Author: Our Correspondent
Seven more Tableeghi Jamaat members have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Pakistan’s Punjab province, the worst-hit in the country, it was reported. Of the seven cases, six were reported in Sahiwal and one in Pakpattan, Dawn news reported on Wednesday. Two weeks ago, 198 Tableeghi Jamaat workers were quarantined in Pakpattan and their test reports were received on Monday. Of the 198, one member tested positive for the virus, Pakpattan Deputy Commissioner Ahmed Kamal Maan said, while other activists have been sent to Peshawar. He said still 97 preachers were quarantined in mosques as their reports were pending.…
A 19-year old pizza delivery boy has tested positive for coronavirus in Delhi following which District Magistrate South has asked residents of around 72 houses nearby to stay in quarantine. Twenty more delivery boys who came in contact with the teen have been quarantined at a facility in Chhattarpur. While the employee does not have a travel history, reports suggest that he could contracted the infection either while delivering food to an infected family or at the hospital that he visited days before testing positive. Following this, the nearby residents from Hauz Khas and Malviya Nagar areas have been told to quarantine themselves,…
After an eighty-year old man living in Delhi’s upscale Defence Colony succumbed to coronavirus on Wednesday, there are apprehensions that the deceased may have contracted the virus from a Tablighi Jamaat connection. The deceased was admitted to Delhi’s Max Hospital where he was battling for his life. But his relatives didn’t expect things to turn this rough, in their worst dreams, ever. The senior citizen tested positive with the deadly virus after he came in contact with the security guard of the bungalow, who despite looking healthy was actually infected by the virus after attending the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation…
Centre has listed 170 hotspot districts which includes all six metros and most large cities. The list marked 123 districts as “large outbreaks” — which includes all nine districts of national capital Delhi. Mumbai, Kolkata, 9 districts of Bengaluru Urban, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Agra were among the areas marked hotspots also on the list. A “hotspot (red zone) classification” would be districts or cities contributing to more than 80 per cent of the cases in the country or the state. Places that show a high rate of infection — doubling rate less than 4 days – will also be…
A special meeting of the Commission was held on April, 15, 2020 to review the situation arising out of the Corona Virus pandemic. In view of the prevailing lockdown restrictions, including social distancing norms, it was decided that dates for all interviews, Examinations and Recruitment Boards, where candidates and advisers are required to travel from all parts of the country, will be reviewed from time to time. A decision on fresh dates for the remaining Civil Services-2019 Personality Tests will be taken after May, 3, 2020, following the second phase of the lockdown. Dates for the Civil Services-2020 (Prelim), Engineering…
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) today announced that it expects monsoon rainfall to be normal this year. “Southwest monsoon seasonal (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal (96-104%),” the IMD said in its first stage Long Range Forecast (LRF) for monsoons. Addressing a press conference through video link, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr. M. Rajeevan released the IMD’s Long Range Forecast for the 2020 Southwest Monsoon Season Rainfall. Director General of IMD, Dr. M. Mohapatra was also present. The IMD also issued the ‘New Normal Dates of Onset/Progress and Withdrawal…
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan will join artistes from around the world for a virtual event to support healthcare workers who are battling it out against the coronavirus pandemic. The actor took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce his participation in the One World: Together At Home’, a virtual concert organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and international advocacy organisation Global Citizen. Curated by pop star Lady Gaga, the concert will stream on April 18 on multiple global platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Alibaba, Amazon Prime Video, Apple. “Health care workers on the frontlines of the #COVID19 crisis need…
It will be difficult to hold the Cannes film festival in its original form in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, organisers said Tuesday, adding they were looking at new ways of hosting the world’s biggest annual celebration of cinema. The festival had already been postponed from its original mid-May dates to late June and early July. But organisers said this is “no longer an option” after President Emmanuel Macron said cultural festivals could not resume until mid-July at the earliest. “It is clearly difficult to assume that the Festival de Cannes could be held this year in its original…
The Union health ministry said that all districts across the country will be classified into three categories based on the occurrence of novel coronavirus cases in each of them. Health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal, during the daily media briefing on coronavirus, said that 1,076 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country’s tally to 11,439 cases so far. While 377 deaths have been reported in total, 270 people have recovered from the infection, he added. “The percentage of patients who are recovering is 11.41 percent. This rate has been increasing in the past…