Covid-19 Daily Update - April 14

India's lockdown has been extended to May 3rd. Four succumb to the novel Coronavirus in Karnataka in the last 24 hours. Antibody test kits that Karnataka had ordered are stuck in Hong Kong and BBMP's orders to those in quarantine to send mandatory selfies has flopped. All this and more in today's daily update with Suraksha and Akhil.

Link for labour control rooms: https://www.labour.karnataka.gov.in/common-9/en

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This the daily Covid update from Deccan Herald.
First - the update that we were all waiting for...Prime Minister Modi has extended the nation-wide lockdown to May 3rd. Seven states have already announced an extension and Chief Ministers from other states were in favour of it.
In his address to the nation this morning, the Prime Minister said that the lockdown will see stricter enforcement. However districts that have NOT reported any cases, might see a few relaxations.
Following the announcement, rail and flight services, including domestic and international, have suspended operations until May 3rd.
Indian Railways has stopped online advance bookings. Those who had booked tickets from April 15th onwards will receive refunds.
In Bengaluru, metro train services as well as the metro parking lots and commercial outlets will be closed till May 3rd.

Following the announcement, a large crowd of migrant workers gathered on the streets of Bandra in Mumbai earlier this evening, demanding that they be allowed to go back to their respective states. Mumbai police dispersed the crowd which had gathered near the Bandra suburban station.

Moving on to the numbers from across the country now...

Over 11,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported from the country so far.
India has over 9000 active carriers of the virus.
1172 patients have recovered since they were first tested and...
the death toll has climbed to 378.

ICMR has tested more than 2 lakh samples from across the country. Over 21,000 tests were conducted yesterday.

13 new cases have been reported from Karnataka today, while 4 are in the ICU. With this there are 179 active cases in Karnataka and the state has recorded 10 deaths.
71 people have been discharged so far.
Of the 4 people who have succumbed to the virus, 2 are from Bengaluru Urban district and 1 each from Kalaburgi & Vijayapura.
All four are between the ages of 55 to 76.

Among the new cases, 3 are from Bagalkote, Bengaluru Urban and Kalabuargi. Vijayapura, Bhatkal, Belagavi, and Chikballapura have reported 1 case each.
Two cases in Bengaluru Urban have been diagnosed as Severe Acute Respiratory Illness, the rest are direct contacts of previously diagnosed patients.

Following the sharp increase in the cases over the last few days, the state has set up a six-member committee to analyse COVID-19 data. The committee, will study the epidemiology of COVID-19 cases reported in the state. A task force headed by two eminent heart specialists was formed a few weeks ago, but did not include epidemiologists and pulmonologists. Dr MK Sudarshan, Former Head of the Department of Community Medicine in KIMS Hospital, Bengaluru, will lead the committee.

Maharashtra has over 2000 active cases of the novel coronavirus and has registered 171 deaths. The State’s mortality is the highest in the world, according to a report from the state's Medical Education and Drugs Department.
Delhi has overtaken Tamil Nadu and is in the second place with 1451 active cases,
Tamil Nadu has just over 1000 cases.
Rajasthan has the fourth highest active cases at 895.
At 50, Madhya Pradesh has seen the second highest deaths in the country, the state is in the fifth spot.
Karnataka continues to be in the 12th spot.

Moving on to news from across the country...
The Supreme Court has said that it would consider the plea for bringing back Indian citizens stuck in the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries after four weeks, saying it would not want to weaken the travel restrictions put due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The apex court, however, issued a notice to the Centre to evacuate 860 Indian fishermen stranded on boats, in life threatening situations, in the coast of Iran. The court was responding to a plea made by a woman from Tamil Nadu, whose husband is one among the men who is stranded.

A few more details have emerged about the Supreme Court’s order regarding free tests for Covid-19 at private labs.
The Court has said that free tests at private labs will only be available to those covered under Ayushman Bharat and other schemes.
The court, however, said the government may consider granting the benefit of free test to other economically weaker sections, not covered under the scheme. It also ordered that private labs conducting free tests must be reimbursed.
The court said private labs may continue to charge Rs 4,500 as fees fixed by the ICMR from those who are able to pay.

