2 days ago · said that the textile ministry along with the health ministry are working in tandem...

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With coronavirus casessurging by each passing

day, the Government has ropedin domestic and global manu-facturers to manufacture ven-tilators, masks and personalprotective equipment (PPE)among other essential medicalitems needed to combat theviral infection.

Bharat Electronics Ltd hasbeen asked to manufacture30,000 ventilators in the nexttwo months in collaborationwith local manufacturers.Automobile giants like Maruti,too, will be making ventilatorswhich are in high demand toprovide supporting aid toCovid-19 patients. Similarly,Agva Healthcare, Noida, hasbeen given an order to manu-facture 10,000 ventilators with-in a month, and DRDO willbegin manufacturing 20,000N-99 masks per day within the

next week.Till now PPE, which are

used by medical personnelworking in isolation areas andintensive care units to protectthem from acquiring infec-tions, were not being manu-factured in the country.However, now focus is onMade in India as well in thewake of global shortage.

Sharing details with thereporters at a routine presser,Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary inthe Union Health Ministry,said that the Textile Ministryalong with the Health Ministryare working in tandem toachieve this goal. As a result,eleven domestic producers ofPPE coveralls have qualified sofar and orders for 21 lakh havebeen placed on them.

“Currently they are sup-plying 6-7,000 kits per dayand this is expected to go up to15,000 per day within the nextweek. One more manufactur-

er has qualified on Monday,and an order of 5 lakh cover-alls has been placed with him,”said Agarwal.

Similarly, he said, to ensurethat sufficient medical items areavailable whenever required,orders for 10 lakh PPE kits havebeen placed through theMinistry of External Affairswith a Singapore-based plat-form and supplies are to com-mence soon. While anothersupplier based in Korea, whichhas tie- up with productioncompanies in Vietnam andTurkey has been identifiedwith daily production capaci-ty of over 1 lakh PPE kits.

Also, he said, 10,000 PPEcoveralls donated by Red Crosshave been received and arebeing distributed. As of now,3.34 lakh PPE are available invarious hospitals across thecountry. About 60,000 PPEkits have already been procuredand supplied by the

Government while Indian RedCross Society has arranged10,000 PPE from China whichhave also been received and arebeing distributed. Another 3lakh donated PPE coverallsare to arrive by April 4. Anorder for 3 lakh PPE has beenplaced with ordinance factories,said the official.

Regarding availability ofventilators, Agarwal said, PSUBEL has been asked to manu-facture 30,000 ventilators in thenext two months in collabora-tion with local manufacturers.

Noida-based AgvaHealthcare has been given anorder to manufacture 10,000ventilators within a month.

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An area near a mosque inSoutheast Delhi’s

Nizamuddin was cordoned offon Monday after around 200people developed coronavirussymptoms in the last two days.

Police said these peoplehave been shifted to varioushospitals by authorities.Meanwhile, teams of UnionHealth Ministry and WorldHealth Organization’s Delhioffice reached Nizamuddinand surveyed the area. Droneshave been deployed in the areato ensure strict implementationof lockdown orders.

Authorities suspect thatthe residents of the area mighthave been exposed to conron-avirus as on March 10 severalvisitors from Malaysia, SaudiArabia, Kyrgyzstan andIndonesia had gathered atNizamuddin Markaz mosquelocated in thickly populatedarea at an event organised byTableeghi Jamaat.

“Several of them were toldto go back to their native placesand were subsequentlydropped at Indira GandhiInternational (IGI) airport.Most of them managed tododge police and returnedback to the area and now theycited the lockdown being thereason for not going back,” saida source.

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Claiming that the lockdownis showing its result, the

Government on Monday saidthat rise of confirmed coron-avirus cases are far less inIndia compared to many othercountries.

However, the Union HealthMinistry was quick to add thatit was too early to make anydefinite assessment about theextent of the spread of the dis-ease. The day also saw recordnumber of positive cases beingrecorded in the country, withDelhi adding as many as 25cases to its previous total of 70.

The number of positivecases raced towards 1,318 markby late Monday evening andcasualty stood at 30, accordingto figure furnished by StateGovernments. But the Ministryof Health put the number ofpositive cases to 1,218 in itsmorning update.

With an aim to ensure thatit is fully geared up to meetemergency in case the numberflares up, the Government saidthat it is in the midst of settingup specialised Covid-19 treat-ment centres and mobilisingresources to deal with any out-come.

Lav Agrawal, JointSecretary, Union Health

Ministry, at a Press briefing saidhere that despite the large pop-ulation in India, the spread ofcoronavirus has been “limited”.

When asked whether Indiahad entered the third stage ofthe coronavirus pandemic,which is community transmis-sion, Aggarwal said that theword “community” could beused in a Government docu-ment but in a “particular con-text”.

“It is not like that we are inthat stage. We presently havelocal transmissions. Maximumpatients in the country have

travel history and other caseshad their contact history,” hesaid, adding, “We should avoidthe words ‘community trans-mission’.”

He also said that if thecommunity transmission stageis reached, the Health Ministrywill admit it but country is notthere yet.

On the question that ifmigrants have been found to behigh risk of contracting disease,the official said, “For migrants,special guidelines have beenissued. If it is found that theyare not at high risk of con-

tracting disease, they will beasked to home quarantine, elsethey will be quarantined for 14days.”

“We took 12 days to gofrom 100 to 1,000 cases, indeveloped countries with lesspopulation, this has been 3,000,5,000 or 8,000. This is becauseof early measures of isolation,lockdown,” the official said.

The world so far hasrecorded around 30,000 deathsleaving more than six lakhinfected due to novel coron-avirus pandemic.

While stressing that socialdistancing and lockdown direc-tives must be adhered strin-gently, he said that, “One per-son is infecting more than a 100other people. This has beenseen globally. Hence one per-son’s carelessness can lead tothis.”

“To ensure we do not goback to square one, pleaseadhere to Government guide-lines 100 per cent. Even if it is99 per cent it will put us backto square one,” he added.

He also pointed out thatinstitutes such as AIIMS andNIMHANS are organising thetraining of medical profes-sionals in dealth with coron-avirus patients while theMinistry of Skill Developmentis also stepping in.

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Cabinet Secretary RajivGauba on Monday said

there is no plan to extend thelockdown period, rejecting cer-tain media reports doing therounds. “I am surprised to seesuch reports, there is no suchplan of extending the lock-down,” he said.

Later Press InformationBureau (PIB) too tweeted thatthere was no truth in extensionof lockdown period. “There arerumours and media reportsclaiming that the Governmentwill extend the 21 days lock-down when it expires. TheCabinet Secretary has deniedthese reports,” said PIB in atweet.

Joint Secretary in theMinistry of Health LavAgarwal refused to make anyfurther comment on this issuewhen he was asked during theregular press briefing if thedecision not to extend thelockdown was final or the mat-ter could be reviewed at a laterstage. “The Cabinet Secretaryhas already commented on it.His words are the fine view ofthe Government on this sub-ject,” he said.

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As plight of migrant workersremained in focus — they

were given a chemical wash inthe name of sanitisation inBareilly and had one’s foreheadbranded in Chhatarpur inMadhya Pradesh — theSupreme Court on Mondaysought a status report from theCentre by Tuesday on the measures taken in view of the large-scale exodus oflabourers.

A bench of Chief Justice SABobde and Justice L NageswaraRao, which took up two sepa-rate PILs filed by advocatesAlakh Alok Srivastava andRashmi Bansal, observed thatthe migration of labourers outof panic and fear was becom-ing a bigger problem than thecoronavirus.

The court said it would notcreate more confusion by issu-

ing directions on measuresthat the Government is alreadytaking to deal with the issue.The court, which took up twoseparate PILs filed by advocatesAlakh Alok Srivastava andRashmi Bansal on the issue ofmigration of labourers throughvideo-conferencing, said beforepassing any direction, it wouldlike to wait for the status reportfrom the Centre.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for theCentre, said the migration oflabourers needs to be stoppedto prevent the spread of thevirus, and the Centre States

concerned have taken the req-uisite steps to deal with it.

Meanwhile, in Bareilly sev-eral migrants, includingwomen and children, com-plained of burning sensation intheir eyes after being sprayedwith the “disinfectant”. Thesepeople were assembled by theroadside and were sprayedwith a claimed wash.

The apex child rights bodyNCPCR has demanded disci-plinary and penal actionagainst officials responsible forforcefully sanitising a group ofmigrants with “chemicals” inUttar Pradesh.

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Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan has kicked off a

controversy by directing theState Excise Department toprovide liquor to those carry-ing medical prescriptions inview of suicide cases reportedfrom various parts of Keralaafter liquor sales were stoppedduring the ongoing “lockdown”.

Taking strong exception,the Indian Medical Associationsaid scientific treatment shouldbe given to those who havealcohol withdrawal symptoms.

“It can be treated at homeor in hospitals with medicines.It is not scientifically acceptableto offer alcohol to them.Doctors have no legal obliga-

tion to provide a prescriptionfor alcohol. Writing a liquorprescription can result in thecancellation of the right totreatment,” the IMA said in astatement on Monday.

Vijayan’s directive to theExcise Department comes in

the wake of reports of suicidesby alcoholics. Till Monday, theState has reported seven sui-cides by persons suffering fromalcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Kerala State BeveragesCorporation, the State-ownedwholesale and retail traders of

liquor have downed their shut-ters since last Wednesday fol-lowing the nation-wide lock-down announced by PrimeMinister against the backdropof corona virus.

There were reports thatthe State was mulling plans tomake liquor available throughon line platforms. SAnanthakrishnan, ExciseCommissioner, in a note to theGovernment has suggested thatpersons with strong withdrawalsymptoms can produce a doc-tor’s prescription at the ExciseOffice.

“The prescription to allotliquor should be from aGovernment doctor. Afterobtaining clearance from theExcise Office, it can be pro-duced at the BeveragesCorporation Outlet to getliquor,” said a senior official ofthe Excise Department.

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To effectively address andresolve medical and stress

related issues during lockdown,Punjab Government on Mondaylaunched a special helpline ‘1800-180-4104’ for citizens to connectwith a network of senior doctorsover tele-conference and getmedical advice on COVID-19and other related concerns.

“As many as 1,800 seniordoctors have been empanelledthrough the IMC for the purposewho have been duly trainedabout the platform, its protocoland functionalities,” said thestate Additional Chief Secretary(Governance Reforms andPublic Grievances) ViniMahajan.

Underlining the importanceof the helpline, Mahajan said that

an intelligent CoronavirusTriaging System has been devel-oped to identify and prioritizecases for emergency medicalattention. “This system will alsohelp identify cases for isolation,home quarantine and those whorequire medical attention. Thecases shall be notified to the gov-ernment for further trackingand action,” she

added. The helpline has beenconceptualized by theDepartment of GovernanceReforms and Public Grievancesand is being implemented withthe State COVID19 ControlRoom, Punjab Government(SCCR), and the India MedicalAssociation (IMA), Punjab StateBranch.

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Appealing farmers to go to the fields forharvesting of their crops by following

social distancing norms, HaryanaAgriculture and Farmers Welfare MinisterJai Prakash Dalal said that the agriculturedepartment officers have been directed tomake all the arrangements ensuring has-sle free Rabi procurement season forMustard starting from April 15, andWheat from April 20.

He says that to incentivise farmers forstaggered and delayed procurement ofwheat due to the ongoing lockdown, thegovernment has sent a proposal urging theCentral Government to provide incentiveranging from �50 to �125 per quintal tothe farmers.

The Agriculture Minister said that toovercome from the shortage of labourers inthis harvesting season, the district author-ities have been directed to ensure that thecombine and other agricultural machinerycoming from Punjab and other States arenot stopped from entering in the State.

In an interview with ‘The Pioneer’, theAgriculture Minister reveals his strategiesto address farmers’ concerns regardingprocurement of crops after enforcement oflockdown due to corona virus threat.Excerpts from the interview:

After the announcement of lockdown,how would the farmers harvest Mustardand Wheat and take it to the markets?

Mustard and Wheat are at the maturi-

ty stage now. Farmers taking their produceto the mandis for procurement will not bestopped once the season begins. But at thesame time, to avoid gathering in large num-bers, farmers are being made aware that theyare not taking crops together in Mandis.Haryana largely depends on farm labour-ers from Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Jharkhand, Orissa and others. They areemployed by farmers and the aarhtiyas' com-mission agents each for harvesting and pro-curement activities respectively.

Do you think that an acute shortage oflabourers and transportation followingcountry-wide lockdown to halt thespread of the coronavirus outbreak,harvesting and procurement of Mustardand Wheat crop has turned into a her-culean task for farmers and the State gov-ernment?

It is true that following lockdown,farmers are facing difficulties to findlabourers to cut harvest from their fieldsin the State. Now, farmers in the State arehighly depended on local labourers. Weappeal to the farmers to use machines forharvesting and threshing instead. Forthis, farmers should invite private playersfrom Punjab for the combine and otheragricultural machinery for harvesting andthreshing of rabi crops. Such machineswere also used for the same purpose in pre-vious years too. Only we can ensure thatfarming machinery coming from Punjaband other States are not stopped fromentering in the State. For this, districtauthorities have already been instructed.

With the announce-ment of 21-days lock-down, large numberlabourers are strand-ed at different placeswithin State. Thelabour rates have alsogone by 25 per cent to50 per cent. How willyou address it?

Farmers have beenasked to go to the fieldsfor the harvesting oftheir crops, providedthat they have to followsocial distancing norm.They should make anarrangement at theirlevel to cut the harvestfrom their fields. Manyfarming families have started harvesting ontheir own. The Government is mulling tomake a new scheme to make for farmers’losses. Meanwhile, the process to contactthe workers of the unorganised sector forproviding aid had been initiated and theofficials concerned had been directed toensure that no worker was left out. We haveasked the district authorities to provide foodand shelter to migrant labourers and thehomeless in temporary community sheltersin accordance with social distancing norms.

Farmers in the State are worried fol-lowing unseasonal rain, lack of storagespace and closure of shops selling fer-tilisers and pesticides. What are the stepsbeing taken to mitigate their woes?

Rain at thisstage was notrequired for Wheatcrop as it was at thematurity stage.Earlier in March,rain occurred andmany farmers hadapplied for com-pensation underthe PradhanMantri Fasal BimaYojana. StateGovernment hasalready announcedspecial girdawari(revenue survey) ofrabi crops affecteddue to rain in thebeginning of

March. Meanwhile, as many farmers havestarted harvesting their crops, they have beenurged to stock the grain at their homes orother suitable places. In case any farmer facestrouble doing the same, the marketingboard has been told to look into the matter.Department officers concerned have beenasked to address the issues of fertilizers andpesticides immediately.

Owing to lockdown, the StateGovernment there is delay in procure-ment of wheat and farmers have a crit-ical problem of storage. Private playersmay take advantage by procuring theircrops at a much lower price. Your com-ment.

The procurement of Mustard and Wheat

was scheduled to begin on March 29 andApril 1 respectively, Due to unavoidable rea-son, dates were extended. The harvesting ofmustard has started while that of wheat is alsolikely to begin in the next few days. Hisar andadjoining districts, including Bhiwani,Charkhi Dadri, Fatehabad andMahendergarh, have mustard as the mainrabi crop. Some Mustard farming familieshave started harvesting on their own.Farmers have been asked to stock the grainat their homes till then. As a part of anarrangement, the sheds of Radha SwamiDera Satsang buildings will be used for pur-chase. Farmers should not be in hurry. Theauthorities will take cognisance if such casesarise.

What are the directions given to depart-ment officers to address farmers’ con-cerns?

The officers have been directed to keepin mind that procurement of mustard andwheat is only five days apart, there is a pos-sibility that both crops are procured togeth-er. To accommodate both the crops, theyhave been directed to build separate pro-curement centers apart from the existingmandis.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder SinghHooda raised the concerns of farmersover harvesting amid lockdown. Heseeks guidelines from the StateGovernment for harvesting and bonus tocompensate the farmers. Your comment

We too are concerned on farmers’issues. With lockdown till April 14,

arrangements are being made to start theprocurement of mustard and wheat onApril 15 and April 20, respectively, if thesituation gets favourable. We are in con-tact with farmer communities and awareabout their pertinent issues. OurGovernment will take all possible steps toresolve their issues. The Government willcome out with new scheme to compensatefor farmers’ losses.

What are the prices fixed by the StateGovernment for the procurement ofMustard and Wheat from the farmersthis year?

This year, the minimum support pricefor Mustard has been fixed at �4425 perquintal and �1925 per quintal for Wheat.In the mandis, if the bid price of the cropsis less than their minimum support pricethen the difference is compensated underthe Bhavantar Bharpaii Yojana.

Does your government have any plan toincentivise farmers for staggered anddelayed procurement?

We are working in this direction. TheCentral Government has been urged toincentivise farmers for staggered and delayedprocurement. The procurement of wheat,which was scheduled to begin on April 1, isnow scheduled to begin on April 20. In viewof the delayed procurement of wheat due tothe ongoing lockdown, the State Governmenthas sent a proposal urging the CentralGovernment’s to provide incentive rangingfrom �50 to �125 per quintal to the farm-ers.

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Adopting a “4T approach” intracking the “missing”

Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)in the State, PunjabGovernment is on job to trackeach of the 55,669 passengersarrived in the State fromaboard — as per the list shared by the CentralGovernment.

Maintaining that the figureof 90,000 NRIs or foreign trav-ellers, as earlier quoted, waswrong, the State’s Special ChiefSecretary KBS Sidhu said: “Thedata that we got from NewDelhi was quite delayed andcontained duplicates. Apartfrom having incomplete par-ticulars, the address given onthe passport often was an oldone and it took time to tracethe new abode.”

Sidhu said that each of the55,669 NRIs are being tracked.

“The Deputy Commissionerhave adopted a 4T approach —trace, track, test, treat. Our pro-tocol is even more strict thanGOI,” tweeted Sidhu from hisofficial Twitter handle.

Notably, the CentralGovernment’s CabinetSecretary Rajiv Gauba, in a let-ter issued to all the States andUnion territories on March26, had maintained as per theBureau of Immigration hasshared the details of more than15 lakh international passen-gers with the States or UTs formonitoring for COVID 19 tillMarch 23, 2020.

Citing “gap between thenumber of international pas-sengers who need to be mon-itored by the States or UTs andthe actual number of passen-gers being monitored”, theCentre had asked the States andUTs to take concerted andsustained action urgently to putsuch passengers under sur-veillance immediately, and“actively involve” the districtauthorities in this effort.

As per the Centre’s list,total 55,669 persons arrivedfrom abroad in Punjab, withmaximum 13,723 in Jalandhardistrict.

Leaving nothing to chance,the State Government has alsoissued a self-declaration formfor those all NRIs or foreigntravellers who have arrived inPunjab after January 30, 2020,and have not been contacted byCivil Administration, Healthand Police Department so far.

“Many NRIs or foreigntravellers have already con-tacted and submitted theirdetails to the concernedauthorities in Punjab. But thisself-declaration form has beenissued for those NRIs or foreigntravellers who have arrived inPunjab after January 30, 2020,and have not contacted theoffices of respective DeputyCommissioners, CivilSurgeons, Health Departmentand Police so far,” said theGovernment spokesperson.

The spokesperson said thatall such NRIs or foreign trav-ellers should submit this format ‘Dial-112’ NationalEmergency Response System(ERSS) immediately.

“The NRIs or foreign trav-ellers could also furnish theirdetails at ‘Dial-112 App’ (avail-able at Google Play Store) or e-mail their details at ‘dial-

[email protected] from this, informationcould also be submitted at dial112 portal -http://ners.in/,” saidthe spokesperson.

The spokesperson addedthat if anyone is unable to sendthe requisite details at givenemail or portal, such detailscould be sent at WhatsAppnumber 97799-20404.However, 112 number shouldonly be dialed when one is notable to send information on thegiven platforms.

“In addition, the NRIs orforeign travellers should haveto submit their details such astheir date of arrival in Punjabas well as the name of the air-port where they landed includ-ing the date of landing,” said thespokesperson.

