INDIA'S COVID-19 TESTING RATIO NOT LOW, SAY ICMR

The ICMR Thursday said the government was carrying out 24 tests for one

positive case even as the coronavirus cases in India passed the 13,000 mark,

including over 400 deaths and 0ver 1700 recoveries. "Japan tested 11.7

people per one positive; for Italy the number is 6.7, in US its 5.3; UK its

3.4. Here we do 24 tests for one positive. Can't say we are testing less,"

ICMR's Dr R R Gangakhedar said.

The ICMR also said rapid testing kits would not be used for diagnosis but

for surveillance, especially in hotspots. In its daily briefing, the Health

Ministry said over 10,500 isolation beds had been made available by the

Railways and 325 districts in the country had no cases of the novel

coronavirus. The government has identified 170 districts across the country

as COVID-19 'hotspots' or 'red zones', and another 207 districts as

'potential hotspots'.

In his daily coronavirus briefing, Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health

Ministry said the fatality rate was much lower than the recovery rate in

India and claimed there was no evidence on the effect of summer on the

spread of the novel coronavirus.

"Our case fatality rate is 3.3% and percentage of people recovered is 12.02

per cent. Mahe, Patna, Nadia, Pratapgarh, Porbandar, South Goa, Pauri

Gadwal, Pilibhit, Rajauri, Vilaspur Durg, Rajnandgaon are districts that

have completed 28 days without reporting a single case," Lav Aggarwal said.

On developing antibodies to fight SARS-CoV2, the ICMR official said: "Not

all antibodies are such that they can fight the same infection for life;

that's the case with chicken pox antibody; difficult to say whether presence

of antibody against SARS-CoV2 gives immunity for life."

LOCKDOWN NO SOLUTION TO COVID, AGGRESSIVE TESTING MAIN WEAPON: RAHUL GANDHI

Describing the ongoing lockdown as a "pause button", Congress leader Rahul

Gandhi Thursday said it will not defeat the coronavirus, and the government

must ramp up testing and use it as a "strategic weapon" to identify and

isolate hotspots while strategically re-opening "key areas". He urged the

government not to fall into a "victory declaration" mindset, saying any such

premature announcement could be fatal.

Calling for a united fight against the pandemic, Gandhi told reporters via

video-conference that his remarks should be taken in the spirit of

constructive support and advice, and not criticism. "We are in a very

serious situation. I think all political parties have to work together and

the people of India have to work together, if we want to solve this problem

and defeat this virus."

He said he still disagrees with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on many issues

but this is not the time to "fight" or indulge in "tu tu mein mein".

While urging the government to be "much more liberal with the amount of

money" being given to the people, Gandhi cautioned the government against

using up all its resources now. "Do not use all your ammunition right now.

Because if we use all our ammunition right now and we end up two-three

months from now with a serious financial blowback. we have a real serious

problem. So, it has to be a thought through strategic way of doing it," he

said.

Maintaining that the country has adequate foodgrain stock, he asked the

government to distribute it among the poor and even those without ration

cards. "Create a food safety net for them. transfer money to the bank

accounts of 20 per cent poorest of the poor. create a financial safety net

for them. There would be unemployment. come out with a package to protect

the MSME sector," he said.

On the issue of stranded migrants in various states, Gandhi said the

"government must act quickly, else there will be social unrest soon".

STIMULUS 2.0 READY AS PM MODI, FM SITHARAMAN HOLD MEETING

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and

senior policymakers in the Prime Minister's Office and finance ministry met

on Thursday to finalise a second stimulus package for those worst affected

by the Covid-19-related nationwide lockdown.

The upcoming package could be roughly similar in size to the Rs 1.7-trillion

package, announced by Sitharaman in late March. That package was around 0.8

per cent of GDP, much smaller than that of most other G20 nations.

The United States' stimulus package was pegged at 11 per cent of GDP,

Australia's at 9.7 per cent, and Brazil's at 3.5 per cent, according to data

portal Statista.

