ew Delhi, March 26

Death toll due to coronavirus (COVID-19) rose to 16 in India on Thursday with cases soaring to 694, Union Health Ministry said in its latest update.

The ministry earlier asserted that the rate of increase in the positive cases was “relatively stable” in India.

The Union health ministry officials also said India was at the second stage as there is still no “hard evidence” to say that there has been community transmission of the fast-spreading coronavirus, remarks which may provide anxious citizens with much needed assurance and hope.

As the virus kept extending its footprint, the Central and state governments unleashed measures on a war-footing. While the Union finance ministry unveiled a Rs 1.70 lakh crore economic package involving free foodgrain and cooking gas to poor for the next three months, one-time doles to women and poor senior citizens among other benefits, and the health ministry announced that 17 states have started to earmark hospitals for dedicated treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Addressing a media briefing on the COVID-19 situation, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said “there is still no hard evidence to say there has been community transmission of coronavirus in India” and assured that the country was geared to tackle the coronavirus challenge.

Though the cases of coronavirus are increasing in India, but “we are realising that the rate at which cases are increasing…seeing relatively a stable trend or little bit reduction in the rate of increase in cases,” he added.

“This, however, does not establish a clear trend. We are hopeful that by following social distancing policy, conducting a proper contact tracing and by ensuring all people at home quarantine are monitored, we will be able to combat the disease,” he said.

17 states earmarking hospitals for dedicated treatment of COVID-19 patients: Health Ministry

India is under a complete lockdown for 21 days since Wednesday, in a desperate measure to contain the spread of the virus. Globally, the death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 21,293 with more than 471,518 cases reported in over 170 countries and territories, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 124, including three foreign nationals, followed by Kerala, where the number of cases has climbed up to 118, including eight foreign nationals, according to the ministry data.

The number of cases in Telangana has gone up to 41, including 10 foreigners.

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Karnataka has reported 41 COVID-19 cases, while the number of cases in Gujarat has climbed to 38, including a foreigner.

The number of cases in Rajasthan has increased to 38, including two foreigners. Uttar Pradesh has reported 37 cases, including a foreigner, while the number of positive cases in Delhi has gone up to 35, including a foreigner.

Punjab has reported 33 cases, while 30 COVID-19 cases have so far been detected in Haryana, including 14 foreigners.

The number of cases has climbed to 26 Tamil Nadu, including six foreigners. Madhya Pradesh has recorded 15 cases, Ladakh 13, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have reported 11 cases each, while West Bengal has nine COVID-19 patients.

Chandigarh has reported seven cases so far and Uttarakhand five, including a foreigner.

Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have reported three cases each, while two cases have been detected in Odisha.

Goa has reported three coronavirus cases. Earlier, the ministry had wrongly attributed 33 cases to the coastal state. Subsequently, the figure was revised.

Puducherry, Mizoram and Manipur have reported one case each.

There are four stages of the infection — stage 1 or imported and sporadic cases :When only those who have travelled to virus-hit countries test positive, stage 2 or local transmission: When the source of the transmission is known and can be located, usually with ones close to the patient such as family or people s/he have come in contact with. Those who test positive at this stage are those who have a history of travel to affected countries or are in close contact with those who have.

Stage 3 or community transmission :When the source of the infection cannot be located. This happens when a patient tests positive despite no exposure to an infected person nor any history of travelling to an infected country. Many countries, including Italy and Spain have reported such cases and stage 4 : When the disease is termed an epidemic, or an outbreak so severe with no clear end point for the ongoing transmission.

Man tests positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands    

A man, in his mid-30s, tested positive for the COVID-19 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Thursday, the first case in the union territory, officials said.

The man, a resident of Mayabunder, had returned from Kolkata on March 24, Chief Secretary Chetan Sanghi said.

His condition is currently stable, doctors treating him said. — PTI

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Chandigarh, March 26

Buses operated by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking have been deployed for delivery of vegetables and fruits on the doorstep as people remained indoors due to a curfew imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

The delivery of essential items began on Thursday, a day after many city residents complained of not receiving supply of vegetables, fruits and dairy products, and blamed the Union Territory administration for failing to address the situation.

“A total of 150 buses will ply in the entire city, villages, slum areas and rehabilitation colonies to deliver vegetables and other essential items,” Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Commissioner K K Yadav said.

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A 21-day nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the deadly virus, which has infected nearly 650 people in India so far including seven in Chandigarh, came into force on Wednesday.

Moreover, the UT of Chandigarh Administration has imposed curfew in the city to combat coronavirus.

The administration has decided not to give any relaxation in curfew and has announced that it will ensure delivery of milk, vegetables, groceries and medicines on the doorstep through government and private carriers.

Contact numbers of vendors and shopkeepers have been shared by the administration for allowing people to place orders.

However, many of these numbers are non-functional.

“I have been making attempts to contact the vendors and shopkeepers on their numbers provided by the authorities, but either these do not exist or are incorrect,” a resident, Sanjeev Kumar, said and claimed that he had not received milk for the past two days.

On Wednesday, the administration had asked vendors to supply vegetables in the city but they exhausted their stocks wherever they reached first for delivery.

