Coronavirus India Updates: Lockdown Extension On The Cards As Covid-19 Cases Mount Unabated

The coronavirus pandemic has now infected more than 26,000 people in India even as the nation extended the world's strictest lockdown to combat spreading of the highly contagious pathogen.

India added 1,975 fresh cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 26,917 in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to the health ministry's update as of 5:00 p.m. on April 26. This includes 826 deaths and 5,914 patients who have recovered.

Over the last 24 hours, India reported 704 recoveries and 47 deaths.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, allowed select activities from April 20 in some areas that are least affected by the outbreak to kick-start the economy and prevent job losses.

India also allowed all shops, including neighbourhood and standalone shops, those in residential complexes, within the limits of municipal corporations and municipalities, registered under the Shops and Establishment Act of the respective State and UTs (union territories), providing non-essential goods and services to resume from April 25.

But the relief has not been extended to shops in market places, multi-brand, and single-brand malls located in municipality areas, coronavirus hotspots and containment areas. Also, sale of liquor and other items specified in the National Directives for Covid-19 management remains prohibited.

Global Update

Globally, nearly three million people have tested positive for Covid-19 and 202,000 have succumbed to the disease. China reported no new deaths, while South Korea posted two. U.S. cases rose 4.5 percent, more than the average over the past week. The IRS is asking thousands of employees to come back to work, with their own protective gear.

Spain and France took steps toward considering an easing of their lockdowns, while emerging economies including Argentina and Kenya are lengthening theirs. Hawaii extended a stay-at-home order until May 31.

Track latest news updates on the evolving coronavirus situation in India and the world here:

With 34 new coronavirus cases, the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic continued unabated in Mumbai’s largest slum on Sunday. The total number of infections now stand at 275, including 14 deaths, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

A group of tax officers has suggested several steps to shore up government revenue in the fight against the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. These include a hike in the so-called super-rich tax, a Covid-19 cess and higher tax on multinational companies operating in India.

In its 10 suggestions to generate more revenue, Indian Revenue Service Association has also mooted re-introduction of wealth tax, raising the Google tax and inheritance tax, among others.

A 44-page paper titled ‘FORCE’, or 'Fiscal Options & Response to COVID-19 Epidemic', dated April 23, has been sent to the Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman PC Mody and the board members.

A 42-year-old man died of Covid-19 in Chennai Sunday, marking the 24th coronavirus-related fatality in Tamil Nadu since the outbreak. As of 5:00 pm, the state had recorded 64 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking the overall tally to 1,885, authorities said. Sixty people were discharged from various hospitals in the state today, increasing the total number of recoveriees to 1,020.

Two out of every three companies expect their sales to contract in 2020-21 due to the slowdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting that economic growth in India could fall more than what was estimated earlier.

India’s real gross domestic product could contract 0.4 percent in FY21 versus a growth of 4.6 percent in FY20, Nomura said in a research note. Nominal GDP growth could slow down to 1.5 percent in the same period from 7.2 percent in the previous year.

India effected a major bureaucratic reshuffle Sunday, appointing Tarun Bajaj as the economic affairs secretary and extending health secretary Preeti Sudan’s term by three months amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, among others.

According to union health ministry data, as of 5:00 pm on April 26, India had 26,917 Covid-19 cases. The figure includes 20,177 active cases, 5,914 patients who have either been cured, discharged or migrated, and 826 deaths.

India has conducted a total of 6,25,309 Covid-19 tests, as of 9 a.m. on April 26. 45,352 tests were done in the last 24 hours. (9 a.m to 9 a.m).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers via video conference on Monday to discuss the coronavirus situation in India and exit from the harshest lockdown in the world. The interaction would come at a time several states are batting for a lockdown extension to keep Covid-19 cases in check. (read more)

India’s richest state has conducted 108,972 Covid-19 tests as on April 26.

