www.facebook.com/hindustantimes
ht/JS4
Mumbai/METRO n Vol. XVI No. 88 n Price ₹4.00 n 12 Pages + 2 Pages of HT Café (for Mumbai only). Area specific pages extra.
PRINCE WILLIAM PRAISES ‘BEST OF BRITISH’
COMMUNITY SPIRIT DURING CRISIS
Cases double to 10,000 in six days
COVID SPIKE 1,253 new infections in country on Monday; government expanding containment efforts
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: India went past a bleak
milestone on Monday as the num-
ber of coronavirus disease (Cov-
id-19) cases crossed 10,000, with
the infections doubling over six
days and the government
expanding containment efforts
and ramping up testing in an
attempt to curb the highly conta-
gious pathogen from sweeping
across the country. On Monday,
1,253 fresh Covid-19 cases were
reported in the country.
Until March 24, there were 536
Covid-19 cases in India. The num-
ber rose to 2,520 by April 2; 5,305
by April 7; and the latest tally
stood at 10,444, according to HT’s
dashboard. Of these, 355 people
have died of the disease that rages
uncontrolled across several
nations and has left at least
117,000 dead across the world.
The tally of Covid-19 cases first
jumped in India after the detec-
tion of hundreds of patients who
attended gatherings of the
Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim mis-
sionary group, in New Delhi’s
Nizamuddin last month. Once the
cluster – the largest single source
so far in the country – was identi-
fied and isolated on March 30,
daily cases have surged.
With the mass identification
and isolation of such cases across
the country, however, the focus
has now shifted to how well the
government can contain and
localise the infections.
“The home secretary and the
Ports clogged with
goods, no trucks
to ferry them
Anisha Dutta
n anisha.dutta@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: At ports across India,
cargo terminals are operating at
capacities less than 30%. On April
3, in a video conference with
Union minister of shipping Man-
sukh Mandaviya, port operators,
importers, and shipping compa-
nies raised some of these issues,
including the unavailability of
trucks (and drivers), the shortage
of workers in ports and cargo ter-
minals, and choked ports. The
21-day lockdown enforced by
India on March 25 has hit the han-
dling of cargo across Indian ports,
choking shipping lines. ››P6
In the absence of
cure, doctors rely
on HCQ, antibiotic
Sanchita Sharma
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Indian doctors are
depending on a combination of a
tried and tested antimalarial
drug and an antibiotic to treat
people hospitalised in isolation
wards and ICUs in the absence of
a specific treatment for Covid-19.
“It is not a miracle therapy, but
this is all we have. All patients in
isolation wards are given a com-
bination of hydroxychloroquine
(HCQ) and azithromycin, and it
has been tolerated well. No
adverse reactions have been
reported,” said Dr Yatin Mehta,
chairman, Institute of Critical
Care and Anaesthesiology, Med-
anta-the Medicity. ››P5
Harvest season is
on, procurement
of grains delayed
PATIALA/CHANDIGARH/LUKCNOW:
Procurement of food grains has
been delayed in Punjab, Hary-
ana and MP due to the lockdown
despite relaxations for agricul-
tural work announced by many
states. With an increase in out-
put and the beginning of the har-
vesting season, states don’t just
have to procure food grains, but
also have to ensure social dis-
tancing measures are main-
tained. For instance, the Punjab
government has restricted entry
into markets by giving coupons
to farmers rotationally. ››P7
www.twitter.com/htTweets
ministry of health communicate
regularly through video confer-
encing with states and we tell
them our containment strategies
and they are working in coordi-
nation,” Lav Agarwal, joint sec-
retary in the Union health minis-
try, said at a news briefing on
Monday.
Experts say that the impact of
India’s 21-day national lockdown
-- imposed by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi from March 25 --
which appears to have relatively
slowed the spread, could be
undermined if disease clusters
are not contained effectively, and
people are not tested widely and
aggressively. The next few weeks
will likely determine the coun-
try’s trajectory in managing the
outbreak and in preventing the
health care infrastructure from
being overrun by infections.
Modi will address the nation
on Tuesday morning at 10am, and
is likely to announce an exten-
sion of the nationwide lockdown,
possibly with some exemptions to
get the wheels of the economy
turning again.
In about 100 days this year – the
first case of the new disease was
reported in China’s Wuhan late
last year – Sars-CoV-2, which
causes Covid-19, has infected
nearly 1.9 million people. The
pathogen has spread across at
least 200 countries, as even devel-
oped nations’ hospitals are over-
whelmed, with many dying
because of a shortage of medical
equipment.
CONTINUED ON P 8
Rapid test kit shipment delayed
again amid urgent requirement
Jayashree Nandi, Rhythma Kaul
and Sowmiya Ashok
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI/CHENNAI: The rapid test-
ing kits, which were supposed to
be here on April 5, and then April
10, will now be here by April 15,
the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR) said on Mon-
day, commenting on what could
well be the lynchpin of the next
phase of India’s strategy to com-
bat the coronavirus disease --
widespread (and rapid) testing,
not just in hot spots and contain-
ment zones but also areas rela-
tively free of the virus.
Called Rapid Test Kits, or
RTKs, these are blood tests that
search for antibodies in the sam-
ple of those tested — a positive
test means the person is or has
been infected by the virus. Apart
from being a fast way to identify
the extent of infections in clus-
Five most populous SC amends order, private
states take different testing free only for poor
approaches to crisis
MUMBAI/LUCKNOW/KOLKATA/BHOPAL/
PATNA:As the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) continues to spread,
India’s most populated states
have adopted both common, and
distinct, strategies to deal with
the pandemic.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West
Bengal account for one-third of
total Covid-19 cases in India and
about 40% of the country’s 1.21
billion population in 2011. Being
densely populated, the probabil-
ity of rapid spread of Covid-19 in
these states was and remains
higher than in less populated
southern and Himalayan states.
They are also more vulnerable
because they house about 60% of
1.3 million migrant labourers in
shelters across India.
mustread
OPEC, ALLIES END
OIL PRICE WAR
World’s top oil producers pulled
off a historic deal to cut global
output by nearly a 10th, putting
an end to the price war but not
going far enough to offset impact
of the pandemic. ››P11
n DOWNLOAD OUR iPAD APP
>P12
n Despite the lockdown, there was traffic on the eastern express highway. A nakabandi even resulted in a
traffic jam near Sion Hospital on Monday morning.
TRACKING THE VIRUS
WORLD
DEATHS
CASES 1,895,993 117,664
United States Rest of the world
573,518 1,322,475
India data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’s correspondents and news agencies Apr 09
SETBACK FOR KEY STRATEGY
After missing two deadlines, India likely to get kits by April 15
THE ORDERS
500,000 Kits ordered
by India from Chinese suppliers
2 00,00 More kits
ordered by states separately
4.5 million Additional
testing kits India intends to
procure in batches from May 1
Antibody or rapid tests are used to find out if a person
has been infected with coronavirus before, which could
give an idea of how widespread the outbreak is
ters, countries around the world
are looking to use these tests to
determine who has immunity to
the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes
Covid-19.
While providing food to all was
a challenge, the states adhered to
health ministry’s guideline of
testing and strong Covid-19 clus-
ter management. They also
launched apps to track hundreds
of patients and put thousands of
people in quarantine.