Besides, they have to sub-mit the information pertainingto places of visit in Punjab andtheir passport number alongwith their name and contactdetails such as mobile number,landline number and email-id.They should also furnish theirpermanent address as per men-tioned in their passport, stay inhotel if any and present addresswhere they are residing, headded.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Monday

said funds released under StateDisaster Response Fund maynow be utilized for provision offood for people stranded inlockdown, which was used ear-lier for disaster related activitiesand instructions have beenpassed to district administration.

In a statement, Thakur saidthat district administrations arehelping the stranded people andit is being ensured that proper

arrangements of food and shel-ter are done for them. Similarly,arrangements have been made inHimachal Bhawan Chandigarhand Delhi for the students andworking people of HimachalPradesh who are living inChandigarh or Delhi and cannotcome back home due to lock-down.

The Chief Minister said thatto ensure necessary arrange-ments for migrant labourersstranded due to lockdown, dis-trict wise integrated report hasbeen prepared.

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Five fresh positive cases ofCOVID-19 (Coronavirus)

were recorded in Chandigarh onMonday taking the total numberof cases here to 13. Three pri-mary contacts of eighth positiveCOVID-19 case have also beentested positive on Monday.

“40 years old mother of theeighth positive case, admitted inisolation ward of GMCH-32 isalso tested positive. Two of hisother primary contacts includinga 23-year old male resident andanother 23 years old male resi-dent, both admitted in isolationward of GMCH-32 are also test-ed positive,” said an officialspokesman.

A NRI couple including 32years old male and 32 years oldfemale, both residents of Canadawho were admitted at isolationward of GMCH-32, have alsobeen tested positive for COVID-19, the spokesman added. Thecity had recorded its eighth pos-itive case of COVID-19 onFriday. The 22-year-old manfrom Chandigarh’s Sector 30had showed no symptoms for 10days after returning from Dubaiand had reported to a local hos-pital only on the 15th day.During this period, he came incontact with more than 80 peo-ple, who were put under homequarantine.

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Punjab Governor and UTAdministrator, VP Singh

Bandore on Monday directed thePolice Department to focus ondrone photography to find thedefaulters violating curfew ordersin the city. Badnore held a meet-ing with UT senior officers toreview arrangements fromCOVID-19 War Room set up inUT Secretariat.

He directed DGP toenhance surveillance and takehelp of drone photography tofind the defaulters and also toseize the vehicles violating cur-few orders. The Administratorwas informed that 56 medicalteams are going all overChandigarh to trace the persons,who have been in contact withCoronavirus positive patientsand decided that they need to beadmitted to hospitals.

He appealed the citizens tointimate such cases to the

Administration i.e who havereturned from abroad and havenot reported about their foreignvisits to the authorities.

Deputy CommissionerMandip Singh Brar informedthat as many as 32,000 foodpackets have been distributed tothe needy, poor and homelesspeople in Chandigarh onSunday. He also mentioned thatdemand for food packets isincreasing everyday. TheGovernor requested that those,who are having enoughresources should not take undueadvantage of the facilities, whichis meant for poor and needypeople.

KK Yadav, Commissioner,Municipal Corporationinformed that door to door dis-tribution of vegetables, fruitsand milk is going on smoothly.He also mentioned that Zomatohas agreed to provide its servicesto people for placing ordersonline for only essentials includ-

ing Ration, vegetables etc. Healso mentioned that MARKFED,Big Bazaar and Punjab Agro areready with supply for onlineorder to the consumers.

As per curfew relaxationsallowed, the residents are free tocome out from 11 am to 3 pm toavail ATM facilities in the shop-ping area on foot. While directsale in grocery shops is allowedfrom 11 am to 3 pm, the doorto door delivery to the customerscan be made upto 9 pm.Similarly, the shop owners will beallowed to open their shopsfrom 9 am to 11 am for cleaningand stock adding and getting thepremises ready.

ARRANGEMENTS MADEFOR MIGRANT LABORERSIN CHD

UT Adviser Manoj Paridasaid that Central Governmenthas given clear directions that nomigrant labour should beallowed to cross the border of

Chandigarh. The directionshave also been given for provid-ing accommodation, food andmedical check-up for thesestranded migrant labours.

“In compliance of GOIdirections, two centres exclu-sively for migrant labours havebeen set up in MaloyaCommunity Centre and all facil-ities have been provided to themigrant labour. The night shel-ter available in the city will alsobe used for accommodatingmigrant labour, as and whensuch demand arise,” he said.

The migrant people, whohave moved out to reach theirhome states or home towns,would be kept in the Maloya cen-ter and quarantined for a mini-mum period of 14 days as perstandard health protocol. So far,Chandigarh Police has been ableto stop and rehabilitate 72migrants or laborer who wereabout to leave Chandigarh totheir native places.

From Page 1This feature has also been

added to the COVA Punjabmobile application availableon Android PlayStore and iOS AppStore.

Mahajan said that there isunrest among citizens due toinability to reach the doctors innon-emergency cases amid thelockdown. Getting profession-al medical advice from doctors

shall help people understandtheir own symptoms and actaccordingly in the best interestof themselves and their fami-lies, she added.

Chandigarh: Director,Information, Public Relationsand Languages Department, PCMeena on Monday directed allthe DIPROs of the State to nipfake news in the bud and stayabreast of the situation so thatpanic is not spread among thepeople, during a video confer-encing.

He said that, as the lock-down progresses a lot of fakenews has and will surface onsocial media about essentialcommodities and COVID-19cases, but the officers mustensure that this false news isidentified and quashed so that itdoes not cause panic among thepeople and the spread of rumors.

Meena said the recent fakenews which was being broadcastby one news channel that therehas been one COVID-19 deathin Faridabad was promptlychecked by the officer of the con-cerned Department and wastaken off air. News like this cancause panic, he added.

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Two deaths were reported inPunjab during the past 24

hours taking the total number ofcasualties to three in the statewhich also has 41 novel coron-avirus positive patients. A dayafter recording second casualtydue to COVID-19, the state onMonday reported three newcases, out of which one patientsuccumbed to the deadly virus.

On late Sunday night,Punjab’s second death of 62-year-old granthi, who was believedclose to the state’s first victim —a 70-year-old man who diedalmost two weeks ago of coron-avirus after he returned from atrip to Germany and Italy — wasreported. With the three newcases — one each fromLudhiana, Patiala and SAS Nagar(Mohali), the total number ofpositive cases in the state hasreached 41.

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As the fight against COVID-19 continued on war foot-

ing, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onMonday ordered sealing of theState’s borders besidesannouncing extension of thecurfew till April 14.

In view of the same, CaptAmarinder asked the FinanceMinister Manpreet Badal tocome out with a contingencyfinancial plan to overcomeCOVID-19 crisis, and ensurean uninterrupted medical andessentials supply pipeline in thecurrent battle which “would bea long-drawn one and wouldneed more support from theGovernment of India”.

In another significant deci-sion, the Chief Minister alsoallowed the Local BodiesDepartment to extend, by threemonths, the services of the2000-odd sanitation workers,who were due to retire onMarch 31, in order to deal withthe prevailing situation.

The decision to seal theState’s border was taken by the

Chief Minister following thestate DGP Dinkar Gupta’s pro-posal for the same to check thepeople’s inflow, especially fromHaryana.

Since both Haryana andJammu and Kashmir hadlocked their borders, peoplehailing from these States andstranded in other places wereentering Punjab, the DGPpointed out, seeking the ChiefMinister’s permission to blockthe borders.

The Chief Minister, duringa video conference to discussand review current situation inthe light of COVID-19 crisisand the curfew restrictions inthe State with the Ministers andtop officers, directed all theconcerned departments tointensify their efforts to checkthe spread of disease, andensure that all essential suppliesand services are maintained.

He also ordered strictenforcement of the curfew,especially in rural areas, amidreports that gatherings contin-ued to take place in villages.

“All restrictions should bestrictly enforced till April 14,

after which the State will decidein line with the Government ofIndia’s further decision,” saidCapt Amarinder, adding that thelockdown was the only way toprevent the spread of the disease.

Capt Amarinder said thatthe state was fully prepared todeal with any contingency andurged all Government depart-ments to continue the goodwork they had been doingover the past several days.

The Additional ChiefSecretary (ACS) Vini Mahajaninformed the meeting thatmobile testing vans are beingmade operational to increasetesting in Punjab.

Giving details of the state’spreparedness, Mahajan saidthat 65 more ventilators, morethan 1.5 lakh PPE kits and over47000 N-95 masks, as well as 13lakh more triple layer maskshad been ordered to augmentthe existing equipment.

“The PPE samples ofLudhiana’s Evershine Companyhas received approval from theCentral Testing Lab inCoimbatore, paving way fororders for the kits to be placed

on priority basis. The firm hasthe capacity to produce 1000such masks a day, with a leadtime of five days. TheAstraZeneca India’s donation of10,000 PPE masks to Punjabhas also augmented the supplyof masks in the State,” shesaid.

She apprised the ChiefMinister that manpower for20,000 beds had been identifiedand their training will start

from April 1, 2020, in batches.Directing the Health

Department to take all steps tostrengthen anti-COVIDmachinery, the Chief Ministersuggested opening of OPDs ofprivate hospitals to handleother medical emergencies,and asking the Department totake up the matter with theMedical Council of India.

Finance Minister ManpreetBadal stressed the need to

press the Centre for immediaterelease of the GST arrears of theState, and also suggested thatevery Minister and MLAshould donate a month’s salaryand all Government employeesshould give one week’s salary tothe COVID Relief Fund.

“Such a decision could notbe imposed but appealed for allpossible support fromGovernment employees andothers to bolster the relief oper-ations further,” he said declar-ing that all donations to the CMCOVID Relief Fund would beexempted from income tax.

The state DGP suggestedtalking to Deras and privateinstitutes to accommodate themigrant labourers, 80 percentof whom were employed byindustries before the outbreakof COVID-19 and the subse-quent lockdown.

Agreeing, the Chief Ministerpointed out that theGovernment was already intalks with the Radha SaomiSatsang to seek their help in pro-viding shelter and food to themigrant labourers. No migrantshould be allowed to remain on

the streets, he said, adding thatarrangements were being madeto accommodate them inschools and other buildings.

Capt Amarinder made itclear that while no general relax-ation had been provided toindustry and brick kilns toresume operations, they hadbeen told that they could utilizethe services of the migrantlabourers if they could providefood and shelter to them, whileensuring strict adherence to allCOVID-19 related safety proto-cols.

Food and Civil SuppliesMinister Bharat Bhushan Ashuapprised the Chief Ministerthat all efforts were afoot toensure uninterrupted and reg-ular supply of essential com-modities and services throughthe department officials at thepeople’s doorstep. The depart-ment is also taking care of foodsecurity of the rest of the coun-try by dispatching daily 60000MT of food grains from Punjab.

Meanwhile, PrincipalSecretary Food and CivilSupplies KAP Sinha briefed CaptAmarinder that NFSA benefi-

ciaries would get their full enti-tlement till March 31, and underthe PM Garib Anna Yojana, dis-tribution of additional allocationof wheat and dal for the nextthree months shall also startfrom April 1, 2020.

It was also informed in themeeting that to cover the pop-ulation beyond the domain ofNFSA and migrant labour inthe State, the Government hadordered preparation of 10 lakhpackets of containing 10 kgsatta, two kgs dal and two kgssugar each which would be dis-tributed during this week.

On the issue of rising prices,the Principal Secretary said thatthe Government was fully con-scious of the few reported casesof rising prices of certain com-modities because of artificialscarcity created by unscrupulouselements, against whom strictaction would be taken.

The Chief Minister was alsoinformed during the confer-ence that all arrangements werein place for procurement ofwheat grain, which will com-mence, after some delay, aroundmid-April now.

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Stating that the movement ofmigrant labourers has been

contained by sending them attemporary shelters, HaryanaHome Minister Anil Vij onMonday said that StateGovernment has sealed its bor-ders with Punjab, UttarPradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi andHimachal Pradesh, prohibitingpeople’s entry into the State’sboundary completely, to checkthe spread of corona virus.

“The time period till April14 is very crucial for all of usand we all have to fight this epi-demic together,” he said.

The Home Ministerappealed the citizens to followthe instructions of the

Government and the police inletter and spirit and stay insidetheir homes during the lock-down. When going out in anemergency, people must followall the norms, including socialdistancing, he said, adding thatthe industrialists and factoryowners have also been advisedto extend all sorts of help totheir workers in the given sit-uation.

Vij said that Police officersand jawans posted at variousnakas have been directed toprovide all possible help to thepeople especially the poor,homeless, needy and sick onesand send them at Shelterhomes by assuring all assistanceduring lockdown.

Informing that the officebearers of Radha Soami

Satsang Beas (RSSB) haveexpressed their willingness tohelp the migrant labourers byproviding them shelter, foodand other necessary items at itsbuildings which are available ineach 10 kilometres across theState, Vij said that 461 addi-tional temporary shelters havebeen setup for their stay andfood is also being providedwith the help of NGO’s, socialworkers and local administra-tion.

Apart from the Law andOrder duty at various check-points, the police personneland other Government staffsare also providing food andother essential daily needs tothe poor and needy ones acrossthe state.

He said that during the

lockdown in the State, all pub-lic activities except the essen-tial and emergency services arebanned. However cargo move-ment in vehicles is allowed onthe State and NationalHighways.

Chief Secretary KeshniAnand Arora said a list ofmigrant workers and labourersfrom UP, Bihar and Odisha hasbeen shared with deputy com-

missioners and they wouldpersuade them to move into theshelters.

On Sunday, Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar orderedthe deputy commissioners tocompletely seal the inter andintra-state borders, after a largenumber of migrant workersstarted walking down fromPanipat, Gurugram andFaridabad to towards Delhion their way home in UttarPradesh and Bihar.

So far 610 FIRs have beenregistered in connection withviolation of the lockdown, 745persons arrested and 3,407vehicles impounded.

HARYANA DEPUTY CMWANTS MONITORINGCOMMITTEE IN EACH

VILLAGEHaryana Deputy Chief

Minister Dushyant Chautala,who also holds the portfolio ofDevelopment and PanchayatDepartment, has appealed to allGram Panchayats that by April14, a monitoring committeeshould be constituted at eachvillage to fight Corona andensure social distancing duringthe lockdown period. He saidthat in this committee ex-ser-viceman, retired persons andsocial organizations in largenumbers should be included.

In a statement issued here,the Deputy Chief Ministershared that in past few days hehas held several review meet-ing with all DeputyCommissioners and DistrictDevelopment and Panchayat

officers through video confer-encing. In these meetings, cleardirections were issued to con-vert the schools, Panchayat, andother public buildings intotemporary shelter homes.

Chautala said that nowthese village-level committeeswill manage and monitor thesanitization, food and lodgingarrangements for migrantlaborers and the needy stayingin such shelter homes.

Meanwhile, the DeputyChief Minister has also request-ed all Sarpanches to take ini-tiative to set up such monitor-ing committees in their respec-tive villages and also to ensureproper sanitization with sodi-um hydrochlorides in theirrespective villages as per theadvice of doctors.

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The total number of coronavirus patients in

Haryana rose to 22 onMonday, with a fresh casereported from Faridabad, theState health department said.

With this, Faridabad hasfour positive cases. Gurgaon hasthe highest number of cases inthe state at 10, followed byPanipat 4 and Ambala, Palwal,Panchkula and Sonipat record-ing one case each. It said 458samples tested negative, whilereports of 187 is awaited.

Of the 22 patients, six haverecovered and discharged- fivefrom Gurgaon and one fromFaridabad.

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Senior Congress leadershave convened a high-level

meeting on Thursday throughvideo conferencing to dis-cuss the implications due tothe 21-day countrywide lock-down to check the coron-avirus menace.

The party which hassimultaneously been criticis-ing certain measures of theModi Government and alsoextending its support to theCentre in its effort to combatCOVID 19 on Monday con-stituted a control room atparty headquarters. A coupleof days ago, party chief SoniaGandhi had also constituteda task force to tackle thespread of Corona menace.

AICC General SecretaryK C Venugopal said the CWCwill discuss the future strate-gy.

"A meeting of theCongress WorkingCommittee will be held onThursday, April, 2. The meet-ing will be conducted throughv i d e o - c o n f e r e n c i n g , "Venugopal said.

The Congress has beencritical of the Government''shandling of the situation aris-ing out of the COVID-19lockdown, saying it has halt-ed all economic activity andis causing problems to the

labourers, the poor and themarginalised.

The party has alsoaccused the Government ofnot taking adequate steps tomitigate the plight of themigrant labour force.

Sonia Gandhi and for-mer Congress chief RahulGandhi have suggested anuanced approach to tacklethe coronavirus outbreakrather than the total lock-

down.Congress also set up a 24-

hour central control room tocoordinate with States onsteps being taken to extendhelp to people in distress dueto the lockdown imposed tocheck the spread of coron-avirus.

The central control roomat AICC will be monitored byVenugopal comprising RajivSatav, Devendra Yadav (ex-MLA), Manish Chatrath(Secretary, AICC) as mem-bers for the purpose of coordinating all COVID-2019related matters.

It also said that state partyunits will update the central

control room on a daily basison the actual ground situationwith regards to the spread ofthe virus, medical prepared-ness of respective govern-ments as also the relief workbeing undertaken by the partyand state agencies.

The party two days agohad constituted a task force tointensify efforts of party-ruled States to deal with thesituation due to COVID-19and help mitigate the suffer-ings of people.

The task force includesformer Union Ministers PChidambaram, JairamRamesh, M Veerappa Moilyand Tamradhwaj Sahu.

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With the objective of shar-ing details about global

efforts to fight coronaviruspandemic and India’s ongoingmeasures, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondayheld a video conference withthe heads of all of Indianembassies worldwide — thefirst such event for IndianMissions worldwide.

The Prime Minister saidextraordinary times requireextraordinary solutions andtherefore most of the world hadquarantined itself even in thisglobalised era. Incidentally,this conference was like mak-ing assertion about takingunprecedented decisionsincluding lockdown. Modi fur-ther said this was an unavoid-able step taken to fight thispandemic, but it was also huge-ly consequential, as the closureof the globalised system hashad an extensive and far-reach-ing impact upon the interna-tional transport system, finan-cial markets and the globaleconomy.

Outlining the measurestaken by India, he said thecountry had taken unprece-dented and early steps inresponse to this pandemic frommid-January this year, toreduce the risk of importing theinfection, and thereafter toprevent a large outbreak. Thisincluded the world’s largestquarantine and lockdown,implemented by India.

Modi complimented Headsof Missions for their efforts to

evacuate Indians strandedabroad in some of the epicen-tres of the crisis. He alsoexhorted them to take steps onfive specific counts.

The steps included endur-ing their own health and safe-ty, and that of their teams andfamilies besides attending toIndians who remain in variousforeign countries, given theuncertainty of continuing inter-national travel restrictions. Hecalled on Heads of IndianMissions to help boost themorale of such compatriotsabroad, address issues arisingfrom their unplanned stayabroad, with their host gov-ernments, and other problemsIndians might face abroad,including arranging shelter,where necessary and feasible.

He asked them to stayalert and identify in theircountries of accreditation bestpractices, innovations, scien-tif ic breakthroughs andsources to procure medicalequipment, for India’s fightagainst COVID-19. He alsoadvised Heads of Mission tosuitably publicise the newly-established PM-CARES Fundto mobilise donations fromabroad.

Since this crisis alsoimpacts upon the economy,Modi further advised theenvoys to also focus on ensur-ing that commerce in essentialsupplies, logistics chains,remittances and so on areunaffected, through theircoordination with foreignpartners. Lastly, he urged theheads of missions to continue

to pay close attention to theevolving international politicaland economic situation, espe-cially in the context of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

In response, 10 Heads ofMission, in Beijing,Washington DC, Tehran,

Rome, Berlin, Kathmandu,Abu Dhabi, Kabul, Male, andSeoul offered their perspec-tives to the Prime Minister andthe rest of the audience. Theyshared feedback regardingappreciation in their countriesof accreditation of the resolute

measures taken by India tocombat this pandemic.

Heads of Missions out-lined their efforts to helpIndians stranded abroad, inparticular, students and work-ers. They also reported effortsto identify medicine, medical

devices, technologies, researchand other measures whichmight help in India’s ownnational effort to fight thispandemic.

