Coronavirus live updates: PM urges people not to rush to villages, avoid crowding trains, buses

Three more positive cases of COVID-19 surfaced in Mohali on Saturday, all either in contact with previously confirmed cases or with a travel history to the UK. All have been put under hospital quarantine and their contacts under isolation and observation, said Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan.

Illinois and New York state joined California on Friday in ordering all residents to stay in their homes unless they have vital reasons to go out, restricting the movement of more than 70 million Americans in the most sweeping measures undertaken yet in the US to contain the coronavirus. The increasingly drastic measures in the US came as gasping patients filled the wards of hospitals in Spain and Italy, and the global death toll surpassed 11,000, with the virus gaining footholds in new corners of the world. Over a quarter-million people worldwide have been infected, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University, though close to 90,000 of them have recovered.

China reported no domestically transmitted coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day even as seven more fatalities have been confirmed, taking the death toll in the country to 3255.

Sunday’s countrywide social distancing through ‘Janata curfew’ will be a blow to the transmission chain of coronavirus and check further spread in case it enters Stage 3 with community transmission, says Niti Aayog member VK Paul.

GENEVA: The head of the World Health Organization on Friday warned young people they were "not invincible" against the coronavirus pandemic, and said their self-restraint could save the lives of older people. "Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks -- or even kill you. Even if you don't get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press conference in Geneva.

The government may explore the option of deferring or advising states to defer the April 1 launch of Census 2021 and National Population Register (NPR) update — scheduled to kick off in central Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and Meghalaya on this date — in view of the situation arising out of coronavirus.

California's Yosemite National Park, one of the most visited parks in the nation, shut down to visitors on Friday because of the coronavirus crisis. "Yosemite National Park is announcing modifications to operations at the request of the local health department," park officials said in a statement. Beginning at 3:00 pm local time (2200 GMT), they said, the grounds would be "closed to all park visitors until further notice." The only people allowed access to the park, located in northern California, will be employees, the statement said.

The railways on Friday announced cancellation of 3,700 passenger and long-distance mail/express trains on Sunday to coincide with the ‘janata curfew’, in a step which triggered speculation as to whether country was being readied for a lockdown that may have to be enforced if there is a surge in the cases of coronavirus. Read more

As many as 12 Covid-19 cases, the highest in Kerala so far in a day, were reported in the state on Friday. With this, the total number of novel coronavirus cases reported in the state has gone up to 40, including the three patients discharged from hospitals earlier.

The Centre issued an advisory on Friday to all hospitals and medical education institutions — both public and private — asking them to set aside beds, prepare isolation facilities, procure sufficient numbers of ventilators, high-flow oxygen mass and mobilise additional manpower to step up combat readiness to take on Covid-19. Read more

The grim toll of coronavirus deaths in Italy, the world's worst-hit nation, surged past 4,000 on Friday as New York and other US states joined California in ordering a lockdown to try to bring the pandemic under control. While new infections were being detected around the globe, the World Health Organization said the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic began in December, offered a glimmer of "hope for the rest of the world", with no fresh cases reported.

Mexico and the US announced Friday that they would prohibit all "non-essential" travel across their shared border as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus. Both countries and Canada also agreed to immediately turn back anyone trying to cross their borders illegally, with US officials saying that the unchecked entry of people from around the world poses a potential health risk because of the rapidly spreading virus. "The actions we are taking together with our North American partners will save countless lives," President Donald Trump said in announcing the measures.