Coronavirus India Updates: Total Cases Cross 17,500; Seven States Have More Than 1,000 Each

India’s count of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 17,615 by Sunday night, according to the ICMR.

A total of 4,01,586 samples from about 3,83,985 individuals have been tested as on 9 p.m. on April 19, India’s apex body for biomedical research and policy said in a statement. About 27,824 samples were tested for Covid 19 on Sunday, and 1,135 were positive.

The tally is higher than 16,116 confirmed cases disclosed by the Health Ministry. The ministry said on Sunday that it’s trying to reconcile its numbers with the data from ICMR.

India’s aviation regulator directs all airlines to stop bookings for both domestic and international flights.

Decision to commence operations of flights from May 4 hasn’t been taken yet, Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Sunday. Sufficient time will be given to airlines for booking and restarting operations, it said.

The Maharashtra government will let certain economic activities in the state to resume from April 20, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said.

The state has divided districts into red, orange and green zones, he said, adding that limited industrial business activity will be permitted in green and orange zones. Green zones comprise districts with no cases and orange zones have areas that have reported a few cases.

Economic activity will be conducted only within designated districts and not between them, the chief minister said. District borders remain sealed and inter-district travel still prohibited, he said, adding that the government is only allowing movement of goods between districts, not people.

Delhi has decided not to relax the lockdown as of now as the number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus mount, including a volunteer who has been distributing food at a centre set up by the government.

“All 11 districts of Delhi are hotspots and we have seen increase in number of coronavirus cases,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a videoconference. “Yesterday we tested about 736 asymptomatic patients, and about 186 were positive—i.e. about 25 percent of the cases. Those 736 patients had no clue that they had the virus.”

One person from the 186 positive cases was even involved in distribution at a food centre set up in the national capital, he said. “We have sealed the food centre and are trying to do rapid testing of all the people who visited it.”

Kejriwal said Delhi will conduct rapid tests of all workers and volunteers involved in food centres.

The total number of cases in the national capital has reached 1,893, including 26 are in intensive care units and six on ventilators. Delhi has about 12 percent of the total coronavirus cases in the country.

The Delhi government will review the situation after one week, he said.

Supply of non-essential goods by e-commerce companies will remain prohibited during the lockdown after April 20, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.

Earlier, newswire PTI had reported quoting unnamed officials that Amazon India and Flipkart and other such operators will be allowed to sell mobile phones, televisions, refrigerators, laptops and stationery items from April 20. That came after the government eased guidelines for operating essential and non-essential services during the extended lockdown period.

Coronavirus In India

0 - 5,000: 70 days
5,000 -10,000: 6 days
10,000 -16,365: 4 days

An 80-year old woman was declared dead at the Sion Hospital on Friday evening, taking the death toll in Dharavi to 11.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh rose to 869 with 20 fresh cases being added.

The state has reported 14 deaths so far with the maximum being from Agra with 5 deaths.

Principal Health Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad said that cases have been reported from 49 districts of the state, adding that some of them have managed to flatten the curve.

As of today, there are 1,025 people in isolation wards while those in quarantine stand at 10,814, Prasad told PTI.

Although print media has been exempted from the lockdown from April 20, as per the guidelines issued by the state government, the door-to-door delivery will be prohibited given the extend of the spread, as per PTI.

Government sources said the meeting also reviewed various measures being initiated by concerned ministries to allow partial economic activity in "non-hotspot zones" from April 20. "The GoM obtained feedback from various ministers on the overall situation," said the source.

The meeting was attended by Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Civil Aviation Minsister Hardeep Singh Puri were also in attendence.

A case was filed against some officials of the health department of the Manipur government after substandard N95 masks were seized by police in a raid at the Central Medical Directorate in Lamphel, officials said on Saturday.

The raid was conducted by a special team of the Vigilance and Anti-corruption Police Station on Friday after allegations were levelled that substandard masks were supplied to the district hospital in Churachandpur, they said. The team seized 1,250 N95 masks and samples of other medical protective gear, police officials said.

On April 14, 200 defective N95 masks were found to have been supplied to the district hospital, they said. "The defective masks, supposed to be used in the isolation ward, were, however, returned on the same day and replaced with new ones," a senior official said.

Besides the Directorate of Health officials, proprietors of five firms and some unknown persons have been booked, police said. Further investigations are underway.

Source: PTI

India’s Drug Controller Permits Clinical Trial Of Convalescent Plasma In Covid-19 Patients

The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has constituted an advisory committee, comprising Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and 12 others, to deal with the Covid-19 crisis.

BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as Chief Minister of the state on March 23. No full-time health minister was appointed as coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown delayed cabinet formation. The government is drawing flak for not having a dedicated health minister amidst a pandemic.

"Considering the rise in Covid-19 cases, the government set up an advisory committee, comprising eight doctors, a retired IAS and a retired IPS officer, apart from Satyarthi," an official from the general administration department said on Saturday.

Former chief secretary Nirmala Buch, retired IPS officer Sarabjeet Singh, president of MP Nursing Home Association Dr Jitendra Jamdar and state president of the Indian Medical Association Dr Mukul Tiwari are also part of the panel. The additional chief secretary of public health and family welfare will be the coordinator of this committee, the official said.

Source: PTI

The Gujarat government has decided to carry out plasma transfusion treatment on Covid-19 patients in the state, particularly those in critical condition, to boost their immunity, health officials said.

In this treatment, the plasma extracted from the blood of a fully recovered patient is injected into the critical patient to help their body generate antibodies to fight the virus. An antibody is a protein produced mainly by plasma cells that is used by the immune system to neutralize bacteria and viruses.

The civil hospital in Ahmedabad and the civic body-run SVP Hospital have submitted a detailed proposal for the treatment to the Indian Council of Medical Research for approval, Principal Secretary, Health, Jayanti Ravi, said. "We have learned that the ICMR has given approval to the Kerala government for such plasma transfusion treatment."

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, which runs SVP Hospital, has already taken consent of some plasma donors. "SVP Hospital is ready to start plasma treatment once we get permission from ICMR. We have also convinced some donors, who are fully recovered from coroavirus infection, to give their plasma for treatment of others," Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra said.

Source: PTI

The Odisha police has come out with an initiative through which policemen will contact women who had earlier reported domestic violence to enquire about their condition over phone during the ongoing lockdown, an official said on Saturday. The special drive has been launched across the state to deal with the problems of domestic violence in the crisis period, he said.

The initiative will be implemented with the help of the State Crime Record Bureau, the official said. The SCRB has contacts of women who had experienced domestic violence in the past, and they will be contacted to find out their present condition, a senior officer of the state police headquarters said.

If violence is reported, physical verification will be conducted to find out the condition of a victim and the matter will be intimated to the Investigative Units for Crime against Women for follow up action, he said. "This will address the issues related to domestic violence against women during the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19," the official said.

Source: PTI

Action would be taken against healthcare personnel if any patient needing immediate attention is turned away from hospitals without treatment, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan warned.

Chairing a video conference with Delhi LG Anil Baijal, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and medical superintendents of major central and city government hospitals and municipal commissioners of Delhi, Vardhan said he has received complaints about denial of treatment to people suffering from critical ailments, other than Covid-19.

"We need to take a serious view against this denial of treatment to patients who have been visiting hospitals in case of emergency and are being forced to visit a number of hospitals, one after another resulting in denial of immediate medical attention which may result in loss of their lives," the minister said on Friday.

He instructed all the medical superintendents to take proper care of non-Covid patients. "It is a testing time for everybody. Patients who are really ill and require urgent medical attention are venturing out with great difficulty to reach the hospital," Vardhan said. "We should not turn them away on any kind of flimsy pretext as certain procedures like blood transfusion, dialysis etc can't wait."

He said action would be taken against healthcare personnel if a patient needing immediate attention is turned away from hospitals without treatment. Patients may also be provided services through tele-consultation and digital prescription, Vardhan added. "We need preemptive, proactive, and effective measures to treat all patients including those from vulnerable sections."

Source: PTI

At least 21 Indian Navy personnel serving at the Western Naval Command in Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus, triggering concerns among the top military brass.

It is the first such case of a sizeable number of military personnel being treated for Covid-19. The Indian Army has reported eight cases of the deadly virus so far.

"A total of 21 serving personnel have been tested positive for Covid-19 within naval premises at Mumbai. This number includes 20 sailors of INS Angre, a shore establishment," the Navy said in a statement. There has been no case of coronavirus onboard any of the ships or submarines of the Indian Navy. All the infected personnel are undergoing treatment at a naval hospital in Mumbai.

Most of the people infected had come in contact with a sailor who had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 7. "They all reside in the same accommodation block at INS Angre. All primary contacts were tested. Entire in-living block was immediately put under quarantine," the Navy said, adding the INS Angre too has been put under total lockdown.

Source: PTI

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