They also reported lessonslearned in other countries,and their best practices, in theglobal fight against COVID-19. In our neighbourhood,

Heads of Mission underlinedmeasures to assist the nation-al responses of those countries,using the special fund createdat India’s initiative for SAARCcountries to combat COVID-19. The Heads of Mission alsoexpressed gratitude for theguidance and inspiration fromthe Prime Minister for their

work.Modi emphasised that

India’s Missions abroad maywell be far from home, butthey remain full participants inIndia’s fight against COVID-19. He emphasised that theunity and alertness of allIndians would help safeguardthe nation’s future.

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Continuing his interactionswith various key repre-

sentatives of the society for aunified fight against the coro-navirus spread in India, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onMonday said social organisa-tions have a big role to play incountering superstitions,wrong beliefs and misinfor-mation even as he maintainedthat the entire nation is dis-playing immense resilience,grit and patience in facing thechallenge.

The Prime Minister wasinteracting with representa-tives of organisations workingfor social welfare via videoconference.

He appealed to them tospread awareness about theCOVID-19 outbreak. Modisaid that people were seengathered in places and flout-ing social distancing norms inthe name of belief. He said, itis necessary to highlight theimportance of maintainingsocial distancing during thistime.

Those with whom Modiinteracted included RSSleader Bhaiyyaji Joshi,Dawoodi Bohra head QaqDjoher Syedna, Yoga GuruBaba Ramdev, spiritual leaderSri Sri Ravi Shankar and RajYogini Brahmkumaris sisterJayanti.

He recalled Father of the

Nation Mahatma Gandhi'swords that serving the poorand downtrodden is the bestway to serve the nation. ThePrime Minister praised thededication and commitmentof organisations participatingin the video conference,towards serving humanity.

He observed that theseorganisations have three dis-tinct specialties: a humaneapproach, massive reach andconnect with people and aservice mindset. He said, dueto these distinctions, suchorganisations are trustedimplicitly.

Modi said that the nationis facing an unprecedentedcrisis and needs the service ofthese bodies and theirresources like never before.He suggested that they couldplay a huge role in arrangingfor basic necessities for thepoor. They could also dedi-cate their medical facilitiesand volunteers to servingpatients and the needy. Modisaid, the nation needs bothshort-term measures and along-term vision to overcomethe challenge.

The representatives of thesocial welfare organisationspraised the leadership of thePrime Minister in guiding thecountry during the major cri-sis.

They praised the pro-active measures of the gov-ernment which, they said,

have been effective in con-trolling the spread of thevirus. They pledged supportto the PM-CARES fund andsaid their workforce will bededicated completely to thecause of serving the nation inthis time of crisis. The organ-isations spoke about theirwork to meet the COVID-19challenge through awarenesscampaigns digital means, dis-tribution of essentials, foodpackets, sanitisers, medicinesand provision of medical helpto those in need.

The Prime Minister reit-erated the importance ofspreading awareness, help-ing the poor and needythrough arranging for basicnecessities, provision of med-ical facilities and dedicatingthe volunteers to the cause ofserving those impacted byCOVID-19. He stressed onthe importance of givingmedical and scientific adviceand countering misinforma-tion. Prime Minister alsounderlined the need to keepworking together to face thechallenge of the pandemic.

Over the last few days,Modi has been conducting aseries of interactions via videoconferencing with represen-tatives of different sectorsincluding electronic and printmedia and medical fraterni-ty besides Chief Ministers ofall the States and heads ofStates of SAARC nations.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday shared

3D animated videos of himperforming yoga on Twitter toshow how he remains fit.

"During yesterday's#MannKiBaat, someone askedme about my fitness routineduring this time. Hence,thought of sharing these Yogavideos," he tweeted.

"I hope you also beginpractising Yoga regularly," hewrote.

The video shows Modidoing some simple Yoga exer-cises involving stretching of

legs, hands and back for relax-ing the body. The exercises,Prime Minister suggestedwould keep people physicallyand mentally fit while remain-ing indoors during the three-week lockdown period.

The release of video wasmeant to all those who arefeeling tense while feelinginactive and stranded durngthe period of “social distanc-ing”.

Responding to a questionin his monthly radio address"Mann ki Baat" on Sunday onhow he is keeping fit duringthe lockdown, the PrimeMinister had said he would

post the "Yoga with Modi"videos.

"But do remember, that Iam not a fitness expert, I amalso not a yoga teacher. I ammerely a practitioner," he hadsaid.

"...some yoga asanaas havegreatly benefitted me. It is pos-sible that some of these tipsmight help you too during thelockdown," Modi said onSunday.

In the run-up toInternational Yoga Day inJune last year, the PrimeMinister had shared similarvideos to encourage people topractise yoga

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Covid-19 can have fatal con-sequences for people even

without underlying cardiovas-cular disease or respiratoryproblems, according to a studypublished on Monday.

"It is likely that even in theabsence of previous heart dis-ease, the heart muscle can beaffected by coronavirus dis-ease," said Mohammad Madjid,MD, MS, the study's leadauthor and an assistant profes-sor of cardiology at McGovernMedical School at TheUniversity of Texas HealthScience Center at Houston.

"Overall, injury to heart

muscle can happen in anypatient with or without heartdisease, but the risk is higher inthose who already have heartdisease,” said the authors cau-tioning that understanding the

effects of COVID-19 on thecardiovascular system is essen-tial for providing comprehen-sive medical care for cardiacpatients..

The authors in the study,

published in JAMACardiology explained thatresearch from previous coro-navirus and influenza epi-demics suggest that viralinfections can cause acute

coronary syndromes, arrhyth-mias, and the development of,or exacerbation of, heart fail-ure.

In a clinical bulletinissued by the AmericanCollege of Cardiology, it wasrevealed that the case fatalityrate of COVID-19 for patientswith cardiovascular diseasewas 10.5%. Data also points toa greater likelihood that indi-viduals over the age of 65 withcoronary heart disease orhypertension can contract theillness, as well experiencemore severe symptoms thatwill require critical care.

According to the studyauthors, critical cases are

those that reported respira-tory failure, septic shock,and/or multiple organ dys-function or failure that result-ed in death.

The authors also analysedanother small retrospectivestudy of 150 patients with lab-oratory-confirmed COVID-19 that evaluated the factorsassociated with mortality. Itwas found that cardiovascu-lar disease was more prevalentin patients who died (13 of68) than patients who sur-vived (0 of 82).

“Among the 68 fatal cases,36 died of respiratory failure,5 died of myocardial damageand circulatory failure, 22

died of both causes, and 5died from undeterminedcauses.64 Patients who diedhad higher levels of troponin,myoglobin, C-reactive pro-tein, serum ferritin, and inter-leukin-6. This study is furthersuggestive of a high inflam-matory burden in COVID-19and a possible r ise inmyocarditis-related cardiacevents.”

The novel virus that caus-es COVID-19 originated inWuhan, China, and by March11, 2020, the WHO haddeclared it a global pandem-ic.

The three most commonsymptoms of COVID-19

include fever, cough, andshortness of breath.

Other less commonsymptoms are muscle pain,sore throat, nasal congestion,and headache. Symptoms canappear as soon as two daysafter exposure to the virus toup to14 days after.

The co-authors of thestudy "Potential Effects ofCoronaviruses on theCardiovascular System"include Payam Safavi-Naeini,MD, of the Texas HeartInstitute and Scott Solomon,MD, of Harvard MedicalSchool; and Orly Vardeny,PharmD, of the University ofMinnesota.

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Saying this is the need ofthe hour, BJP chief JP

Nadda on Monday appealedto party workers to donate atleast �100 each to the PMCARES Fund and inspire 10others to contribute as well.The BJP, which claims to bethe largest political party inthe world, is said to have close

to 20 crore members."I appeal to all of you to

make your contribution toPM Cares Fund. Our smallsupport can make a hugecontribution. I request everyBJP worker to contribute atleast �100 to PM Care Fundand inspire 10 others to con-tribute as well," Nadda said ina message.

This is the need of thehour and BJP workers withtheir small donations canmake a big contribution, headded.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has launched the PM''sCitizen Assistance and Reliefin Emergency Situations

Fund as part of hisGovernment's efforts to com-bat the coronavirus and askedpeople to contribute gener-ously to it.

Earlier, the BJP decidedthat one crore of its affluentworkers would arrange foodfor at least five poor personsunder the ‘Mahabhojan’ pro-gramme. While the party hasdirected all its 386 MPs fromthe Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha to release �1 croreeach from their respectiveMPLADS fund for tacklingthe Covid-19 pandemic, ithas also asked all its MPs todonate a month’s salary to thePM’s fund.

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New Delhi: The Congress MPfrom Kerala’s Kasaragod,Rajmohan Unnithan, hasmoved the Supreme Courtseeking direction to theKarnataka Government toopen its border with his Statefor smooth movement ofambulances and other emer-gency vehicles during the lock-down.

In his plea, Unnithan saidthat such a blockade is a clearviolation of Articles 21 and19(d) of the Constitution at atime when supply of com-modities is itself hit hard andthe entire country is fighting amedical emergency.“Thisblockade has also resulted incutting off the essential lifelineof National Highways and StateHighways and major districtroads leading to the State ofKerala, which has resulted inthe shortage of supply of essen-tial and non-essential items to

the State of Kerala leading toshortage supply of food andmedical supplies,” his pleasaid.Unnithan said the “ill-planned and dangerous block-ade” has claimed the life of a 70year old woman who wasdenied entry into Karnataka forurgent medical treatment onlyavailable at Mangalore.“This isa clear case of violation of theright to life with dignity by thestate as citizens are made to dieon the roads because of theaction of the State which is intotal disregard to Article 21,” hesaid.The Congress MP said that hishome constituency Kasaragodis the northern most district ofKerala, which shares most of itsboundary with Karnataka andthe Panvel-Kochi-Kanyakumari NationalHighway (NH-66) is passingthrough the district, connect-ing it with Mangalore,

Karnataka.“The people ofKasaragod in Kerala rely entire-ly upon the medical facilities ofMangalore District in the Stateof Karnataka and its adjacentareas.“As a result of this block-ade two persons have alreadydied as they were denied entryinto Karnataka even for urgentmedical treatment at a hospi-tal in Mangalore,” his plea said.

He added that Kerala beinga consumer state, grocery itemsand vegetables come fromKarnataka through roads andHighways connecting theKasaragod and the Mangalore“Now all the roads includingthe National Highways leading to the Karnataka stateside are closed by the officialsof the Karnataka State in thewake of the nation-wide lock-down against the Covid 19pandemic which has resulted instoppage of supply of goodsand other essential items from

the State of Karnataka to theState of Kerala,” he said in hisPIL.His plea sought directionsto the Karnataka Governmentto open the borders with Keralaand in particular Kasargod-Mangalore border at Talappadiand allowing the movement ofAmbulances and other emer-gency vehicles through theborders.

The petition also soughtdirection to Karnataka to allowthe movement of trucks andother vehicles carrying essen-tial and non-essential items tothe state of Kerala.

The plea sought a directionto Karnataka to register an FIRand constitute a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) underthe supervision of the court toenquire against the authoritiesconcerned including the policeofficials whose action led to thedeath of two citizens.

Agencies

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NEW DELHI: The SupremeCourt on Monday slated fortomorrow the hearing on apetition seeking directions toprovide amenities like food andshelter to migrant workers amidthe lockdown imposed in thewake of coronavirus. A two-judge bench headed by ChiefJustice of India (CJI) SharadArvind Bobde and also com-prising Justice L Nageshwar

Rao today heard the petition,filed by advocate Alakh AlokSrivastava, through video con-ferencing and slated the matterfor Tuesday. Srivastava, duringthe hearing today, cited manynews stories about migrantlabourers walking out of urbancentres. Seeing thousands ofpeople on the road every day, itis a very sad situation, he toldthe apex court.The top court

said that it will deal with every-thing, but not with what theCentral Government is alreadydoing and added that it will firstgo through the Centre's affi-davit. Solicitor General, TusharMehta, told the court that theUnion of India and all StateGovernments are taking allkinds of necessary steps to mit-igate the situation and submit-ted that he wanted to file an affi-

davit while replying to the peti-tion.The CJI said that we are notgoing to add to the confusion byissuing any kind of direction,which is already being takencare of by the Government.The petition sought directionsto provide food, water, shelterand urgent indulgences to themigrant workers and their fam-ilies.

Agencies

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The Jammu & KashmirGovernment on Monday

notified the helpline numbersfor migrant labourers from theUnion Territory who arestranded in various parts of thecountry due to the 21-day nationwide lock-down.

The migrants were asked to

contact for help the following:Zameer Ahmad, AssistantLabour Commissioner,9797172356 (for KashmirDivision) and Sanjay Kumar,Labour Officer, 9419424281(for Jammu Division).

These officials have beenasked to liaise authorities con-cerned to assist/help stranded migrantlabourers

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As the number of coronavirus affected persons

crossed the 200 mark byMonday morning, making itthe State with the second high-est number of afflicted patients,Kerala is faced with a majorissue which has been brewingup for days. It is feared thatmigrant workers across theState may take to the streetsdemanding better living con-ditions or for transportationback to their villages.

An aggressive posture bythousands of migrant laborersin Paippadu Grama Panchayatin Kottayam district on Sundaytook the State administrationby surprise. The migrants,mainly from Bengal and Assam(though the local officials termthem as workers fromBangaldesh) took to the streetsdemanding immediate

arrangements to travel back totheir native places in the back-drop of the 21-day shut down.

“The workers, mostly fromBangladesh masquerading asthey are from Bengal andAssam are upset that they areout of work. Being daily wageearners, they are not in a posi-tion to find ways to get twosquare meals a day,” said SibyAbraham, member, PaippaduPanchayath in Kottayam dis-trict. He said there are morethan 10,000 migrant workers inPaippadu Panchayth and mostof them are in possession of atleast a dozen identity cards.

This is not a problem facedby Kottayam district alone.Neighboring district ofErnakulam, the El Dorado ofmigrant workers, is like a vol-cano which may burst anytime.Perumbavoor, a small townwith nearly 500 registered ply-wood companies faced tense

moments on Monday as localofficials reached a labor camphousing migrant workers.Because of the nationwide lockdown , all plywood companies,which employ nearly 1,00,000migrant workers, had laid offthe workforce.

Most of the owners of theseplywood factories, moneyspinners in normal time,refused to pay the workers cit-ing the layoff. “There are1,50,000 migrant laborers inPerumbavoor who areemployed in plywood compa-nies, timber mills and eateries.They get anything between�800 to �1,000 per day for a 12

hour shift. The owners of thefactories and mills make hugeprofit but they refuse to pay theworkers at least half of theirwages in this time,”Subramanian Sasidharan, atimber mill owner , told ThePioneer. He also disclosed that90 per cent of the workforce isfrom Bangladesh. “They worksincerely and with dedication.The local youth are reluctant todo manual jobs,” saidSasidharan,

Sunday’s showdown inPaippadu has upset the author-ities as Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan himself came out witha statement on Monday. Hesaid some vested interests wereinstigating the migrant work-ers. Officials in State police saidthey suspect the role of a 24X7news channel owned by a reli-gious group for fomentingtroubles at Payippadu onSunday.

Jaipur: The RajasthanGovernment, here on Monday,reported 10 new coronaviruscases, taking the tally to 69.While two cases are from Jaipurand one from Bhilwara, sevenare Iran evacuees, shifted toJodhpur recently, according toofficials.

Of the three Covid-19 newcases, first is a 70-year-oldfemale and second a 21-year-old male. They are motherand son of a Covid-19 patientfrom the Ramganj area of thecity, said Additional ChiefSecretary Rohit Kumar Singh.

The youth, who hadreturned from Oman a fewdays back, was asked to quar-antine himself by medical andhealth personnel. But he keptmeeting relatives and friends.One of his friends also testedCovid-19 positive.

After the new cases, curfewhas been clamped in seven

police station areas of thewalled city.

The third patient, 40-year-old male from Bhilwara -- wasthe OPD patient of the BangarHospital, Bhilwara, said Singh.

At AIIMS Jodhpur, 43samples of Iran evacuees havebeen tested. Of this, six testedpositive and 37 negative. SNMedical Collage, Jodhpur, test-ed two samples of the evacuees.Of this, only one tested positive,confirmed Singh.

Out the 69 positive cases,62 are residents of Rajasthan.14 of them had turned negativefrom positive and four beendischarged, said Singh. IANS

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Adoctor working in themicrobiology laboratory

of Government MedicalCollege (GMC) hospital inJammu Monday tested positivefor Covid-19 along with nineothers in Jammu & Kashmir.

The total number of posi-tive cases stood at 48, withseven new cases reported fromKashmir and three fromJammu region till last reportscame in.

As a safety measure, sam-ples of other staffmembers/technicians and con-sultants working in the GMClaboratory were taken and all ofthem were immediately quar-antined.

Senior doctors in the GMCwere frequently raising theissue of inadequate safety kitsfor doctors and other staffmembers working round the

clock.According to official

sources, the doctor was imme-diately shifted to the dedicatedcovid-19 ward in the GMCwhere seven other patients,tested positive between March25-29, were already admitted.Three cases from Udhampurwere also admitted in the GMCward in Jammu.

According to Rohit Kansal,spokesman of the Jammu andKashmir government, " a total

number of 10 newscases tested posi-itve in Jammu andKashmir onMonday. He said,11644 persons areunder observationand 722 samplestested so far, 659tested negative andreports of 15 sam-ples were awaited.

He said, sevenmore cases detected positive inKashmir, two from Shopianand three from Srinagar, oneeach from Bandipore andBudgam. He added, all positivecases were contacts of previouspositive cases. In Jammu divi-sion, he said three new positivecases were reported". Out ofthese three, one case wasdetected in Udhampur, whiletwo others from Janipur andGujjar Basti area of Jammu.

In another important

development, the districtauthorities in Jammu Mondayintensified lockdown in certainpockets of Jammu and blockedall the entry and exit routes tocontain movement of local res-idents.

The decision was takenby the local authorities afterreports claimed some of thesepositive cases may have comein contact with large number ofpeople in the area and neededstrict measures to isolate them.

Deputy CommissionerJammu, Sushma Chauhanissued a statement which said,"in order to strengthen COVIDcontainment in some areas ofPS Trikuta nagar (from whererecent +VE cases traced), wehave intensified lockdown inBhatindi and neighbouringareas. Further included todayare Bhawani Nagar of JanipurPS as well. This is in interest ofpublic at large".

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In a stern warning to viola-tors, Karnataka Chief

Minister BS Yediyurappa onMonday put the onus of lock-down ending on the people fol-lowing the Government'sguidelines strictly and stayingat home.

"Ending of the 3-weeklockdown depends on strict-ness with which the people fol-low the curfew and maintainsocial distance. In this hour ofcrisis, it is not good to come outof house and violate the cur-few," Yediyurappa said in astatement here.

He appealed to the peopleto help the state government inpreventing the spread of thevirus.

"People of Karnataka areknown for tolerance andpatience. They are law-abidingcitizens. The lockdown is a test-ing time for them. It has cometo test the patience of our peo-ple," Yediyurappa said.

Citing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's apology forthe lockdown amid the pan-demic, the Chief Minister saideveryone should realise thepredicament of Modi who caresfor the well-being of the coun-try and its people.

"Modi's precautionarymeasures are yielding resultswhen the performance of thedeveloped countries is miser-able in handling Covid out-break," he said.

Chennai: Three production units belonging toSouthern Railways have been assigned the taskof converting one train coach as an isolationward for coronavirus patients, said an official.

According to the official, Perambur LocoWorks, Perambur Carriage Works both locat-ed here and the Golden Rock Workshop inTrichy will be converting one coach each as pro-totype for Coronavirus ward.

Further plans for converting coaches asmedical ward will be taken based on theinstructions from the Indian Railway Board, anofficial not wanting to be quoted told IANS.

According to the official, the work has begunand is expected to be completed by Thursday.

The modifications include converting the

Indian style toilets into a bathing room withhand shower, bucket, mug, soap and liquid dis-penser.

All the middle berths in the coaches and theladders to climb on to middle and upper berthswould be removed for easier movement.