The administration has deployed civic and police officials along with vendors in each bus for ensuring smooth delivery.

The delivery of these essentials will be made between 10 am and 1 pm, officials said.

People have to maintain adequate distance with each other for procuring vegetables, they said.

The buses will also be properly sanitised and vendors would wear protective gear while delivering essential items, they said.

Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, March 26

With two more cases reported on Thursday, the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases has reached 33 in Punjab.

The fresh cases were reported from Jalandhar and SBS Nagar districts. SBS Nagar patient had contracted infection from an already confirmed positive patient while the Jalandhar patient who is admitted in a hospital in Ludhiana had a travel history.

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The health department said that the condition of all the positive cases is stable.

According to health department, those who have got into close contact with these patients have been put under quarantine and surveillance and samples sent for testing.

Officials said in the past one week 205 samples have been collected out of which 33 have been found to be positive.  Besides, the health department has identified 667 persons who were in contact with the infected people and have been quarantined.  The result of 151 cases is awaited.

The confirmed cases include 19 from SBS Nagar, five from Mohali, four from Jalandhar and three from Hoshiarpur and while one each are from Amritsar and Ludhiana.  No confirmed case has been reported from rest of the 17 districts, said officials.

25 CRORES RELEASED TO DISTRICTS

Twenty five crores which were allocated to health department for Coronavirus control last week by the state government has been placed at the disposal of Deputy Commissioners and District health officials. The funds besides creating awareness will be utilized for purchase of equipments

DISTRICT WISE CASES

SBS Nagar   19

SAS Nagar   5

Jalandhar    4

Hoshiarpur   3

Amritsar   1

Ludhiana   1

DAY-WISE SAMPLES COLLECTED     POSITIVE CASES

March 18                        5                            1

March 19                       18                           7

March 20                        34                         14

March 21                         36                          4

March 22                         22                          1

March 23                         50                          1

March 24                         87                           2

March 25                         205                         2

Tribune News Service 
Chandigarh, March 26 

Essential items were not delivered at the doorstep in Punjab and people across the state were left scrambling for medicines and vegetables.

Contrary to the claims of the Amritsar administration, essential items like milk, vegetables and medicines could not be delivered at the doorstep.

Chemists, who were designated by the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, for home delivery of medicines, failed to respond when contacted on their phone numbers.

The numbers of chemists provided to cater the Mall road, Taylor Road, Lawrence Road for medicines were either found to be defunct or busy.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday announced immediate distribution of 10 lakh packets of dry rations to daily wagers and unorganised labourers in the state to help them through the contingency situation triggered by the curfew imposed in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

The packets, containing 10 kg atta, 2 kg dal and 2 kg of sugar each, would be distributed in the slums and other pockets where such daily wagers and labourers are staying in large numbers, an official spokesperson said.

The chief minister also ordered these packets to be made available at the offices of the deputy commissioners to support any such persons who do not get covered in the door-to-door distribution and may call the helpline numbers for food.

Health officials justified it by saying that the chemists remained overburdened and their phones kept busy as they were overburdened. They claim that the number of chemists would be increased.

The scenario was dismal when it came to vegetable suppliers. The contact number of vegetable vendors were either switched off or they did not respond to calls.

Police too appeared to be insensitive to people’s requirement. Majority of the milkmen were refused access to the urban areas to distribute milk, even though the administration had allowed them between 5 am and 8 am. Similarly, the milk collection centres of Verka in villages were not allowed to operate. Farmers have no choice to make khoya or Desi ghee at their places.

In the absence of a wholesale market, the retailers were out of stock, be it groceries, vegetables or medicines.

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 26

Amid reports of delivery boys being intercepted by the police during the current lockdown resulting in hardships to common people in getting groceries, medicines and other essential  items, Haryana is set to launch the  process of issuing passes to such people from Thursday.

In an exclusive interaction with The Tribune, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that establishments offering essential services such as grocery, pharmaceutical products and food, including online retailers, will have to apply online for the number of passes they needed.

Haryana launches website for lockdown passes, helpline numbers; wheat procurement from April 20

“The online portal is likely to be launched by Thursday evening itself, and the government will ensure that the passes are issued as soon as possible once the process of applications begins,” Khattar said.

When his attention was drawn towards complaints coming from various districts of the state that the police had been harassing delivery executives, including those going to people to supply essential goods such as medicines, the CM maintained that the police could not be blamed for this, as the cops doing duty on the streets could not differentiate between a delivery person or a common man.

“When they have been mandated to make sure that people do not venture out of their houses in view of the lockdown that has been imposed in the public interest to arrest the spread of the deadly Covid-19, they are supposed to stop everyone who comes out unless the person has a pass authorising one for the purpose one is outside. The passes will serve this purpose and we will make sure that we issue these passes as soon as possible,” he said.

He said that once these people get passes issued by the state government, they will not have any problems, as the police will allow them to move about after seeing their identity proof.

Khattar said the government realised the importance of keeping home delivery of essential commodities and supply chains of online retailers unhindered, as it helped in keeping a large majority of the middle class stay indoors during the lockdown, and the government was left with the task of ensuring supplies to the lower strata of society.