Industry bodies like Assocham and the Federation of Indian Chambers of

Commerce and Industry have been asking for big-bang packages, ranging from

Rs 9 trillion to Rs 23 trillion.

Senior government officials are saying the Centre has decided to have

smaller, targeted announcements rather than one big package.

COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)

(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data from

worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

Total Cases 13,430 (+1,060) / 21,82,197 (+98,893)

Total Deaths 448 (+26) / 1,45,521 (+10,905)

Total Recovered 1,768 (+260) / 5,47,295 (+36,954)

Active Cases 11,214(+774) / 14,89,381 (+51,034)

Serious / Critical Cases (Not Available) / 56,588 (+5,446)

Top 6 impacted nations so far: (Country / Total No of cases / Deaths)

USA 6,77,570 / 34,617

Spain 1,84,948 / 19,315

Italy 1,68,941 / 22,170

France 1,65,027 / 17,920

Germany 1,37,698 / 4,052

UK 1,03,093 / 13,729

Top 15 impacted Indian States so far: (Total No. of Confirmed case / No. Of

Deaths)

Maharashtra 3,202 / 194

Delhi 1,640 / 38

Tamil Nadu 1,267 / 15

Madhya Pradesh 1,164 / 55

Rajasthan 1,131 / 11

Gujarat 929 / 36

Uttar Pradesh 805 / 13

Telangana 700 / 18

Andhra Pradesh 534 / 14

Kerala 394 / 2

Karnataka 315 / 13

Jammu and Kashmir 314 / 4

West Bengal 231 / 10

Haryana 215 / 3

Punjab 197 / 14

Bihar 183 / 1

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

CORONAVIRUS: TRUMP UNVEILS PLAN TO REOPEN STATES IN PHASES

President Donald Trump gave governors a road map on Thursday for recovering

from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out a phased

approach to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and

are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases.

"You're going to call your own shots," Mr. Trump told the governors,

according to an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press. "We're

going to be standing alongside of you."

The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low

transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit

locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer

process than Mr. Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning

that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the

end of the year to prevent a new outbreak.

Places with declining infections and strong testing would begin a

three-phased gradual reopening of businesses and schools - each phase

lasting at least 14 days - to ensure that infections don't accelerate again.

COVID-19: UK OUTLINES 5-POINT TEST TO EASE LOCKDOWN

Moving to the target of testing 1 lakh people per day by the end of April,

the Boris Johnson government has outlined five points on which it needs to

be satisfied before considering any relaxation in the lockdown that was

extended on Thursday by at least three more weeks.

At the daily briefing in Downing Street, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said

that the government will need to be satisfied on five specific points

before it considers reviewing the current restrictions.

"First, we must protect the National Health Service's ability to cope. We

must be confident that we are able to provide sufficient critical care and

specialist treatment right across the UK. Second, we need to see a sustained

and consistent fall in the daily death rates from coronavirus so we are

confident that we have moved beyond the peak".

"Third, we need to have reliable data showing that the rate of infection is

decreasing to manageable levels across the board. Fourth, we need to be

confident that the range of operational challenges, including testing

capacity and PPE, are in hand, with supply able to meet future demand".

"Fifth, and this is really crucial, we need to be confident that any

adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of

infections that overwhelm the NHS. The worst thing we could do now is ease

up too soon and allow a second peak of the virus to hit the NHS and hit the

British people".

Raab also said that Britain and its allies will ask tough questions of China

over the coronavirus outbreak. "We can't have business as usual after this

crisis. We'll have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how

it couldn't have been stopped earlier," he said.

BRAZIL'S PRESIDENT BOLSONARO FIRES HEALTH MINISTER AFTER CORONAVIRUS DISPUTE

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro fired his health minister Luiz Henrique

Mandetta on Thursday after a series of disagreements over government efforts

to contain the new coronavirus.

Mandetta, a doctor, garnered popular support for his pandemic response that

included promotion of broad isolation measures enacted by State governors.