The official said there will be extra bottleholder and there will be 230V sockets in eachcabin.There will be plastic curtain for each cabinas a measure of isolation.

The partition on the end side next to maindoorway will be removed on each end.

According to an official, Indian Railwayshave already coaches with fully equipped oper-ation theatre which are used to treat the injuredin train accidents. IANS

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The migrant labourersreturning to Bihar has

posed a big challenge to theState Government–to keepthem in 14-day isolation tocontain coronavirus spread.

Over 45,000 people hadreached the UP towns border-ing Bihar and more than100,000 were expected byevening, said a Bihar DisasterManagement Department offi-cial, here on Monday.

Pratyam Amrit, PrincipalSecretary of the DisasterManagement Department,said, "Six camps have been set

up along the Bihar-UP border.By Monday, we are expecting1.30 lakh people to reach theborders. We are looking toprovide them food and makearrangements for their stayduring the quarantine period."

The state government, hesaid was taking all precaution-ary measures even beforePrime Minister Narendra Modiannounced the 21-day lock-down on March 24. Afteremergence of Covid-19 cases inthe state, the government hadmade arrangements even in therural areas to provide food andshelter and screen villagers forinfection, he added.

But the influx of workersfrom Delhi has created seriousproblem the state government.Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

has expressed displeasure at themigrant workers being sentback to Bihar.

"People from other states

are being registered at the dis-aster border relief camps. Theirhealth is being checked. Afterfood and rest, they are beingprovided buses by theTransport Department in thedistrict headquarters.Arrangements have been madeto send them, " said anotherofficial.

The process could contin-ue for two-three days, headded.

Principal Secretary DeepakKumar said arrangements werebeing made to send Bihariscoming from outside to theirvillages. "All the BlockDevelopment Officers, Head of

panchayats and sarpancheshave been asked to monitor thesituation and follow quarantineand social distancing norms,"Kumar said.

Those who had returnedfrom abroad after March 10were being investigated. Thegovernment has a list of 1,790such people.

The Chief Minister afterhigh-level meetings haveordered one-month's rationfree to 1.68 crore cardholdersand payment of three months'pension to all pensioners.

A control room has alsobeen set up at Bihar Bhawan inDelhi to help people.

Lucknow: BJP legislators are now involvingthemselves in providing relief to the commonpeople during the ongoing Covid-19 crisis andthe ensuing nationwide lockdown.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath and BJP General Secretary SunilBansal have asked all party legislators and work-ers to extend all possible help to the people dur-ing the lockdown.

UP Minister Brijesh Pathak has turned hisresidential phone number into a helpline and hasasked people to contact him if they require anyhelp for food. He claims that his control roomworks round the clock for people who are inneed.

Banda BJP MLA Prakash Dwiwedi said thathe has provided food to at least 5,000 workers,labourers and homeless people.

He has also set up a control room to facil-itate relief work, which includes home deliveryof food packets.

Dwiwedi claimed in a press release that heis also providing food to monkeys.

"I have sent two quintals of gram and twoquintals of wheat to a local saint along with Rs50,000. I am doing my bit in this crisis," he said.

BJP General Secretary Bansal on Mondayasked all party workers to provide food to at leastfive to 10 families every day at the booth leveland send a report to the party headquarters.

Every party worker has also been asked tocontribute a minimum of Rs 100 each into thePM-CARES fund.

Majority of the legislators in UP havealready announced contribution form their MLAfunds for fighting the Covid-19 crisis.

However, some of them are clearly hesitantto go out among the people and supervise therelief work.

These MLAs are posting their videos on thesocial media in which they can be seen doingyoga, playing with their children, watching tele-vision and exercising within the confines of theirhomes. Naraini BJP MLA, Raj Karan Kabir, hasisolated himself in his farmhouse and hasstopped taking calls. IANS

Panaji: With Panaji reelingunder severe food and gro-ceries shortage amid the ongo-ing lockdown like other partsof Goa, former Chief Ministerlate Manohar Parrikar's sonUtpal on Monday, participat-ed in a drive to deliver essen-tial groceries to 500 people liv-ing in the late DefenceMinister's home constituency.

"Many people who liveday to day cannot afford tobuy large amounts of groceryat a time. They have to sur-vive. It is easy to say 'stay athome', but many people arefacing hunger. Ground reali-ty is it is difficult to get sup-plies. I do not know if it ishoarded by people," UtpalParrikar told IANS onMonday.

The outreach by Utpal,who is a member of the stateexecutive committee of theGoa Bharatiya Janata Party,comes at a time when theChief Minister PramodSawant-led administration isfacing accusations of ineffi-ciency vis a vis ensuring avail-ability of food supplies andbasic essentials to hundreds ofthousands of Goans across thestate who are in a state ofpanic due to grocery storesrunning out of stock. Thehome delivery system initiat-ed by the government, withthe help of volunteers frompolitical parties, has also been

accused of diverting andhoarding essential goods,releasing them only to party workers and otherfavourites.

Former Panaji MLA andBJP leader SidharthKuncalienkar has also allegeda scam in the diversion ofessential goods in the homedelivery mechanism devisedby the city corporation whichis controlled by the BJP.

Utpal Parrikar said that hehimself faced a lot of issuesrelated to sourcing of mater-ial for the outreach pro-gramme, on behalf of theMahalaxmi temple trust.Mahalaxmi is the city deity ofPanaji, a constituency repre-sented by Manohar Parrikarsince 1994.

"I am just giving it onbehalf of the Mahalaxmi trustas a social cause to a few needypeople so that they can stay athome for a few days. We aretrying to reach 500 familieswhich are in need," Utpalsaid.

"I was doing it silently forthe past two three days. I wasfacing a lot of issues gettingthe material. We will try torepeat it next week, so thatthese people can stay inside.That is the next goal," hesaid, adding that people wholive on day-to-day financesfind it difficult to buy largevolumes of groceries to lastseveral days. IANS

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Abunch of semi-literate,half-clad people from

tribal boondocks of Bengalhave displayed the kind ofgrasp of corona consciousnessthat hundreds of their well-heeled fellow citizens havefailed to exhibit. About 10migrant workers from Bhamrivillage in interior part of thetribal Purulia district havebeen living on tree tops as ameasure of isolating them-selves from the rest of the vil-lagers, sources said.

The workers had returnedfrom Chennai and unlike inmany villages were not imme-diately pushed outside by thelocals for the fear of infection.“We came straight to our vil-lage by hiring a vehicle, sawlocal medic who advisedhome quarantine. But as ourhouses are small with nochance of isolation withoutcoming in close physical con-tact of others we decided tostay on tree top,” said BijoySingh Loya.

They made their ownabode up on mango treesusing bamboo sticks to fabri-cate planks some three feet bysix feet each. “We have spreadout bed sheets and using mos-quito curtains too,” said anoth-er fellow migrant,” adding thevillagers are kind enough toprovide them with rice andvegetables. “They bring bothsteaming and puffed ricebeneath the tree and we pullthe utensils with rope. This is

the we have passed severaldays and hope the remainingone week or so will also passof by the grace of Marangburu(the tribal god)” said anotherperson adding they will onlydescend from the trees and goto their village after the doc-tor give us permission.

Cut to Kolkata: The num-ber of corona deaths increasedto two with a middle-agedwoman from Kalimpong ---who was admitted to theNorth Bengal Medical Collegein Siliguri on Sunday --- suc-cumbing to the dreaded dis-ease in the wee hours ofMonday, Health Departmentsources said. The earlier casu-alty was from Kolkata wherea 65-year-old man passedaway last week.

A third person too died atNRS Medical College hoursafter his admission withCorona-like symptoms butthe reason of his death couldnot be ascertained as reportsof his pathological sampleswere still awaited, sourcessaid. Meanwhile, the count ofcorona infection increased to22 in Bengal with three morepersons --- one fromSeoraphuli in Hooghly dis-trict, a trader from BurraBazar in Kolkata and a thirdperson from Baranagar inNorth 24 Parganaas wereadmitted to various hospitals,sources said. Even as the num-ber of Corona infection wentup Chief Minister MamataBanerjee on Monday uppedthe insurance amount for themedical and other govern-ment staff involved in fightingthe endemic to �10 lakh.

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The Coronavirus situation contin-ued to be grim in Maharashtra on

Monday, as two more died of the pan-demic and 17 more persons testedpositive for Covid-19 taking the totalnumber of infected cases in the Stateto 220.

While an 80 year-old man died ata private hospital in Mumbai, a 52-year-old man died at a private hospi-tal in Mumbai. With the latestdeaths, the total number of Covind-19 deaths in the state climbed to tenin Maharashtra.

The person with acute respirato-ry distress, who had been admitted toa private hospital on March 27, diedthe following day. “He was a knowncase of hypertension and Iscyhemicheart disease. He was tested positivefor Covid-19,” a medical bulletinreleased by the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC) said.

The total number of positivecases (220) reported by the StateHealth Department could be muchhigher as the BMC recorded as manyas 47 cases on Monday as against eight

cases that figured in the state healthdepartment's list. In effect, the totalnumber of cases in the might go upto 259 cases if the BMC's figures areincluded.

Apart from testing positive forCovid-19, the man -- who died at aPune Hospital -- was suffering fromdiabetes and high blood pressure.

With another 17 persons testingpositive for Coronavirus in variousparts of Maharashtra, the total num-ber of infected cases rose further to220. Of the fresh infected cases,Mumbai accounted for eight cases,while five positive cases were report-ed from Pune. Nagour reported twoinfected cases, while there was onecase each in Nashik and Kolhapur.

State Health Minister Rajesh Topesaid that as many as 39 persons, whohad earlier tested positive for Covid-19 but recovered later, had been dis-charged from various hospitals tillMonday.

“As many as 328 persons havenewly been admitted to various hos-pitals in the state. Since January 18,4538 people have been hospitalized invarious isolation wards across the state

owing to them developing symptomssuch as fever, cold, cough etc. Out ofthe total admissions, 3876 laborato-ry samples were negative and 220 havebeen tested positive for coronavirusuntil today,” the minister said.

“As many as 19,161 people arehome quarantined in the state, while1224 people are in institutional quar-antine centres,” the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, in a medical bulletinreleased by it, the BMC said that theprivate laboratories had diagnosed 18patients between March 24 and 28.“As these 18 cases included in today,there appears to be a rise in cases. Therise is mainly due to vigorous contacttracing by health teams and enhancedtesting in public and private labs,thereby ensuring proper preventivesteps to control the spread of the dis-ease,” the bulletin said.

“As a containment measure, areassurrounding the positive cases includ-ing one lakh houses and 3.87 lakhpeople have been surveyed. Apartfrom tracing the positive cases, theteams are also ensuring the homequarantining measures,” the medical

bulletin added. Meanwhile, Maharashtra chief

minister Uddhav Thackeray said thatthe stare government had set up 262camps for migrants across the state asCOVID-19 deaths touched 9 withanother 215 positive cases.

“In these camps, we are current-ly housing 70,399 migrant labour/thehomeless people and providing themfood,” the chief minister said.

In a related development, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) on Mondaydecided to compulsorily cremate allvictims of COVID-19 irrespective oftheir religions, to prevent risk infec-tions even after death.

In an order issued today, MumbaiCommissioner Praveen Pardeshilamented that the dead bodies of allCOVID-19 victims must be cremat-ed at the nearest crematorium irre-spective of the religion to which theybelong.

Justifying the mandatory crema-tion move, Pardeshi said that a reli-gious community leader had broughtto his notice that burial grounds forMuslim or Christians were located in

densely populated localities ofMumbai, which posed a high risk ofcontamination to their surroundingcommunity or residential areas.

Pardeshi also said that any ritu-als involving the touching of the bodywere barred and not more than fivepersons shall be permitted to attendany such funeral.

Among other things, the BMCbanned the procedure of packagingthe victim’s body in a plastic bag andburying it in a cemetery on thegrounds that it would prevent earlydecomposition and the risk of thefuture spread of the Coronaviruswould continue.

However, Pardeshi said that forthose who insisted on holding theburial practice would be allowedprovided they take the body out ofMumbai limits for the funeral rituals.

“For this, the family members ofthe deceased would have to make allarrangements including transporta-tion and follow the relevant guide-lines/precautions for the disposal ofCOVID-19 victims,” the MunicipalCommissioner said.

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There is a strange coincidence, ifnot synergy, between someTwitter handles calling for thenational Government to dealwith the Coronavirus health

crisis, even though the Union Governmentenjoys a staggering majority, and the sud-den exodus of thousands of casual labourfrom jhuggi clusters across Delhi onSaturday, March 28. This made a mockeryof the 21-day national lockdownannounced by Prime Minister NarendraModi on March 24 and potentially exposedthese fleeing families and those theywould meet at the end of their journey tothe virus, should any among them be silentcarriers of the deadly disease.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalcould have used the Disaster ManagementAct, 2005 to rein in migrants from thebeginning. The Lt Governor and collectorsof the capital’s 11 districts are also culpa-ble for not realising the developmentsbrewing under their watch and total inac-tion when exodus began from their respec-tive areas. A new Lt Governor will reviveconfidence in the city’s shaken populace.

The Prime Minister, however, tookcontrol of the situation with Sunday morn-ing’s Mann ki Baat, where he warned thatthose violating the lockdown are “playingwith their own lives” and that a completelockdown was the only solution in the glob-al pandemic. He regretted the discrimina-tion against medical personnel, who arerisking their lives to save others at this crit-ical time and applauded all those provid-ing essential services.

Simultaneously, the National ExecutiveCommittee of the Disaster ManagementAct, 2005, under Section 10(2)(1) direct-ed all State and Union TerritoryGovernments to keep migrants, who lefttheir current domiciles to return to theirhome towns, in mandatory quarantine atthe nearest shelter for 14 days as per stan-dard health protocol. It asked landlords notto press for rents for a month. It was laterthat Kejriwal appealed to all migrantlabourers to remain in their current domi-ciles and not risk catching the infection orspreading it further. He promised toensure rations and began thermal temper-ature checks at the bus stand but BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra saidthe buses must stop plying and people mustbe given rations at home.

Such mass movement of people fromall parts of the city requires meticulousplanning and execution. The Centre mustfix responsibility for the DTC ferrying peo-ple all over the city when the service isrestricted to staff of essential services atfixed hours in the morning and evening.By the time thousands of people had col-lected at the Anand Vihar bus stand, it wastoo late to send them back to their clusters.Many had already been dumped at theUttar Pradesh border, catching Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath bysurprise.

However, he had to order1,000 buses to pick up thehomeward-bound and ordereda 14-day quarantine of aboutone lakh people who hadentered the State in the lastthree days. This means somebegan coming from Thursday.

All district magistrateswere given details (names,addresses and phone numbers)of the new arrivals and 60,000panchayats were asked to shareresponsibility for the quaran-tine. Uttar Pradesh has also sentnodal officers to 12 States tohelp people from UttarPradesh, who have business oremployment there.

In Delhi, the national andinternational media had a fieldday; usual suspects interviewedpoor and hungry people walk-ing home in the absence oftransport, taking care not to askwhy they were moving aroundduring a nationwide lockdown.Al Jazeera spoke with painterRam Bhajan Nisar, who set offon foot with his wife, two chil-dren and 11 others from Delhito Gorakhpur village on theNepal border, 650 km away. Headmitted that an overnight bustook the family from the bor-der overpass area on Saturdayup to Shahjahanpur district,

Uttar Pradesh. From there,they got a ride on a tractor trol-ley, ate at a gurdwara andhoped to get Governmenttransport to reach their village.Hundreds more have beenspotted walking towardsGhaziabad and GautamBuddha Nagar, adjoining Delhi.

The Chief Ministers ofBihar and Uttar Pradesh haveexpressed anger at the DelhiGovernment for facilitatingthis huge movement of peopleacross the country in defianceof the nationwide lockdownand without any warning to therespective States. Clearly, atthis time, there is no need forcompetitive activism or politicsbut a coordination betweenStates to save lives.

The first objective wouldbe to disrupt the Bihar admin-istration with an abrupt inva-sion of thousands of families,who would immediately needfood, shelter and Coronavirusscreening, even quarantine.Lack of preparedness on thisscore would embarrass theNitish Kumar Government inan election year.

If we destroy the efficacy ofthe 21-day lockdown, thePrime Minister would have nochoice but to extend it further.Failure to resume economicactivity and get factories, shops,

offices and construction activ-ities going as soon as possiblewill give the economy a joltfrom which it would struggle torecover. It is pertinent that theCentre had announced a slewof incentives for the small andmedium manufacturing sector,just prior to the lockdown. Thissector is a large source ofemployment and needs to geton its feet fast.

Can there be any other rea-son for nudging labour fromUttar Pradesh and Bihar to quitthe capital? It is difficult to saybut some have observed that inall the turmoil, the alleged ille-gal migrants from Bangladesh— both Bangladeshis andRohingyas — stayed put. Theydid not express anxiety aboutjobs or food and shelter duringthe crisis; nor did they have anurge to go home. Some kind Samaritans were takingcare of them.

Whatever the reasons forthe reverse migration, it hasincreased the urgency for theNational Population Register(NPR) in order to track migra-tion and job opportunitiesacross the country, which isvital for future economic planning.

(The author is a seniorjournalist. Views expressed are personal.)

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Sir — The Government has madeit clear that it has no plans toextend the 21-day lockdown toslow the spread of Coronavirus.But the fact remains that in spiteof the national lockdown, thenumber of COVID-19 cases inthe country is going up on a dailybasis. The numbers may yet betiny compared with those in theUS, Italy and Spain but healthexperts have warned that India,the world’s second most populousnation, faces a tidal wave ofinfections if tough steps are nottaken. In the light of this, it isessential that the lockdown beenforced with military precisionto prevent the pandemic fromentering Stage-III.

In a bid to stop the commu-nity transmission of the virus, theGovernment has ordered thesealing of all State and districtborders in an attempt to preventthe exodus of migrant workersfrom the cities to the villages. Thisis welcome but this move shouldhave come immediately after thedeclaration of the lockdown.Now that the State Governmentshave started acting by reachingout to the workers with food, aid

and shelter, the task ahead forthem is not easy. Lakhs and lakhsof workers will have to be quar-antined. The paramilitary forcesand the Army must be deployed.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — The migration of workersfrom big cities to the villages wasunexpected. The tragic failure ofthe administration, both at the

Central and State levels, cannotbe ignored. If the relief measuresannounced now were on displayat the time of the lockdown,labourers may have stayed put.That a humanitarian crisis couldunfold isn’t a distant possibility.

Many of these labourers mayturn out to be “super spreaders”of the virus much like SouthKorea’s “Patient 31,” who unknow-ingly caused the rapid rise in cases.

There’s a possibility that theseworkers may have taken the infec-tion to rural India. Chain reactionmay trigger the spread of the virusto the community stage, whichwill be perilous for India. Toensure its prevention, the migrantsshould be thoroughly screened atthe places of arrival and put toquarantine in public hospitals attheir native place by the StateGovernments.

Umang SrivastavaAgra

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Sir — Despite the PrimeMinister’s appeal to the businesscommunity to not retrenchemployees, many labourers havebeen left in the lurch. Theirplight calls for urgent comprehen-sive action. It’s the Government’sduty to mitigate their sufferings.

Juhi SinghVia email

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If the pitiful sight of a father walking with his ten-month-old infant on his shoulders, for over 100km in this heat to reach his hometown, does not

shake us, then it raises serious doubts about human-ity and its future. If the death of a 38-year-old work-er after walking for 200 km and the predicament oftens of thousands of jobless, shelterless, hungry, thirstyand helpless migrant workers yearning to return totheir villages amid the rapidly proliferatingCoronavirus outbreak and the resultant countrywidelockdown, does not receive our empathy, thenhumanity’s opportunism is well-established.

Amid the prevailing threat of the contagion, theafflictions of the voiceless poor are being compound-ed and some are being beaten up, tortured, made todo sit-ups, locked up in overcrowded makeshift pris-ons, while others are being punished through other“innovative” ideas of violence, by those who are sup-posed to protect the people, the police.