But they also opted for state
specific models that helped in
containing the spread. Maha-
rashtra opted for aggressive test-
ing and created the most number
of containment zones in cities; UP
ensured the virus is restricted to
41 districts; Bihar focused more
on isolating migrant workers; MP
came across as lax initially before
ramping up screening and testing
efforts; and West Bengal termed
its plan as containment with
“humane face”. ››P4
CHINA SEES FRESH
SPURT IN CASES
China’s Heilongjiang province has
become the new Covid-19 battle-
ground as authorities reported
highest number of new daily
cases in nearly six weeks, driven
by overseas travellers. ››P12
www.hindustantimes.com/iPad
SPAIN EASES
ITS LOCKDOWN
>htworld
p12
AALOK SONI/HT
INDIA
DEATHS
CASES 10,444 (+1,253) 355 (+29)
WORST-HIT STATES
Maharashtra
Delhi 1,510
Tamil Nadu 1,173
Rajasthan 897
MP 614
THE HOLD-UPs
n According to officials, some
orders are held up because the
Chinese govt has allowed only
5-6 firms to sell the kits after
concerns over their quality
n Whileone public sector
company in India will soon start
manufacturing the kits, other
domestic firms are dependent
on China for some components
to produce them
As such, they are in demand
everywhere. Unlike the RT-PCR
tests currently in use, which
take up to five hours to throw up
a result, RTKs give out results in
Murali Krishnan
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Free testing for Cov-
id-19 in private laboratories will
be available only to people cov-
ered by Ayushman Bharat
scheme and to economically
weaker sections of the society
notified by the government as eli-
gible for such free tests, the
Supreme Court ordered on Mon-
day, modifying its April 8 order,
which had forced private labora-
tories to offer free tests to every-
one.
Private laboratories, the apex
Tech surveillance only way forward for contact tracing: Experts
Binayak Dasgupta
n binayak.dasgupta@htlive.com
NEW DELHI: Tools such as cell-
phone-based contact tracing
are becoming increasingly
important in the fight to con-
tain Covid-19, a disease
spreading too quickly and
silently for conventional dis-
ease control measures to con-
tain it, according to experts
and researchers who say this
could fundamentally involve
TRUMP RETWEETS CALL TO FIRE EXPERT
NEW YORK CITY HAS MORE VIRUS CASES THAN CHINA AND UK >P12
MAHARASHTRA
DEATHS
CASES 2,334 (+352)
160(+11)
CASES IN 1,982
2,334
PAST 5 DAYS 1,761
1,574
1,364
10 11 12
GOVT OPEN
TO POOL
TESTING
NEW DELHI: As the number
of cases rise, the health
ministry is considering
pooled testing of people
with symptoms in areas
from where no coronavi-
rus infections have been
reported, an official
said.
There are around 450
districts which have not
reported any case. ››P6
30 minutes. However, ICMR’s
protocol requires a confirmatory
RT-PCR test to back up a nega-
tive RTK result.
CONTINUED ON P 8
court said, can continue to charge
people who can afford the testing
fee as fixed by the Indian Council
of Medical Research (ICMR).
“Government of India, Minis-
try of Health and Family Welfare
may issue necessary guidelines
for reimbursement of cost of free
testing of Covid-19 undertaken by
private Labs,” the bench of jus-
tice Ashok Bhushan and S Ravin-
dra Bhat clarified.
The order was passed after the
ICMR, private laboratories and a
Delhi based doctor approached
the top court seeking modifica-
tion of its earlier order.
some compromises on per-
sonal privacy.
The problem stems from
the insidious nature of Sars-
CoV-2, the virus that causes
Covid-19: it can be spread by a
person who does not show
symptoms, and is thus proba-
bly unaware of the illness,
and merely breathing, cough-
ing and sneezing could pass it
on to anyone close by. Trac-
ing contacts through conven-
tional methods, therefore,
n OUR EDITION ON KINDLE
Modi to spell out plan on
lockdown at 10am today
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi will address the
nation at 10am on Tuesday, the
last day of the three-week lock-
down for the coronavirus dis-
ease (Covid-19) , amid expecta-
tions he will extend the emer-
gency protocol until at least the
end of April and move, in a lim-
ited way, to restart the economy
by selectively easing curbs on
industry.
The Prime Minister’s Office
announced Modi’s address in a
post on the microblogging site
Twitter on Monday. “Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi will address
the nation at 10am on 14th April
2020,” the PMO tweeted on a day
the number of Covid-19 infec-
tions rose by 1,253 to 10,444 cases,
and deaths increased by 29 to 355.
It will be the PM’s third tele-
vised address to the nation in less
than a month. On March 19, Modi
said he would seek the “coming
few weeks” of Indian citizens,
asked them to stay determined
and patient in the fight against
2,334 the global pandemic, senior citi-
zens to remain indoors and
called for a “people’s curfew” on
March 22 to demonstrate their
unity and resolve.
Apr 13
On March 24 came the
50% OF CITY’S
CASES ARE FROM
SEVEN WARDS
Sagar Pillai
n sagar.pillai@htlive.com
MUMBAI: With 807 cases, seven of
the 24 wards in the city make up
for more than 50% of the city’s
count, according to the Brihan-
mumbai Municipal Corporation
(BMC) data, as on April 12. Till
last week, two wards made up
for 50% cases.
The most affected ward, as of
the data on Monday, is G-South,
which covers Worli and Lower
Parel, with 280 cases, followed
by E ward (Byculla) with 120
cases.
Other wards are D ward (Mal-
abar Hill, Walkeshwar) with 97
cases, M-East (Govandi, Mank-
hurd) with 82 cases, H-East
(Bandra, Khar, Santacruz) with
80 cases, G-North (Mahim and
Dadar) with 77 cases and K-West
(Andheri, Vile Parle) with 71
cases.
››FULL REPORT, P2
The apex court also gave lib-
erty to the central government to
decide whether any other catego-
ries of the weaker sections of the
society like workers belonging to
low income groups in the
informal sectors or beneficiaries
of Direct Benefit Transfer should
also be eligible for free testing.
The Supreme Court had, on
April 8, ordered that tests for Cov-
id-19 across government and pri-
vate laboratories should be free of
cost and no person should be
deprived of Covid-19 tests
because he was unable to afford
it. ››P6
P R I VACY C O M P R O M I S E D ?
may be ineffective, require
too much manpower, and
take too much time for effec-
tive containment.
“To defeat this virus, you
either need a vaccine or test-
ing, contact-tracing, quaran-
tine, which is the hallmark of
epidemiological contain-
ment. The issue is that nor-
mally viruses don’t spread as
fast. Most that kill or are seri-
ous are infectious at a stage
when someone gets very
http://read.
TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020
n Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman wearing a mask is screened
as she arrives to resume work from her office on Monday. HT PHOTO
announcement of a nationwide,
three-week lockdown -- the
world’s biggest -- that has halted
commercial flights and train
journeys,taken public transport
off the streets, closed schools and
colleges and shut industrial pro-
duction, as the government tried
to break the chain of infections.
A day ahead of the address,
Modi held in-depth talks with the
principal scientific adviser Prof
K VijayRaghavan apart from
holding his regular meetings
with principal secretary PK
Mishra and cabinet secretary RK
Gauba.
The talks with VijayRagha-
van focussed on how the Aar-
Maha jumps from
1,000 virus cases
to 2,000 in six days
Swapnil Rawal and Faisal Malik
n swapnil.rawal@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: Maharashtra doubled its
tally from 1,000 to 2,000 coronavi-
rus disease (Covid-19) cases in six
days as it recorded its biggest
24-hour jump in cases with 352
more patients on Monday, taking
the number of infected people in
the state to 2,334. The state
recorded 11 deaths on Monday,
the health department said, tak-
ing the toll to 160.
The Maharashtra government
on Monday also officially
extended the lockdown, which
was to end at midnight on April
14, till April 30. On Saturday, chief
minister Uddhav Thackeray had
already said the state would
extend the lockdown. The state
government is also looking at
allowing micro-, small- and medi-
um- enterprises (MSMEs) to start
operations in districts that are
not affected or less affected by the
outbreak. A proposal for allowing
industries is being prepared by
the state industries department.
However, the state has not taken
a call on colour-coding districts
based on the severity of cases and
relaxing curbs in regions that are
not much affected.
