1,000,000 cases in world and India’s supply woes: Covid-19 news today

In less than 100 days in 2020, the Sars-Cov-2 virus has infected a million people and killed 50,000, ripping through 203 countries in a rampage that will have a deep economic, social and psychological impact. India, where infections have crossed 2,000, is battling an immediate fallout of a virus-induced lockdown. Amid a supply crunch of consumer items across states, businesses blame lean inventories on panic buying and transportation curbs.

One million and counting

The government may borrow about Rs 40,000 crore to compensate cash-strapped states for their revenue shortfall under the GST regime, and push its departments and public sector firms to clear their vendors’ dues , to rescue them from an acute liquidity crunch caused by the 21-day coronavirus lockdown, three officials aware of the developments said. Read more

Plan staggered exit from lockdown, PM tells CMs

Underlining India’s goal of ensuring minimum loss of life and detailing the next steps in India’s strategy to deal with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday indicated that once the lockdown ends, the Centre and the states will together ensure a staggered re-emergence of the citizenry. Read more

A peek inside the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz

Most nights, the main avenue of Delhi’s tony Nizamuddin East is as silent as a grave. There is no traffic except for an occasional car, a “Niz East” dweller probably returning to his or her elegant apartment. The 17th-century tomb of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana remains shrouded in darkness. Read more

17 companies asked to help meet 38mn unit PPE shortfall

How do you produce millions of coveralls (a key part of personal protective equipment or PPE) that health care workers need when dealing with something as infectious as the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), when, till last month, they were mostly imported ? Read more

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Is Delhi prepared?

That isn’t a question designed to be alarmist. On Thursday, the number of Covid-19 cases in Delhi rose to293, driven upward by more people who attended the gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat at its HQ testing positive. Read more

Tracking to testing: Control rooms at forefront of efforts to contain Covid-19 spread

With more than 100 positive Covid-19 cases detected in at least nine states around the country -- apart from Delhi -- Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, among others, have set up control rooms to act as nodal centres to track the spread of the virus by processing real-time data from the districts, coordinating door-to-door surveillance, and testing people. Here is a look at what how these control rooms function. Read more

Covid-19 update: Hoarding, transport snags choke supply of essentials

A supply crunch of consumer items has cascaded across states, as buyers, rich and poor, scour markets for everyday needs amidst a sweeping lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Read more

ICMR advises antibody testing in hot spots for faster diagnosis

India has allowed faster and cheaper antibody tests to check for the coronavirus disease in so-called hot spots -- these show clusters of infections -- of which there are 20 in the country, the health ministry said on Thursday. Read more

Covid-19: Health workers attacked in cities, 7 held in Indore for pelting stones

The Madhya Pradesh police arrested seven people on Thursday for allegedly attacking health workers in Indore’s Tatt Patti Bakhal area on Wednesday, as several such incidents of attacks on health workers were reported from different parts of the country. Read more

‘Prepare or suffer’: CDS Gen Rawat delivers blunt message on Covid-19 battle

India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat believes that India must break the Covid-19 virus chain by April 14, through the lockdown and social distancing, or be prepared to weather the long-term consequences of the pandemic. Read more

In Dharavi, cramped quarters and squalor make Covid-19 fight difficult

Mumbai’s overworked public health workers have a new, daunting challenge on their hands--Dharavi. After a 56-year-old garment shop owner died of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India’s largest slum on April 1, two teams of 50 officers and volunteers arrived in Dharavi to spread awareness of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the disease, and to quarantine 70 high-risk residents of the eight-building Slum Rehabilitation Authority complex in which the man stayed. Read more

‘Isolation, social distancing will do wonders, not testing’: BS Yediyurappa

Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa has credited his government’s proactive strategy for the relatively fewer number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases and deaths in the state after it reported the first fatality in the pandemic in the country on March 13. Yediyurappa spoke to Sunetra Choudhury about how his government was responding to the crisis. Read more

A July without Roger Federer

Over the last fortnight, have you found yourself feeling deeply apologetic about missing live sports? Watching millionaires smack a ball with their foot, racquet or bat has always been a great way to rise above the drudgery of everyday life; but where we are now, is very far from ordinary. Read more