Coronavirus in India Lockdown 2021 Highlights: 30,535 new COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, 3775 in Mumbai

There was no let-up in the surge in COVID-19 cases in Punjab with the state recording 2,669 fresh infections, maximum this year so far, and 44 more fatalities on Sunday, according to a medical bulletin. With the fresh cases, the infection tally climbed to 2,13,110. The number of active cases has increased from 16,988 on Saturday to 18,257 on Sunday. Jalandhar reported a maximum of 393 cases, Ludhiana 330, Mohali 327, Hoshiarpur 259 and Patiala 244, among others. Ten fatalities were reported from Hoshiarpur, eight from Ludhiana, seven from Gurdaspur and six from Jalandhar, among others, the bulletin said, adding that the death toll reached 6,324. (PTI)

Maharashtra reports 30,535 new COVID-19 cases, 11,314 recoveries, and 99 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 24,79,682
Total recoveries 22,14,867
Death toll 53,399
Active cases 2,10,120

(ANI)

Mumbai reports 3775 new COVID19 cases, 1647 recoveries and 10 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Total cases 3,62,654
Total recoveries 3,26,708
Death toll 11,582

Active cases 23,448

(ANI)

Despite the clamour to speed up the US vaccination drive against COVID-19 and get the country back to normal, the first three months of the rollout suggest faster is not necessarily better. A surprising new analysis found that states such as South Carolina, Florida and Missouri that raced ahead of others to offer the vaccine to ever-larger groups of people have vaccinated smaller shares of their population than those that moved more slowly and methodically, such as Hawaii and Connecticut. The explanation, as experts see it, is that the rapid expansion of eligibility caused a surge in demand too big for some states to handle and led to serious disarray. Vaccine supplies proved insufficient or unpredictable, websites crashed and phone lines became jammed, spreading confusion, frustration and resignation among many people. (AP)

Andhra Pradesh reports 368 fresh COVID-19 cases, 263 recoveries. Infection tally touches 8.93 lakh. The number of active cases of the disease in the state stands at 2,188. (PTI)

Kerala reports 1,875 new COVID-19 cases, 2,251 recoveries and 13 deaths in the last 24 hours

Total recoveries: 10,74,805
Death toll: 4,495
Active cases: 24,620 (ANI)

Maharashtra: Nagpur District reported 3614 new COVID-19 cases, 1859 recoveries, and 32 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Civil Surgeon.

Total cases: 1,93,080
Total recoveries: 1,59,108
Active cases: 29,348
Death toll: 4624 (ANI)

Four coronavirus positive persons on Sunday answered a Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission exam at a special centre for them with a team of two doctors and an equal number of nurses in PPE kits donning the role of invigilators, an official said. The four candidates wrote the test at Mata Jija Bai Government Post Graduate Girls College in Moti Tabela area here and all outbreak norms were adhered to strictly, with a medical team of four in place for any assistance, COVID -19 Nodal Officer Amit Malakar told PTI. Another official said the separate centre at Mata Jija Bai College will be used for COVID-19 patients answering the MPPSC final tests that started here on Sunday and will go on till March 26. (PTI)

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah Sunday said one-day shutdowns to contain the spread of coronavirus is a ‘meaningless tokenism’ which can lead to complacency, and called for allowing more people to take vaccine against COVID-19. The Madhya Pradesh government had on March 19 announced Sunday lockdowns in Bhopal, Indore and Jabalpur till further orders in view of the spurt in coronavirus cases. ‘With a rampaging virus that has a 2-14 day incubation period this one-day lockdown is meaningless tokenism. All it will do is create a misplaced sense of complacency,’ Abdullah tweeted. The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said vaccines were the answer to the spread of COVID-19 and called for opening up the vaccines to more people. ‘Vaccines are the answer not one day lockdowns. Open up vaccines to more people,’ he added. His statement came as India recorded 43,846 new coronavirus cases Sunday, the highest single-day rise so far this year. India is currently vaccinating people above 60 and those aged between 45-59 years with 20 identified comorbidities. (PTI)

More than 6 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been sent to 76 nations, while 4.5 crore doses have been administered to beneficiaries in the country till now, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. He also called for making the vaccination drive a “Jan Aandolan” (mass movement). “Until this morning, nearly 4.5 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given to the people in this country. More than six crore doses have been sent to 76 nations,” Vardhan said during a media interaction at the Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) here. “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party (BJP) president J P Nadda have called for making the vaccination drive a ‘jan andolan’ (mass movement),” he said. (PTI) 