Of Monday’s cases, Mumbai
recorded 242 alone, taking the
city’s tally to 1,540. Besides Mum-
mustread
RETAIL INFLATION IN MARCH EASES TO
A FOUR-MONTH LOW OF 5.91%
A sharp fall in vegetable prices has led India’s retail inflation to ease from
6.58% in February to a four-month low of 5.91% in March. However,
supply shortages due to the 21-day lockdown could push up inflation in
the short run, analysts said. Food inflation declined from 10.81% in
February to 8.76% in March because of falling onion prices.
sick,” said Eric Feigl-Ding, an
epidemiologist at Harvard
University, who was one of
the first prominent public
health officials to raise an
alarm about the virus in Jan-
uary when it spread mostly
within China.
“Contact tracing only
works if you trace far enough
and people remember well
enough. And it needs a huge
manpower. In Wuhan alone,
they deployed almost 10,000
ogya app is contributing to track-
ing the spread of Covid-19, HT
has learnt.
Shops that sell food, groceries,
fruits and vegetables and dairy
products, pharmacists, banks
and automated teller machines,
and petrol pumps have been
exempted from the lockdown.
Establishments that have been
kept out of the purview of the
lockdown also include utilities,
sanitation, municipal bodies,the
police, home guards and civil
defence, hospitals, veterinary
clinics and pharmaceutical man-
ufacturing and distribution
units.
CONTINUED ON P 8
THE STATE REPORTED
352 CASES ON MONDAY,
WITH 242 IN MUMBAI
ITSELF. THE STATE ALSO
RECORDED 11 DEATHS,
TAKING THE TOLL TO 160
bai, 39 cases were recorded in
Pune; 14 in Malegaon; 11 in Nag-
pur; nine in Thane; seven in Mira-
Bhayander; six in Pimpri-
Chinchwad; five in Vasai-Virar;
four each in Aurangabad, Buld-
hana and Kalyan-Dombivli; one
each in Ahmednagar, Dhule,
Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Panvel,
Raigad and Yavatmal. Of the 11
deaths in Maharashtra, nine
were in Mumbai and one each in
Pune and Mira-Bhayander.
The state took 30 days to cross
the 1,000-case mark on April 7,
while it crossed 2,000 in just six
days on April 13. The state health
department is not perturbed by
the doubling of cases as the
spread of the virus is still in stage
two or the local transmission
stage, where disease transmis-
sion is limited to those with travel
history to affected countries or
those in contact with the infected
person.
CONTINUED ON P 8
››REPORTS ON P2 AND P3
››P11
people,” added Ding during
an interview over video.
With a mobile phone-based
tool, “you don’t need the man-
power and it is instantaneous
– the speed is the most crucial
aspect. Problems in recalling
who an infected person met or
where they were to get taken
care of,” he said. Feigl-Ding
led efforts to create the first
such mobile application in
2014 called Germ Theory.
CONTINUED ON P 8
02 hindustantimes
sp t g t
htspotlight
7 wards account for 50% of cases
807 CASES G-South, which covers Worli, Lower Parel, tops list; BMC ward officers to find open spaces for veggie markets
Sagar Pillai
n sagar.pillai@htlive.com
MUMBAI: With 807 cases, seven of
the 24 wards in the city make up
for more than 50% of the city’s
count, according to the Brihan-
mumbai Municipal Corporation
(BMC) data, as on April 12. Till
last week, two wards made up for
50% cases.
Also, with the rise in cases, the
BMC, on Monday, changed the
classification for wards. Wards
with more than or 70 cases were
termed the one with the highest
risk, followed by those with 35-70
cases, 15-34 cases and 1-14 cases.
The BMC’s data for April 5 classi-
fied wards with more than 40
cases as the ones with highest
risk, followed by 21-40 cases, 11-20
cases and 1-10 cases.
The most affected ward, as of
Monday, is G-South, which cov-
ers Worli and Lower Parel, with
280 cases, followed by E ward
(Byculla) with 120 cases. Other
wards are D ward (Malabar Hill,
Walkeshwar) with 97 cases,
M-East (Govandi, Mankhurd)
with 82 cases, H-East (Bandra,
Khar, Santacruz) with 80 cases,
G-North (Mahim and Dadar) with
77 cases and K-West (Andheri,
Vile Parle) with 71 cases.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with
senior civic officials on Monday,
municipal commissioner Prav-
een Pardeshi directed all ward
officers to identify open spaces or
slots where vegetable and fruit
markets can be set up while main-
taining social distance. The BMC
doesn’t allow vegetable markets
in the 381 containment zones.
“We need to maintain a distance
of 20ft between two vendors and
3.5ft between buyers. We can also
allot spaces on major roads in the
area,” said a ward officer.
The civic body has carried out
this exercise in Chunnabhati,
where a temporary market has
been set up at Somaiya Ground or
in Vikroli East, where a market
has been set up in an open ground
of a school. However, there is no
clarity on how the civic body
plans to streamline groceries.
Currently, with every ward offi-
cer giving separate directives on
timings and, in some cases, days
when grocers can keep their
shops open, there is confusion on
ground. “I was told by our grocer
today, he will keep his shop open.
When I reached there, the shut-
ters were down,’’ said Nitin Patel,
a resident of Prabhadevi.
Awhad comes in
contact with patient,
tests negative, but
quarantines self
Ankita G Menon
n ankita.gopakumar@htlive.com
THANE: Maharashtra housing
minister Jitendra Awhad has
decided to home quarantine
himself as he had come in con-
tact with a senior police officer,
who tested positive for Covid-19
two days ago.
He has tested negative in the
first report.
Awhad is an MLA of Mum-
bra-Kalwa, which is under com-
plete lockdown due to the
increasing number of coronavi-
rus positive cases.
“As a precautionary measure
and protocol I have home quar-
antined myself. Only if all my
reports are negative will I be
able to step out and help others,”
said Awhad in an audio message
posted on the social media.
On Monday, Thane recorded
the highest number of positive
cases at 30 -- 14 of them are secu-
rity guards, helpers and those
working with Awhad.
The 14 cases are from Mum-
bra.
Among the new positive
cases, five are police personnel,
six are staffers of a healthcare
centre in Thane and a 16-year-
old boy. The total number of pos-
itive cases in Thane is 76.
Sandeep Malvi, public rela-
tions officer of Thane Municipal
Corporation, said, “We have
sealed areas where there are
positive coronavirus cases and
we are conducting contact trac-
ing. We will make a list of those
in high-risk category and test
them.”
As a precautionary
› measure and protocol
I have home quarantined
myself. Only if all my
reports are negative will I
be able to step out and
help others.
JITENDRA AWHAD, Maharashtra
housing minister
n The Mahim Dharavi Medical Practitioners’ Association organised door-to-door Covid-19 screenings in Dharavi.
GS
E 120
D 97
ME 82
HE 80
GN 77
KW 71
KE 69
L 68
MW 51
PN 49
S 48
FN 45
FS 39
RS 33
HW 30
PS 29
B 26
A 26
N 25
RC 23
RN 12
C 11
T 8
24 private docs screen 13,224 in Dharavi
Shrinivas Deshpande
shrinivas.deshpande@htlive.com
n
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC)
has roped in private doctors to
screen suspected coronavirus
patients in Dharavi, India’s
largest slum which is seeing a
rise in cases. The area saw one
more death and six more posi-
tive cases which brought the toll
to 5 and case count to 49.
In the past three days, a team
of 24 private doctors has
screened 13,224 people and iden-
tified 113 suspected cases and
sent samples of 85 for laboratory
test, said a BMC official. “We
have started to take help of pri-
vate doctors to screen high- and
low-risk contacts of Covid-19
patients. Twenty-four private
doctors came forward and
screened more than 13,000 peo-
ple in just three days,” said
Kiran Dighavkar, assistant
commissioner of the G-North
Ward. “The civic body has pro-
vided 55 PPE kits, 70 masks, 70
gloves and 18 infrared ther-
mometers to them.”
