Coronavirus Live Updates: Union Minister of Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, and Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan on Monday said that India's fight against COVID-19 is moving ahead fast strongly and steadily.
Mr Vardhan was addressing a digital conference -- RE-START - Reboot the Economy through Science, Technology and Research Translations -- organised to celebrate the National Technology Day here. It was organised by the Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), read a statement. While applauding the Ministry of Science and Technology's response to epidemics like COVID-19 in the country, Mr Vardhan said: "Indian government, academia, scientists, startups, entrepreneurs and industry have been working relentlessly to find solutions to combat this pandemic."
"We must appreciate the efforts of our scientists, our entrepreneurs and our institutions working to find quick and deployable solutions for COVID-19. New discoveries, industry partnerships, and enhanced researches have thus, been rapidly developed and adopted," added Dr Vardhan.
A central economic package to offset the revenue losses during the lockdown to combat coronavirus and autonomy in identifying and colour-coding the virus-hit districts were the two key demands of the states at their 6-hour videoconference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.
PM Modi has assured them that the Centre is looking into ways to "open up the economy". At the meeting, held to focus on life after May 17, when the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end, the Prime Minister said the government had "decided to invite all Chief Ministers to speak" before a "considered view" is taken on the matter.
The Centre has already made it clear that the lifting of the lockdown will be phased and done slowly over a period but not in containment and hot spot zones.
When train services restart tomorrow for limited operations, passengers have to be at the station 90 minutes in advance and entry will be stopped 15 minutes before the trains leave. The passengers will be screened before they enter the station and only those who are asymptomatic will be allowed to board, according to SOPs put out by the home ministry today.
The special trains will have only air-conditioned. No linen, blankets or curtains will be given, so people have to bring their own sheets, the railways said.
Tickets cannot be cancelled at less than 24 hours' notice and the cancellation charge will be half the fare. Passengers are to install the COVID-19 tracker app Aarogya Setu on their mobile phones.
Passengers have also been asked to travel with light luggage, said senior Railways officer Arun Kumar. They have to follow social distancing and keep their masks on throughout the journey.
India recorded the biggest single-day jump in the number of coronavirus patients with 4,213 new cases in the last 24 hours and 97 deaths, which takes the total to 67,152 cases so far, Union Health Ministry said on Monday. The total number of deaths in India linked to one of the most contagious illness the world has seen in recent decades has soared to 2,206. 20,917 COVID-19 patients have been cured till now, taking recovery rate to 31.15 percent of which 1,559 patients recovered in last 24 hours, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary of Health Ministry said during a press conference on Monday.