The Gujarat government on Sunday said permission won’t be granted for Holi celebrations due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state though the religious ritual of ‘Holika Dahan’ associated with the festival can take place with crowd restrictions. Holi falls on March 29 and Holika Dahan on its eve on March 28. The government will only allow ‘Holika Dahan’, a pyre lighting ritual symbolizing the victory of good over evil on the eve of Holi, that too with a limited number of people in housing societies and villages, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said. (PTI)

Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday recorded 158 fresh cases, including 34 travellers, taking the infection tally to 1,28,547, even as one more death was reported in the past 24 hours, officials said. Out of the fresh cases, 27 were from the Jammu division and 131 from the Kashmir division of the Union Territory, they said. The officials said Srinagar district recorded the highest of 88 cases, including 27 travellers, followed by 22 in Jammu district, 19 in Baramulla and 14 in Budgam districts. In all, there were 34 travellers who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. While nine districts did not report any fresh case, seven other districts had cases in single digits. The number of active cases was 1,290 in the Union Territory, while 1,25,276 patients have recovered so far, the officials said. The death toll in Jammu and Kashmir due to the pandemic is 1,981 as one fresh fatality was reported from Kashmir division in the past 24 hours, they added. (PTI)

The threat of coronavirus infection looms large in Delhi Prisons as it readies for the returning inmates who were granted parole during the coronavirus outbreak last year. According to jail officials, it will be difficult to maintain social distancing with the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the prisons. They said the situation could be more difficult to manage when the inmates, who were granted parole during the pandemic outbreak last year, would return. There are a total of 18,900 inmates in the Delhi Prisons comprising Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli jails. However, the intake capacity of Delhi Prisons Department is 10,026 inmates. The number of inmates will pass the 20,000-mark as more will come after their emergency parole lapse, a senior jail official said. Meanwhile, the jail authority asserted that all steps are being taken to keep the COVID-19 situation under control. |READ MORE

Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Rajasthan government has decided to impose night curfew in eight cities from Monday and also made it mandatory for people visiting the state to carry a COVID-19 negative test report. Officials said the night curfew will be imposed in Ajmer, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Sagwada (Dungarpur) and Kushalgarh (Banswara) from 11 pm to 5 am, they said. |Read More

An orphanage was on Sunday declared a micro containment zone in Goa’s Ponda taluka after 18 people tested positive for COVID-19, an official said. The samples of 45 students and 17 staff from ‘Matrucchaya’ orphanage for girls in Kavlem, some 10 kilometres from Ponda town, were taken for testing and reports of 18 returned positive after which it was declared a micro containment zone, South District Magistrate Ruchika Katyal said. All 18 cases are asymptomatic, and a rapid response team has been deployed to monitor and assess the situation, Katyal added. (PTI) 

A recent order by the National Blood Transfusion Council has said that a person cannot donate blood for the next 28 days after taking the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine. As approved in the 30th meeting of the governing body of the NBTC held on February 17, the deferral criteria for blood donation post COVID-19 vaccine was finalised as “28 days post vaccination deferral after the last dose of COVID-19 vaccination irrespective of the type of the vaccine received.” The order implies that the donor has to wait for 28 days after taking second dose of the vaccine, which means that he or she cannot donate for 56 days after taking the first jab. The order was issued by NBTC director Dr Sunil Gupta on March 5.- PTI

More than 6 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been sent to 76 nations, while 4.5 crore doses have been administered to beneficiaries in the country till now, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. He also called for making the vaccination drive a ‘Jan Aandolan’ (mass movement). “Until this morning, nearly 4.5 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given to the people in this country. More than six crore doses have been sent to 76 nations,” Vardhan said during a media interaction at the Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) in Chandigarh. – PTI

The Gujarat government on Sunday said permission won’t be granted for Holi celebrations due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state though the religious ritual of ‘Holika Dahan’ associated with the festival can take place with crowd restrictions. Holi falls on March 29 and Holika Dahan on its eve on March 28. The government will only allow ‘Holika Dahan’, a pyre lighting ritual symbolizing the victory of good over evil on the eve of Holi, that too with a limited number of people in housing societies and villages, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said. – PTI

Police conducted a raid at a hookah parlour at Ghatkopar here and arrested six persons for allegedly violating the coronavirus norms, an official said on Sunday. The raid was conducted late on Saturday night, he said. “Based on a tip-off, action was taken against the hookah parlour. Many people there were found not wearing mask despite the instructions. The manager of the joint and its customers were arrested during the operation,” the official of Tilak Nagar police station said. The accused were booked under IPC sections 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire), 188 (disobeying the order of public servant) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection), he said, adding that further investigation is underway. – PTI