H I G H N U M B E R O F A S Y M P T O M AT I C PAT I E N T S
Statewide lockdown should
continue past April 30: Study
Rupsa Chakraborty
rupsa.chakraborty@htlive.com
n
MUMBAI: Maharashtra should
extend its lockdown beyond April
30 as it has a high proportion of
asymptomatic carriers of the
Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes
Covid-19, according to a study
conducted by Dinabandhu
Andrews College and Indian Sta-
tistical Institute, Kolkata.
Asymptomatic carriers could
spread the virus without display-
ing any of the symptoms them-
selves.
Researchers Tridip Sardar, SK
Shahid Nadim and Joydev Chat-
topadhyay conducted a mathe-
matical analysis of available data
on the spread of Covid-19 to assess
the impact of the lockdown in dif-
ferent parts of the country.
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
CORONAVIRUS: METRO
CASES IN
THE STATE
1,540 Mumbai
(101 deaths)
Pune city and
308 rural (31 deaths)
2,334
CASES
160 43,199 RECOVERED
DEATHS TESTS
229
2 Jalgaon
(1 death)
Dhule
2 (1 death)
MMR excluding MAHARASHTRA
1 Solapur
250 Mumbai (15 deaths) (1 death)
1 Jalna
18 MORE MED Nagpur
39 (1 death) 8 Latur
6 Satara 1 Washim
29 (2Malegaon (2 deaths)
STAFFERS TEST deaths)
26 Sangli 6 Kolhapur 1 Hingoli
1 Gondia
POSITIVE FOR 27 Ahmednagar 5 Ratnagiri
(1 death)
1 Beed
5 Yavatmal 1 Sindhudurg
CORONAVIRUS 23 Aurangabad
(1 death)
Buldhana
5 Amravati
(1 death)
9 Other states
MUMBAI: On Monday, 18 more 17 (1 death) 4 Osmanabad Treated in Mumbai
(1 death)
medical staffers were tested posi-
tive for Covid-19, taking the total
12 Akola 4 Nashik Source: Maharashtra
health department
number of infected health work-
ers to 100 in the city.
Eleven of those who tested pos-
itive on Monday are from Bhatia
EMERGENCY NUMBERS
Hospital in Tardeo and six from
Shushrusha Hospital in Dadar.
COVID-19
Chanda Jadhav, assistant munic-
ipal commissioner, A ward, said
State control room 020 26127394
one of the doctors from Bombay WhatsApp +912026127394
Hospital’s radiology department
has also been tested positive, Twitter handle: @MantralayaRoom
while the contact tracing for Email: ssoidspmah@gmail.com/ssumaharashtra@gmail.com
other staffers of the hospital is
underway. OTHER EMERGENCY HELPLINE NUMBERS
“While we have sealed Bhatia
and Shushrusha hospitals, we Abhay Yawalkar, director, disaster management
have no plans to seal Bombay 022 22026712/ 22027990
Hospital as of now. Only one med- Email: director.dm@maharashtra.gov.in/
ical staffer has tested positive yet, controlroom@maharashtra.gov.in
and the future course of action
will depend on the results of the BMC doctor 022 47085085/ 022 47085085 (10am to 7pm) BMC 1916
other staffers after their tests,” a
civic official said. BEST 1800227550
SATYABRATA TRIPATHY/HT With 11 more cases on Mon-
day, Bhatia Hospital now has 25 CITY-WISE LIST OF CONTROL ROOMS IN KONKAN REGION
Covid-19 positive staffers. Mumbai city 022 22664232
WARD-WISE CASES IN CITY “Around 150 more staff members
were tested on Friday as part of
Mumbai suburbs 022 26556799 / 26556806
precautionary measures, of Thane 022 25301740
280 GS 68
As on April 12 E 44 whom 110 were found negative. Palghar 02525 297474
As on April 5
The 25 staff members have been Raigad 02141 222118
RN Total Total RN KW 37
quarantined in the ICU and their Ratnagiri 02352 226248
RC 1,399 433 RC
KE
D
26
34
health is being monitored round-
Sindhudurg 02362 228847
the-clock by the hospital. There
RS RS HE 25
are no serious cases,” the hospital ICMR-APPROVED PRIVATE LABS FOR TESTS
PN PN PN 24 statement read.
T CHANGE IN CLASSIFICATION T
MW 21 Shushrusha Hospital has
Metropolis 8422801801 Thyrocare 9702466333
PS PS
With the rise in cases, the N 16 already been sealed after two Suburban 022 61700019 Sir HN Reliance 9820043966
BMC, on Monday, changed the
S S ME 16 nurses tested positive earlier. On SRL Labs 1800222000
KW
classification for wards. Wards
KW
Monday, the civic body in a letter
KE with more than or 70 cases
were termed the one with the
KE HW
S
16
12 to the hospital management said SOCIAL MEDIA HELP
N N it will test more than 100 staffers. Kasturba Hospital: kasturba.hospital@yahoo.com
L
highest risk, followed by those L RS 12
HE with 35-70 cases, 15-34 cases HE However, the hospital staff is BMC health department: phdmcgm@gmail.com
HW HW T 11
and 1-14 cases. The BMC’s data likely to test other asymptomatic
MW ME for April 5 classified wards MW ME PS 10 staff too at its own expense. Twitter: @MahaDGIPR
GN GN Social
FN with more than 40 cases as FN GN 9 Meanwhile, the infected doc- Facebook: http://facebook.com/MahaDGIPR
the ones with highest risk, L 8
media links
tor from Bombay Hospital has Instagram: http://instagram.com/mahadgipr
GS FS followed by 21-40 cases, 11-20 GS FS to get official
A 8 been admitted to the Covid-19
cases and 1-10 cases. information Telegram: http://t.me/MahaDGIPR
E E RC 7 ward. “We have also identified
D D Helo: http://m.helo-app.com/al/ySeYTxhjY
>= 70 cases >40 cases FN 7 around 40 staffers who might
C B C B have come in contact with the
35 - 70 cases 21 - 40 cases C 7
doctor, and will get them tested,”
A A RN 6
15 - 34 cases 11 - 20 cases Dr Mehul Desai, president of Res-
FS 5
1 - 14 cases 1 - 10 cases B 4 Source: BMC
ident Doctors’ Association of
Bombay Hospital, said. WHAT’S SHUT, WHAT’S OPEN
MEHUL R THAKKAR
OPEN
CLOSED
Transport
n Suburban trains
n Shops related to essential
commodities such as groceries,
milk and vegetables
35 CIVIC, 10 POLICE
n BEST buses
n App-based taxis
n Medical stores
n Essential services such as water
STAFF ARE ASSISTING
supply, power supply, conservancy
THE DOCTORS WHO ARE
n Metro
n Monorail
n ST buses, private buses
services, among others
n Financial institutions such as
banks, ATMs, stock exchanges
CARRYING OUT THE Places n Restaurants, hotels, home
SCREENING IN MUKUND n Private establishments
delivery and courier services
n Petrol pumps
NAGAR, MUSLIM NAGAR, n Schools, Colleges, Universities
and Coaching classes
n Print and electronic media
KALYANWADI, SOCIAL n Religious places
n Police
n Fire brigade
NAGAR, MADINA NAGAR n Shopping malls
n E-commerce of essential
n Cinema theatres and supplies will be excluded from
Auditoriums the shutdown
Thirty-five civic and 10 police
n Gymnasiums n Black-and-yellow taxis
staffers are assisting the doctors
n Swimming pools n Autorickshaws
who are carrying out the screen-
ing in Mukund Nagar, Muslim
Nagar, Kalyanwadi, Social
Nagar and Madina Nagar. A
60-year-old male resident of
Nehru Chawl died at Sion hospi- Frequently Asked Questions
tal on Monday. Here is what you can or cannot do during the national
The BMC has marked 29 con-
lockdown in view of the Covid-19 pandemic
tainment zones and six red
1 2 3
zones in the area. The civic body I don’t own a car, My home is Can my
has so far quarantined 2,184 res- what do I do running out of domestic help
idents and tested all 138 high- in case of vegetables. Can I come home?
