COVID-19: Coronavirus Cases In India Jump To 19,984; 50 Deaths In 24 Hours

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of the union cabinet today to review India's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The cabinet may also clear a proposal to not increase the dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners, sources said.

On Tuesday evening, the Uttar Pradesh government said the border between Delhi and Noida has been sealed as a preventive measure. While Delhi is the third worst-hit state with over 2,000 coronavirus cases, Gautam Buddh Nagar, under which Noida falls, is one of the worst-hit districts with nearly 100 cases.

There will be some exceptions to the Delhi and Noida border sealing , for people who are directly involved in the fight against COVID-19 and vehicles carrying essential items. The District Magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar said the health department of the district has found that the number of people commuting between Delhi and Noida is high and many who have tested positive for coronavirus in Noida over the last few days, have had a connect with Delhi.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - the nodal body in the fight against coronavirus -  on Tuesday asked states to hold off the use of the Rapid Testing Kits brought in from China for two days after three states questioned their efficacy. China has denied the kits are of inferior quality as experts say the rapid testing method is not foolproof and questions were raised about the Chinese kits that reached India last week

States that have the most coronavirus cases are Maharashtra (5,218), Gujarat (2,178), Delhi (2,156) and Rajasthan (1,659).

A central team sent to West Bengal to investigate coronavirus lockdown violations waited for hours on Tuesday before being allowed by the Mamata Banerjee government to tour Kolkata. It took a home ministry warning before the state government budged after keeping the teams in Kolkata and Jalpaiguri on hold. The West Bengal government is believed to be consulting legal experts on the possibility of moving the Supreme Court over the centre's sending its team to the state.

Central teams have been sent to Pune in Maharashtra, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Kolkata, Howrah, Midnapur East, 24 Parganas North, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh's Indore. Madhya Pradesh is the only BJP-ruled state where the centre has sent a team.

26 people from a Tamil TV channel, including journalists, have tested positive for coronavirus in Chennai. 94 of them were tested on Monday after one journalist from the group had tested positive. Authorities say parents of the first patient too have tested positive now. So far, 30 people from newspaper and media houses have tested positive in Chennai alone. Tamil Nadu is witnessing a gradual spike in positive cases after a declining trend for three days. 

The government's move to convert excess rice in central godowns into ethanol to make hand sanitisers and to add to petrol to reduce emissions, reported by NDTV on Monday, has been sharply criticised by the opposition. The move is seen as controversial with millions on the brink of starvation since the country went into lockdown. "Hygiene should not be the sole preserve of those who can afford it," government sources shot back, asserting that the decision would bring down prices of what is the need of the hour in India's fight against COVID-19.

Worldwide, more than 25 lakh people have coronavirus, 1,77,420 lakh people have died. The coronavirus death toll in the United States- the country with the most fatalities in the pandemic -- has climbed by 2,751 in the past 24 hours, the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University showed.