COVID-19 Crisis March 19 | Highlights

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India reached 173 on Thursday, as more fresh positive cases of COVID-19 were reported from across the country. Top cities across India are on lockdown and have shut their tourist places, parks, malls, cinema halls and other such places. In Noida area of Uttar Pradesh, section 144 has been imposed to restrict the gathering of more than four persons at a place, in order to control the spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation on Thursday evening on the situation arising out of coronavirus outbreak and the efforts to combat it, the Prime Minister's Office said on Wednesday.

Coronavirus update March 19 | Highlights

• Plane carrying 40 students stranded in Singapore reaches Mumbai.
• Two new cases from Uttarakhand have come to light. This has taken number of positive cases in the state to 3. 
• PM Modi has announced formation of a COVID-19 task force. Click here to read the full story
• PM Narendra Modi has advised citizens to take proactive measures on Coronavirus and made an appeal for a "Janata Curfew" on March 22. Click here to read the full story
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation in a special address at 8 PM, amid the rising cases of coronavirus in the country. The normal life has been thrown out of gear, as authorities across India announce shutting down of schools, colleges, markets, malls, bars, pubs and offices among others, to tackle the epidemic.
• Gurugram, which reported its first case on Wednesday, has witnessed three more persons testing positive for coronavirus, the health bulletin by the district magistrate said. Overall, 2,250 persons have been tested for COVID-19 in the district.
• Himachal Pradesh has banned the entry of tourists, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
• The Union Health Ministry on Thursday rejected fears around community transmission, with joint secretary at the ministry, Luv Agarwal, stating that the authorities were prepared adequately to respond to the medical crisis.
• No international passenger flight will be allowed to land in India after March 22 for a week, the government announced on Thursday.
• As of 5 PM, a total of 174 cases of COVID-19 were reported from across the country, as per the latest figures from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• A 70-year old man lost his battle with Coronavirus. This is 4th COVID-19 death in India.
• A village in Punjab was blocked after a man who died in Nawshahr district a fortnight ago returned positive results for coronavirus. At least 17 persons in the village have been placed in quarantine as well. The 72-year-old man had returned from Germany via Italy. While coronavirus wasn't given the reason for his death two weeks ago, it was only announced earlier today that he succumbed to COVID-19.
• Indian Embassy in Iran sets up wellness facility to take care of infected Indian pilgrims
• Maharashtra home minister orders police to lodge cases against those who violate mandatory home quarantine
• E-commerce major Flipkart has pledged to give delivery workers leave with full pay and benefits if they contract COVID-19 or are placed under quarantine.
• To check coronavirus spread, Centre orders staggered working hours for all its employees who attend office
• The upscale Sunder Nagar market in South Delhi has been closed till March 31 in view of the coronavirus outbreak, the traders' body said on Thursday, becoming the first market to shut down in the capital due to the disease which has left a person dead and sickened 10 people in the city.
• Rate of platform tickets at Hubli, Belagavi and Ballari stations increased to Rs 50 till 31st March, to control crowding at platforms: Public Relations Officer (PRO), South Western Railway
• Chidambaram calls for an immediate lockdown of all towns and cities for 2-4 weeks to contain the spread of coronavirus
• Mass gatherings in St Michael's Church at Mahim in Mumbai have been suspended till March 31 in the wake coronavirus outbreak. Thousands of people gather at the Mahim Church for Sunday and Wednesday masses. But Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay, has exempted Catholics from attending churches till March 31, an active member of the Mahim Church
• The sample of a 72-year-old man, who returned from Germany via Italy a fortnight ago and died at a hospital in Punjab's Nawanshahr district, has tested positive for novel coronavirus
• The Samajwadi Party on Thursday said it has cancelled all political programmes this month and advised workers to stay home in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
• Government-owned Air India may cut salary of employees by 5 per cent amid its growing financial woes particularly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic
• Authorities have quarantined 78 people in Srinagar who arrived from Leh on suspicion of coronavirus infection
• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged all Delhiites to work from home as far as possible to avoid the spread of coronavirus in the city. The Delhi government on Thursday directed to shut all the schools for the teaching and non-teaching staff as well.
• Two patients who have been tested positive for coronavirus are on ventilator at Mumbai's Kasturba Hospital
• Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has announced that domestic travellers arriving at the state's Dabolim airport will also be screened for coronavirus infection. Rane along with state health director Jose De Sa, dean of Goa Medical College and Hospital Shivanand Bandodkar and airport director Gagan Malik inspected the airport's screening facility in the early hours of Thursday.
• Ministry of External Affairs to hold a media briefing on coronavirus at 4 pm today
• India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has said that the continued spread of Covid-19 would negatively impact the domestic auto industry in the near term, because the Chinese city Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - is a major manufacturing hub for automobile and auto parts.
• Total number of positive cases reaches 49 in Maharashtra
• UGC asks universities to postpone exams till March 31