risk contacts and 3,450 low-risk emergency? get groceries? Experts have
contacts of the patients. They
The govt has allowed Yes, all vegetable recommended that
are being provided with essen-
black-yellow taxis and markets are functioning. social distancing be
tial supplies such as food and enforced. It is
autorickshaws to ply. Trucks to deliver
medicines. n The BMC has set up a 700-bed quarantine centre at a school at Dharavi. SATYABRATA TRIPATHY/HT
If it is a medical vegetables, fruits advisable to
emergency, and daily kitchen ask house
call for an essentials are help to not
Restaurant provides 12K ambulance. allowed to ply. come
4
free meals to daily wagers There is a power cut in my house, what can I do?
Power is an essential service. All power distribution companies
have been ordered to provide uninterrupted power. If there is no
Shreya Bhandary packets, twice a day,” added power, please call the provider’s helpline number.
shreya.bhandary@hindustantimes.com Shetty.
5 6
n
The day starts with putting I have run out of I am a diabetic, can I go
money, where can I go? shop for insulin?
THE RESEARCHERS “Divide Maharashtra into dif-
ferent clusters with high rates of
MUMBAI: A restaurant in Borivli
(West) has remained functional,
together as much as 1,500kg rice,
625kg lentils, and 750kg vegeta- All ATMS are functional. Yes, you can. All pharmacies
SUGGESTED EXTENDING
Covid-19 cases. Then close down not for business but to help those bles. While Shetty initiated the Branches of banks are are allowed to stay open.
THE LOCKDOWN IN the section with highest cases and
provide relaxation to the remain-
in need of a meal.
Until March 27, Link View
supply, soon, fellow hoteliers
from the North Mumbai Hote-
functioning, but with
limited capacity.
However, some of them
may have staffing issues
AREAS THAT HAVE ing clusters for agro-economic Fine Dine restaurant was giving liers Association pooled in their
7
REPORTED MORE CASES and industrial growth,” said free meal packets to police per- resources as well. My dog is cooped up at home, can I take her out?
Chattopadhyay, adding that clus- sonnel, and have now started “Around 35 hotel staff help Pet stores and veterinary clinics are classified as “essential
They concluded the lockdown ters where restrictions are doing the same twice a day for with cutting vegetables, cooking services” by the government. You will be able to treat your pet
would be successful in Delhi and
Tamil Nadu, where 90% of the
reported cases are symptomatic.
Only 35% of those who tested
positive for Sars-Cov-2 in Maha-
relaxed would need monitoring.
The Centre is planning a simi-
lar arrangement by which dis-
tricts across the country would be
divided into red (more than 15),
over 12,500 daily wage workers in
slums in P North and South
wards.
“It began with the urge to help,
and while we started with a few
and packing food. Our family
members have also started help-
ing,” said Karthik, Shetty’s son.
BMC vehicles the transport the
packed food and civic officials dis-
in case of an emergency or buy pet food. If the pet wants to
go for a walk, you could use your car park, your terrace,
etc. There are no specific instructions for walking pets
in public areas, but it is not encouraged either.
8 9
rashtra are symptomatic. orange (less than 15) and green hundred people in the beginning, tribute it among the daily wage I need physiotherapy, I want to order food. Is it
The study has been published
on open-access preprint reposi-
(zero) zones, depending upon the
number of reported cases.
soon we were giving away 12,500
packets of food twice a day,” said
workers living in the slums.
“We are doing our best to reach
can I go? permitted?
tory, Cornell University arXiv, Restrictions would be relaxed in Y Harish Shetty, owner. “When out to as many people as is possi- Yes, you can visit the local
hospital. In case you
Yes. Please ensure your preferred
restaurants are open.
and is under the review process orange and green zones. we saw the number of people ble by us. Thankfully, more mem-
in Elsevier and The Lancet jour- Last week, chief minister striving to make ends meet and bers of our community have
are immobile, your
registered
They may have staffing
issues given the
nals. The researchers suggested Uddhav Thackeray announced feed their families, we increased agreed to pool in resources and
physiotherapist can restrictions on
extending the lockdown in areas the lockdown would continue in the number of food packages with that, we hope to help more visit your home. public movement.
that have reported more cases. the state till April 30. from 8,000 meals to 12,500 meal people,” said Shetty.
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, MUMBA I
T UESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
sp t g t
htspotlight
‘Drop in non-Covid deaths for
March compared to past 3 yrs’
STUDY Number 1.4K fewer than March 2019; BMC says awareness due to virus and lockdown led to change
Eeshanpriya M S
eeshanpriya@htlive.com
n
MUMBAI : The city saw 5,669 non-
Covid deaths in March, a drop
from 7,155 reported in the month
in 2019, 7,436 in March 2018 and
7,815 in 2017, according to a study
compiled by the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The state government began
its staggered lockdown since
March 12, when gymnasiums and
swimming pools were closed. On
March 13, schools and cinema
halls were notified to be closed,
and March 14, malls were notified
to be closed. A strict work from
home advisory for all was issued
around March 19-March 20.
Maharashtra has been on a com-
plete lockdown since March 25.
Local trains in Mumbai stopped
working on March 22.
Authorities have attributed
the drop to early diagnosis, as
people are urgently seeking med-
ical advice for any illness or ail-
ment and maintaining strict per-
sonal hygiene, even in densely
populated areas with community
toilets, amid Covid-19 outbreak
and the lockdown. The lockdown
and shutting of public transport
have reduced the deaths owing to
road accidents, trauma, Mum-
bai’s suburban train and tracks-
related accidental deaths, and
crimes.
“We got the numbers and
noticed today that there is a 24%
reduction in mortality. Everyone
is maintaining very strict per-
sonal hygiene, people are eating
better, and upping their immu-
nity to safeguard against Cov-
id-19, so there are fewer deaths
due to other vector-borne dis-
eases. These are our obvious
inferences and need to be vetted
with examples and case studies.
That will take some time,” said
Suresh Kakani, additional
municipal commissioner, who is
With vegetable,
fruit supplies hit,
Vishu festivities to
remain low-key
MUMBAI: The irregular supply of
fruits and vegetables in and
around Mumbai has dampened
the festivities of the Malayalee
New Year Vishu, which falls on
Tuesday.
On the festival of Vishu, which
is also celebrated by some Tamili-
ans, families place a variety of
fruits, vegetables, rice, orna-
ments, money and laburnum
flowers before a mirror and idols
of Gods at their homes, which sig-
nify the hope of prosperity for the
coming year.
This year however, citizens
said they are unable to source
vegetables such as snake gourd,
yellow cucumber, jackfruit and
laburnum flowers, which form
the crux of the festivities.
Shyamala Venkataraman, a
resident of Brindavan, Thane,
said, “Since the past two days,
shops selling vegetables in the
area have been shut down. We
also have to place fruits such as
bananas and mangoes before the
deity, but nothing is available.”
The Asthika Samaj in
Matunga, where thousands of
members of the Malayalee com-
munity gather for cultural events
on Vishu each year, is also gear-
ing up for a low-key affair this
time. “There is a shortage of even
betel leaves and laburnum flow-
ers,” said Sunder Ramakrishnan,
secretary of the Samaj. “We have
to make do with whatever is
available,” he said.