Bolsonaro and Mandetta have clashed for weeks over the need for widespread

social isolation in the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus

pandemic. Bolsonaro argued the measures are unnecessary and economically

harmful, insisting the outbreak is being blown out of proportion. He has

downplayed the threat of the coronavirus as a "little flu," arguing that

Brazil's economy must continue to run normally and defending the use of

unproven drugs like hydroxychloroquine.

THE REST

========

KERALA INSTITUTE DEVELOPS LOW-COST COVID-19 TEST KIT THAT CAN GIVE RESULTS

IN 2 HOURS

In a significant development for COVID-19 diagnosis and testing in India, a

reputed medical institute in Kerala has been successful in developing a

low-cost diagnostic testing kit that can give results of the viral infection

in two hours.

A release from the Union Ministry of Science and Technology said Thursday

that a team of clinicians and scientists at the Sree Chitra Tirunal

Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) in

Thiruvananthapuram has been able to come up with a test kit which is deemed

highly specific for SARS-CoV-2 N-gene and can detect two regions of the

gene, which will ensure that the test does not fail even if one region of

the viral gene undergoes mutation during its current spread.

The test detects the N gene of SARS-COV2 using reverse transcriptase

loop-mediated amplification of viral nucleic acid (RT-LAMP). Tests approved

by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at the NiV, Alappuzha have

shown 100% accuracy and match with test results conducted using RT-PCR.

In recent weeks, companies including MyLabs in Pune have received approval

from the ICMR to manufacture indigenous RT-PCR test kits that can give

results in 2.5 hours. But, the one developed by Sri Chitra Tirunal institute

can give faster results as well as allow confirmation in a single test

without the need for a screening test.

The process from taking samples to getting results will take less than two

hours and the detection time is just 10 minutes. As many as 30 samples can

be tested in a single batch using a single machine, allowing for more

samples to be tested per day.

While current PCR tests allowed at private labs costs Rs 4500, the cost

incurred for testing using the kit developed by SCTIMST will be less than Rs

1000. According to the release, the testing facility can be set up in

laboratories of district hospitals.

INDIA'S TOP INFECTIOUS DISEASE KILLED OVER 4,40,000 PEOPLE IN 2018

There has never been a pandemic that has brought the world to a standstill

like the novel coronavirus has over the past few months. But the fact

remains that across the world, there are numerous other diseases that

threaten lives at a much larger scale. India, where so far Covid-19 has

claimed over 400 lives, is no exception.

To put the figures of coronavirus in perspective, tuberculosis alone kills

an average of 4 lakh Indians annually, and the daily average of over 1,200

is way beyond the COVID-19 fatalities in the country.

COVID-19 infections at present have a mortality rate of 3.3 per cent, far

lower than the average 20.23 per cent rate of tuberculosis.

Similarly, the far more common and recurrent H1N1 seasonal flu kills more

than a thousand people on average in the country. This too has a greater

mortality rate at 4.25 per cent. Much like the COVID-19 pandemic, the

symptoms of H1N1 include fever, sore throat, runny nose, and cough. In 2019,

the number of cases doubled to 28,798 as compared to a year ago while the

fatalities stood at 1,218.

According to the WHO, there have been three to five million cases of severe

illness due to influenza, and about 290,000 to 650,000 respiratory deaths.

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is estimated to be around 54.5

million in the country and on an average kills 4,000 people daily, according

to Global Burden of Disease data.

While India continues to report lakhs of malaria and dengue cases each year,

they have resulted in 1,055 and 1,094 deaths respectively over five years to

2019.

AES and Japanese encephalitis too have a high mortality rate of 9.07 per

cent, triple of the coronavirus rate, if cases are considered from 2015 to

2019. In 2019, 16,758 cases were reported, including 963 deaths.

ED BOOKS TABLIGHI JAMAAT FOR MONEY LAUNDERING

The Enforcement Directorate has registered a case of money laundering

against Tablighi Jamaat, in the dock for holding a religious congregation in

Delhi in March, which led to a spread in coronavirus infections.

