- India on Thursday received 5 lakh testing kits from China, the Indian Council of Medical Research said during the Centre’s daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic. These testing kits are not meant for early diagnosis but only for epidemiology.
- The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 12,759, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In India, 420 people have died of Covid-19. Out of the total number of cases, 10,824 patients are being treated, 1,514 have recovered, and one person has migrated.
- Maharashtra, the worst-hit Indian state in the Covid-19 pandemic, confirmed 286 new positive cases of the coronavirus infection, taking the total number of patients so far to 3,202. The number of cases in Maharashtra is nearly two times that in Delhi, the second worst-hit region in India.
- India has sent huge quantities of hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to over 100 countries in the world over the past two weeks. Some claim that hydroxychloroquine could be effective in treating coronavirus, but scientists say there is no conclusive evidence yet.
- The Centre on Thursday ordered airlines to fully refund passengers for the tickets booked during the lockdown period within three weeks and without any cancellation fee in case they ask for it.
- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the nationwide lockdown is not a solution to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, adding that it is like “a pause button”. He said the government has to test “aggressively and strategically” and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower the chief ministers and district-level authorities. However, in the daily government press briefing, the Centre denied the claim and said not everyone is vulnerable to the coronavirus.
- India criticised the comments made by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom following reports on coronavirus patients being segregated along religious lines in a hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
- The IMF has backed India’s proactive decision of imposing a nationwide lockdown. This came a day after it slashed its growth projection for India to 1.9% from the earlier estimated 5.8% for the financial year 2020-2021
- The Chhattisgarh government has announced free ration through the public distribution system for a month even for those families without a ration card in the state.
- Globally, Covid-19 has infected more than 21 lakh people and killed 1.39 lakh.
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