Coronavirus: Workers prepare beds inside a quarantine facility for COVID-19 patients in Guwahati. (PTI)
A day after India's coronavirus cases crossed the 1,000-mark, the death count rose to 29, the Union Health Ministry said today. The number of infected rose to 1,071, including the dead and 100 who have recovered. The government today also denied "rumours and media reports" claiming that the 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus or covid-19 would be extended are "baseless". A report had claimed that the government was debating extending the lockdown, alarmed over the mass exodus of migrants trying to reach home, desperate for food and shelter.
Here are the top 10 updates on coronavirus in India:
The borders of Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddha Nagar district, near Delhi, were sealed this morning, a day after the centre asked states to seal borders and encourage migrant labourers to stay where they are by providing food and shelter. The twin cities of Noida-Greater Noida are a part of Gautam Buddha Nagar district.
Twenty nine people have died because of the virus. The deaths were reported from various states including Bengal, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar. Maharashtra has reported 6 deaths, Madhya Pradesh 2, Karnataka 3, Gujarat 4, and Delhi 2.
A 44-year-old woman infected with the coronavirus died at a state-run hospital in north Bengal's Siliguri late Sunday night, taking the total number of COVID-19 deaths in West Bengal to two. The woman had travelled to Chennai earlier this month to meet her daughter.
On Sunday, the government asked states to ensure that the lockdown is followed and to help curb the exodus of migrant workers from cities.
Tens of thousands of migrant workers in cities are desperately trying to return to their hometowns and villages after they were left without jobs, shelter or money. Most of them have been covering a journey of hundreds of kilometres on foot, as all transport services are shut.
Over the weekend, special buses were arranged from Delhi to take them to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Residents of Goa, meanwhile, complained of a lack of essential supplies in the coastal state. The police have been accused of using brute force to enforce the lockdown. Paramilitary troops were called in to manage the crowds.
On his monthly radio address "Mann Ki Baat", Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologised for the lockdown decision inconveniencing the poor, but made it clear that it was the need of the hour.
The government has brushed aside the allegation that the lockdown was announced without any planning. The country's response to COVID-19 has been "pre-emptive, pro-active and graded", the government said on Saturday.
COVID-19 has already killed almost 34,000 people worldwide, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, with the number of confirmed cases nearing three-quarters of a million. US President Donald Trump warned that the peak death rate in the country from the coronavirus pandemic was likely to hit in two weeks.
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