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2" with Advani and Tabu, who joined the crew on March 15. Aaryan began his portions for the horror-comedy earlier in March in Manali, Himachal Pradesh. - PTI
Over 9000 people have been fined so far in Jammu district for violating COVID-19 guidelines by not wearing masks and Rs 45 lakh recovered from them, officials said on Monday. Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday recorded 158 fresh coronavirus cases, including 34 travellers, taking the infection tally to 1,28,547. Officials said, "During the drive against violators of COVID-19 guidelines, more than nine thousand persons have been fined for not wearing face masks during the year 2020-21". A total fine imposed on them amounted to Rs 45 lakh, they said Those found violating the COVID-19 guidelines in the district will be strictly dealt with under the law, police said. - PTI
In view of emerging scientific evidence, interval between two doses of a specific COVID-19 vaccine i.e. COVISHIELD, has been revisited by National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization& subsequently by National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19. Recommendation has been revised to provide 2nd dose of COVISHIELD at 4-8 weeks’ interval after 1st dose, instead of earlier practiced interval of 4-6 weeks. This decision of revised time interval b/w two doses is applicable only to COVISHIELD ¬ to COVAXIN vaccine , says latest order from the Government of India.
German authorities are expected to extend lockdown measures again on Monday and possibly tighten some restrictions as they face a steady rise in new coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors, who in highly decentralized Germany are responsible for imposing and lifting restrictions, are holding a videoconference nearly three weeks after they agreed a several-step plan paving the way to relax some rules. Since then, infections have increased steadily as the more contagious variant first detected in Britain has become dominant. Most lockdown restrictions are currently set to run through March 28. The chancellery is proposing an extension to April 18. - AP
In view of the upcoming festivals, the need for more caution and regulation was stressed upon and random testing at airport and railway stations needed to be done-particularly of passengers coming from states with high incidences of COVID cases, says Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal after emrgency meet. He also said that it was decided to continue with existing strategy of cluster-based surveillance, testing & genome sequencing. Stressed upon need to ramp up vaccine coverage with greater outreach & with special emphasis on marginalized/poor sections without access to digital platform. - ANI
Gatherings restricted to 20 people in SAS Nagar, Punjab due to surging cases of COVID 19 here. The night curfew is back on. We've restricted cultural & social gathering to 20 people. We've apprised the owners of marriage halls & venues to follow the same: DC Mohali - ANI
The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to debar campaigners and candidates from campaigning in the upcoming assembly elections for repeatedly violating the mandatory guidelines issued by the poll panel in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission (EC) on the petition and asked them to reply to the plea. The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 30. - PTI
Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are reporting a surge in the COVID-19 daily cases and account for 80.5 per cent of the total new cases registered, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. India saw 46,951 new cases being registered in a day, the highest single day rise so far this year. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 30,535 (65.03 per cent). This is followed by Punjab with 2,644 while Kerala reported 1,875 new cases. Eight states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana are displaying an upward trajectory in the daily new COVID-19 cases, the ministry said. India's total active caseload has increased to 3,34,646 comprising 2.87 per cent of India's total infections. - PTI
Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Monday it had reached an agreement with India's Virchow Biotech to produce up to 200 million doses a year of the Sputnik V vaccine in India. RDIF said full-scale commercial production would start after completing the transfer of technology in the second quarter. The announcement follows similar deals with Indian pharmaceutical firms Gland Pharma, Stelis Biopharma and Hetero. "Virchow's proven capabilities in large-scale drug substance manufacturing should help meet the global demand for this vaccine," Dr. Tummuru Murali, Managing Director of Virchow Biotech, said in a statement issued by RDIF. India, the world's largest vaccine maker, has become one of the biggest producers of the Sputnik V shot outside Russia. Other countries producing it include Brazil, China and South Korea. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, which has run small clinical studies of Sputnik V in India, sought emergency-use approval for the vaccine last month, but India's drug regulator asked for more data from the Sputnik V developers. - Reuters
The Philippines' health ministry on Monday reported 8,019 new coronavirus infections, registering a record daily increase in cases. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had reached 671,792, while deaths increased by four to 12,972. It was the third time the Philippines has posted a fresh high in daily cases in the past four days. - Reuters
Thailand started human trials on Monday of a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine and expects to deploy it next year, which its health minister said could give the country more freedom with its vaccine policy. Thailand's vaccination drive is targeting the inoculation of half of its adult population by the end of the year using 61 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, which will be locally produced from June. The home-grown vaccine candidate is being developed by state drug maker, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), with Mahidol University's Tropical Medicine Department and an American non-profit and uses an inactivated virus to trigger immunity. - Reuters
Greece has ordered private sector doctors in the broader Athens region to assist its public health system to fight a rise in new COVID-19 infections, Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Monday. The government had earlier called on private sector doctors to help out as Greece's public hospitals have been overwhelmed by surging COVID-19 infections and intensive care wards are running out of beds. It said about 200 doctors were needed. "For weeks, the Health Ministry addressed an invitation - an appeal - to private doctors, to strengthen the hospitals of the National Health Service during the third major wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, very few private doctors came," Kikilias said. - Reuters