If the authorities have become thankless to theextent that they have forgotten the contribution ofinformal workers towards the growth of the econ-omy, here are some insights: India’s labour marketis dominated by informal employment and consti-tutes 90 per cent of the total workers involved. Outof the total 47.1 crore workers in 2017-18, the num-ber of informal workers stood at 42.4 crore. They con-tributed almost 50 per cent to the national incomeas per a Confederation of Indian Industries’ report.

The rise in urbanisation is a consequence ofdemographic explosion and poverty-induced rural-urban migration. As per the estimates of theEconomic Survey, 2017, the magnitude of inter-Statemigration in India was 90 lakh annually between2011 to 2016, while total internal migration was about13.9 core. If this trend continues, the total numberof migrants would be around 21.1 crore by 2020-end.Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar are the two biggestsource States, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh,Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal andthe Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. On theother hand, the main destination States are Delhi,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradeshand Kerala.

Most workers had migrated in search of liveli-hood and were involved in low-paying informal workin urban destinations in sectors such as construc-tion, hospitality, textiles, manufacturing, trans-portation, services and domestic work. Lacking anysocial or income security, they are not only exploit-ed, ignored and disrespected by their employers butalso by the political class, as they hardly translate intovotes. With their livelihood threatened by the lock-down and future uncertainties, no wonder they areforced to tread the long road to their hometowns andvillages on foot.

At this moment of crisis, coupled with theirenforced alienation from the cities, they might noteven know if they are also Coronavirus vectors. Itcan only be hoped that amid the thousands walk-ing alone or with families, children or lining up atshelters and bus stations, with no practical scope forsocial distancing, there is no one in the crowd whois infected. If it is otherwise, India would become thenew epicentre of the outbreak in no time at all, thanksto our inept healthcare system and infrastructure.

Add to this forced exodus the fact that the DeenDayal Antyodaya Yojana-(DAY-NULM), whichcould come to the rescue of these workers, suffersfrom several inherent challenges. For instance, forthe last 18 months the Government has been mullingover the idea of outsourcing the upkeep of the liveli-hood mission to corporates and philanthropicinstitutions. This implicit failure of the Government

that led to the generation of such an ideais further amplified by hiring big privateconsultants as project monitoring units,having a “corporate-style target achieve-ment attitude.” Further, the inconsiderateapproach of the authorities during timesof economic slowdown, when the migrantworkers are the hardest hit, is evident fromthe meagre increase in the budgetary allo-cation for DAY-NULM vis-à-vis the flag-ship schemes of the Ministry of Housingand Urban Affairs (MoHUA). It was�750 crore (in 2019-20) and was raised byonly six per cent to �795 crore in 2020-21.The deep-seated contentions in DAY-NULM do not stop here. Several privateplayers and NGOs have been roped in tocarry out different implementation func-tions for which they have tendered hugesums of money. The irony is that theseagencies are bearing the brunt of corrup-tion in the bureaucratic system leading todeferred payments for months and yearseven after fulfilling their work assignmentspunctually. The complacency in theapproach of the various projects sanctionedunder DDU-NULM has remained with-out any independent third-party monitor-ing and evaluation.

Given that the Government did its bestto arrange special flights across the globeto bring back well-heeled citizens, it isunfortunate that it has turned a blind eyeto the plight of the migrant workers. Thisonly represents the deep-rooted systemiccontempt and neglect of the vulnerable andthe poor.

Though a delayed announcement,there is no denying that the nationwidelockdown is the need of the hour. However,the decision should have been accompa-nied with a well-crafted draft strategy foreach and every section of this diverse coun-try. Unfortunately, as time unfolded, therewas no such strategy. However, whileordering everyone to stay at home duringthe lockdown period, the homeless andthose who would be rendered homeless by

the shutting down of their sources ofemployment, seem to have been forgotten.

As the country is bracing for an eco-nomic bloodbath with loss of millions ofjobs and scramble for food and water forsurvival and the impending scorchingsummer, these migrant workers would bethe hardest hit once the infection starts tospread among them. The poverty and suf-fering of all those dependent upon themwill increase due to the lack of a source ofincome. Plus, home isolation will be dif-ficult to attain as large families live in small,closely-packed houses in areas of high pop-ulation density. This will add to the bur-den of the already inept public healthcaresystem and ultimately impact the privateand the public sector and hit their bottom-lines and profits.

Some of the immediate steps for con-taining the spread of Coronavirus and sav-ing the lives of informal workers are as fol-lows. The administration must work withvarious State Governments to arrange dis-trict-wise special sanitised trains andbuses to send the workers to their respec-tive homes. These means of transport mustbe equipped with non-perishable fooditems and water for the passengers.

A pre-boarding health check-up mustbe done and those showing any COVID-19 symptoms must be prohibited fromtravelling and referred to the nearestGovernment hospital.

If the transport cannot be organised,decent accommodation with food, waterand sanitation must be arranged. Thehotels, guest houses, stadiums, expo cen-tres and so on must be made available. Atpresent, nobody is using them anyways.

Devise and implement an immediatemonetary compensation plan through cashand direct incentives for the circular andseasonal migrant workers who have losttheir jobs. This must be done on an urgentbasis by at least tripling the budgetary allo-cation of DDU-NULM and immediatetransfers. Expand the DDU-NULM com-

ponent of Shelter for Urban Homeless(SUH) to meet the decent space and shel-ter requirements along with catering to theshelter needs of women, children, theelderly, persons with disabilities; commu-nity kitchens; medical help; in-kind assis-tance through public distribution systems,water and toilets. This must be developedwith service-level benchmarking standardsto combat pandemics like COVID-19. Thisis not a daunting task and only requirespassion and keenness of the authorities.

In light of the worsening situation dueto COVID-19, information and commu-nication technology (ICT) and researchand data analytics must be harnessed andmade to work in tandem with theGovernment on a war footing to ensurethat comprehensive efforts being under-taken to test, trace, treat and combat thepandemic reach all sections of society,including the vulnerable and poor migrantworkers. This approach will go a long wayin ushering in BR Ambedkar’s egalitarianethos in the country, upon which theConstitution of India rests.

To conclude, as the predictability of lifeis increasingly being compromised, the vir-tuous unity of a decisive leadership, masscooperation and mutual trust will win thefight against the Coronavirus and flattenthe curve in India. It is high time that edu-cated Indians, those at the helm of theGovernment, the private sector and civilsociety organisations show some sensitiv-ity and generosity and arrange for a safetransit and compulsory 14-day quarantineof migrant labourers in their respectiveStates. Testing times like these and thebrewing humanitarian crisis will eithersolidify the trust of the people in theGovernment or establish the narrative thatthe latter exists not for them but just to usethem.

(Simi Mehta is CEO and EditorialDirector, Balwant Mehta is Co-Founder andVisiting Senior Fellow and Arjun Kumar isDirector, IMPRI)

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The disastrous effects of human-induced climate change arenow a reality. Across the world,

there is an effort to maintain globalwarming below 2°C over the centu-ry relative to pre-industrial level. Theimpacts of climate change on waterare predicted to be many: Extendedsummer season causing less rainydays, late onset of the monsoon sea-son, intense precipitation, the recur-ring occurrence of drought andflash floods, glacier melts and heavy

snowfall during winters. Each ofthese phenomena influences thewater resources on Earth.

Glaciers form an integral part ofIndia’s water resource system. Over9,000 glaciers are the sources of majorIndian rivers like the Indus, theGanga and the Brahmaputra andthousands of their tributaries.Meltwater from glaciers sustainsriver flows during the summer andensures year-round water availabil-ity in these river basins. With increas-ing temperature, enhanced meltingof glaciers has been recorded andover the last four decades they havebeen reduced by 0.2–0.7 per centannually.

According to the IndianMeteorological Department (IMD),the normal rainfall pattern in thecountry has changed from 1951-2010. There is an increase in totalrainfall in western and eastern Indiawhile it has decreased in States incentral and northern India. Major

States showing a decrease in annualrainfall are Uttar Pradesh (UP),Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh andKarnataka, while West Bengal,Gujarat and Bihar are showing anincreasing trend in annual rainfall.UP, the most populous State ofIndia, is now receiving reduced rain-fall in all seasons while Bihar andWest Bengal, two of the mostdensely-populated States of the coun-try are receiving increased rainfall inalmost all the seasons.

Although India has 1.91km3/year of total freshwaterresources, it ranks 132 in per capitawater availability in the world. Theper capita annual availability at 1,545cubic metres is touching the water-stressed benchmark in India.

The spatial and temporal distri-bution of water resources is highlyuneven with per capita waterresource availability varying frombasin to basin. In the Brahmaputrariver basin, it is 17,000 m3, while it

is 240 m3 in the Sabarmati basin inwestern India.

The impact of climate change onIndia’s water resources presents amajor challenge for the success ofGovernment schemes like Jal JeevanMission and achievement of theUnited Nation’s (UN’s) SustainableDevelopment Goals of ensuring uni-versal access to safe drinking water.Changes in precipitation will have asignificant influence on the design ofhydrological structures, flood anddrought management and urbanplanning and development. India’sagrarian economy, which relies heav-ily on the monsoon and availablewater for production, is particular-ly vulnerable to the projected climatechanges.

For mitigating the impact of cli-mate change on water vulnerability,the storage of water in many formsis highly desirable. India’s per capi-ta water storage capacity is one of thelowest in the world. It is also not

always a sustainable option. In thatcase, enhancing the groundwaterstorage should be a viable option.

Interestingly, technologies play asignificant role in minimising watervariability to climate change impacts.The UN recognises that technologiesfor adaptation could be either in the“hard” form, involving materials orequipment, or in the “soft” form, likediverse forms of knowledge, newinsurance schemes or crop rotationpatterns.

Also, for efficient adaptation toclimate change, a combination oftechnologies is required — “tradi-tional”, like conventional methods ofwater conservation; “modern”, likedrip and sprinkler irrigation systems;as well as “high” technologies likeremote sensing and GeographicalInformation System.

The “three Rs” — reduce, reuseand recycle — concept still holdstremendous opportunities not justfor ensuring water security but also

for the adaptation to climate changeimpacts. The entire spectrum ofadaptation technologies in the watersector in India needs to focus onthese “three Rs”. To reduce thewastage of water, the efficiency ofwater usage needs to be improved —especially in the agriculture sector(water use efficiency in this sector isabout 38 per cent), which is thebiggest consumer of water. Changesin cropping patterns, crop rotation aswell as efficient drip and sprinklertechnologies, need to be adopted ona much wider scale than the present.Rather than trying to transfer waterfrom distant sources, the focusshould be to exploit local resourcesby harvesting rain or stormwater andtreat wastewater locally, using “greeninfrastructure” such as sand filtersand wetlands.

Similarly, technologies like “Airto Water”, condensing atmosphericmoisture to provide drinking quali-ty water, need to be provided the

strong impetus, which has the poten-tial to provide sustainable watersources at the local level. This tech-nology also saves groundwaterresources. Also, for the success ofprogrammes like Jal Jeevan Mission,the focus should be on conservationand utilisation of “green water”,which is the precipitation that isabsorbed by soil and plants and sub-sequently returned to the atmospherethrough plant transpiration.

For climate change adaptations,it is essential to improve innovationin providing support for new tech-nologies in the water sector, indevising new instruments forenhancing groundwater storage,financing water sector projects andensuring active participation of var-ious stakeholders including the pri-vate sector.

(Sarkar is distinguished fellow,Water Resources and Tayal is seniorfellow, Water Resources Division,TERI)

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More than 7,27,080 cases ofinfection and 35,000

deaths have been recorded in183 countries and territoriessince the coronavirus epidem-ic started in China inDecember, according to anAFP tally compiled on Mondaybased on official sources.

As bells tolled in Madrid’sdeserted central square and

flags were lowered in a day ofmourning Monday as Spainraced to build field hospitals totreat an onslaught of coron-avirus patients.

In the US , theGovernment’s top infectious-disease expert warned thatsmaller cities are about to seecases “take off ” the way theyhave in New York City.

A US Navy hospital shipwith 1,000 beds arrived in NewYork to help relieve the crisisgripping the city. The USNSComfort — also sent to NewYork City after 9/11 — will beused to treat non-coronaviruspatients while packed hospitalsdeal with those with COVID-19.

In Japan , officialsannounced a new date for the2020 Tokyo Olympics — thesummer of 2021 — as a spikein reported infections fueledsuspicions that theGovernment was understatingthe extent of the country’s out-break in recent weeks while itwas still hoping to salvage theSummer Games.

Moscow locked down its12 million people as Russiabraced for sweeping nation-wide restrictions.

And in Britain, PrinceCharles, the heir to the thronewho tested positive for thevirus, ended his period of iso-lation and is in good health, hisoffice said.

Three-quarters of a million

people around the world havebecome infected and over35,000 have died, according toa running count kept by JohnsHopkins University. The USreported over 1,40,000 infec-tions and more than 2,500deaths, with New York City theworst hot spot.

Spain overtook China inreported coronavirus infectionsas the outbreak stretched scoresof Spanish hospitals to theirbreaking point. With a popu-lation of 47 million people toChina’s 1.4 billion, Spain saw itsofficial tally of infections climbpast 85,000. It also reportedover 800 new deaths, for anoverall toll of more than 7,300.

Experts say those figures —and those in every other coun-try — are much lower than thetrue numbers, because of lim-ited testing, counting irregu-larities and mild cases thathave been missed. Many coro-navirus deaths in Spain andItaly that happen at home or atnursing homes are not evencounted.

Spain and Italy make upmore than half the world’sdeath toll from the virus thathas upended the lives of billionsand devastated worldeconomies. Their hospitalshave been buckling under theweight of caring for so manydesperately ill patients at once.

Italy has by far the mostreported deaths, at nearly

11,000. In a situation unimag-inable only a month ago, Italianofficials were cheered whenthey reported only 756 deathsin one day. The country saidthe number of deaths hasdropped about 10 per cent aday since Friday. “We are sav-ing lives by staying at home, bymaintaining social distance,by traveling less and by closingschools,” said Dr Luca Richeldi,a lung specialist.

At least six of Spain’s 17regions were at their limit ofintensive care unit beds, andthree more were close to it,authorities said. Crews of work-ers were frantically buildingmore field hospitals.

Nearly 15 per cent of allthose infected in Spain, almost13,000 people, are healthcareworkers, hurting hospitals’efforts to help the tsunami ofpeople gasping for breath.

In hard-hit Madrid, flagswere lowered to half-staff for anofficial mourning period.During a minute of silence forthe dead, Madrid’s Puerta del Solsquare was empty as bells tolled.

In the US on Sunday, asdeaths in New York state sur-passed 1,000, the majority ofthem in New York City,President Donald Trumpextended stay-at-home recom-mendations for a month in anabrupt turnaround from hisprevious stance.

The move came after Dr

Anthony Fauci, director of theNational Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases, said upto 2,00,000 Americans coulddie and millions become infect-ed if lockdowns and socialdistancing did not continue.

On Monday, Fauci said onABC’s “Good MorningAmerica” that cities like NewOrleans and Detroit are ripe forthe kind of acceleration that hasoccurred in New York City. Buthe said he is also concernedabout other, smaller cities acrossthe country that are merely

“sort of percolating” now.“What we’ve learned from

painful experience with thisoutbreak is that it goes alongalmost on a straight line, thena little acceleration, accelera-tion, then it goes way up,” hesaid, adding: “We’re going tohave all of these little mini-out-breaks throughout variouscities in our country.”

Lockeddown Moscowaccounted for more than 1,200of the country’s 1,800 or socoronavirus cases.

For most people, the coro-

navirus causes mild or moder-ate symptoms, such as feverand cough. But for others,especially older adults andpeople with existing healthproblems, the virus can causesevere symptoms like pneu-monia. More than 1,50,000people have recovered, accord-ing to Johns Hopkins.

In Italy, coronavirus patientAndrea Napoli, 33, said he did-n’t remotely expect that hewould be hospitalized, strug-gling for his life, since he wasyoung and fit. But what he sawshocked him. While he wasbeing treated in Rome, threepatients died in his ward. He sawdoctors stressed and exhaustedfrom the long hours, out ofbreath from pushing equipmentaround, dressed in protectivemasks, suits and gloves.

“What I saw was a lot, a lotof pain. It was very hard,’’ Napoli said. “I heard screams from the other rooms,constant coughing from theother rooms.’’

China on Monday reported31 new COVID-19 cases, amongthem just one domestic infection.At the peak of China’s restric-tions, some 700 million peoplewere ordered to stay home, butthose rules are being eased.

Japanese automaker Toyotahalted production at its autoplants in Europe, but all of itsfactories in China resumedwork on Monday.

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Italy is seeing a continued slowdown in the

rate of its new confirmed coro-navirus cases while registeringa record number of people cured as it enters itsthird week into a nationwidelockdown.

Another 812 people died in

the last day, bringing Italy’s tollto 11,591 and maintaining itsposition as the country with themost dead.

Overall, Italy added 4,050new infections Monday, bring-ing its official total to 101,739and keeping its place as theEuropean epicentre of the pan-demic and second only to theUS Epidemiologists say the

real number of Italy’s caseload,however, is as much as five to10 times more than the officialnumber, but that those casesaren’t being counted becauseItaly is only testing peoplewith severe symptoms.

Of those infected, 14,620have been declared cured,including a record 1,590 in thepast day.

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Japan’s Prime Minister ShinzoAbe urged the head of the

World Health Organization(WHO) to help acceleratedevelopment of medicine andvaccines for the coronavirus bypromoting information sharing and cooperationamong countries.

Abe told Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom in a phonecall that Japan is pursuing clin-ical research on flu drug

Favipiravir with several othercountries.

Japan’s Foreign Ministrysays Tedros pledged WHO’s leadership in the devel-opment of medicine, vaccinesand diagnostics.

Abe asked Tedros to makeuse of Japan’s USD 46 millioncontribution to the WHO toeffectively provide technicalassistance for health workers indeveloping countries whereCOVID-19 cases are sharply onthe rise.

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Harsh lockdowns aimed athalting the march of coro-

navirus around the worldwidened on Monday to includeMoscow’s capital as the deathtoll mounted and fears grew forthe fate of the global economy.

The planet is bracing for along battle against the diseasethat has so far killed at least35,000 people, infected morethan 700,000 and left two-fifths of the world’s populationconfined to their homes.

From field hospitals and aUS military hospital ship inNew York, to the empty streetsof European capitals and fearsof a new wave of COVID-19 inAfrica, the virus has changedthe face of the world in a fewshort weeks.

The march of the coron-avirus has also transformed thesporting and cultural calender, with the postponedTokyo 2020 Olympic Gamesannouncing that it will open onJuly 23 next year.

In Russia, PresidentVladimir Putin on Mondayurged residents of Moscow torespect the lockdown that hasseen the closure of all non-essential shops, includingrestaurants and cafes, inEurope’s largest city.

“I ask you to take theseforced but absolutely necessary

measures... Very seriously andcompletely responsibly,” Putinsaid after regional authoritiesclamped down because manyMuscovites were failing to heedwarnings to self-isolate.

Red Square in the heart ofMoscow was eerily empty,while the streets were quieteven though traffic could stillbe seen on the roads.

Coronavirus continues totighten its grip in Europe,which remains the epicentre ofthe disease with the death toll

there passing 25,000 onMonday, according to an AFPtally. Spain, which has theworld’s second biggest deathtoll from the disease after Italy,announced another 812 virusdeaths in 24 hours, although itwas the first decline since onThursday.

Spain has also joined theUnited States and Italy in sur-passing the number of cases inChina, where the disease firstemerged in December in thecity of Wuhan.

“While the isolation mea-sures have reduced the pressureon intensive care units, in thecoming weeks it will be signif-icant,” said Maria Jose Sierra ofthe Spanish health ministry’semergencies centre.

The lockdowns are causinghardship across the world, butparticularly in cities in Africaand Asia where poverty leavesmany people scrabbling to sur-vive on a day-by-day basis.

Africa’s biggest city, Lagos,was due to join the globalstay-at-home from Monday,with Nigerian PresidentMuhammadu Buhari order-ing a two-week lockdown forits 20 million people. The mea-sures, in force from 2200 GMT,also apply to the capital Abuja.

Zimbabwe on Monday alsobegan enforcing a three-weeklockdown in the impoverishedsouthern African country.

