MHA Issues SOP For Foreign Nationals
The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a Statement of Protocol to be followed by foreign nationals in India who wish to be evacuated and flown to their own countries.
The requests for evacuation are being reviewed by the Ministry of External Affairs on case to case basis. The concerned foreign nation will have to arrange for a specific chartered flight for evauation purposes.
The foreign nationals will be screened for symptoms before departure.Only those who are asymptomatic will be allowed to fly to the concerned countries. The local transportation would be arranged by the respective consulates and embassies for which the Indian Government will issue transit passes.
MHA Revised Guidelines For Lockdown
The Ministry of Home Affairs has revised its guidelines for the extended lockdown. In addition to the earlier guidelines, the fresh guidelines add that the agricultural sector and the fisheries sector is currently exempt from the lockdown along with transport of cargo, plantation and the animal husbandry,
US To Stop Funding To WHO
The United States of America which is one of the biggest contributor to the World Health Organization's funding platforms has decided to stop funding to the same owing to its role in "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus".
President Donald Trump has made these statements after being repeatedly criticised for his inaction in the US against the virus. The country has over 6 lakh positive cases of the virus.
624 New Cases, 24 New Deaths
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported 624 new cases and 24 new deaths raising India's number of cases to 11,439 and the deaths to 377.
Maharashtra with 2687 cases is inching closer to 3000 cases while cases in other states are also steadily increasing. After a rapid increase in the number of cases, Kerala at 387 cases and only 3 deaths is performing better than most other states.
Maharashtra To Test For Plasma And BCG Vaccine
Maharashtra with the highest number of cases (2648) in the country has sought permission from the center regarding testing with plasma covalescent therapy and also conducting BCG vaccine trials.
ICMR Approves 16 Antibody Kits
The ICMR has approved 16 antibody testing kits from various national and international clients to begin rapid testing and screening in the country.
India's Infrastructure To Fight COVID-19
India has 602 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and 1,06,719 isolation beds along with 12,024 ICU beds.
The ICMR has a network of 166 government labs and 70 private labs for testing. The ICMR currently has testing kits to last for 6 weeks and has placed an order for 33 lakh test kits and 37 lakh rapid test kits.
Curfew To Be Imposed In Two Areas Of Ahemdabad Till April 21
Curfew would be imposed in two areas - Old City (Fort) and Danilimbda areas of Ahmedabad city from 6 am on April 15, 2020, to contain the spread of coronavirus, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani announced on April 14, 2020, reported PTI.
India Reports 452 New Cases, 14 New Deaths
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported 452 new cases and 14 new deaths in the country taking the total number of cases to 10,815 and deaths to 353. New deaths have been reported in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana.
Meghalaya reported its first case. Sikkim is the only state with no cases of COVID-19 so far in the country.
Barclays Forecasts Zero Growth For India In CY2020
Investment bank Barclays cuts CY20 estimates to 0% for India, down from 2.5%, and to 0.8% from 4.5% for FY21, it said in a note. It says that as India heads into a longer shutdown, the economic impact looks set to be worse than earlier expected.