• Test result—Negative: 1,01,162
• Test result—Positive: 7,628
• Deaths: 323

(Numbers provided by chief minister, as of 12:00 p.m. on April 26)

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries have rolled out a raft of stimulus packages to boost investments, buffer private businesses and bolster growth in response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended life and disrupted economic activity in a region inhabited by over 1.8 billion people. (read more)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted people to shun complacency on the assumption that the Covid-19 pandemic will not affect them as it has so far not spread to areas they work or live in, saying “we have to continue being careful and taking the right precautions”.

Addressing his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' programme, he also said that India's fight against the novel coronavirus has become people-driven wherein every citizen is playing his or her part. (read more)

The Maharashtra government may extend the lockdown in the coronavirus-hit urban areas of the state after May 3, an official said on Sunday.

The state government is closely monitoring the situation in areas outside the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Amravati, a senior state official said.

"It is the cities where most of the Covid-19 cases are concentrated. If the state has to relax its current stringent lockdown measures, it would be in rural and least-affected areas of the state. However, we are looking at the scenario as rural and urban areas are connected," he said. (read more)

Rajasthan recorded 58 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, data released at 8:00 am on Sunday, April 26, 2020, showed. The state has so far seen 35 deaths due to the virus, with Jaipur accounting for 19 of them.

"As many as 58 fresh cases have been reported in seven districts of the state, including 20 in Nagaur district," Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said.

Besides Nagaur, 15 cases were reported from Jodhpur, 11 from Kota, seven from Jaipur, three from Kota and one each in Hanumangarh and Jhalawar. A total of 2,141 cases of the virus have been reported in the state so far.

He said so far 513 patients have tested negative for the infection after treatment, of which 213 have been discharged from hospitals.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Rajasthan includes two Italian citizens and 61 people brought from Iran to Army health centres in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

The entire state is under lockdown since March 22 and a massive survey and screening is underway to track the people infected with the virus.

The number of coronavirus cases in Indore rose to 1,176 after 91 more people tested positive for the disease in the Madhya Pradesh district in the last 24 hours.

So far, 57 Covid-19 patients have died in Indore, which has emerged as one of the virus hotspots in the country, district chief medical and health officer Praveen Jadia said. Till now, 107 people have been discharged after recovering from the viral infection, he said.

According to data analysis, the Covid-19 death rate in the district stood at 4.85 percent till Sunday morning, which is higher than the national average. Curfew is in force in urban limits of Indore since March 25, after the first case was detected in the district.

Doctors treating Covid-19 cases in Indore say a more virulent strain may be wrecking havoc in the city that has emerged as the coronavirus hotspot in Madhya Pradesh.

They say samples from Indore, where Covid-19 has killed 57 people, will be sent to the Pune-based National Institute of Virology to confirm their apprehensions of the strain being deadlier than in other parts of the country.

"We have a feeling the strain is definitely more virulent in Indore belt. We've discussed this with the NIV and will be sending samples for them to compare by extraction of virus genome," Jyoti Bindal, dean of government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, told Press Trust of India.

"There are also other factors also for the high fatality rate, like patients turning up at the hospitals late," she said. "In Indore belt, the testing is confined to coronavirus detection only, and not its type, another doctor said.

Three more persons, including a woman, tested positive for Covid-19 in Odisha, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 103 on Sunday, officials said.

All three cases—a 57-year-old woman and two men aged 23 and 60 years—were reported from Rourkela in Sundargarh district, the Information and Public Relations department said, adding that contact-tracing and follow-up action were underway.

According to officials, two of them had come in close contact with another COVID-19 patient, officials said. Altogether 2,217 samples were tested for COVID-19 on April 25, the officials said.

Of the state's 103 Covid-19 patients, 68 are active cases and 34 have recovered. A 72-year-old man from Bhubaneswar died due to the disease on April 6.

India added 1,990 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total tally to 26,496.

• Active cases: 19,868
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 5,804
• Deaths: 824

Source: Health Ministry (As of April 26, 8:00 a.m.)