Coronavirus India Updates: Total Covid-19 Cases Rise To 7,703

As of 9 pm on April 11, India had a total 7,703 patients that have tested positive for coronavirus, said the ICMR in a statement. The Indian Council of Medical research, the apex body leading the country-wide testing effort and protocol said it had tested 1,79,374 samples and 1,64,773 individuals to date.

Earlier in the day, the health ministry said in a media briefing that total cases were at 7,529. It reported 768 fresh Covid-19 cases and 36 deaths in the last 24 hours.

• Active cases: 6,634
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 653
• Deaths: 242

Source: Health Ministry (As of April 11, 5 pm)

The data showed a rapid increase in cases and deaths in India in the past two weeks.

Cases
0 - 1,000 cases : 60 days
1,000 - over 7,000 cases : 13 days

Death Toll
0 - 50: 22 days
50 - 100: 4 days
100-150: 2 days
150 - 200: 2 days
200-242: 1 day

Total number of coronavirus cases in Gujarat rose to 468 on Saturday with 90 new patients being detected, a health department official said.

While 54 cases came to light in the morning, another 36 were found in the evening, said Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi.

Of 398 active cases, four patients are on ventilator, she said.

Source: PTI

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday suggested to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the ongoing lockdown be extended for two more weeks to check the spread of coronavirus.

He made this suggestion during an interactive meeting Modi held with Chief Ministers of all states through videoconferencing.

During the lockdown, the Chief Minister said the food processing industry should be allowed to function to ensure that farmers are not put to losses and that there was no difficulty in essential commodities supply, an official release quoted him as saying.

"Lockdown has helped in containing the spread of Corona (coronavirus) to a great level. It is better to extend the lockdown for two more weeks. There is no other better solution than this, he said.

Rao also requested Modi to increase the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management) limit to five per cent from the existing three, besides taking steps to postpone repayment of interest states' debts for six months.

Increase FBRM from 3 percent to 5 percent. The Centre should take the initiative to postpone for six months, the monthly interest paid by States on debts from the Centre, he said.

He suggested that a task force with the PM as chairman and cabinet ministers as members be set up to come out with an action plan on helping farmers and the policy to be implemented on the economic situation.

To counter (economic crisis) this we need a strategic economic policy. RBI should implement quantitative easing policy. This is called Helicopter Money. This will facilitate the States and financial institutions to accrue funds.

We can come out of the financial crisis.

Release 5 percent of funds from the GDP through Quantitative easing Policy, he suggested.

The Chief Minister said that in order to empty warehouses of Food Corporation of India, three months ration should be given to people and the depots should be filled with newly procured agricultural commodities during the current season.

To prevent crowding of farmers at one place, the Telangana government has set up 6,849 procurement centres at village level, from where foodgrains are procured, he said.

He urged Modi to link agriculture with the MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act) Scheme for at least two months.

Bring a policy by which farmers would pay half the wages for labourers and the other half would be from the MNAREGA funds. With this we will be able to support farmers during difficult times, he said.

• Active cases: 6,634
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 653
• Deaths: 242

Source: Health Ministry (As of April 11, 5 p.m.)

Maharashtra - the state with the highest number of infections - will remain uinder lockdown till at least April 30, said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

This comes after a meeting between states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi where most chief ministers asked for a two-week extension to the current lockdown which is meant to end on April 14. The center is considering the same but has no announcements to make today, a government official said, according to ANI and PTI.

Odisha and Punjab have already extended the lockdown till April 30.

West Bengal today added six more cases of the covi-19 infection taking the current number of active cases to 95, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in a press breifing today.

Our mantra earlier was ‘jaan hai to jahaan hai’ but now is ‘jaan bhi jahaan bhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said ina press release today, after a meeting with the state chief ministers.

Key Highlights:

• PM suggests specific measures for agriculture and allied sector including modification of APMC laws to facilitate sale of farm produce
• Aarogya Setu app is an essential tool in our fight against Covid-19, can subsequently act as e-pass to facilitate travel: PM
• PM condemns attacks on health professionals and  incidents of misbehavior with students from North-East and Kashmir
• PM assures that the country has adequate supplies of essential medicines; gives a stern message against black marketing and hoarding

Meanwhile...

In the absence of any lockdown or containment measure, based on statistical rate of growth based analysis, the number of Covid-19 cases would have reached 8.2 lakh cases by April 15. This is not an ICMR study but a statistical assessment, he added.

