Coronavirus Updates April 28, 2020 | As it happened

West Bengal Police on Tuesday issued a stern warning to those resorting to violence and violating coronavirus lockdown currently in place in the country. The warning came in the aftermath of violence in Tikiapara in Howrah earlier today.

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Fresh cases today: 102
Number of deaths today: 2
Total positive cases in the state: 2364
Total deaths: 52
Number of recoveries: 770

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the country is considering gradual end to coronavirus qurantines from May 12

A containment zone has been made in D Block of Shahen Bagh in New Delhi. This has brought total number of containment zones in Delhi to 100.

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12 CRPF jawans were found positive for Covid-19 in New Delhi on Tuesday. This has brought total number of infected CRPF jawans to 47.

Total number of cases: 2387
Total death toll: 120

Positive cases in Indore: 1372
Positive cases in Bhopal: 458
Positive cases in Ujjain: 123

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia Tuesday said it would not be possible to hold the remaining CBSE Class 10 and Class 12 Board exams. He made the suggestion during a meeting with HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today. Sisodia said the results of CBSE Class 10 and 12....

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Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state in the country.

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Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced that persons entering the state will have to undergo compulsory 21-day coronavirus quarantine.

A secondary contact of a Markaz attendee has tested positive for Coronavirus in Goalpara District of Assam. This has brought number of Covid-q9 infections in Assam to 37.

Indian Council of Medical Reserach (ICMR) made it clear that plasma therapy is just one of emerging therapies to treat coronavirus patients. ICMR made it clear that it cannot yet be used as routine therapy. ICMR's clarification came hours after Health Ministry's statement that plasma therapy was still an experimental therapy.

Total number of infections: 2043
Number of active cases: 1612
Death toll: 31
Number of recovered patients: 400

Coronavirus patients have been detected in 60 districts.

15 districts in the state have remained coronavirus-free so far.

Cumulative number of coronavirus infections has reached 29,974.

Out of this 22010 are active cases while 7027 have either been cured or migrated.

937 patients have succumbed to coronavirus infection.

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Delhi-Haryana border has been sealed CLICK HERE to read all details.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that 4 more Covid-19 cases were found in Kerala on Tuesday. This, he said, took total number of cases in the state to 485 which includes 123 active cases

A 55-year-old CRPF jawan lost his battle with Covid-19. He breathed his last in New Delhi.

Total cases so far: 2335
Fresh cases found today till 2 pm: 73

Health department of Government of Karnataka said that there had been 523 Covid-19 cases in the state. The death toll, said the government, was 20.

District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) said that 5 new coronavirus cases were found in Noida on Tuesday. The DM said that result of 185 out of 190 coronavirus tests came to be negative.

This has brought the number of active cases to 55.

Number of cured coronavirus patients has come to 79

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"We have to emphasise on extensive testing,faster results, meticulous contact tracing&isolation with strict perimeter control in the containment zones.All stakeholders to work in unison to break the chain of transmission," said Anil Baijal, Delhi Lieutenant Governor

Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that that there was no model like "Agra Model" or "Bhilwada Model" to tackle coronavirus pandemic in the counrty.

With 1543 new cases in the last 24 hours, the total COVID19 positive cases in the country are now 29,435. 684 patients have been found cured, in the last 24 hours; our recovery rate is now 23.3%. This is a progressive increase in recovery rate: Lav Agrawal, Health Ministry Joint Secretary

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Health Ministry said that plasma therapy is still in the experimental phase.

Heath Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said that Number of recovered patients getting infected again was minuscule.

IMCT (which is visiting Surat) found that the administration is conducting extensive testing so that COVID positive cases are identified in the initial stages itself. IMCT held discussions with various stakeholders including textile and diamond industries, who are major employers of labourers. Most labourers have received the pay for last month. Central team has told Surat administration to prepare future plans as well: Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary (MHA) 

Rural areas of US take baby steps out of lockdown

Non-essential stores in rural America began to reopen this week as small towns started exiting the lockdown. 

"Traffic got a little busier along Main Street, but otherwise, it was hard to tell that coronavirus restrictions were ending in the tiny Montana town of Roundup. 

That’s because it's largely business as usual in the town of 1,800 people. Nonessential stores could reopen as a statewide shutdown ended this week, but most shops in Roundup — the pharmacy, the hardware store, two small grocers — were essential and never closed," news agency AP reported. 

Meanwhile, in France and Spain government were mulling strategies for exiting lockdown. Easing lockdown restrictions would be a tough call for sure as the coronavirus disease has shown signs of relapse after getting cured. 

However, Brazil is fast emerging as new coronavirus hotspot as cases have spiked in past few days. "Brazil is Latin America's biggest country, with 211 million  people. Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse or are too overwhelmed to take any more patients," AP report said. 

Russian Medical Workers: There are reports that the Russian medical workers becoming infected are emerging almost daily as the country copes with a growing number of patients. Last week alone, more than 200 doctors in Moscow, where Daria Litvinova reports from, and St. Petersburg were reported to have caught the virus. 

Lebanon Clashes: Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in the northern city of Tripoli amid a crash in the local currency and a surge in food prices. Dozens of young men smashed the fronts of local banks and set fire to an army vehicle as protests turned into riots. Scattered anti-government protests resumed last week as the weeks-long lockdown to combat the virus was eased. Lebanon has reported a relatively low 710 cases and 24 deaths so far.

UAE New Normal: The country is opening up its cavernous malls and restaurants even as confirmed cases spike, in a gamble to stimulate its economy while still trying to fight off the pandemic. That’s led to a new normal of temperature checks, social distancing monitors at supermarkets and marked-off empty seats on the city’s driver-less Metro reports AP.