Experts in Germany,Europe’s economic power-house, said the virus wouldshrink output there this year byup to 5.4 percent.

The crisis is also testing thebalance between civil libertiesand the need for restrictions tocurb the disease.

Hungary’s parliament onMonday endorsed a contro-versial bill giving nationalistPrime Minister Viktor Orbansweeping new powers he sayshe needs to fight coronavirus.

Paris: The United Nations sci-entific agency UNESCO held avirtual meeting with scienceministers from 73 countries todiscuss international coopera-tion around COVID-19.

Open science is an issueUNESCO has been pushing formonths. The agency’s leader-ship believes the global pan-demic has highlighted the needto better share information tosave lives. UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay says“the COVID-19 pandemic has

made us aware of the impor-tance of science for bothresearch and internationalcooperation. This crisis alsoshows us the urgency of betterknowledge sharing.”

The meeting, which includ-ed representatives from theUnited States and Israel,addressed reducing the “knowl-edge deficit” between coun-tries, strengthening the linkbetween science and politicaldecisions and allowing freeaccess to scientific data. AP

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Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu and

his close advisers have beenplaced under quarantine afteran aide on Parliament affairstested positive for coronavirus,his office said on Monday.

The step was a precautionand is being taken even beforethe epidemiological investiga-tion has been concluded,according to a statement issuedby the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Even before the epidemi-ological investigation is overand to remove all doubt, thePrime Minister has decidedthat he and his close staff willremain in isolation until theepidemiological investigation iscompleted,” the statement said.

“In accordance with thefindings, the Health Ministryand the personal physician ofthe Prime Minister will set aday to end the isolation,” itadded. Earlier, his office said“the move was unnecessary” asthe Premier had not been in thesame room as the concernedadviser, Rivka Paluch, duringthe last two weeks.

“The initial assessment isthat there is no need for thePrime Minister to be in quar-antine since he was not in closecontact with the patient and didnot meet with her,” the PMOearlier said.

“Likewise, from an initialcheck, the two were not togeth-er in the same room for the past

fortnight. The epidemiologicalinvestigation is ongoing,” itstressed.

The statement had alsoemphasised that the prime min-ister and those around him havebeen strictly adhering to theHealth Ministry guidelines dur-ing the past few weeks, under thewatch of his personal physician,and that most discussionsNetanyahu holds are via video-link from his residence.

Hebrew language media,however, contradicted theseclaims, saying Netanyahu hadin fact met with Paluch, alongwith a reported confirmationfrom his office.

Paluch, Netanyahu’s advis-er on ultra-Orthodox affairs,tested positive hours after herhusband was hospitalised withCOVID-19.

She met with several law-makers on Thursday amidnegotiations with Blue andWhite leader, Benny Gantz,over the formation of a coali-tion Government, according toChannel 12.

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Shopkeepers in the city at thecentre of the virus outbreak

in China were reopeningMonday but customers werescarce after authorities liftedmore of the anti-virus controlsthat kept tens of millions ofpeople at home for twomonths.

“I’m so excited, I want tocry,” said a woman on theChuhe Hanjie pedestrian mallwho would give only theEnglish name Kat. She said shewas a teacher in the eastern cityof Nanjing visiting her familyin Wuhan when the govern-ment locked down the city inlate January to stem the spreadof the coronavirus.

Some 70 per cent to 80 percent of shops were openMonday but many imposedlimits on how many peoplecould enter. Shopkeepers set updispensers for hand sanitizerand checked customers forsigns of fever.

Wuhan’s bus and subwayservice has resumed, easingcurbs that cut most access tothe city of 11 million people onJan. 23 as China fought thecoronavirus.

The train station reopenedSaturday, bringing thousands ofpeople to what is the manu-facturing and transportationhub of central China.

Travel controls on most ofHubei province, where Wuhan is located, were liftedon March 23.

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Vietnam’s Ministry of Healthhas launched a TikTok

account in a bid to raise pub-lic awareness about preventivemeasures against the coron-avirus pandemic, it was report-ed on Monday.

The move also aims to callpeople to follow health rec-ommendations and regularlyupdate related information forTikTok users, Xinhua newsagency reported citing localmedia as saying.

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Islamabad: Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan hasordered opening of all nation-al highways to ensure smoothand adequate supply of fooditems from farms/factories tomarkets amid “panic buying”due the coronavirus pandem-ic, it was reported on Monday.

While presiding over ameeting of the ruling PakistanTehreek-i-Insaf ’s (PTI) core

committee at the Prime MinisterHouse on Sunday, Khan reiter-ated his commitment to provid-ing ration at the doorsteps of thepoor and daily wage earnersthrough a force of young volun-teers he is going to formally formon Monday, reprts Dawn news.

The meeting was informedthat the government had start-ed providing personal protec-tion equipment (PPE) to all

medical practitioners, includingdoctors and paramedical staffcurrently performing their dutyin different hospitals, and inten-sive care units (ICUs) and quar-antines had been establishedacross the country for coron-avirus patients. In case of deathof any of the medical practi-tioners during duty, he/shewould be given a ‘Shuhada’(martyr) package. IANS

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International oil prices onMonday plunged to a 17-year

low but retail petrol and dieselprices in India remained onfreeze as oil companies con-tinued to set off gains againstthe excise duty hiked by theGovernment.

Brent crude futuresdropped to around USD 23 perbarrel — the lowest sinceNovember 2002, while UScrude briefly dipped belowUSD 20 as coronavirus lock-downs dried up demand whilethe crude surplus ballooned.

Petrol and diesel prices inIndia, however, remained onfreeze for the 14th day in a row.Rates were last revised onMarch 16 and since then oilfirms continue to adjust the fallagainst the �3 per litre hike inexcise duty on two fuels doneby the Government.

In Delhi, petrol is priced at�69.59 per litre while inMumbai it comes for �75.30.Diesel is priced at �62.29 perlitre in Delhi and �65.21 inMumbai. The excise duty hike,which would give the govern-ment �39,000 crore additionalrevenue, could have led to anincrease in retail prices by �3 per litre each, but the oilcompanies did not pass on the

increase. Instead, they keptadjusting it against the fall ininternational crude prices.

Soon after the excise dutyhike, the Government tookauthorisation from Parliamentto raise excise duty on petroland diesel by �8 per litre eachin future.

After the March 14increase in taxes, the total inci-dence of excise duty on petrolhas risen to �22.98 per litre andthat on diesel to �18.83.

The tax on petrol was �9.48per litre when the ModiGovernment took office in 2014and that on diesel was �3.56 a

litre. The BJP-led Governmenthad between November 2014and January 2016 raised exciseduty on petrol and diesel onnine occasions to take awaygains arising from plummetingglobal oil prices.

In all, duty on petrol ratewas hiked by �11.77 per litre andthat on diesel by 13.47 a litre inthose 15 months that helped theGovernment’s excise mop-upmore than double to �2,42,000crore in 2016-17 from �99,000crore in 2014-15. It cut exciseduty by �2 in October 2017 andby �1.50 a year later.

But, it raised excise duty by

�2 per litre in July 2019.The Saudi-Russia oil price

war, combined with the destruc-tion of demand by the coron-avirus pandemic, has led to theslump in international rates.

Globally, 100 million bar-rels of oil is normally con-sumed daily, but forecasterspredict as much as a quarter ofthat has disappeared in just afew weeks.

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The BSE Sensex crashed over1,375 points on Monday,

pressured by heavy selling inbanking, finance and autocounters, as sentimentremained grim amid a steadyrise in coronavirus cases.

The number of Covid-19cases in India shot past the1,000-mark on Monday, withthe death toll rising to 29.

Investors dumped riskyassets after multiple ratingsagencies cut India’s growthoutlook, traders said.

After plunging over 1,500points during the day, the 30-share BSE barometer ended1,375.27 points or 4.61 per centlower at 28,440.32.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell379.15 points, or 4.38 per cent,to close at 8,281.10.

Bajaj Finance was the toplaggard in the Sensex pack,tanking nearly 12 per cent, fol-lowed by HDFC, Tata Steel,HDFC Bank, ICICI bank,Kotak Mahindra Bank andMaruti, which shed up to 10.92per cent. Only six Sensex con-stituents ended in the green, ledby Tech Mahindra (4.94 per

cent), Nestle (4.49 per cent),Axis Bank (2.50 per cent) andHUL (2.19 per cent).

“Indian markets startedthe week on a negative notetracking volatile global cues inAsian markets as coronavirus-fuelled volatility gripped glob-al equities and other financialmarkets, with oil prices seenplunging,” said NarendraSolanki, Head- Equity Research(Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

Fitch Solutions slashed itsestimate for India’s GDPgrowth in the fiscal startingApril 1 to 4.6 per cent due toweaker private consumptionand contraction in investmentamid the coronavirus outbreak,costing economies around theglobe. India Ratings andResearch too revised its FY21GDP growth forecast down to3.6 per cent from 5.5 per cent.

The International MonetaryFund (IMF) had on Friday saidthe world has entered a reces-sion as bad or worse than in

2009. “As expected, the marketshave set aside the stimulusmeasures announced by theRBI and the government, andfocused on the rising virusinfections and its impact on theIndian economy.

“With a global recessionalready declared by the IMF,the recessionary forces and thegeneral uncertainty are forcinginvestors, especially the FIIs, toredeem their investments. CPIfor Industrial workers is duetomorrow, although it is unlike-ly to have an effect in the cur-rent market scenario,” saidVinod Nair, Head of Researchat Geojit Financial Services.

BSE realty, finance, bankex,auto and telecom indices tum-bled up to 7.01 per cent, whilehealthcare and FMCG endedwith gains. Broader BSE mid-cap and smallcap indices fell upto 2.13 per cent.

Global equities notchedup losses as investors assessedthe economic damage fromthe virus pandemic.

Bourses in Shanghai, HongKong, Tokyo and Seoul endedin the red. Benchmarks inEurope were also trading on anegative note.

New Delhi: Relaxing compli-ance requirement for foreignportfolio investors (FPIs), mar-kets regulator Sebi on Mondayallowed scanned copies of doc-uments for renewing registra-tion in the wake of coronaviruspandemic.

The relaxation has beengiven till June 30, the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) said in a circular. “In

light of the recent event pur-suant to the COVID-19, a needhas been felt for temporaryrelaxations with respect tocompliance requirements forFPIs,” it added.

Accordingly, the regulatorhas decided to grant the relax-ations in a situation whereFPIs are not in a position tosend original and/ or certifieddocuments. PTI

New Delhi: With salary daydrawing near, the finance min-istry has asked public sectorbanks to ensure enough cash tomeet the heightened demandacross the country amid the 21-day lockdown triggered by thecoronavirus outbreak.

Bank branches have beenasked to remain open for facil-itating withdrawal of money tobe credited through direct ben-efit transfer to accounts offarmers, old-age person, widowand disabled under thePradhan Mantri Garib KalyanYojana. Banks are expecting ahuge number of footfalls due toexpected disbursement in Jan

Dhan accounts, women bene-ficiaries, pension accounts andPM Kisan beneficiaries, amongothers, in the days to come, saida senior bank official.

Besides, there will be heavyrush for cash withdrawal start-ing April 1 as salaries will hitbank accounts, official said,adding salary starts hittingaccount from last working day ofthe month till 10th working dayof new month. Keeping rush inmind, sources said Departmentof Financial Services, Ministry ofFinance, has instructed banks tokeep adequate cash as well asATMs functional to meetdemand of people. PTI

Bangkok: World markets started the week withfresh losses as countries reported surging num-bers of infections from the coronavirus that areforcing shutdowns of travel and business inmany regions.

Shares fell in London, Paris and Tokyo butsurged 7 per cent in Australia after the govern-ment promised more recession-fighting stimu-lus. “We want to keep the engine of our econo-my running through this crisis,” Prime MinisterScott Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Hisunprecedented $130 billion package includeswage subsidies of up to USD 1,500 per two weeksto businesses to keep workers on the job.

US futures yoyo’d throughout Asia’s day butturned lower. The future for the S&P 500 fell 0.6per cent while that for the Dow industrials lost0.8 per cent. Oil prices were lower.

Hopes that a USD 2 trillion US relief billwould ease the economic havoc brought by thepandemic did little to alleviate the gloom pre-vailing in many markets. On Monday, Germany’sDAX was flat at 9,634.00 while the CAC 40 inParis lost 1.1 per cent to 4,304.63. Britain’s FTSE100 declined 1.7 per cent to 5,415.26. PTI

Mumbai: The rupee settled70 paise lower at 75.59 (pro-visional) against the US dol-lar on Monday amid rise incoronavirus cases in thecountry and weak domesticequities. Forex traders saidheavy selling in domesticequities dragged the localunit amid mounting fears ofa coronavirus-led economicslowdown. Moreover,strengthening of theAmerican currency in theinternational market alsoweighed on the domesticcurrency.

PTI

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Saudi Arabia on Mondaysaid it will raise its oil

exports to a record 10.6 millionbarrels per day starting fromMay, escalating a price warwith Russia.

Oil prices are languishingat 17-year lows as the coron-avirus pandemic threatens aglobal recession that will senddemand plummeting.

Saudi Arabia, the world’stop oil exporter, which alreadyannounced a sharp production

increase for April, said it willadd additional supplies to theglobal market, deepening aglut. “The kingdom plans toraise its petroleum exports by600,000 bpd from May, sototal exports will increase to10.6 million bpd,” said an offi-cial at the energy ministry,cited by the state-run SPAagency.

Saudi Arabia had beenexporting around 7.0 millionbpd under an output reductionagreement among a 24-mem-ber producers’ alliance known

as OPEC+ which includedRussia.

Its Gulf neighbour UAEhas also pledged to pump atleast one million bpd morefrom next month.

Riyadh said earlier thismonth it was raising exports to10 million bpd in April after aproduction cut agreementamong top producers floppedin early March.

OPEC+ failed to reach anagreement on further produc-tion cuts to shore up saggingprices as the coronavirus hit

the global economy hard. In aneffort to grab market share,Saudi Arabia immediatelyannounced a substantialincrease in its production to12.3 million bpd and exportsto 10 million bpd at the begin-ning of April.

The energy ministry saidit will secure the increase fromtwo sources, by using naturalgas in the domestic market tofree up oil for export and alsoas domestic consumptiondrops because of the coron-avirus.

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��.�(��6�� !7�"��&�.�� ! "� �!�(��#��Washington: President Donald Trump on Monday said he willshortly be talking with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putinabout plunging oil prices and the impact on US producers.

“One of the subjects we’re going to be talking about is ener-gy,” Trump told Fox News in an interview. He said the phonecall would be “very soon.” The global market is experiencinga crude glut as a result of the ongoing price war between SaudiArabia and Russia. In the US, “people in the oil and gas busi-ness are really hurting,” Trump said. AFP�#$�#$�*�'��0*$'��$��"�

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President Donald Trumpsaid on Monday he expects

his Russian counterpartVladimir Putin to request thelifting of US sanctions duringan upcoming phone call.

“Yeah, he’ll probably ask forthat,” Trump told Fox News.Trump did not say what hisresponse would be, noting that

he had put sanctions on Russiabut adding, “They don’t likethat. Frankly we should beable to get along.” The two weredue to talk “shortly,” he said.

Last Thursday, Putin toldG20 leaders during a confer-ence call that he wanted amoratorium on sanctions as a“matter of life and death” dur-ing the global coronavirus out-break. In the comments he did

not specify which countries hewas talking about but Russia isbeing hit hard by the econom-ic fallout from coronavirusand a parallel price war withSaudi Arabia on the oil market.

Trump said he would bediscussing the collapse in oilprices, which he said is “reallyhurting” the US energy indus-try. Another point of con-tention could be Venezuela,

where Washington, supportedby dozens of other countries,has been trying unsuccessful-ly to promote the toppling ofleftist strongman NicholasMaduro. Russia is one of thefew countries propping up hisgovernment.

“We may discuss that too,”Trump said. Russian state oilcompany Rosneft said Saturdayit is pulling out of Venezuela

and argued that US sanctionson a Rosneft subsidiary —imposed as part ofWashington’s attempt to crip-ple the Maduro Government’srevenue sources — should nowbe lifted.

However, Russia remains akey partner to Caracas. Thebulk of US sanctions againstRussia were imposed overMoscow’s annexation of

Crimea in Ukraine and whatUS investigators say was a con-certed attempt to interfere inthe 2016 presidential electionwon by Trump.

Trump has resisted pun-ishing Moscow, which deniesmeddling in US politics, but hishand was forced by his ownRepublican party in Congress,which sees the Putin govern-ment as hostile.

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Riyadh: The Saudi-led militarycoalition on Monday said itcarried out multiple air strikeson Yemen’s rebel-held capitalSanaa in retaliation for missilestrikes on Riyadh.

The operation was aimedat destroying “legitimate mili-tary targets” including Huthiballistic capabilities which“threaten civilian lives”, thecoalition said in a statementreleased by the official Saudi

Press Agency. Residents inSanaa reported multiple explo-sions after the coalition’s bomb-ing campaign began.

The Huthi-run Al-Masirahtelevision reported at least 19air strikes on a number of tar-gets in Sanaa, including mili-tary bases and a military acad-emy. The operation comes afterSaudi air defences interceptedHuthi ballistic missiles overRiyadh and the border city of

Jizan late on Saturday.The attacks left two civil-

ians wounded in Riyadh, whichis under a 15-hour curfew tolimit the spread of coronavirus,according to Saudi state media.

It was the first majorassault on Saudi Arabia sincethe Huthi rebels offered lastSeptember to halt attacks onthe kingdom after devastatingtwin strikes on Saudi oil instal-lations. AFP

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North Korea said Mondaythat “reckless remarks” by

US Secretary of State MikePompeo made it clear thatWashington has no intention ofresuming nuclear talks, andwarned that it is now com-pelled to pay back “the painsthe US has imposed on ourpeople.”

After a teleconference offoreign ministers of the Groupof Seven leading industrialnations last week, Pompeo told

reporters the internationalcommunity must remain unit-ed in urging North Korea toreturn to nuclear talks and in continuing to applypressure on its nuclear and mis-sile programmes.

Pompeo’s remarks showedthe US. Has no strategy to stop“a countdown of confronta-tion,” North Korea said in astatement attributed to its new Foreign Ministrydepartment director generalin charge of negotiations withWashington.

The statement saidPompeo’s comments “serious-ly impaired the signboard ofdialogue put up by the US pres-ident as a decoy to buy timeand create the environmentfavorable for himself.”

It referred to a recent per-sonal letter that PresidentDonald Trump sent to NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un,which North Korea said wasaimed at maintaining goodrelations and offering cooper-ation in fighting the coron-avirus pandemic.

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One of the major complications in accurately detecting thenovel coronavirus is the long and uncertain period of incu-

bation which is around 14 days. This gives ample time for theinfections to spread rapidly. Widespread availability of diagnos-tic facility being the need of the hour, it is also advised to thetreating doctors and other medical assistance for protection asthey are highly vulnerable even during a potential case look up.

While certain symptoms of coronavirus are similar to thatof a common cold or viral infection, it is necessary to distinguishbetween the two. Though symptoms in most patients may varyfrom being asymptomatic to even being seriously ill and needimmediate medical attention, the usual symptoms include —fever, cough and running nose accompanied by shortness ofbreath.

People need not panic in case of any of the symptoms. Theyshould get tested for flu initially, and only in case of negativeresults, must undergo PCR throat swab culture, which is usedto diagnose n-corona virus.

While the geriatric population may have other co-morbidi-ties like asthma, wheezing or anyother respiratory ailments, dia-betes and hypertension alongwith a diminished immunity,makes them more vulnerable toinfections. But this doesn’t makethem the only victims to thevirus, but people of all age andgender are equally vulnerable.

As we age, our immunesystem also depletes graduallyand likely for this reason anyelderly catching coronavirus ismore vulnerable to sail throughthe ill-effects of the virus. Whilethe body’s fighting capacitywould have reduced by this age,in addition to the existing co-morbidities, old people are morelikely to die of corona virus

People with diabetes shouldbe extra careful about theirhealth. They should maintaingood glycaemic control (bloodsugar level which helps in reduc-ing the risk of infection and alsothe severity of complications.