The wholesale Agricultural
Produce Market Committee
(APMC) market in Vashi, from
where the city sources vegeta-
bles, has been shut, while retail
markets have been shifted and
vegetable vendors have been
asked to shut shops in contain-
ment zones, owing to which the
supply has been irregular in
many areas and has resulted in
the higher prices.
Priyanka Muthuswamy, a res-
ident of Mulund, said, “Celebra-
tions apart, vendors are charging
a lot for fruits and vegetables.
Even a small-sized watermelon
costs ₹100.”
The festival also marks prepa-
ration of a ‘sadhya’ or an elabo-
rate feast served on banana
leaves. However, many house-
holds have decided to abstain
from the celebrations consider-
ing the present scenario. Prabha
Sreenivasan, a Vashi resident,
said, “At a time, when lakhs of
daily-wage workers are strug-
gling to get two square meals, we
can’t be preparing a feast.”
TANUSHREE VENKATRAMAN
24% REDUCTION IN MORTALITY, SAYS BMC
The number of (non-Covid) deaths in March dropped in 2020, compared to the deaths recorded over the past three years, according to
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data
Deaths recorded in Mumbai in March
22,972
7,815
2017
incharge of BMC’s health depart-
ment.
Experts have also attributed
this to absence of industrial acci-
dents as factories are shut, better
lifestyle due to reduced incidents
of immediate and high pressure
leading to heart attacks or hyper-
tension, fewer incidents of
asthma attacks due to a cleaner
environment and reduced medi-
cal surgeries.
V Ranganathan, a retired
n Chaityabhoomi in Dadar will remain shut on Dr Babasaheb
Ambedkar’s birth anniversary on Tuesday.
State forms 9-member
task force of doctors
MUMBAI: To bring down the state’s
high mortality rate, the Maha-
rashtra government, following
chief minister Uddhav Thack-
eray’s directives, formed a nine-
member task force of specialist
doctors from government and
private hospitals on Monday to
suggest measures. Until Sunday,
the state’s coronavirus mortality
rate was 7.41%, with 149 deaths
and 1,982 positive cases as against
the 3.35% of the rest of the country
(307 deaths).
“It has been noticed that the
death rate of patients in the Mum-
bai Metropolitan Region is higher
than the state and national aver-
age. Hence, it has been decided to
constitute a task force of special-
ist doctors to suggest measures to
minimise death rate and clinical
management of Covid-19 patients
that are critically ill,” an order
Kandivli society sets up disinfectant shower
livingin
lockdown
Yesha Kotak
n yesha.kotak@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI:At Ibis tower at Kandivli,
residents used the set-up in their
premises, which was used for
rain dance during events, and
turned it into a disinfectant
shower. The set-up is on the lines
of sanitisation chambers
installed at several places such as
police stations and hospitals.
At this 84-apartment housing
society with around 200 resi-
dents, sanitisers were being kept
at gates and near elevator. But the
Total deaths from Jan to March in Mumbai
23,047 23,276
7,436 7,155
2018 2019
bureaucrat and former munici-
pal commissioner of Mumbai,
said, “This is not a unique case. It
has happened before. During the
1917 flu epidemic, or more
recently in Canada, when all
medical professions were on a
45-day strike, the mortality
reduced. Right now, the number
of medical surgeries for other ail-
ments has gone down. Serious
medical surgeries have a chance
of not being successful, and hence
AALOK SONI/HT
issued by chief secretary Ajoy
Mehta stated.
The task force has been asked
to submit its recommendations
urgently to chief minister
Uddhav Thackeray. Through a
hotline, these doctors will also
provide their inputs to the other
doctors treating Covid-19
patients across the state. The
order also stated steps such as
recommending suitable drug
protocol to maintain uniformity
in treating critically-ill Covid-19
patients, establishing patients’
management protocol for criti-
cally- ill patients, recommending
the requirement of specialist
health care staff in hospitals dedi-
cated for the epidemic treatment,
recommending logistical
requirement to transfer critical
patients from different hospitals,
among others. FAISAL MALIK
n The sanitising shower at Ibis tower, Kandivli.
residents then thought they
needed a full-body sanitisation
machine because people in the
21,167
5,669
2020
n Civic
officials
disinfect a
site on
Durgadi
RoB in
Kalyan on
Monday.
RISHIKESH
CHOUDHARY/
HT
contribute to mortality rate.
There is also the general atten-
tion to hygiene, upped immunity,
and zero industrial accidents, no
road accidents... “
Rakesh Maria, who was
former commissioner of Mum-
bai, said, “Reduced traffic acci-
dents, train accidents, and crime
definitely play a role in mortality
rate. People are indoors. How-
ever, we cannot draw an infer-
ence from this that everyone
Police form 3 special teams
to stop those stepping out
Faisal Tandel
n faisal.tandel@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police on
Sunday lodged 199 FIRs against
people for violating lockdown
orders. Of these cases, 77 (almost
39%) were reported from the cen-
tral region which has the maxi-
mum Covid-19 cases in the city.
To ensure the pandemic does
not spread further, police in cen-
tral region formed special teams
specifically to stop and, if need
be, arrest people found loitering
and roaming unnecessarily.
“We have formed three spe-
cial police teams only to stop peo-
ple who are violating the norms
and are unnecessarily roaming
on roads. We are lodging FIRs
against such people and are also
using loud speakers to raise
awareness on social distancing,”
said Sukhlal Varpe, senior
inspector, Worli police station.
With around 550 Covid-19
patients from Central region,
BMC has marked a number of
areas as containment zones.
As these areas have a number
of big slums like Dharavi, Nag-
pada, Jijamata Nagar, Worli
Koliwada, the police are finding
it hard to maintain social dis-
tancing. A senior police officer
said, “The chances of commu-
nity spread is high in slums. So
we have served notices under
Criminal Procedure Code and
taken action under the Bombay
Police Act against thousands of
people asking them not to
indulge in any unlawful activity
and to stop them from loitering.”
PRAMOD THAKUR/HT
society were often stepping out
due to various reasons.
Mehul Vithalani, a real estate
THE REASONS
According to the inference drawn
by BMC, the reasons are:
HEALTHCARE
Amid Covid-19 outbreak
and lockdown, people
are urgently seeking
medical help for any
illness or ailment, helping
in early diagnosis
HYGIENE
People are maintaining
strict personal hygiene,
even in densely
populated areas
ACCIDENTS
There have been fewer
road accidents, trauma
deaths and crimes
IMMUNITY
People are eating better,
and upping their
immunity to protect
themselves against
Covid-19
*BMC is yet to verify these reasons
with actual numbers
must stay at home at all times
even after Covid-19 has passed.”
Dr Sanjay Pattiwar, public
health consultant from Navi
Mumbai, said, “Heart and hyper-
tension patients are relieved as
they are with family. With social
distancing, spread of communi-
cable diseases has gone down.
Similarly, diseases such as gas-
troenteritis and diarrhoea have
reduced as people are not eating
out.”
n A sanitisation chamber set up for Vashi policemen.
1 MORE CORPORATOR BOOKED
NAVI MUMBAI:Another BJP
corporator Ravindra Ithape
was booked for violating
lockdown orders in Navi
Mumbai after he allegedly
stepped out for a morning
walk on Saturday. Ithape,
who is the leader of the
house at the Navi Mumbai
municipal corporation,
denied the charge.
“We have registered a
case against Ithape and 17
others who were out on
morning walk on Satur-
Of the 77 FIRs on Sunday in
central region, 71 are for gather-
ing in one place. The remaining
six FIRs are against shops oper-
ating despite being counted in
non-essential services.