An orphanage was on Sunday declared a micro containment zone in Goa’s Ponda taluka after 18 people tested positive for COVID-19, an official said. The samples of 45 students and 17 staff from ‘Matrucchaya’ orphanage for girls in Kavlem, some 10 kilometres from Ponda town, were taken for testing and reports of 18 returned positive after which it was declared a micro containment zone, South District Magistrate Ruchika Katyal said. All 18 cases are asymptomatic, and a rapid response team has been deployed to monitor and assess the situation, Katyal added. – PTI

A group of Swiss business leaders and lawmakers have demanded the government speed up vaccinations and develop a plan for its nationwide testing drive to tackle the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country. The Alliance for a Liberal Healthcare System sent an open letter to the government on Sunday, asking for an improvement in Switzerland’s response to the crisis. “The government is failing at crisis management and must improve,” said Felix Schneuwly, vice president of the Alliance. “Each part of the testing and vaccination programmes are being delayed and are not being implemented properly,” he told Reuters. Fatigue about the ongoing restrictions and their impact on social and economic life is rising in Switzerland, with protests taking place over the weekend. Switzerland and neighbouring Liechtenstein have reported nearly 581,000 cases of COVID-19 since the crisis broke out, with 9,509 deaths. The number of cases has accelerated in recent days. – Reuters

Markets to remain closed after 10 pm from March 22 in areas under all city municipal corporations. Night curfew from 11 pm to 5 am to be imposed in Ajmer, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Sagwara and Kushalgarh: Rajasthan Government

Visitors entering the state from March 25 will have to carry a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours. Primary schools to remain closed till further order: Rajasthan Government – ANI

Unregistered but eligible people in Delhi will be able to take COVID-19 vaccine jabs between 3 pm and 9 pm, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Sunday. Till now, unregistered beneficiaries were being inoculated between 3 pm and 5pm, he said. Beneficiaries need to register themselves on Co-WIN portal to get jabs. Those who do not have access to the Co-WIN portal can go to the centre and take COVID-19 vaccines. – PTI

The rate at which Germans are getting infected with the coronavirus has jumped above the level at which authorities say healthcare systems will be overburdened, raising pressure on political leaders to tighten lockdown measures. National and regional leaders are due to meet by videoconference on Monday to decide on the next round of measures to deal with the pandemic. At their last meeting early this month, they agreed on a cautious opening, over the objections of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who warned that more infectious variants meant the pandemic would be hard to control. According to the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, the number of cases per 100,000 population over a week stood at 103.9 on Sunday, above the 100 threshold at which intensive care units can no longer keep up. – Reuters

Britain must preserve the gains of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign at all costs and avoid a situation where people would return from foreign holidays bringing vaccine-resistant variants with them, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Sunday. Under its four-stage roadmap to easing restrictions, the government has said that foreign travel would be allowed to resume from May 17 at the earliest, although it could be later than that. A taskforce is due to report to the government in April on the issue of what to do about foreign travel. “We can’t be deaf and blind to what’s going on outside the United Kingdom. If you look in Europe, increases in infections,” Wallace said on Sky News when asked about whether foreign holidays would be possible for Britons this summer. – Reuters

Schools, colleges and Anganwadi will be closed in Chhattisgarh with immediate effect: Chhattisgarh Minister Ravindra Choubey – ANI

China had administered 74.96 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday, health commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a news briefing on Sunday. That compared with about 65 million doses administered as of March 14, or an additional 10 million vaccinations in less in a week, as the country accelerates its inoculation drive with the aim to inoculate 40% of its 1.4 billion population by the middle of the year. Over 70 million doses of Sinovac Biotech’s shot have been administered globally so far, a company spokesman said during the news conference on Sunday. – Reuters

Lt Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday flagged off a mobile unit of the health department in neighbouring Muthialpet to generate awareness about steps to be taken to keep COVID-19 at bay. She also declared open a booth which would distribute masks, sanitisers and hand gloves to the people. The LG, who helped some people wear the masks. – PTI

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged Sunday to do his utmost to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus ahead of the Olympic torch relay and his upcoming visit to Washington. Suga was addressing his ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s annual convention, just hours ahead of the planned lifting of a virus state of emergency in the Tokyo region. Suga said after the state of emergency is lifted is “an extremely important time for virus prevention. “We must not put our guards down … to prevent the infections from rebounding,” he said. Suga on Thursday announced that the months-long emergency measures for Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama would end at midnight Sunday, a move underscoring his government’s eagerness to minimize burdens on businesses and keep the economy going, despite concerns raised by experts about the potential for an upsurge. – AP