In case a person withDiabetes gets Covid-19, the

advisory suggests authorities should be notified immediately.Patients who have Diabetes can have an increased risk of tak-ing more time to heal and get a secondary infection. In such acase people if people have any of the symptoms such as cough,high temperature and feeling short of breath, they need to mon-itor their blood sugar closely.

Here are a few tips how diabetics can prevent Covid-19.� Maintain good glycaemic control, which may help in reduc-ing risk of infection and severity. It may also lessen chances ofsecondary bacterial pneumonia.� Pay attention to nutrition and have adequate protein. Any defi-ciency of minerals and vitamins should be addressed immedi-ately.

If a Diabetic has Covid-19� Most can be treated at home. Water level should be maintainedalong with symptomatic treatment.� Patient with type-1 Diabetes should measure blood glucoseand urinary ketone frequently in case of fever.� Hospitalised patients with severe infection should be giveninsulin to control hyperglycaemia in them.

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� ��4 �� Red bell peppers are very high in VitaminC, with a single one providing up to 169% of the referencedaily intake. This makes it a must to add in diet in the recenttimes when one have to have a strong immunity. Othervitamins and minerals in bell peppersinclude Vitamin K1, Vitamin E,Vitamin A, folate, and potassium.They also contain antioxidants,including capsanthin,violaxanthin, lutein, quercetin,and luteolin. These plantcompounds are associated withmany health benefits.

The several antioxi-dants present in thempromote eye health andreduce the risk of ane-mia.

It also help gener-ate red blood cells,which carry oxygen tothe tissues to keep youfeeling energisedthroughout the day.

� � � � � � � � � � � � There are several mes-sages doing rounds onsocial media about how

one to prevent getting infectedwith Coronavirus. While doingyoga and meditation aregood as one can’t goout to a gym,remember theonly way tofight this virusis to ensure thatthe body ishealthy. Thereare several waysone can do so.

Drink herbaltea three-four times aday. Take 200 ml of waterand bring to a boil. Add a cou-ple of pinches of cinnamonpower, black pepper, gingerroot, four-five tulsi leaves andcrush them together in a mor-tar and pestle. Add a pinch ofturmeric. Add your favouritetea leaves and boil like youwould a regular tea. For flavour,add half a juice of lemon. This

decoction has all the goodnessof antiseptic, anti-bacterial andantiviral properties.

Sleep is just as important tokeep one’s body healthy. Given

that Indians are sleepdeprived take this time

to sleep at least sevento eight hours aday.

Now that oneis home, one canget an opportuni-ty to sit in the

sun. Vitamin Dplays a role in help-

ing our immune sys-tems produce antibod-

ies that help fight the diseases.Include red bell pepper in yourdiet. It contains twice as muchVitamin C as citrus fruits.Garlic may be pungent andleaves a bad breath but raw gar-lic contains antimicrobial andcancer-fighting agents.However, one can add this invegetables and even as a tadkain daal.

Doctors say it is important toboost one’s immunity so thatthe body has the capacity tofight COVID-19. There are

ingredients in our kitchen thatcan help ensure one is healthy,

says ROSHNI DEVI

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Many believe that most fevers cannot be dif-ferentiated clinically. However, it is not true.

Here are few tips to identify different types offevers and their causes.� Fever with cough and cold: think of flu� Fever with retroorbital eye pain: think of

dengue� Fever with joints pain which improves on

bending: think of Chikungunya� Fever with lymphocytosis: think of viral fever� Fever with lymphopenia: think of Covid 19,

acute hepatitis, HIV� Fever with jaundice: rules out viral hepati-

tis� Fever subsides capillary leakage appears in

dengue� Low grade evening rise fever: think of TB� Fever with chills and rigors: think of malar-

ia, filaria, UTI, sepsis� Fever with cough and breathlessness: think

of COVID like illness� Fever with ESR > 100: painful thyroiditis,

sepsis� Fever with SGOT > SGPT: dengue� Fever with angry looking throat with no

cough think of streptococcal sore throat� Fever with red eyes: Zika illness� Fever with eschar: scrub typhus� Fever with single chills: pneumonia� Fever with involvement of skin, joint and or

kidney rule out auto immune disease� Fever with TLC > 15000 is sepsis� Fever with positive thump sign on liver rule

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W H AT Y O U RFEVER MEANS?

The world is already in thegrip of Corona pandemic;more than 170 countries

are affected, even powerful coun-tries are witnessing tough timewith best healthcare systems asdeath toll is still at rise due toCOVID-19. Time when even ourentire country is locked down assafety measure, news reports aboutthe outbreak of Hanta virus, whichfuelled more fear among the peo-ple. Even it was on trend on socialmedia including twitter and face-book and other platforms, hashtags of Hantavirus started running,people from around the world haddifferent opinions and fears asso-ciated with this new Hanta virusterm, which only made peoplemore furious and tensed. It allstarted few days back when GlobalTimes reported about a man trav-elling in Yunnan province inChina, who died while travellingin a bus, he was found to be infect-ed from Hantavirus, and the fel-low passengers were also tested forthe same. Here before we get intodetails about this news reportand Hantavirus we all mustobserve it as our social responsi-bility to not spread panic.Considering this sensitive timeentire world facing, it is highly

required to be well informedrather than getting flown awaywith a mere news report. Keepyourselves well informed with theauthentic sources as rumours arealso rife about COVID-19. Thesudden outbreak of Hanta Virusmay have made scared people butit is not as dangerous as COVID-19 which is already world is fight-ing with.

According to CDC (Centre forDisease Control) the origin ofHanta virus is in urine and excre-

tion of rodents like rats, squirrelswhich cause Hanta virus diseasesand HPS (Hanta Virus PulmonarySyndrome). Now it may havescared the people but it's not a newvirus in the list of viruses. EvenChinese media has reported thatit is not a new virus and has beeninfecting human race already sincemany years.

There is already a historyavailable on the same as to bringthis new fear down. It goes backin the history, after Korean War

(1951-1953), In year 1978 in SouthKorean Hemerologic fever was iso-lated from small infected fieldrodent near Hantan River, and thevirus was named after Hantanriver. Later in 1981 it was termedas hantavirus.

Symptoms: First of all infect-ed mouse can cause this infectionto anybody around. A personmay start feeling ill after getting forone to five weeks around aninfected rat or any other rodent,and this chance is also rare. Initialsymptoms may include:-� Fever� Fatigue� Serious muscle ache

�� New World Hanta Virus: It isbasically found in US which caus-es Pulmonary Syndrome, it cancause severe cough and shortnessin breathing and severe pulmonaryproblems.� Old World Hanta Virus: It isfound in Asia and Europe whichcauses Haemorrhagic Fever withRenel Syndrome (HFRS), it caus-es vascular leakage, low bloodpressure and kidney failure.

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Strong immunity is necessary to fight anykind of foreign body or disease.

Coronavirus primarily affects the lungsand the respiratory system. Eating a table-spoonful of chywanprash daily enhancesthe immunity, specifically that of lungs andrespiratory system. Amalaki or amala,guduchi/glioy, neem, kutki, tulsi are someof the ayurvedic herbs that are helpful inbuilding the immunity and preventing theinfection.

In ayurveda, a good digestion orstrong digestive fire plays an important rolein fighting diseases. Eating a piece of freshginger, drinking ginger tea, mint tea, cin-namon tea and fennel tea are also good.

One can make this drink at home.Take one litre water and add to it one tea-spoonful of each — fennel, cumin, corian-der powder and fresh grated ginger. Boileverything together for a few minutes, fil-ter and fill in a thermos. Keep sipping thiswater throughout the day.

Citrus fruits like orange, grapefruit,lemon are rich source of vitamin C and aregood to consume. Add juice of half lemonto a cup of lukewarm water and drink two-three times a day. Drinking warm waterand keeping hydrated is beneficial.

In ayurveda, nasya is a therapeutictreatment for the nose, throat, sinuses and

head. Putting two-three drops of sesameoil in each nostril and sniffing it in will notonly lubricate the nasal passage and throatbut also strengthen the inner mucusmembrane to keep away foreign bodies.

Apart from this, performing agniho-

tra/yagya or burning havan samagri (amixture of herbs) keeps home and envi-ronment free from germs and help keepyou healthy.

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The sigh of relief is Hantavirusis rare and can only infect peo-

ple who have close contact withrodent’s urine, saliva or excretionwhere this virus comes from, atthe same time it rarely transmitsfrom one human being to anoth-er. Although it has caused one lifeaccording to news reports still asthe time suggests COVID-19 isthe bigger problem world is fac-ing and Hantavirus is not as dan-gerous as it is, yes precautions canbe taken, basic cleanliness and notcoming in the contact of such ratscan prevent even this risk as well.

As COVID-19 is changingpeople's lifestyle all around theworld, it can be expected that thespread of this virus will be con-trolled in the wake of COIVD-19and lessons it has taught to thehuman race. At the same time thisis not the first time world is fight-ing against virus pandemic. Blackdeath, SARS, plague are alsosome of the examples from thehistory which gave tougher timeto human time and again. Weonly need to learn, take precau-tions and not to repeat same mis-takes.

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Lopinavir-ritonavir is the drug of choiceThis combined protease inhibitor, which has

primarily been used for HIV infection, has invitro activity against the SARS-CoV andappears to have some activity against MERS-CoV in animal studies.

Although the use of this agent for treatmentof COVID-19 has been described in casereports, there was no difference in time to clin-ical improvement or mortality at 28 days in arandomised trial of 199 patients with severeCOVID-19 given lopinavir-ritonavir (400/100mg) twice daily for 14 days in addition to stan-dard care versus those who received standardof care alone.

Virus can be transmitted through breastmilk

The only report of testing found no virus inthe maternal milk of six patients. However,droplet transmission could occur through closecontact during breastfeeding. Thus, motherswith confirmed COVID-19 or symptomaticmothers with suspected COVID-19 should takeprecautions to prevent transmission to the infantduring breastfeeding (including assiduous handhygiene and use of a facemask).

Alternatively, to minimise direct contact, theinfant can be fed expressed breastmilk byanother caregiver until the mother has recov-ered, provided that the other caregiver ishealthy and follows hygiene precautions.

Women who choose not to breastfeed musttake similar precautions to prevent transmissionthrough close contact when formula is used.

Two tests are required to declare recoveryIdeally four. Factors include resolution of

clinical signs and symptoms and negativeresults of reverse-transcription polymerasechain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for severe acuterespiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on two sequential paired nasopharyn-geal and throat specimens (four specimens total,each handled separately), with each pair collect-ed 24 hours apart.

COVID-19 can’t be diagnosed withouttests

In some cases, testing for COVID-19 maynot be accessible, particularly for individuals whohave a compatible but mild illness that does notwarrant hospitalisation.

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A day ago, I read a report byLondon-based professors

Andrew Cunningham and KateJones. The report clearly depictedhow human beings have played ahuge role in landing the world in thepresent crisis, including how otherviruses could also be spread even afterthe present disaster has ended.However, besides dealing with theongoing situation, I thought it is timeto introspect and to understand howwe can plan for a healthy and happytomorrow.

The report showcased howhumans are responsible by, first,destroying the habitats of bats andother animals, as well as keepingthem in conditions of extreme stressand misery. Animals which can flyand roam free are often foundtrapped in terrible circumstances —sometimes in cages, piled one on topof another. Some animals like chick-en often spend their entire life coopedup in a crowded space and are notallowed to sleep so that they can soonbecome an appropriate size to be con-sumed by humans.

Such circumstances are terrifyingfor animals and make them extreme-ly stressed. Consequently, their resis-tance and response to diseases isgreatly impaired. This all eventuallyturns into a breeding ground forviruses, which one day jump on tohuman beings as we can see today.

This is a time when one shouldrecall how in ancient Indian philos-ophy, all the living beings of the worldhave been regarded as being deeplyunited. There is no separate compart-ment for animals or birds. They areall jeeva (living beings). The conceptcan also be understood with theexample of our own previous birthsin the form of different animals. Eventhe Buddha is seen in many avatarsin his previous births — as a buffa-lo, monkey, boar, elephant and somany other animals. We are indeedtaught to respect the dignity andemotions of all the animals andbirds around us since we were alsoone of them at some point of time.

In Mahisha Jataka, a fifth centu-

ry painting, Gautama Buddha isseen in his previous birth as a buffa-lo. The pesky monkey troubles himbut the kindly Bodhi Sattva does not

mind. In fact, one can see a smile onthe face of the Mahisha. It is such acomposite creature. The depictiondisplays the oneness of all life forms.

It is such a delightful and joyous crea-ture with the qualities of an elephant,cow, deer and even a horse.

Then comes the Stupa II, Sanchifrom 100 BCE. In today’s time, themessage from Indian art and philos-ophy about oneness of all beings isthat it is time to stop being cruel tobats, chicken and all kinds of animals,trees and eventually, nature, which weuse to fulfill our necessities.

This is one of the most difficulttimes the world is going through.However, we do have a choice bylooking at it through a differentprism. We can use it to look at our-selves, rethink our lives, take care ofall that is around us and reshape abetter future for this planet. Wewould have achieved something pos-itive and learnt a very important les-son even in the midst of such a cri-sis. We are very fortunate to have arich heritage of philosophy, which hasalways taught us universal love andthe interconnection of all creation,including us, animals, the trees andrivers and even the sun, the moonand the stars. The early Upanishads,which were penned in the eighth-ninth centuries BCE, presented amarvellous vision of the intercon-nectedness of all that is around us.

Foreign visitors to ancient Indiaconstantly wrote about vegetarianismwhich they found here. They foundit remarkable and said it was basedupon the Indian belief in ahimsa, ornon-violence to all living creatures.In any case, cruelty to animals iswholly unnecessary and the worldshould take a leaf out of theUpanishads, to shape a vision for abetter tomorrow.

(The writer is a culture historian,filmmaker and photographer.)

We breathe the same air,eat the same food andfeel the same way. You

might say we are all equal, right?Unfortunately, that’s far from thetruth. There are many communi-ties that are treated differently,unequally, and at times evenharshly. One such community isthat of transgenders, the world’sthird gender. While some progresshas been made to improve theirsocial situation, there are manyreal-world truths and stories weare unaware of. Stories of what thecommunity faces every day andrealities that many of us can’t relateto.

To increase awareness aroundthe community of transgenders,Spotify has launched a new orig-inal podcast for India that high-lights the unexplored lives of thecountry’s third gender. Eachepisode of De Taali — Life of aTransgender, hosted by Fida Khan,curated and produced by ShameerTandon, unravels and educates thelisteners about different aspects ofthe lives of transgenders throughconversations with guests fromvaried backgrounds, includingmedicine, literature, the transgen-der community, and more.

Excerpts of the interview:

�How was the podcast first con-ceptualised?

Shameer Tandon: After thesuccess of Pioneer Six Pack, amusical band, which we created acouple of years ago, we realisedthat the natural extension wouldbe to do a lot of live events acrossthe world. Then we thought thatwe should do something on main-stream media to reach out to alarger audience. We had to stayahead of the curve, so we thoughtthat a podcast would be a great

idea as it is a medium where onecan put out one’s thoughts with-out worrying about what onewants to actually say because it’smore of a conversational format.That’s how it was conceived. Thefirst season is already out with fiveepisodes. Another five are ontheir way.

�Do you think the decriminal-isation of homosexuality hasopened the doors for severalchanges to be introduced likemarriage, medical, adoption andinheritance laws for theLGBTQ+ community?

Fida Khan: Decriminalisationhappened on September 6, 2018and it is only on papers till now.Zameeni haqiqat se inka koi vaas-ta nahi hai (It has nothing to dowith the on-ground reality). Iknow this because I belong to thatcommunity. I can still recall thefight we started five years ago. Likethere are ashrams for women, oldage groups and orphans, we askedthe government for the same fortransgenders like me. They suffermore than anybody in the world.Being disowned by their ownfamilies and harsh treatment fromthe society leads to their so called‘bad’ behaviour. Lack of access tobasic rights often forces them tobeg and engage in paid sex work.It takes a lot of courage for transpeople to come to terms with whothey are.

In our country, people usual-ly mock and harass them whichmakes their life hell. It happensbecause of a deep rooted patriar-chal mindset of people. There isa stigma attached to it. All thisexplains the level of discrimina-tion prevailing in this society. Allthat they lack are some basichuman rights. They desire noth-

ing that the society can’t providethem. I feel, asking for a shelter isnot a very major thing to do. It’sbeen five years and still we havegot nothing. If decriminalisationwould have made a difference, wewould have been successful in get-ting something as basic as anashram.

�The podcast seems to talkabout various aspects of the lifeof trans people. One being thatthere are not enough opportuni-ties for them when it comes tohealthcare, education or otherskill-based tasks. Lack of accu-rate representation in Indianpop culture and stereotypicalportrayal exist even today. Whatdo you think is the way forward?

Fida: We don’t have to domuch. Gradually, the governmentis actually catering to things thatwe as a community require.However, everything exists onlyon papers and not in reality. Ibelieve that even if they startworking today on the groundlevel, everything can just be fine.The change might actually comeonly if the things on paper are alsodone in reality. Gender-sensitisa-tion should work in parallel withlegal reform. Also, people stillbelieve in stereotypes and refuseto give jobs to trans people. Awell-educated transgender Indianis as capable and deserving to takeup significant jobs as any othercisgender Indian. You have to fightfor your rights because nobodyelse is going to do it for you.

When I was hosting this pod-cast, an idea popped up in mymind. You know how a childlearns ABCD... as he grows and heremembers that until he dies... sowhy don't teach them about transpeople just like they are taught

about the other two genders?Childhood is a great time, with-out doubt to develop their valuesand habits, which can definethem for the rest of their lives. Ifproper values are taught to chil-dren, they will surely be able toapply them when they grow up.More stories surrounding trans-genders can be added in theirbooks. Won’t they learn better andkeep it in their minds forever? Wewould certainly face lesser ques-tions. It would eventually lead toa better world that would live andgrow with us, knowing that we arealso a part of humankind.

�Judicial reform is one thing butsocial realities don’t shift in aninstant. How do you think peo-ple are ready to take this changeahead?

Fida: While many peopletreat transgenders as lesser thanhumans, there are some peoplewho are brave enough to fight fortheir rights day and night. Thereare some trans people too, whohave made their way into themainstream, achieved their goalsand proved that we are as capableand deserving as any other Indian.Fighting for issues like lack of legalprotection, poverty, harassmentand stigma, anti-transgender vio-lence, identity documents (a bar-rier to healthcare for peoplebelonging to trans-community) ismy fearless grandmother, SalmaKhan. She is the first trans-woman in the three-memberpanel of Mumbai’s DistrictSuburban Legal ServicesAuthority. Ours is a backwardsociety which is devoid of its basicrights. But I am glad that peoplelike Laxmi Narayan Tripathi,Joyita Mondal, Gauri Sawant, areconstantly trying to break the

social stigma and making it big byuplifting the community.

�How do you think podcasts,films, books around such sensi-tive topic would help people tounderstand the community bet-ter?

Fida: Until and unless youknow the truth, how will you reactto it? Through this podcast, wewant to convey who transgendersactually are. There are too manymisconceptions and myths inpeople’s mind. The initiative is toshow them the right thing andremove those myths.

Recently, I was on The KapilSharma Show, its video went viralon YouTube. I saw somebody’scomment there — “Here she istalking so nicely. You should seethe way they behave on a train.”This is the exact mindset that wewant to change through the pod-cast so that people know about thechallenges we face just because wehave a different gender. We areborn the same, we feel the samepain, we are humans too!

Shameer: This podcast dealswith the details of life of transgen-der, especially in the Indian cul-tural context. We are hoping thatthere might be a paradigm shift inthe mindset of people, who willlisten to it as they will understandtheir way of life. When they getdisowned by their own families,their basic thought process says,“if my family didn’t accept me,how will the society?” In the ini-tial years, we faced a lot of diffi-culty in gaining their trust. Fidavery well pointed that — inkocheezein maangne se hi milti hai.But our idea was to give themlegitimacy through a platformfor singing, speaking and doing allof that. So it took time but now weare absolutely aligned and insync.