In news from Karnataka,
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has announced a closely-monitored, stringent implementation of the lockdown till April 20th. There will be an increase in checking and more barricades will be in place throughout Karnataka to restrict unnecessary movement. In districts, where there are more cases of Covid-19, officials ranked as Additional Director General of Police will be deputed to monitor the situation.
Easing of restrictions will be based on the guidelines issued by the central government.

Karnataka is among five other states which have their COVID-19 antibody test kits stuck in China. On April 1st or 3rd, China's policy changed saying any exports going out of China have to be certified by the Chinese government. The other states whose consignments have been withheld are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Meghalaya. Earlier around 4 lakh antibody test kits that were supposed to be supplied to Tamil Nadu were diverted to the United States.
While Karnataka had initially placed an order directly with a Beijing-based company, this had to be changed as the National Institute of Virology had not approved the company.

Students from Karnataka stuck in the UK are struggling to make ends meet as all doors to make a living through part time jobs have been closed over the last one month.
They are questioning the Indian government’s stance of not allowing them to return to the country. Many students were facing eviction from landlords due to lack of order declaring rental holiday.

The State government has decided to use a Remote Monitoring method to check in on Covid-19 positive patients.
Through the Remote Monitoring technology, the exposure of doctors to Covid-19 patients will reduce significantly. The patients will be monitored through a software technology where specialist doctors can keep a tab on the health condition. Under Remote Monitoring technology, very few intensive care doctors will be present in the Covid-19 wards. This has been done to ensure the safety of health care professionals who are at the front line in fighting Covid-19.

A few days ago, the state government had set out on an ambitious plan to get those under home quarantine to send “selfies” every hour mandatorily. This was intended to be evidence of them staying under home quarantine. But this hasn’t gone according to plan. The BBMP has said that user participation has reduced to zero. Several individuals had been told that the app was not official yet, while others complained that the app was not working.
Now, government officials are scaling back the requirement to one selfie a day, but have little faith that this too will work. A senior BBMP official told Deccan Herald, that they may simply resort to GPS tracking of those who have been quarantined.

A 23-year-old BPO staffer has alleged in a tweet that she was fired, along with 15 others. Although the Bellandur-based company had asked employees to work from home ever since lockdown began, they were terminated without notice. They say that they were offered 5,600 rupees as the settlement amount.The Ministry of Labour and Employment had issued a notification on March 20, 2020, advising all employers to refrain from terminating the employment or deducting wages of their employees - including casual and contract workers. The notification mentions that even if a place of employment is non-operational, the employees would be deemed to be on duty. The Prime Minister reiterated this in his address to the nation as well.

The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has set up 20 control rooms under the Office of Labour Commissioners to address wage related grievances. The setting up of control rooms comes at a time there were reports of sacking of employees, non-payment of salaries and wage cuts in various sectors. In Bengaluru, four officers have been given charge. The details are on your screen. In addition to wage related issues, these control rooms will also look at issues related to migrant workers and subsequent coordination with States. A link to district-wise control rooms is available in the description.

The Bengaluru police launched an emergency pass system a few days ago, to help with medical and other emergencies. However this was withdrawn due to misuse of these passes. Now the Karnataka police have launched a helpline to aid citizens during the time of deaths, childbirth and medical emergencies. You can contact the helpline numbers displayed on your screen to obtain passes.The helpline will not offer travel arrangements, this has been left to people to organise on their own.
Additionally, all passes - electronic or manual - issued until April 14th, will continue to be valid until April 20th.

The multi-crore knitwear industry in Tirupur accounts for nearly half of India’s exports. Amid the coronavirus gloom which led to huge losses, Tiruppur’s textile industry has found a new way to survive. The city has now turned into a major centre for manufacturing protective medical gear like face masks, gloves and personal protective equipment (PPE). What began as a “service” in the first few days of lockdown is likely to transform into a big opportunity for manufacturers.

For the latest updates, log on to deccanherald.com.