If only containment measure had been adopted and no lockdown, by April 15 it was estimated to have 1.2 lakh cases by April 15, joint secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Health Secretary, Ministry Of Health:

• India’s response has always been based on early action and based on how situation developed globally, our actions were aligned accordingly.
• There are now a total of 586 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals in the country that have been reported by the states.
• Through this we have 1 lakh plus isolation beds and 11,500 ICU beds have been prepared. This number is increasing on a day to day basis.
• There are total of 642 people that have recovered. With 1,035 addition in cases yesterday, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country is at 7,447.

• No shortage of hydrochloroquine in the country.
• 3.8 crore HCQ tablets are already available in the country against projected requirement of 1 CR tablets
• 2.65 crore HCQ tables present with private sector
• In talks with pharma min to ensure delivery of additional 2 core HCQ tablets to private sector

ICMR Chief epidemiologist RR Gangakhedkar:

• We have done testing of 1,71,718 samples till date.
• Yesterday, 16,564 samples were tested.
• ICMR which has a network of 146 labs did testing of 14,210 samples yesterday
• Private labs, which are 66 in total, did testing of 2,354 samples yesterday.
• There has been delay in procurement of antibody kits. We should have it in few days.

The Home Ministry of India has issued an addendum through which fishing and marine is exempted form lockdown restrictions, according to Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint secretary, MHA.

Operations related to these industry like feeding, harvesting processing, packaging, cold chain, sale and marketing will be allowed, he told reporters. It will responsibility of the organisation heads to ensure social distancing, and proper hygienic practices, he further said.

The Centre is considering a request made by most states to extend the ongoing nationwide lockdown by two more weeks beyond April 14, government sources said on Saturday told PTI after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interaction with chief ministers.

"Most states requested to extend the lockdown by two weeks and the Centre is considering the request," a government source said.

During the video conference with Modi, several chief ministers including Punjab's Amarinder Singh and Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal had suggested extending the lockdown at least by a fortnight.

Modi, accompanied by some senior officials, including from the Union health ministry, was wearing a white mask during the meeting which was also attended by chief ministers -- Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Manohar Lal (Haryana), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana) and Nitish kumar (Bihar).

Source: PTI

Most state chief ministers, including West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, asked the Prime Minister today to extend the lockdown meant to end on April 14, people in the know told BloombergQuint.

Chief Ministers of Punjab, Delhi, Kerala and Chhattisgarh also spoke the the press after the meeting, telling reporters that most states called for an extension on the lockdown.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel urged Prime Minister Modi to allow states to carry out economic activities within borders, according to PTI. At the same time, he for continuing ban on inter-state road, rail, air facilities, during a meeting with the PM over video.

This is the third such meeting held between the state chief ministers and the Prime Minister over the virus outbreak.

Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab and Karnataka, have revealed that states asked the Prime MInister to continue the lockdown past April 14.

The coronavirus pandemic is giving sleepless nights to a 100-member medical team, led by a chest specialist, who are hard-pressed with the task of treating patients at their hospital in the city, which has emerged as one of the Covid-19 hotspots in Madhya Pradesh.

Dr. Ravi Dosi (39), who is heading this team of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff, says keeping himself and the team motivated in these tough times is necessary as the fight against the virus is going to be "longish".

Dr. Dosi and his team members are often seen running from the Intensive Care Unit to different wards of 1,150-bed Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences.

The hospital management claims that the number of coronavirus patients it is treating simultaneously is the highest in India. However, Dr Dosi argued that the virus is not in the community transmission stage in the city yet.

Source: PTI

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa who attended video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Covid-19 situation and lockdown to control it, on Saturday said the discussion was regarding "vital strategies" and "actions" to be implemented in the state.

He assured that the government was doing everything to tackle the pandemic and requested people to stay at home to get rid of the coronavirus outbreak at the earliest.

"My cabinet and I attended the video conference about #covid19 with PM @Narendramodi today. We discussed vital strategies and actions to implement around the state. We are doing and will do everything in our control to tackle this pandemic," Yediyurappa tweeted.

"I humbly request you to do your part and #StayAtHome so we can get out of this at the earliest. #Covid_19india," he said in another tweet.

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Health Minister Sriramulu, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar, along with top officials of the state government were part of the video conference that Modi had with all state chief ministers to discuss the situation arising due to the Covid-19 pandemic and to take their feedback on whether the 21-day shutdown should be extended.

During the video conferencing, several Chief Ministers are said to have suggested for extension of the national lockdown by at least a fortnight after April 14.