The agency has taken cognisance of multiple FIRs registered by Delhi police

against the Jamaat and its members. "The Delhi police has invoked sections

such as 304 (culpable homicide) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC

against the outfit and its members. These fall under the schedule of PMLA.

We will now investigate their finances, source of funds and their assets.

Depending upon the outcome of the probe, their properties will be attached,

" a senior ED official said.

Following raids at the Jamaat Markaz at Nizamuddin last month, where it was

found that over 2,000 Tablighi foreigners had come to India on tourist visas

and over 800 had fanned out across the country engaging in religious

activities, the Ministry of Home Affairs had blacklisted over 1,700 overseas

members of the outfit for visa condition violations.

The Delhi police Crime Branch has already registered cases against the

Jamaat and its leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi. Sections related to culpable

homicide have recently been added.

DEFYING LOCKDOWN, THOUSANDS PARTICIPATE IN SIDDALINGESHWARA FAIR

Thousands of people came out to participate in a religious procession in

Karnataka's Kalaburagi district and openly defied the nationwide lockdown.

These people were participating in the Siddalingeshwara fair.

Videos from the fair show thousands of people pulling a chariot as part of

the festivities with complete disregard for social distancing norms. The

participants were seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder as they pulled the

towering chariot with hundreds looking on.

The fair was organised in Chittapur taluk of Kalaburagi district. The

district police have registered a case in the matter.

REFUND TICKETS BOOKED DURING LOCKDOWN FOR TRAVEL TILL MAY 3: GOVT

A day after senior officials of Civil Aviation Ministry held an online

meeting with top airline executives, the government announced a set of

advisories for airlines to refund domestic and international tickets booked

for the flights suspended due to lockdown. However, as per the advisories,

airlines will be bound to provide full refunds only to those passengers who

have booked during the first lockdown period - March 25 to April 14 - for

travel between March 25 to May 3.

"Grievances were received from air travellers regarding refund for flights

cancelled because of the nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19. Advisories

have been issued regarding refund for both domestic & international tickets

booked for the flights suspended due to lockdown," Minister of State for

Civil Aviation (Independent Charge) Hardeep Puri said in a tweet.

AUTO FIRMS SAY WON'T MAKE CARS TILL THERE IS CLARITY ON RETAIL SALES

Indian carmakers, including Hyundai Motors India, Renault, Mahindra &

Mahindra, have decided or are likely to extend suspension of production in

their factories till May 3.

Others like Maruti Suzuki, the Volkswagen group, Tata Motors, and Kia Motors

are undecided and will take a decision in a few days.

The move comes despite the Union government coming out with fresh guidelines

allowing staggered production at factories, albeit with stiff riders.

Hyundai said the suspension will have a "cascading impact on new projects

and shut down plans" as there was no clarity on "when retail sales would

begin and how customers would respond".

ZOOM MEETING APP IS 'NOT SAFE' TO USE: GOVT

Nearly 13 days after the US FBI flagged the privacy issues over a video

meeting, the government on Thursday issued an advisory saying the Zoom

meeting app is "not a safe" platform for video conference and issued a set

of guidelines for the safety of private users, who "still would like to use

it".

In the advisory issued by the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the

Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), asked the private users to secure

privacy before using ZOOM Meeting Platform.

In the advisory, it is also said that the platform is "not for use by

government officers/officials for official purposes".

The broad objective of this advisory is to prevent any unauthorized entry

into a Zoom Conference Room and prevent the unauthorized participant to

carry out malicious attacks on the terminals of other users in the

conference, it added.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Our zeal works wonders when it seconds our propensity to hatred, cruelty,

ambition, avarice, detraction, rebellion. - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

OFF TRACK

Resolving to surprise her husband, an executive's wife stopped by his

office. When she opened the door, she found him with his secretary sitting

in his lap.

Without batting an eyelid, the husband dictated, "...and in conclusion,

gentlemen, budget cuts or no budget cuts, I cannot continue to operate this

office with just one chair."