Corona Updates You Must Track: India Cases Near 1-Lakh Mark, States To Announce Lockdown 4.0 Plan

As India entered Lockdown 4.0 on Monday, the country’s COVID-19 count surged to 96,169, with more than 5,000 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours. After Maharashtra (33,053) and Tamil Nadu (11224), now Gujarat and Delhi have also crossed the 10,000-mark with 11,379 and 10,054 cases respectively. The three states along with the national capital have together reported 65,710 cases so far, or more than 68 per cent of India’s total caseload.

In the fourth phase of a nationwide lockdown, which will be in effect till 31 May, states have been allowed to decide on categorization of zones and activities that can be permitted within those zones. The state-specific guidelines are expected to be announced on Monday.

Follow all the important updates on coronavirus and Lockdown 4.0 here:        

Lockdown 4.0 starts: The central government on Sunday evening declared that the lockdown will be extended till 31 May. However, this time, the Centre has allowed states to decide various zones (green, orange and red) and the activities to allow within those zones. For containment zones, the guidelines remain the same: no movement of person, except for essential goods and services. States are likely to announce a detailed plan for Lockdown 4.0 on Monday.

Dos and don’ts for lockdown 4.0: Inter- and intra-state movement of buses has been allowed, with mutual consent between states and UTs. Shops and markets can open too, but with staggered timings to ensure social distancing. Sports complexes can open, but only for sportspersons and not spectators.

Cinema halls, shopping malls, gyms, hotels will continue to remain shut. Schools and other educational institutes will remain closed but online learning should continue. Travel by air, rail and metro will remain suspended, unless allowed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. All religious places will continue to remain closed. The night curfew, from 7 pm to 7 am, is still in place. 

The guidelines also state that people above 65 years of age, persons with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below 10 should stay at home.

India cases and toll: India’s total confirmed coronavirus case count is at 96,169 as of Monday morning, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MohFW). The number of fatalities has crossed the 3,000-mark—the virus has claimed 3,029 lives in the country. On the brighter side, 36,823 have been cured of the illness, taking the recovery rate to nearly 38 per cent.

COVID-19 tracker/Photo: @COVIDNewsByMIB/Twitter

Push for probe into COVID-19 origin: Ahead of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) virtual meeting on Monday, 62 nations, including India, plan to push for a probe into the origin of COVID-19 and WHO’s response to the pandemic. Other signatories to the draft resolution include Canada, Russia, South Africa, the UK, Japan and the European Union. In the last few weeks, the US has repeatedly lashed out at China, accusing it of hiding information about the origin of COVID-19.

Global corona update: Globally, there are 48,02,024 confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday morning, according to worldometer, a website that provides real-time data on the virus’ spread. A total of 18,58,170 people have recovered from the illness while 3,16,673 succumbed to it.

Brazil continues to report a huge spike in COVID-19 cases, with the total count now at 2,41,080. Over 16,000 people in the country have died of the infection. Mexico is also showing an alarming increase in cases—it has 49,219 total confirmed cases with 5,177 deaths so far.

Story of hope: The lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has had a cascading effect. Many poor pregnant women in Andhra Pradesh, who depend on government agencies for supplements, were hit. But help came from a local citizen group called ‘Mana Peddapuram’ in East Godavari district, which started distributing nutrition kits to expecting mothers. These kits contain fruits, eggs, dry fruits, biscuits and food supplements. Read more about this inspirational story here.