On being informed that the supply of newspapers, including The Tribune, was being hindered in most parts of the state despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauding the role of media in the present situation, Khattar said that newspaper dealers could also apply for passes for their hawkers.

Khattar expressed satisfaction over the implementation of the lockdown so far.

The Haryana Police had on Wednesday assured residents that e-commerce services such as Zomato, Big Basket, Amazon and Flipkart would continue to function during the 21-day Covid-19 nationwide lockdown. There were complaints that policemen were intercepting delivery men and there were even incidents of manhandling.

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Chandrapur, March 26

Amid travel restrictions due to the lockdown, a 26-year-old daily-wager walked over 135 km without food from Nagpur in Maharashtra to reach his home in Chandrapur.

As people started returning to their homes amid lockdown, Narendra Shelke managed to catch the last train from Pune to Nagpur, but was stranded after lockdown.

Left with no option, he started a foot march on the Nagpur-Nagbhid road on Tuesday to reach his village. He walked for two days without food and survived only on water.

On Wednesday night, a police patrol team spotted an exhausted Shelke in Sindewahi tehsil and arranged a vehicle to take him to Jambh village. Shelke has been home-quarantined for 14 days, the police said. — PTI

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 26

As the seriousness of Covid-19 increases, doctors of the armed forces and the network of military hospitals have been told to be ready to help in handling patients and testing samples.

Navy warships are on standby with medical teams, supplies and medical equipment in case any neighbouring country would want it. The Indian Air Force is already flying in planes and helicopters ferrying doctors to remote locations and also flying back with samples from Ladakh for testing at Chandigarh and Delhi.

This morning Defence Minister Rajnath Singh urged the armed forces to gear up their preparedness to provide all required assistance to the civilian administration at various levels.

Instructions have been issued to add more quarantine centre. The forces now have created facility to house some 10,000 persons at various locations.

Army to set up quarantine centres for personnel

New Delhi: The Army has started the process of identifying additional infrastructure for setting up quarantine centres in each station for its personnel to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak, senior officials said on Thursday. The Army is also preparing a plan to “sidestep” medical personnel from lesser virus-affected areas to those severely affected by the outbreak, the officials noted.

The Army, which is the biggest forces with some 13 lakh personnel has been told to identify additional infrastructure for setting up of quarantine facilities which can also be used for own personnel in case of an outbreak.

Plans have been readied to use medical personnel from lesser affected areas to augment civilian health experts in severely affected areas if required.

Rajnath Singh has appreciated the proactive role played by the Armed Forces and various departments of Minitsry of Defence in evacuating Indian nationals as well as foreigners from Covid-19 affected countries and ensuring them proper care at various quarantine facilities.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratories have manufactured 20,000 litres of sanitiser and supplied to various organisations, including 10,000 litres to Delhi police. The DRDO has also supplied 10,000 masks to Delhi Police personnel. It is tying up with some private companies to make personal protection equipment such as body suits and also ventilators.

Ordnance Factory Board has also ramped up production of sanitizers, masks and body suits. Bharat Electronics Limited is also engaged in manufacturing of ventilators. Army medical teams deployed in the Maldives have returned after completion of their mission.

The IAF Command Hospital Bangalore has been designated as the first laboratory in the IAF to undertake Covid-19 testing which will greatly enhance the region’s ability to carry out quick testing of suspected cases and allow prompt and timely intervention where required.

A 24×7 crisis management cell has been set up at Air Headquarters and various Command Headquarters to coordinate the aircraft usage.

New Delhi, March 26

An international team, including scientists of Indian origin, has identified 69 drugs and experimental compounds which may be effective in treating Covid-19.

According to the researchers, some of the medications are already used to treat diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and repurposing them to treat Covid-19 may be faster than trying to invent a new vaccine.

“The team took a different approach, targeting host proteins, not viral proteins. Twentysix out of 29 SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins were studied in human cells to find out what human proteins they interact with,” Gina T Nguyen, Assistant Director of Communications & Events, Quantitative Biosciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US, said.

Around 332 human proteins were found to interact with the SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins, the researchers, including Advait Subramanian, Srivats Venkataramanan and Jyoti Batra, all from UCSF, said.

These are the proteins that the virus, which has killed over 21,000 people and infected more than 4,71,000 globally so far, relies on to reproduce and carry out the infection in people, they said.

“69 drugs were identified that can target these proteins, of which 25 are already US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved and could be used off-label. The drugs identified include those that are safely taken to treat conditions such as: Type II diabetes, cancer and hypertension,” Nguyen said.

Some viral proteins seemed to target just one human protein, while others are capable of targeting a dozen human cellular proteins, the researchers explained.

They noted that there are currently no anti-viral drugs with proven efficacy, nor are there vaccines for preventing Covid-19.

“Unfortunately, the scientific community has little knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the team wrote in an abstract.

The identification of host dependency factors mediating virus infection may provide key insights into effective molecular targets for developing broadly acting antiviral therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2 and other deadly coronavirus strains, according to the researchers. — PTI