Apart from central region, 45
FIRs were reported from west-
consultant and a resident, said
after the lockdown was
announced, people from his soci-
ety would have to go out to pur-
chase groceries, vegetables and
fruits. However in a bid to restrict
movement, the society tied up
with a vendor to provide vegeta-
bles and fruits inside the society
premises every alternate day. In
addition, a pharmacist, who is a
resident of the society, assured
that all medicines will be deliv-
ered to residents’ doorsteps.
“People just want a reason to
step out. Earlier it was groceries,
now people venture out to go to
bank and we cannot stop them
from that. Hence, we thought that
we need to make arrangement for
sanitising the whole body instead
of just hands,” said Vithalani.
In an open market such cham-
hindustantimes
LOCKDOWN, SHUT
HOSPITALS LEAVE
DIALYSIS PATIENTS
IN CITY IN A LURCH
MUMBAI: With hospitals and
ambulance services that provide
dialysis to those with kidney fail-
ure being impacted by the Cov-
id-19 outbreak, many patients
are faced with potentially life-
threatening situations.
For those with kidney failure,
dialysis is essential as it removes
toxins from their blood. “If a
patient misses on his/her weekly
dialysis, the toxins and fluid in
the body get mixed with blood,
which can even prove fatal,” said
Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant
physician at Bombay Hospital.
Shushrusha Hospital in
Dadar closed down its dialysis
centre on April 8 after two staff-
ers tested positive for Covid-19.
On Monday, six more Covid-pos-
itive cases have been reported,
two of them doctors. The health
department’s guidelines require
dialysis centres to become opera-
tional 24 hours after fumigation,
but Shushrusha Hospital is yet to
restart operations, which places
patients like Jitendra Tandel in
a precarious situation. “If I don’t
undergo my pending dialysis by
tomorrow, toxicity will build up
in my body and I may even die as
there will be a gap of four days,”
said Tandel.
The lockdown has also made it
difficult for patients to reach
dialysis centres. Mulund resi-
dent Vitaldas Bhatt, 75, said the
ambulance service on the tele-
phone number 108 refused to
transport his 65-year-old wife,
who is handicapped, to the dialy-
sis centre. Vasai resident Kam-
lesh Anuja, 40, said he was har-
assed by the police when he was
going to the dialysis centre that
is about 5 kilometres from his
home.
Some social groups are trying
to help patients make alternative
arrangements. One such group,
Kidney Warriors Foundation,
said there is also a shortage of
dialyzers (an artificial kidney
which filters the blood) blood
thinners.
RUPSA CHAKRABORTY
BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT
day,” said Dinkar Mohite,
senior inspector at CBD
Belapur police station.
Ithape said, “I was not jog-
ging. I told the constable that
I am a corporator and I had
gone to the hospital to check
on a patient. However, after
explaining to the officers, I
was allowed to go.”
On Friday, another BJP
corporator from Panvel
Ajay Bahira was booked for
organising his birthday
party. FARHAN SHAIKH
ern suburbs, which has the most
Covid-19 cases after central
region, followed by 42 in eastern
suburbs, 29 in north region and
six in south Mumbai, which has
reported less than 50 Covid-19
cases so far.
(With inputs from Jayprakash Naidu)
bers can cost ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh.
However, members of Ibis tower
made the shower at the cost of
approximately ₹20,000. A water
and sodium hypochlorite solu-
tion is sprayed using this.
However, experts said such
chambers are not required as a
bath with warm water, disinfec-
tant and soap is enough when a
person returns from outside.
“Personally, I don’t think such
disinfectants should be used on
body, because sodium hypochlo-
rite is a surface cleanser and is
not meant to be used on skin.
Also, I had recently read about a
study, which said such chambers
could do more harm than good,”
said Dr Preeti Mehta, former pro-
fessor and head of microbiology
department at King Edward
Memorial hospital.
CORONAVIRUS: METRO
virusupdates
CONG SLAMS MODI
GOVT FOR BIAS
OVER CSR FUNDS
MUMBAI: The state Congress has
slammed the Centre for bias
against Maharashtra in its time of
need by not granting a go ahead
to the CM’s Relief Fund to accept
funds under CSR even though the
same has been permitted for the
recently formed PM Cares Fund.
PM Cares Fund was formed
recently to tackle coronavirus. BJP
has pointed out that the law
amending Companies Act to allow
for CSR only in PM relief fund was
enacted in 2013. HTC
53 ANIMALS EDU DEPT ROLLS
RESCUED IN THANE OUT E-LEARNING
AMID LOCKDOWN CONTENT
THANE: The animal welfare
association in Thane has received
a number of calls about rescuing
animals during the lockdown and
has rescued around 50 animals.
Wildlife Welfare Association
(WWA) from Thane, said, “We
usually received 1 or 2 calls a day
generally, but since lockdown we
are receiving 2 to 5 calls a day. We
rescued 53 different animals from
Thane and neighbouring areas.”
PRIYANKA DHOMSE
MAN ARRESTED
FOR FORGING BMC
IDENTITY CARD
MUMBAI: A 25-year-old was
booked by Oshiwara police for
allegedly forging the BMC
identity card so that he can travel
freely and dodge police checking
during the ongoing lockdown.
The accused, Shahare Alam Khan
is a resident of Behrampada. On
Saturday evening, Khan was
stopped by police at the check
post. Khan told police that he was
employed with civic body. He was
held for forging BMC card. HTC
STATE DEPLOYS 40
SRPF COMPANIES
AT HOTSPOTS
MUMBAI: State government has
deployed nearly 40 companies of
the State Reserve Police Force
(SRPF) in the zones which have
been earmarked as Covid-19
hotspots. Maharashtra home
minister Anil Deshmukh said that
the government may even deploy
Rapid Action Force (RAF) or
Central Reserve Police (CRPFs)
Force if the need be to contain the
spread of the virus. The state
government had last week
decided to deploy the SRPF in
addition to the local police to
ensure effective implementation
of the lockdown. HTC
Palghar soap unit blast
leaves 3 dead, two hurt
PALGHAR: Three workers died and
two were injured in a major
explosion at Galaxy Surfactants
soap unit, in Plot M3 of Tarapur
chemical zone on Monday.
The victims — Vijay Sawant,
44, Sameer Khoja, 48; and Runal
Raut, 35 — along with the injured
Akhil Raut, 30, and Pranit Raut,
32, were working at the surfac-
tant unit, which manufactures
raw materials for sanitisers,
soap, detergent, and other prod-
ucts, at the time of the blast. Akhil
and Pranit were admitted to a
Boisar hospital, said Pradip
Kasbe, inspector, Boisar MIDC
police station.
IIT-B designs online
platform to track
availability of PPE
Priyanka Sahoo
n priyanka.sahoo@htlive.com
MUMBAI: A group of researchers
at the Indian Institute of Technol-
ogy-Bombay (IIT-B) have
designed an online platform,
PPETracker, to track the require-
ment and availability of personal
protective equipment (PPE) as
well as the details of manufactur-
ers producing the kits, in real
time. The team aims to connect
the supply and demand chain of
PPE after a thorough verification
process to provide the required
equipment to hospitals on time.
The platform highlights hospi-
tals and medical colleges requir-
ing PPEs as red spots on Maha-
rashtra’s map. By clicking on the
spots, one can see the units of
items required. At the same time,
the map also shows places where
these items are being manufac-
tured on small and large scales.
Both spots will have contact
details so that the demand and
supply chain is made easy.
The development comes even
03
DISINFECTION
CHAMBER AT
BHUSAVAL TO
DISCONTINUE
MUMBAI: The Central Railways
set up a disinfection chamber at a
loco shed in Bhusaval, Jalgaon, it
has decided to uninstall the
tunnel on Monday. The decision
was taken after health experts
raised questions on the safety of
the tunnel. The move has left a
number of state bodies confused
as such chambers having been
installed at hospitals, police vans
and other places.