As India witnessed the highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases this year, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday that Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh account for 83.14 per cent of the new infections. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 27,126. It is followed by Punjab with 2,578 while Kerala reported 2,078 new cases. Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh reported 1,798, 1,565 and 1, 308 infections in a day. India recorded 43,846 new coronavirus cases in a day,  the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 1,15,99,130. – PTI

The spike protein of the novel coronavirus, which enables it to infect human cells, is more stable in faster spreading versions of the virus, such as the ones first reported in the UK and South Africa, compared to the original form of the pathogen from Wuhan, China, says a new study. Researchers, including those from the Boston Children’s Hospital in the US assessed the structure of the coronavirus spike protein down to the atomic level, and found how it changed with the D614G mutation which is carried by the Brazil, South Africa and UK variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. – PTI

The Philippines recorded 7,757 additional COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the second-highest single-day increase in the Southeast Asian nation since the pandemic began. The daily tally follows Saturday’s record infections and marks the third straight day confirmed new cases topped 7,000. The Philippines is battling a renewed surge in infections, including those of the new and more transmissible variants, prompting the government to tighten restrictions, particularly in the capital region. In a bulletin, the Department of Health (DOH) said total recorded cases had risen to 663,794 while confirmed deaths had reached 12,968, with 39 more fatalities recorded on Sunday. Total recoveries increased by 15,288 to 577,754. The DOH advised the public to suspend non-essential travel and ensure adherence to minimum public health standards, which includes the wearing of masks even at home when not alone. – Reuters

The number of coronavirus patients in Bulgarian hospitals has risen to 8,545, the highest level since the start of the pandemic last March, official health data showed on Sunday. A surge in infections in the third COVID wave has prompted the Bulgarian government to close schools, nurseries, restaurants, big shops and gyms from Monday for 10 days ahead of the April 4 parliamentary election. With 2,541 new cases in the past 24 hours, the country of 7 million people has reported 302,480 cases and 11,966 deaths in total. – Reuters

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla tested positive for COVID19 on March 19. He was admitted to AIIMS COVID Centre for observation on March 20. He is stable: AIIMS, Delhi – ANI

Noting that there is a potential of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases during the Kumbh Mela, the Centre has written to Uttarakhand strongly highlighting the concerns raised by a high-level central team about the need for stringent measures to control the spread of the disease. The central team led by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Director visited Uttarakhand on March 16-17 to review the medical and public health measures undertaken by the state for the ongoing Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, the Health Ministry said in a statement. – PTI

The COVID-19 cases registered a marginal rise in the Union Territory of Puducherry on Sunday with 64 infections being reported, taking the tally to 40,386, the health department said. One more fatality took the toll to 675. The UT had reported 60 cases on Saturday. A total of 1,238 samples were tested in the last 24 hours ending at 10 am and the cumulative number of specimens examined so far was 6.06 lakh, Health and Family Welfare Services Director S Mohan Kumar said in a release.- PTI

The upward trend in COVID-19 cases in Telangana continued with 394 infections reported, pushing the tally to just above 3.03 lakh, the state government said on Sunday. With three more fatalities, the toll rose to 1,669 as of 8 PM on March 20, a bulletin said. As many as 194 people were discharged, taking the cumulative recoveries to 2,98,645. In line with the steady increase in fresh cases over the past 10 days, including clusters in some schools, the active cases rose to 2,804, compared to 1,872 on March 12. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation reported the maximum of 81 cases followed by Ranga Reddy (64) and Medchal Malkajgiri districts (34). The bulletin said 64,898 samples were tested on March 20. Cumulatively, the number of samples tested was 96,13,583. – PTI

Actor Ashish Vidyarthi says he is “relieved” after testing negative for coronavirus. The 58-year-old actor was admitted to a hospital here after he tested positive on March 11. Vidyarthi, best known for his work in films like “Drohkaal”, “1942: A Love Story” and “Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin”, took to Twitter on Saturday to share the update with fans. In a 30-second video, the actor thanked well wishers for their prayers. “I tested positive on March 11, I’m now negative. This is the tenth day, I am so relieved. Thank you for your love, affection and prayers. My sugar levels are fluctuating a bit, but they will stabilise in one or two days,” Vidyarthi said. In the caption of the post, the actor wrote that it was the time to “spread hope and cheer”. – PTI