National News

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told chief ministers to focus on COVID-19 containment measures – testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine – with a common goal of ensuring minimum loss of life, and pitched for a joint strategy for a “staggered” exit from the ongoing lockdown. As the country witnessed a spike in coronavirus infections and deaths in …

New Delhi: With 235 more people being confirmed positive for the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,069 and the death toll to 53 in the country on Thursday, the Union health ministry said. The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country is 1,860, while 155 people were either cured or discharged …

Mumbai: The Centre has allowed Maharashtra to conduct rapid, mass-scale COVID-19 testing by using blood samples to expedite the detection of coronavirus cases, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Thursday. The state government will use blood samples instead of swabs in rapid tests through which it can be ascertained “in five minutes” whether the person has developed anti-bodies for the …

New Delhi: The health of Ganga river  has seen significant improvement since enforcement of the nationwide lockdown that has led to reduction in dumping of industrial waste into it, experts have said. India has been placed under a three-week lockdown since March 24 with its 1.3 billion people instructed to stay home in view of the coronavirus outbreak, which has …

Kolkata: Amid chant of ‘Jai Sri Ram’, thousands of devotees assembled in temples in various parts of West Bengal on the occasion of Ram Navami on Thursday, giving a thumbs-down to social distancing norms prescribed by the government during the ongoing nationwide lockdown period. Long queues of devotees were seen outside temples across the state, while the annual Ram Navami …

Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday accepted Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s suggestion that religious leaders should be asked to refrain from holding large gatherings. Thackeray made the suggestion during a video conference with Modi, the Chief Minister’s Office said. Modi held a video conference with all chief ministers in the morning to discuss ways to check the spread …

New Delhi: The exodus of migrant workers, lack of public awareness, hospital preparedness and infrastructure are some of the serious gaps identified by IAS officers working across the country in a survey conducted by the Centre to combat COVID-19. The COVID-19 national preparedness survey 2020 was conducted in 410 districts of the country from March 25-30 to attain a bird’s …

PTI New Delhi In a sweeping nationwide hunt, authorities across states have identified more than 6,000 people who attended the Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat congregation, the biggest COVID-19 hotspot in India, as more than 375 fresh cases of infection emerged on Wednesday to take the tally to close to 1,900 with at least 55 deaths. More than 5,000 of those identified …

PTI Bengaluru Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday announced he has donated his annual salary of Rs 24.10 lakh to the ‘Chief Minister’s Relief Fund COVID-19.’ He appealed to Ministers, legislators, Members of Parliament, officials and citizens to also do their bit and contribute in whatever capacity possible to help the state in fighting the coronavirus outbreak. “It …

PTI Shimla For Kashmiri labourers who work as porters here and call a local mosque home, social distancing is a near impossibility. “At least 300 Kashmiri labourers are staying at the masjid. It is not possible for us to maintain the required distance due to lack of space,” Bilal, who is one of them, told PTI. The labourers have been …