When anybody asks me whatwas the biggest challenge in bring-ing this piece together? It was def-initely winning their faith! Whena community has faced centuriesof oppression and suppression,then things don’t change within aclick or get better overnight. Ittakes time. We met approximate-ly 200 trans people about fiveyears ago. Out of them, we pickedup beautiful stories of six of them.

�In the time of global crisis likethis, how do you think podcastwill work the best for the audi-ence?

Shameer: When people arehomebound, they resort to digi-tal options. With the announce-ment of lockdown amid the pan-demic of Covid-19, I think it’s agreat option for people to just lis-ten to such positive stories, whichnormally they wouldn't have timefor.

�Can you share some anecdotes?Fida: I just want people to

know that we have seen and donea lot in our lives. But it never real-ly made a difference to my life. Iwant to point out to the jobs wehave and that we shouldn’t beneglected as we are transgenders.We shouldn’t be judged on thebasis of our gender but rather, onour capability.

The National Gallery of Modern Art celebrates66 years amid the COVID-19 lockdown with

a virtual tour that reflects its archives as dynam-ic and progressive. The tour has plenty to exploreand ponder over.

Director General Adwaita Gadanayak, whocompleted three years and got a three-yearextension of his tenure at the gallery, feels that itis important to have exhibitions that showcase thestrength of the gallery.

If we go by the exhibitions in these three years,these are indeed an insight into a vision that wantsto keep an eye on the past as well as bring for-ward the importance of India’s sculptural sensi-bilities.

Gadanayak, who recently designed theNational Police Memorial, has a significant placein sculptural traditions and contemporary move-ments.

“The sculptures, paintings and prints in thevisual tour showcase the hidden treasures of thecollection. It all began with the exhibition titled,Itihaas, which was NGMA’s celebration of 63 years.It’s the first exhibition that was held after I tookcharge as the DG. This creative and wonderfuljourney of representing the treasures has contin-ued with several such exhibitions. And this vir-tual tour is one such exhibition which I believe willtake this journey to greater heights. I present it asa tribute to our modern masters and firmly believethat this would generate greater interest amongpeople towards the legacy of sculptures, paintings

and prints as a creative medi-um,” says Gadanayak.

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�� The vice-president ofthe German tennis federationhas predicted that Wimbledonwill be cancelled on Wednesdayand slammed the French TennisFederation for moving theFrench Open to the autumn.

Dirk Hordorff told Frenchsports daily L’Equipe that heexpects Wimbledon, scheduledfor June 29-July 12, to bescrapped due to the coron-avirus pandemic.

“This is not a rumour, theywill announce that they arecancelling Wimbledon,” he said.

In a move that surprised thetennis world, French Open

organisers have already post-poned their tournament andmoved it to start on September20, instead of May 24.

“You could reorganiseRoland Garros for September orOctober, but not Wimbledon,the grass would be too damp,”Hordorff said.

Hordorff hit out at FFT

president Bernard Giudicelli forhis handling of the reschedulingof Roland Garros, the claycourtGrand Slam.

“What president BernardGiudicelli did is a disgrace, for ten-nis and for France,” Hordorff said.

The controversial switchleaves the French Open startinga week after the US Open finish-es, if that event retains its orig-inal slot in New York.

“The way they did it, tenniswould be dead if we all behavedlike that. I’m sure it was a polit-ical move with elections comingup (in December). He’s pan-icked.” AFP

�� 1'2�3'+45

The postponement of TokyoOlympics has come as a ray

of hope for injury-ravagedIndian gymnast DipaKarmakar, who is preparing foranother shot at qualificationafter a niggling knee problemhampered her earlier bid tomake the cut.

Karmakar, who finishedfourth at the 2016 RioOlympics, has been strugglingwith injuries ever since sheunderwent a surgery to treat anAnterior Cruciate ligament(ACL) injury in 2017. ACL isa key ligament that stabilisesthe knee joints.

Her comeback in 2018 wasshort-lived as the knee troubledher again at the ArtisticGymnastics World Cup inBaku last year. She was forcedto withdraw from the DohaWorld Cup as well and failed torecover in time for the WorldArtistic GymnasticsChampionship in October,2019.

“There were eight Worldcups but now there are onlytwo left, which were supposedto happen in March but gotpostponed to June due to coro-navirus outbreak,” Karmakarsaid. “Given the situation theyperhaps will happen next year.

So it gives me more time torecover and prepare for the twoevents,” she added.

Karmakar hoped the extratime to get back to form willcome in handy for her.

“I will give my best toreturn to form and hopefully Ican do well and qualify,” saidthe 26-year-old, the first Indianfemale gymnast to compete inthe Olympics.

Karmakar’s long-timecoach Bishweshwar Nandi alsosaid this postponement hasrenewed Karmakar’s hopes.

“She is fit now. She hascompletely recovered from theinjury but in gymnastics, youhave to slowly start the processof training and Dipa had start-ed her basic practice late lastmonth when this coronavirusoutbreak happened,” theDronacharya awardee said.

“She will be back to herbest in 3-4 months and sincethere are still two events left, wecan take another shot at theOlympics. See, in gymnastics,injuries happen a lot but I’mhopeful that she will take it asa challenge.

“She will need two Silver orone Gold and a Silver in thetwo tournaments. We will notleave any stone unturned andI hope she will be able to per-form.”

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Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema has mockedFrance striker Olivier Giroud by likening

himself to a Formula One car and Giroud ago-kart.

Benzema has not played for France since2015 and watched from afar as Giroud spear-headed the team’s World Cup triumph inRussia two years ago. With over 500 appear-ances for Real Madrid and in his 11th seasonwith the Spanish giants, no questions remainover Benzema’s playing skills.

Asked about the Chelsea forward duringa question and answer session on Instagramon Sunday night, Benzema said: “You can’tconfuse a Formula One car with a go-kart, andI’m being kind. I know I’m a Formula One car...

“It works because he’s there, that’s it. It’snot going to be spectacular. (Antoine)Griezmann and (Kylian) Mbappe get seenmore while he rolls his sleeves up and does thedirty work.

“But does everyone like his game? I don’tknow.”

During the 2016 and 2017 seasons aheadof up Russia 2018, Giroud scored 16 goals forFrance in 24 games.

He also played every match at the WorldCup and although he failed to find the targetin Russia, his team came home with the tro-phy. France coach Didier Deschamps has side-lined Benzema since a legal case in 2015.

Benzema has scored 19 goals in 32appearances for Real Madrid this season whileGiroud has largely been a back-up player forChelsea, despite a decent run of form inFebruary.

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Spin great Shane Warne onMonday picked his fierce rival

Sachin Tendulkar as the batsman tobat in any conditions and called hisformer skipper Steve Waugh a matchsaver rather than a match-winner.

One of the greatest spinners tohave played the game, Warne wasengaged in an Instagram live sessionwith his fans.

When the discussion turned tothe best batsman in his time, the 50-year-old Warne said, “If I have tochoose any batsman to bat in any

conditions, it is a real toss-upbetween Tendulkar and Lara, but Iwould just choose Tendulkar.”

“If we have to chase 400 runs onthe last day, I would definitely pickLara,” added the leg-spinner whoended his illustrious career with 708Test wickets.

“There were these two guys, thenthere was daylight and after that, therest of the batsmen came.”

Tendulkar played a world record200 Tests and amassed 15,921 runswith an average 53.78 while in 463ODIs, he tallied 18,426 runs at44.83.

While Lara played 131 Tests andscored 11,953 runs with an averageof 52.88. In 299 ODIs he accumulat-ed 10,405 runs.

When asked about his formercaptain Waugh, who is known for hissolid temperament and doggedapproach to batting, Warne said hewas someone who could bail theteam out of a precarious situation.

“Steve was more of a match saverthan a match-winner,” Warner saidabout Waugh whom he included inhis all-time Australian Test XI to beled by Allan Border.

Waugh played 168 Tests for

Australia scoring 10927 runs, includ-ing 32 centuries & 50 fifties.

About his team, Warne said: “Iam only picking players that I playedwith, that is why David Warner is notgoing to be a part of the side, he isone of the greatest Aussie openers.”

Warne’s team comprisedMatthew Hayden and Michael Slateras openers, followed by RickyPonting, Mark Waugh, Border andSteve. He chose Adam Gilchrist asthe wicketkeeper with GlennMcGrath, Jason Gillespie and BruceReid as the fast bowlers and Tim Mayas the spinner.

��( �� Liverpool shouldbe awarded the Premier Leaguetitle if the season cannot be com-pleted due to the coronaviruspandemic, says Manchester Citymidfielder Ilkay Gundogan.

Jurgen Klopp’s men were atantalising two wins away fromtheir first league crown since 1990when the season was suspendedearlier this month.

The shutdown is currentlydue to last until April 30. PremierLeague chiefs are due to meet onFriday, with no indications ofwhen football will resume.

Gundogan, whose side trailLiverpool by 25 points, toldGerman broadcaster ZDF that ifthe season could not be finished,

Klopp’s side deserved the title.“It would be OK for me,” he

said. “As a sportsman you have tobe fair.”

The 29-year-old Germaninternational, who has won thePremier League title with City forthe past two seasons, said it wasunlikely that he and his teammates

could resume training at the endof April.

“Honestly, I can’t imagine(that happening) and also, I don’tknow how realistic it is,” he said.

UEFA president AleksanderCeferin on Saturday said that the2019/20 campaign could be “lost”if it could not be restarted by the

end of June.Gundogan conceded that

Premier League chiefs were facedwith a difficult choice.

“There are different opin-ions,” he said. “For clubs who havehad a very good season, it obvious-ly wouldn’t be nice if it was can-celled now.

“On the other hand, for clubswho aren’t doing as well and aremaybe in the relegation places, anabandonment would obviouslysuit them.”

Cancellation would have aknock-on effect on the second-tierEnglish Championship, with bothLeeds United and West Bromoccupying the two automatic pro-motion places. AFP

�� 1'2�3'+45�

With her big-hitting prowess, a rar-ity in women’s cricket, 16-year-

old Shafali Verma was bound to suc-ceed at the highest level.

However, a lot of improvement isneeded for her to sustain the sensa-tional six-month run she has enjoyedsince making her India debut, feel hercoach Ashwani Kumar and formerIndia wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra, peoplewho have tracked her nascent careerclosely.

Verma was 15 when she receivedher maiden national call-up lastSeptember and thereafter, the attentionshe got as a teenage sensation wasexpected.

In her, India got a much-neededpower-hitter at the top and less thansix months later, she was in Australia,playing a pivotal role in ensuring theteam’s maiden entry into the final ofthe T20 World Cup.

“The women’s team probableshad a camp at NCA in June-July andI was part of it as the wicket-keepingand fielding coach. After seeing Shafalicomfortably bat against JhulanGoswami (senior India pacer) in thenets, I was convinced that she wouldbe playing for India soon. And that iswhat happened,” Ratra, who played sixTests and 12 ODIs said.

Besides Ratra, Verma’s stroke-play in the practice session alsoimpressed India coach W V Raman.

“Even he was of the opinion thatshe could go on to become a veryimportant player for India,” recalledRatra.

It is only fair to say that if it wasnot for Verma’s flying starts, Indiawould have struggled to reach the finalof the T20 World Cup as the big starsof the team failed to make an impres-sion. Her only failure came in the final,leaving her in tears.

The Rohtak-born, who loves toplay in the V, gained a plethora offans around the world with hersix-hitting ability in the tourna-ment, especially the one thatflies over the bowler’s head.There were also constant butpre-mature comparisonswith the legendary VirenderSehwag.

Seeing Verma take thebest of the bowlers to thecleaners in Australia washardly a surpise for hercoach Ashwani Kumar,who runs the Shri RamNarain Cricket Club inRohtak.

“When she cameto me first as a littlekid (11), I taught herthe basic stance andafter few days, shewas comfortable hit-ting the big strokes.Then she started train-

ing with the girls four years elder toher and in six months’ times, she waspractising with the U-14 boys. Shenever felt out of place,” recollectedAshwani, a former-first class cricketerfrom Haryana.

“Fast forward it to now, she trainswith the fellow academy cricketers(like Ashish Hooda) who have playedRanji Trophy,” he said.

Verma idolises the great SachinTendulkar and Ashwani feels that isone reason why she developed a pen-chant for playing with a straight bat.

Asked if he anticipated Vermabecoming a household name at sucha young age, the coach said: “I will behonest here. I did not have an ideaabout women’s cricket. I had just seenher play for Haryana and I got an ideathat she was meant for bigger things.

“Before she left for the World Cup,I was not sure how she would handlethe pressure of a big event but sheexceeded my expectations and did wellthroughout. Having said that, it is justa start for her and she knows that.”

Former India captain ShanthaRangaswamy too is mightily impressedby Verma’s showing in Australia butalso picked out the areas of improve-ment in her game, mainly her fitness.

Both Ashwani and Ratra also feelthat Verma needs to improve her agili-ty, which would make her a better run-ner between the wickets and a muchimproved fielder.

“She only got back a couple ofweeks ago and the lockdown hap-pened. When things are back to nor-mal, I would be talking to her aboutthe importance of rotating the strike

frequently and notjust hitting the bigshots. She alsoneeds to work onreducing thenumber of dotballs,” said

Ashwani.

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The coronavirus outbreak has not onlybrought the world to a standstill, it has also

created a scenario where the fate of sportingactivities in the next six months hangs in bal-ance. While the 2020 Olympic has already beenpostponed and the start of IPL-13 suspended,the 2020 Asia Cup is also likely to be given a skipthis year.

Speaking to IANS, a BCCI official said thatgauging from how things stand at present, it isalmost safe to say that this edition of the AsiaCup might not see the light of day. In fact, thetournament had greater significance this year asit would be the perfect training ground for theAsian team going into the World T20 which isstill scheduled to be played as per plan at the end

of the year in Australia.“Though it doesn’t seem right to be talking

about cricket schedules as of now, we can safe-ly assume that Asia Cup isn’t a possibility.

“The sports organisation are hit deeply andthere will be some tough measures once somesemblance of normalcy returns. There are lia-bilities and difficulties that the Board faces andit will be a new kind of a challenge to deal withthem,” the official said.

Host association Pakistan Cricket Board alsoconfirmed that there isn’t much information tobe given with regards to the status of the tour-nament which was to be played in September.

“We cannot throw light on when the nextAsian Cricket Council meeting will take placeand on decisions around the Asia Cup and itsfate,” the PCB official said.

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The Tokyo Olympics willbegin on July 23 nextyear, organisers said on

Monday, after the coronavirusforced the historic decision topostpone the Games until 2021.

The announcement comesless than a week after the organ-isers were forced to delay theGames under heavy pressurefrom athletes and sports feder-ations as the global outbreakworsened.

“The Olympics will be heldfrom July 23 to August 8, 2021.The Paralympics will be heldfrom August 24 to September 5,”Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Moritold reporters.

Only hours earlier, Mori hadsaid he expected a decisionfrom the International OlympicCommittee (IOC) during thecourse of the week.

But on Monday evening, hesaid an emergency teleconfer-ence had been held with the IOCand the date finalised.

“We agreed that the timingof the event will be in summeras originally planned, consider-ing the coronavirus... and a cer-tain amount of time needed for

preparations, selection and qual-ification of athletes,” he added.

In a statement, the IOC saidthe new dates would give healthauthorities and organisers “themaximum time to deal with theconstantly changing landscapeand the disruption caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic.”

The decision would alsocause “minimum” disruption

to the international sports cal-endar, the body said.

There was some specula-tion that Japanese organiserscould take advantage of theblank canvas to shift the Gamesto spring, avoiding the heat ofthe Tokyo summer that hadbeen their main concern beforecoronavirus struck.

Due to the heat, the

marathon has been moved toSapporo, a city some 800 kilo-metres to the north of Tokyowhere the weather is coolereven at the height of summer.

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The outbreak of the coronavirus sawthe Chennai Super Kings training

camp being called off and skipper MSDhoni returning home from Chennai. ButCSK bowling coach Lakshmipathy Balajisaid that the former India skipper lookedvery intense during his training sessionseven though he was making a return tocompetitive cricket post a sabbatical.

“Dhoni was looking good, fit. Hefocused on training just like he alwaysdoes and was as normal as he has alwaysbeen. He trained like the way he did lastyear or 2 years ago. There is nothing thatchanges when it comes to his

preparation. Hisroutine, hism i n d s e t ,everything isthe same,”Balaji told indi-atoday.in.

“Dhoni wasfocussed on gettingready for the IPL. Heis that kind of a per-son who always takesit one moment at atime.”

��(�� Former Pakistan cap-tain Wasim Akram believes itwas Shahid Afridi and notVirender Sehwag who rede-fined the concept of openingthe batting in Test cricket.

“In Test cricket, Sehwagcame later but in 1999-2000Shahid Afridi changed themindset of opening in Testcricket. Even if I was the bowler,I would know that I can get himout but also know that he canhit me for boundaries. He usedto hit lose deliveries for sixes atwill,” said Akram while chattingwith Afridi on YouTube.

Many in the cricket frater-nity, including the likes ofDavid Warner, believe that itwas Sehwag who started forbowlers having a difficulttime at start of a Test match.

Akram revealed thatAfridi, who made his debut asan opener in Test cricketagainst Australia in 1998, wasnot supposed to be a part ofthat Pakistan side which

toured India in 1999-2000where the swashbuckling all-rounder made his name as aTest batsman.

Afridi scored his maidenTest century in the first Test atChennai to help Pakistan takea 1-0 lead in the series whichvisitors went on to win 2-1.

“I called Imran Khanbefore the tour selection. I toldhim ‘skipper I want to take

Shahid Afridi on tour but a fewselectors were against it. He toldme ‘You should definitely takehim, he will win a one-two Testmatches and make him openthe batting’,” said the formerleft-arm pacer.

“I generally discussed a lotwith Imran and his sugges-tions always came in handy,”he added.

“What a knock it was onthat Chennai track. Afridiused to dance down the trackand hit (Anil) Kumble and(Suni) Joshi for sixes,” Akramsaid recalling the 141-runknock played by Afridi in theChennai Test.

Afridi, however, could notestablish himself as a regularTest player as he managed toplay just 27 Tests for Pakistanand scored just five hundreds.

Sehwag, on the otherhand, represented India in104 Test matches and scored23 centuries, including 2triple hundreds. IANS

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The 2021 world athleticschampionships in Eugene,

Oregon will be shifted to 2022to accommodate the re-arranged Tokyo Olympics,World Athletics said onMonday.

The announcement cameimmediately after Olympicsorganisers said the 2020 TokyoGames will now take place onJuly 23-August 8, 2021.

That means the world ath-letics championships that werescheduled to take place inEugene on August 6-15, 2021,can no longer be held onthose dates.

“We support the new 2021dates for the Tokyo 2020Olympic Games announcedtoday by the Japanese organ-isers and the IOC,” WorldAthletics said in a statement.

“This gives our athletesthe time they need to getback into training and compe-tition.

“Everyone needs to beflexible and compromise and

to that end we are now work-ing with the organisers of theWorld AthleticsChampionships in Oregon onnew dates in 2022 for ourWorld AthleticsChampionships.”

World Athletics said theywere also “in discussions”with the CommonwealthGames Federation, the organ-isers of the CommonwealthGames that are currentlyscheduled to be held In theEnglish city of Birmingham onJuly 27-August 7, 2022.

The athletics federationsaid it was also talking to theorganisers of the 2022European AthleticsChampionships, which aredue to take place in Munichon August 11-21.

There has been no deci-sion yet whether to postponethis year’s European champi-onships, slated for Parisbetween August 26-30.

Track and field is the tra-ditional centrepiece of theOlympic Games and theCommonwealth Games.

>=*��%D�� @�� (� Indian OlympicAssociation (IOA) onMonday asked all the nation-al sports federations to chalkout training programmes toprepare their athletes for the2021 Tokyo Games.

“All Olympic sports NSFs(National Sports Federations)are requested to please starttheir draft planning structurefor preparation for Tokyo2021 and for Paris 2024,”IOA president Narinder Batrasaid in a release.

Soon after the new dateswere announced, IOA secre-tary general Rajeev Mehtasaid, “Indian OlympicAssociation along with theNSFs welcome and supportthe new dates for the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games, whichwill be held from 23 July to 8August, 2021.” PTI

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