The video conference, which began at 11 a.m., came amidst indications that the Central government may extend the nationwide lockdown with some possible relaxations.

Source: PTI

An 80 year old male patient who had tested positive last week passed away due to the virsu today, a BMC official told Bloombergquint. The total number of cases in Asia’s most crowded slum now stands at 28. Four of these patients, including today’s patient, have died.

The BMC today begun screening Dharavi’s more than 8.5 lakh population with a team of 150 doctors, according to ANI.

The northern-most district of Kerala, Kasaragod, which has seen 130 Covid-19 cases so far has imposed further micro-level monitoring in four areas starting Saturday to ensure that there was no community spread.

Micro-monitoring has been launched in four areas - Thalankara, Choori, Kalanad and Nellikkunnu. Drones are also being used to monitor lockdown violations.

Kerala has 238 positive Covid-19 cases of which maximum are from the Kasaragod district, PTI reported.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has suggested that the national lockdown should be extended by at least a fortnight, PTI reports quoting sources.

Singh also suggested a slew of health and relief measures for the people in the state's Covid-19 battle.

In addition, the chief minister also asked for special concessions for the industrial and agricultural sectors on an urgent basis.

The chief minister informed the meeting that the Punjab government had already decided to go for curfew or complete lockdown till May 1, with all educational institutions to be closed till June 30.

State board examinations have also been deferred till further orders, he said.

Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh reported five new cases of Covid-19 taking the total number of cases in the state to 386.

The five new patients in the Kurnool district were family members of Tablighi Jamaat attendees.

Kurnool district has the highest number of cases in the state with 82, followed by Guntur with 58.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has suggested that the 21-day lockdown imposed to combat the Covid-19 outbreak be extended to April 30, as per PTI reports quoting sources.

Kejriwal made this suggestion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interaction with state chief ministers.

“Extending the lockdown in Delhi only will not serve any purpose,” sources quoted Kejriwal as saying in the video conference.

The total number of Covid-19 cases rose to 1,666 in Maharashtra after the state reported 92 new cases in the last 24 hours.

72 out of those cases were detected in Mumbai, according to the State Health Department.

Five others tested positive in Malegaon, four in Thane and two each in Panvel and Aurangabad. Kalyan-Dombivali, Vasai-Virar, Pume, Ahmednagar, Nashik City, Nashik Rural and Palghar reported one case each.

110 people have died due to Covid-19 in the state so far while 188 have recovered and discharged from the hospital.

The West Bengal government will impose a total lockdown in 10 Covid-19 hotspots and clusters from where positive cases have been reported, state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha told PTI.

Although the state did not name the areas, the local markets and all roads in those localities will be shut with nobody being allowed to enter or leave their homes.

54 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Gujarat in the last 24 hours, taking the state-wide tally to 432.

379 out of the 432 cases are active ones, according to state health department officials.

Out of the newly reported cases, 31 were from Ahmedabad, 18 from Vadodara, three from Anand and one each were reported from Surat and Bhavnagar district, as per PTI.

34 people have recovered from the disease in the state.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 17 deaths in the last 24 hours, the most from the 40 deaths reported across the country, as per the Union Health Ministry update.

13 deaths were reported from Maharashtra, taking the overall death toll in the state to 110. The state has seen the most number of deaths from Covid-19 so far.

Among other fatalities, two were from Gujarat while one death was reported from Assam.

The district administration in Maharashtra's Thane have sealed the borders of Ambernath, Kulgaon-Badlapur, Murbad and Shahapur towns in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, PTI reported.

As per the order issued by the district collector, movement of people and vehicles except those engaged in essential services, to and from these towns will be restricted.

The collector also said that those defying the order will face serious consequences.

The total number of Covid-19 cases rose to 579 in Rajasthan after the state reported 18 fresh cases in the last 24 hours.

14 out of the 18 new cases were from Kota and four from Bikaner. All of them had previous contact history, according to state Additional Chief Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh. The four new cases in Bikaner were relatives of an elderly woman who had died of the disease.

Jaipur has reported the highest number of cases in the state at 221, as per PTI.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Odisha has crossed 50 after the state added two new cases, according to the state Health and Family Welfare department.

10 people in the state have recovered so far from the disease, as per PTI.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in India has crossed the 7,500-mark, according to data made available by the Health Ministry. Of these, 242 have died.

This means we have seen 768 fresh Covid-19 cases and 36 deaths in the last 24 hours.