Labourer commits suicide at quarantine facility in MP

A 19-year-old labourer allegedly committed suicide at a quarantine facility in Amaanganj town of Madhya Pradesh's Panna district, police said on Wednesday.

The deceased and five other labourers had travelled to the town last week, when local authorities put them in a quarantine facility at a government college as a precautionary measure, Amaanganj police station in-charge Rakesh Tiwari said.

A resident of Ghatari village, the labourer allegedly used some cloth to hang himself in a room on the second floor of the building, he said.

The labourer had gotten back from Garhakota town of Sagar district, as he could not find any work due to the lockdown, the official said.

A case has been registered in this regard and further probe was underway, the official added.

DU webinar for visually impaired

The Delhi University on Tuesday conducted a webinar on Covid-19 for visually impaired students to help them deal with the problems they are facing due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The university has nearly 3,000 students with disabilities.

Based on the webinar, titled 'Covid-19 and the Challenges of the Visually Impaired', the university plans to prepare a policy document concerning interventions required for the visually impaired, to be circulated in public domain and for implementation, the varsity said.

Vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi assured the visually impaired students and the faculty members that the university will make all possible efforts to ensure that difficulties being faced by them with respect to academic and other issues due to change in content-delivery methods, are addressed with utmost sensitivity, it said.

Police seize liquor in Bengal

The West Bengal Police have seized seven vehicles laden with bottles of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Bankura district, amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown and the ban on sale of alcohol, a senior officer said on Tuesday.

The incident took place on Monday night at Vadul village after locals stopped the vehicles suspecting they were smuggling liquor, he said.

Locals claimed 15 vehicles were ferrying liquor bottles from a warehouse of the West Bengal State Beverages Corporation to different parts of the district, the officer said

Though eight vehicles managed to flee, the villagers stopped the seven and informed the local police station, he said.

An investigation has been initiated, the police officer added.

Kerala govt issues ordinance to cut salary of employees

The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to issue an ordinance allowing it to deduct salaries of its employees to mobilise funds to fight Covid-19 in the state.

The move comes a day after the High Court had stayed an order of the Left government for salary cut of its employees, observing that it lacked legal backing.

Announcing the cabinet decision, finance minister T. M. Thomas Isaac told reporters that as per the ordinance, the state government has been empowered to defer 25 per cent of the salary of its employees in the event of a disaster.

Heavy traffic is seen on Vashi Creek Bridge during morning rush hour, amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, in Navi Mumbai, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 PTI

Police officials patrol as stranded students from various districts wait for transport to travel to their hometowns, during the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Prayagraj, Tuesday, April 28, 2020. AP

Death toll 1,008, cases touch 31,787

Death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 1,008 and the number of cases climbed to 31,787 in the country on Wednesday, registering a record jump of 71 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

There has been a spike of 1,813 cases since Tuesday evening.

The number of active Covid-19 cases stand at 22,982, while 7,796 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.

'Thus, around 24.52 per cent of the patients have recovered so far,' a Health Ministry official said.

The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.

A total of 71 deaths were reported since Tuesday evening of which 31 fatalities were from Maharashtra, 19 from Gujarat, six from Madhya Pradesh, five each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, two from West Bengal and one each from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

Of the 1,008 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 400 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 181, Madhya Pradesh at 119, Delhi at 54, Rajasthan at 51, Uttar Pradesh at 36 and Andhra Pradesh at 31.

• Andaman & Nicobar 33
• Andhra Pradesh 1259
• Arunachal Pradesh 1
• Assam 37
• Bihar 383
• Chandigarh 56
• Chhattisgarh 37
• Delhi 3314
• Goa 7
• Gujarat 3774
• Haryana 308
• Himachal Pradesh 41
• Jammu & Kashmir 565
• Jharkhand 105
• Karnataka 535
• Kerala 495
• Ladakh 20
• Madhya Pradesh 2387
• Maharashtra 9318
• Manipur 2
• Meghalaya 12
• Mizoram 1
• Odisha 122
• Puducherry 9
• Punjab 375
• Rajasthan 2393
• Tamil Nadu 2162
• Telangana 1003
• Tripura 2
• Uttarakhand 54
• Uttar Pradesh 2115
• West Bengal 696

3 of 529 journalists found positive in Delhi: Kejriwal

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said three out of 529 media persons, who gave their swab samples recently, have tested positive for Covid-19.

He wished a speedy recovery to those found to be infected with novel coronavirus.

'Am so happy to share only 3 out of 529 media persons tested have been detected positive. My best wishes to all of you. Your work is very important esp during a pandemic. Those who have been detected positive, I am praying for your speedy recovery,' Kejriwal tweeted.

Punjab CM announces '7 am to 11 am' curfew relaxation

The Punjab government on Wednesday announced a four-hour relaxation in curfew in the state from 7 am daily.

'I had said that you (people) be given some sort of relaxation. We have today decided to give relaxation from 7 am to 11 am daily,' Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said in his message to people.

You (people) can come out of your houses and shops will remain open from 7 am till 11 am, Singh further said.

The chief minister, however, added that the curfew or lockdown would continue in the state for at least next two weeks.

'Lockdown/curfew will stay for two more weeks. Then we will see the situation', said Singh.

Punjab has clamped curfew restrictions in the entire state to check the spread of coronavirus.

The number of Covid-19 hotspot districts in India as on Wednesday morning has come down to 129 from 170 a fortnight ago, but in the same period the number of infection-free districts or green zones too decreased from 325 to 307, according to official sources.

During this time, the number of non-hotspot districts, also known as orange zones, increased from 207 to 297, they said.

The Centre had on April 15 classified districts into three categories.

Those with high load of Covid-19 cases or which have a high growth rate of the disease are marked as hotspots or red zones, while those with considerably fewer cases of the respiratory infection fall in orange zones or non-hotspots. Districts with no Covid-19 cases are categorised as green zones.

However, a red zone or orange zone district can be demarcated as a green zone if no new coronavirus case is reported from those places for 28 and 14 days respectively.

On April 15, the Centre had declared 170 districts across 25 states and Union Territories as coronavirus hotspots. Of these, 123 were hotspot districts with large outbreaks and 47 with clusters. It had also said 325 districts had not reported any coronavirus case because of actions initiated at field level.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that 80 districts in the country have not reported any new case of Covid-19 in the last seven days while 47 districts have not registered any fresh case in the last 14 days.

Also, 39 districts have not reported any instance of the infection in the last 21 days and 17 districts have not registered any new case for the last 28 days, he had said.

The government has already identified 15 districts in nine states, including Delhi, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as having 'high case load'. Of these, seven -- Hyderabad (Telangana), Pune (Maharashtra), Jaipur (Rajasthan), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Delhi show particularly high case volumes.

Other high caseload places that are 'critical' in the battle against Covid-19 include -- Vadodara (Gujarat), Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Thane (Maharashtra), Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Surat (Gujarat).

'These 15 districts are critical in our battle against Covid-19. Of them 7 show particularly high case volumes. India's success in battling Covid-19 is dependent on them. We must aggressively monitor, contain, test, treat in these districts! We must win here,' Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant tweeted on Monday.

A senior health ministry said the doubling time of coronavirus cases in India was three to 3.25 days before the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25 and now it is 10.2 to 10.9 days.

Last week, the Delhi government had set up a centre for testing of media persons working in the national capital, after 53 scribes tested positive for Covid-19 in Mumbai.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital climbed to 3,314 on Tuesday, with 206 fresh cases being reported in a day.