Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 23
With Covid-19 pandemic virtually covering the entire globe today and progressing rapidly in India, the government deepened national lockdown asking states to punish curfew violators, deciding to suspend domestic passenger flights from Tuesday midnight and adjourning both Houses of Parliament sine die after transacting urgent financial business.
COUNT : 471, Discharged: 34, Deaths: 09
Nineteen states had declared blanket lockdowns by Monday evening to break the chain of Covid-19 virus transmission and reduce viral impact.
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Six states are under partial curfew and three have declared activity-based restrictions. As of Monday evening, 82 districts in 23 states had reported Covid-19 confirmed cases or death.
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Complete shutdowns (barring essential services) are currently in force in Chandigarh, Delhi, JK, Goa, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
On the medical management front, the ICMR, India’s apex medical research body, approved the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxy-chloroquine for the protection of two categories of high risk people — healthcare workers caring for Covid-confirmed cases and household care givers of patients. The drug can, however, only be administered under medical supervision. The ICMR also approved 12 private labs for Covid-19 testing and two Indian manufacturers of test kits that would not need to get kits validated from US FDA to start detection of cases.
Overall, the government maintained focus on effective social distancing, hoping the measure would delay the onset of community transmission of the virus—a stage that’s inevitable given the behaviour of the virus in other nations. In a message to CMs, PM Narendra Modi today advocated strict compliance of protocols and laws on infectious disease management.
A long battle lies ahead of us, whereby awareness on social distancing has to be spread and info about latest developments and key decisions needs to be communicated swiftly and professionally by the channels through easy-to-grasp language.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister
“Even now, people are not taking the lockdown seriously. Please honour government directives, protect yourselves and protect your families. I urge states to enforce compliance of protocols and laws,” PM lamented, following which Cabinet Secretary Rajeev Gauba in a video meeting with state chief secretaries asked them to authorise district magistrates, SPs, police and municipal commissioners to take action to enforce lockdowns.
The pandemic, meanwhile, spread to 186 countries with 2,94,110 cases and 12, 994 deaths worldwide. India confirmed 424 cases, up from 396 on Sunday and the government said deaths were stagnant at seven; this despite reports of two fresh suspected Covid deaths across India. The Health Ministry, however, attributed the death of a Filipino in Mumbai to renal complications although he had tested positive for Covid.