Surfers return:  New Zealand has eased a strict lockdown amid signs the virus has been all but vanquished — at least for now.  

That's it from me for now. Will hand over this daily blog to my colleagues Manas Joshi, Nidhi Taneja, Analiza Pathak and Dhairya Maheswari. You can get in touch with them at @manasjoshi, @analizapathak and @nidhiindiatv for your news, views and tips. 

Kerala High Court stays for two months the Kerala government order regarding deferment of 6 days' salary of all government employees for 5 months from April 2020.

The latest numbers coming out several countries have shown steep rise in unemployment with job losses arising out lockdown and factory closures. 

According to news agency Reuters - Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 14.4% in the first quarter of the year. The number was provided by data from the National Statistics Institute, Spain. 

However, there was some good news coming from Bangladesh, where factories supplying garments to major brands across the globe reopened. "Some of the world’s biggest clothing firms including Gap Inc, Zara-owner Inditex and H&M source their supplies from Bangladesh, which allowed garment manufacturers in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong to resume work from the start of this week" Reuters reported. 

Five more persons tested coronavirus positive in Chandigarh on Tuesday, taking the total such cases in the Union Territory to 50. In the last 24 hours, 14 cases have been reported. The city saw the highest single-day spike in corona cases on Monday.

The five new cases, including two women in their late twenties, were reported from Sector 30 from where nine cases have so far been reported, officials said. Out of 50 patients, 17 have been cured and discharged. At present, the city has 33 active cases.

Total number of active COVID-19 cases in Chhattisgarh stand at 3 now; total number of 34 patients have been cured and discharged till date, according to the statement issued by AIIMS, Raipur.

8 new COVID-19 positive cases reported in Karnataka from 27th April 2020, 5:00 PM to 28th April 2020, 12:00 noon, taking the total number of cases to 520.

With 522 more coronavirus positive cases, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed the 8,500-mark on Sunday. The number of COVID-19 patients in the state mounted to 8,590. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death toll in the state climbed to 369.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Agra has risen to 389, out of which 54 have so far recovered and have been discharged. 

SEATTLE — Workers who had been exposed to the coronavirus at Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital were herded into a small building to be tested. Inside, few wore masks. They were given test kits by people without gloves and told to swirl a swab inside their noses.

The method was designed only for people showing symptoms, but the staffers said none of them did. Many told The Associated Press that the flawed testing process this month likely produced inaccurate results and exposed them to the virus again.

“I absolutely feel it was a misuse of the testing materials,” said Dr. Lauren Smith, a forensic psychologist at the hospital. “In addition to that, the manner in which they did it put us all at risk.”

(AP) 

Seven people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Odisha on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 118, officials said. Of the seven cases, four were reported from the western district of Sundergarh and three in the coastal district of Bhadrak, they said.

With these seven fresh COVID-19 cases, the number of active cases in the state increased to 80, while 37 people have recovered till now.

Canada coronavirus cases have crossed the 4,8200-mark taking confirmed patients toll to 48,230 including 2,701 deaths.

One more person tested positive for COVID-19 in Mohali on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases in the district to 64.

In Maharashtra's Malegaon, reports of 36 people have surfaced and all of them have tested positive for coronavirus, the district magistrate has informed. All these who have been found COVID-19 positive ​were high-risk contacts of COVID-19 patients. Currently, patient-wise analysis is being done.

The report of 36 people includes a few new positive patients and old patients. Meanwhile, their names are being cross-checked, Nashik DM Suraj Mandhare​ has informed. Meanwhile, Maharashtra coronavirus cases have surged to 8,590 including 369 deaths while 1,282 have recovered.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in Nagpur has risen to 129, out of which 31 have so far recovered and have been discharged. One death toll was reported from the city. 

66 new COVID-19 cases have been reported; 13 from Jodhpur, 11 from Ajmer, 17 from Jaipur and 19 from Kota.Cumulative positive cases in the state stand at 2328 now. 51 deaths reported till date.

In a morning update, the Health Ministry said, of the total cases at least 21,632 are active. A total of 6,869 individuals have been cured and discharged while 934 people lost their lives. One person migrated to other country. Read More

Hello and welcome to today's live coverage of coronavirus news in India and across the world, with me, Himanshu Shekhar and my colleagues Vani Mehrotra, Rashi Hardaha and Shashwat Bhandari. You can get in touch with us directly on Twitter @himaanshus, @vani_mehrotra @rashihardaha and @ShashBhandari with news, tips, photos, questions and comments.

Today's coronavirus recap: 

The total number of global cases has surpassed 3 million, including more than 210,000 fatalities. More than 891,000 patients are reported to have recovered.

• -Hospitals overloaded in Brazil Flag of Brazil, Mexico Flag of Mexico, Peru Flag of Peru
• -1/3 of all cases are in US
• --US nears one million cases
• -US records 1,303 more #coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours.
• -Italy PM unveils plan to lift lockdown
• -Singapore sees spike in cases 
• -New Zealand claims victory against community transmission 
• -European nations continue to loosen lockdowns
• -Australia’s Bondi Beach reopens to the public
• -UK PM Boris Johnson returns to work after recovering from COVID-19
• -Over 31,000 cases reported across the African continent

The global death toll from the novel coronavirus has increased over the past 24 hours by nearly 5,000 to top 198,000, thw WHO said. 

Watch lessons by Yoga guru Swami Ramdev to boost your immunity, fight coronavirus every day at 7:58 am and 5 pm.