Coronavirus in India live updates: Fourth positive case of COVID-19 reported from Gurugram

Companies, private and public, must not force employees to undergo Covid-19 test unless they have symptoms of the disease, said Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar in the assembly on Wednesday. “On Tuesday evening, along with health department officials, I conducted a surprise review of the four testing centres at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. In one of the centres, I found a youth employed in an MNC tense. I asked him why he wanted to test. He said he had cough and his office wanted him to get a certificate from the testing centre showing that he was not Covid-19 positive,” said the minister.

Rumours spread faster than coronavirus on Wednesday forcing ministers, public health and civic officials to issue warnings and lodge police complaints, besides making announcements to clarify facts. An audio message circulated saying the Covid-19 outbreak was a conspiracy by the Illuminati to depopulate the country and that the health department was doing a door-to-door survey to isolate and eliminate people. Another message said government was planning to stop all public transport vehicles – trains and buses and closure of the vegetable markets in the city. None of these is true.

Agitators at the Shaheen Bagh protest site say they are following all guidelines and are taking all precautions amid the coronavirus outbreak. On Wednesday the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) sought a report from the District Magistrate of South East Delhi regarding the assembly of people at the Shaheen Bagh protest site amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

A youngster who had returned from London to Ongole of Prakasam district a few days ago tested positive for novel coronavirus on Thursday, making it the second positive case in Andhra Pradesh. The patient had been kept in the isolation ward at RIMS Hospital in Ongole Town where an expert team was taking care of his treatment.

Tamil Nadu on Wednesday reported its second positive case of Covid-19 — a youth from Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh who came to Chennai on March 12. The 20-year-old hairdresser is now in the first-floor isolation ward in tower 2 at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and his condition is stable, health minister C Vijayabaskar said.

While disruptions of castor oil shipments to China have eased, its export to Europe is now threatened with the continent in the grip of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Europe is the second largest importer of castor oil from India after China. “European buyers want castor oil dispatches to be delayed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Demand from Europe has also been affected,” said a member of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, a pan-India body of the vegetable oil industry.

Health department officials in Gujarat on Wednesday hinted that those returning from abroad can get a choice of quarantine, the AMCdesignated quarantine facilities for free, or checking into a hotel for 14 days. According to directives of the central government, all persons returning from abroad, especially those from countries with a COVID-19 outbreak and those showing symptoms such as cough/cold, fever or respiratory illness, will be quarantined. This will also apply to those older than 60 years and having other health conditions such as asthma, blood pressure or diabetes.

“So what are teachers doing in school, when there are no students? The academic year is over and reports have been given. Are we waiting to get infected?” a city based educator asked the state chief secretary on Wednesday through an email. She has further asked whether more than 60 staff gathering in a school doesn’t amount to a public gathering given the government has appealed to citizens to avoid social gatherings, and going to malls among taking other precautionary steps.

The Karnataka Auqaf Board on Wednesday said a high-level committee meeting involving religious heads, doctors and other experts decided that precautions should be taken at various masjids to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Directives include cutting duration of Friday prayers to urging people to pray from home. “Heads of masjids and imams are requested to conclude the entire Jumma congregation in 15 minutes for the next three weeks and avoid using public microphones for the Jumma Khutbah and Salah. Muslims coming for daily prayers should be instructed to perform wadhu from home and use their own prayer caps,” the board said.

Four doctors, including the director of staterun Institute of Nephro Urology (INU), are in home isolation over suspected exposure to a Covid-19 patient, a case that points to a potential lapse in taking precautions. One of the doctors works at Victoria Hospital, whose campus houses INU. On March 15, he accompanied a 20-year-old relative, who recently returned from the UK, to the coronavirus testing centre on the campus. On March 16, he held a meeting with three doctors from INU, including the institute’s director, Dr R Keshavamurthy. Later that day, test reports revealed that the 20-year-old relative, a woman, had coronavirus.

With three more Covid-19 cases coming to light on Wednesday taking the total in the state to 14, Karnataka has decided to extend the lockdown till March 31. The lockdown — first announced on March 13 — means blanket ban on large gatherings, closure of educational institutions, summer camps, swimming pools, theatres, multiplexes, malls and sporting events will continue till the month end. Additional measures are a ban on visitors to Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha, and clampdown on village fairs with more than 100 attendees.

As many as 11 states and Union territories, from Ladakh to Tamil Nadu, reported fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the count in the country to 171. This is the highest number of states reporting new cases — and the highest count of 27 — in a single day. The health ministry has reported 151 cases. In what is a worrying sign, the new cases were spread across a large geographical area — eight in Telangana, four in Maharashtra, three each in Rajasthan and Karnataka, two each in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Haryana, Ladakh, Chandigarh, J&K and Tamil Nadu.

Inmates of Central Jail here are manufacturing face masks to cater for its high demand in the market in the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic. The face-masks manufactured in Jail will be supplied to the market in bulk. Speaking to ANI, Jail Superintendent, Gopal Tamrakar said that they have received bulk orders for the face masks and are catering to it.

The number of commuters on suburban trains of the Western Railway (WR) reduced by over 8 lakh on Tuesday, the day Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray appealed to people to avoid non-essential travel in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the state. According to WR, on Tuesday 32.60 lakh passengers travelled on their suburban trains as against 40.75 lakh on Monday (down 8.15 lakhs).

As the total number of coronavirus cases in India went up to 171 and Maharashtra, with four more patients testing positive on Wednesday, continued to lead the list at 45 (by a wide margin), the Mumbai civic body (BMC) prepared to welcome around 26,000 Indians expected to land in the city between Thursday and March 31 from Covid-19-hit Gulf nations such as the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. BMC’s estimate of 26,000 comes from arrivals at the city’s airport and information about travellers obtained from the Centre; 23 flights come to Mumbai from these countries every day. According to the Centre’s guidelines, all arrivals from the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman are to be mandatorily quarantined for 14 days starting March 18. Since 15 people from Maharashtra who earlier arrived from Dubai (UAE) have tested positive, the BMC has converted one of its new training centres for its engineers in Powai into a quarantine facility, apart from the isolation facility at SevenHills hospital in Marol.

Following the closure of certain prominent temples across the country, Andhra Pradesh state endowments department which has been reviewing the measures taken by various temple trust boards across the state in tackling and preventing the outbreak of Covid-19, has suspended all arjitha sevas for devotees at the Srikalahasti temple in Chittoor district till March 31.

Delhi zoo will remain shut till March 31, following which a review will be conducted by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and the Union environment ministry, an official said. The capital joins Maharashtra, Bihar, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand in shutting down the zoological parks to prevent further transmission of the novel coronavirus.