• 43 Indians who arrived last night through Attari-Wagah Border have been sent to a quarantine facility in Amritsar
• Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai to remain closed till further orders, in wake of coronavirus
• As companies are implementing measures to curtail the spread of coronavirus infections in the country, a survey has revealed that a majority of professionals believe the outbreak has adversely impacted their way of working. Around 63 per cent of respondents affirmed that the novel coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic has influenced their way of working and about 33 per cent said they have shelved their business travel plans due to this. 
• As many as 354 suspected cases of coronavirus infection have been identified in Bihar, of which 113 patients were released from isolation after 14-day quarantine. No confirmed positive case has been reported so far in the eastern state.
• The Delhi government on Thursday ordered the closure of all government and private schools in the national capital for teaching and non- teaching staff till March 31 in view of coronavirus. So far, the schools were closed for students and exams were going on.
• A day after the moratorium on Yes Bank was lifted, many of its branches bore a deserted look, partly amid fear of coronavirus infection.
• The bank resumed full operations from 6 pm on Wednesday, after being under moratorium for 13 days.
• Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio has cautioned that the number of COVID-19 cases in the city could increase substantially to about 10,000 very soon and called for "urgent intervention" by the federal government to help slow down the trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic.
• The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus, may reveal digestive symptoms, including diarrhea, according to a new study that may lead to better diagnosis of the deadly disease in patients who do not show respiratory symptoms to the viral infection. 
• Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday urged the people of the state not to step out of their homes in order to help contain the spread of coronavirus.
• Hollywood star Hugh Jackman has temporarily closed his cafe Laughing Man to avoid the risk of spreading the coronavirus. The 51-year-old actor felt it was the "right thing" to do in order to ensure the safety of the staff and guests. 
• Dabbawalas in Mumbai suspend tiffin delivery services till March 31
• 6 Singapore-returned passengers with 'home quarantine' stamp on hands de-boarded from an express train at Mumbai's Borivali station
• Realtors' apex body CREDAI has said the construction work has come to a standstill while sales have been hit following the outbreak of coronavirus, and demanded the government to provide a three-month moratorium on debt repayment, additional liquidity and more time to complete ongoing real estate projects. 
• Laundry staff at Maharashtra's Yavatmal hospital refuse to wash clothes from isolation ward having three coronavirus positive patients
• Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is in touch with the Indian Consulate in Singapore to bring students stranded there to Mumbai. He has also spoken to the stranded students
• Maharashtra: Case registered against two doctors in Vasai and Nala Sopara for putting up hoardings outside their clinics, claiming to cure​ coronavirus
• 826 samples tested, none of them are positive so far, says Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on random samples tested so far to rule out community transmission of COVID-19​
• In view of the COVID-19 cases reported from Gautam Buddha Nagar, two new isolation wards will be set up at Asian Institute of Medical Science in Sector 40 and Mitra Hospital in Sector 35 in Noida​
• Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 2,100 points and the Nifty gave up the 7,900 level in opening session on Thursday as global gloom over the Covid-19 pandemic continued to hammer equities. The rupee too depreciated 60 paise to 74.87 against US dollar in morning session.​
• Railways on Thursday cancelled 84 more trains, which will not operate between March 20 and March 31 in view of coronavirus and low occupancy, officials said. With this, the total number of cancelled trains has climbed to 155. The national transporter had cancelled around 99 trains on Wednesday night.​
• Two women test positive for coronavirus in Mumbai metropolitan region, taking the number of such cases in Maharashtra to 47. While one woman had returned from the UK, another one had come back from Dubai
• Authorities in Srinagar have announced restrictions in parts of the city including Khanyar area where the first positive case of coronavirus in Kashmir has been detected. The area within a 300-metre radius from the house of the 67-year-old COVID-19 patient in Khanyar locality has been sealed. ​
• The second positive case of coronavirus was on Thursday reported in Andhra Pradesh, taking the total to 2. A person who returned to the state from England on March 15 tested positive for the deadly virus, the state Health Department has said.​
• All efforts should be made to ensure that the undertrial prisoners are not physically summoned in District Courts. District judges shall ensure that remand/required judicial work be conducted through video conferencing, wherever possible, directs Allahabad High Court
• Maharashtra: People in Nagpur gathered on the streets to exercise after all the gyms in the state are shut due to coronavirus
• Mumbai: Mass gatherings suspended at St. Michael's Church in Mahim till 1st April​
• All India Trinamool Congress parliamentary party’s daily media briefings at the party office in the Parliament have been suspended from today, till 31st March
• For the first time after the deadly coronavirus broke out about three months ago in Wuhan, China on Thursday said that no new domestic cases of the COVID-19 were confirmed, including in the virus' epicenter, even as eight more fatalities have been reported, taking the death toll in the country to 3,245.​
• Coronavirus cases rise to 169 in the country, says Health Ministry​​

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