BADRI CHATTERJEE
MUMBAI: The state education
department started rolling out
digital learning content to
students in government and
aided schools across Maharashtra
on Monday (April 13). The stu-
dents from Class 1 to 9 can watch
videos, listen to recorded lessons
on phones. The content is posted
on the Diksha app. Students
would be sent a set of links, and
they can access this content as per
their convenience. HTC
MAN BOOKED FOR
SANITISATION
DRIVE SANS NOD
NAVI MUMBAI: A social activist
and four sanitation workers were
booked for allegedly conducting a
sanitisation drive at a housing
society at Kamothe without
approval. Happy Singh, a resident
of Kamothe, was spraying sodium
hydrochlorite solution on the
premises on Sunday when Panvel
civic body official found that
Singh did not have permission.
They have been booked for
violation of orders. HTC
TRAIN SERVICES
MAY RESUME
AFTER APRIL 30
MUMBAI: As the 21 days lockdown
owing to the spread of coronavi-
rus will end on Tuesday, both the
Central and Western Railway have
stated train services are not likely
to resume. “Train services will not
resume in the city. Local train
services could resume after April
30 if there is reduction in cases.
Discussion with railway ministry
reveals that it will not be advisa-
ble to commence local train
operations.” said a Western
Railway official. Earlier, restrictive
train movements were being
planned in yellow and green
zones. HTC
The blast occurred at around
11.30am in the reactor where the
surfactants were being manufac-
tured. The management had
sought permission from the Pal-
ghar collector to allow staff to
work during the lockdown. At
the time of the mishap, 67 work-
ers were present in the unit. Two
fire tenders controlled the result-
ant fire due to the blast.
“We have registered an acci-
dental death report and the post-
mortem reports are awaited. We
will file a case after we receive a
report from the Director of Indus-
trial Safety and Health(DISH),
Vasai.” RAM PARMAR
as the frontline workers such as
doctors, nurses and security per-
sonnel have raised concerns of
shortage of PPEs such as hazmat
suits, N-95 masks, surgical gloves
and body coveralls while dealing
with the coronavirus outbreak in
the city.
The team of researchers have
been led by fourth year PhD stu-
dent K Naga Bhavya Jyothi. “The
doctor-patient ratio in the coun-
try is 1:1,445. It is not possible to
flatten the Covid-19 curve if the
PPE shortage continues, as front-
line workers will be exposed to
the virus. We got in touch with a
group of PPE suppliers and man-
ufacturers across the country
and traced them,” said Jyothi.
Meanwhile, the faculty and
students of the institute have also
been producing masks and gloves
and distributing to health work-
ers across the city. Another group
of alumni have designed a low-
cost sanitisation box using a plas-
tic dustbin that can sanitise
essential items such as phone,
wallets and keys.
04 hindustantimes HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0

spotlight
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: NATION

India’s 5 most populous states

DISPATCH adopt distinct Covid strategies
27 HT Correspondents

THE SPREAD OF COVID-19

n letters@hindustantimes.com

MUMBAI/LUCKNOW/KOLKATA/BHOPAL/
PATNA: As the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) continues to spread, Total confirmed cases including new cases added on April 13 New cases Recovered cases
India’s most populated states
have adopted both common, and
distinct, strategies to deal with UT J&K UT Ladakh
the pandemic.
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, 270 25 16 17 2 12
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and West
Bengal account for one-third of Himachal Pradesh Uttar Pradesh
total 10,444 Covid-19 cases in Punjab 33 0 12 550 67 47
India and about 40% of the coun-
try’s 1.21 billion population in
2011. Being densely populated,
176 6 25
the probability of rapid spread of
Chandigarh Arunachal
Covid-19 in these states was and Haryana 21 0 7 Pradesh

Covid-19: What remains higher than in less popu-

lated southern and Himalayan
states. They are also more vul-
nerable because they house
about 60% of 1.3 million migrant
196 1 37 Uttarakhand
35 0 7
1 0 0
Assam

you need to labourers in shelters across

India. While providing food to all,
including about 20 million poor
citizens in these states, was a
Delhi
1510 356
31
30 1 0

know today
challenge, the state governments
adhered to health ministry’s Nagaland
guideline of testing and strong
Covid-19 cluster management.
But they also opted for state Rajasthan I N D I A 1 1 0
R Sukumar
specific models that helped in
containing the spread. Maha- 897 101 Tripura
rashtra opted for aggressive test- 133 2 0 0

A
t 10am today (Tuesday, April 14), Prime Minister ing (42,000 so far) and created the
Narendra Modi will announce if and how India most number of containment
will exit the three-week lockdown, which came zones in cities; UP ensured that Gujarat
Bihar Manipur
into effect on 25 March and is scheduled to end at the virus is restricted to 41 of the
572 56
midnight.
For three weeks, life and work across India
75 districts; Bihar focused more
on isolating migrant workers and 54 65 1 29 2 0 1
have been upended. There is no doubt that the screening of all foreigners; MP
lockdown has prevented the march of the corona- came across as lax initially before Jharkhand
virus disease (Covid-19) to some extent; people ramping up screening and test- Madhya Pradesh Mizoram
have spent time in self-isolation, and all estab- ing; and Bengal termed its plan as 24 7 0 1 0 0
lishments and offices other than those providing containment with “humane
face”. Here is what each state did
614 52
essential services have been closed (with people
51 Odisha
working from home or not at all), breaking possi-
over the past month: West Bengal
ble chains of infection.
MAHARASHTRA
55 1 13 152 27
But the economy has taken a hit and may take The state’s approach to Covid-19 Chhattisgarh
months to recover; millions have been rendered
jobless (mostly in the unorganised sector); agri-
infection and management has
31 1 10 Telangana 29
been distinct. It got most of the
STRIKING cultural and industrial supply chains are broken. 592 61 103
initial Covid-19 patients from for- Andaman
A BALANCE The government has to find a way of balan- eign travelers, unlike other popu-
and Nicobar
Like most countries
cing two situations that, on the face of it, look like lated states, where the infection MAHARASHTRA
fighting the
pandemic, India too
they cannot be balanced.
The Prime Minister’s comments during a
came primarily from secondary
sources or attendees of Tablighi 2334 352 229
Andhra Pradesh 11 0
has to find a way to
balance the
meeting with chief ministers on Saturday and
reports on the thinking within the government
Jamaat congregation in Nizam-
uddin Delhi in mid-March. After
439 19 12 10
economic costs of suggest that the lockdown could be partially a rapid rise in the cases with an
Goa Puducherry
10,444
enforcing a strict lifted – by geographies and businesses, and, even average of more than 150 positive
lockdown and
retain curbs that
within these, in parts. cases and 12 deaths a day over last
ten days, the state shifted focus on
7 0 5 8 0 1
India’s dilemma isn’t unique. Other countries
can slow the virus’s the containment zones in Mum- Total number of
spread that have declared a lockdown to fight the spread
bai, adjacent areas, and other cit- cases across India*
of the disease are debating how and when to end
it (even as they mull the health costs of not
ies such as Pune that accounted Karnataka Kerala Tamil Nadu
enforcing one, and the economic costs of enforc-
ing one).
Even Italy and Spain, two countries ravaged
for 90 % of the total positive
patients and 91 % of total deaths.
The state has more than 400 con-
tainment zones, including 381 in
247 15 60 378 3 200 1173 98 58 355
Deaths due to
by the pandemic (20,465 and 17,489 dead till Mon- *Data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’s correspondents and news agencies Covid-19 across India
Mumbai alone, highest for any
day) have announced steps to restart some busi- city. “We have decided to concen-
ness activity. trate on the most affected areas of
The key to this, everyone agrees, is antibody Mumbai Metropolitan Region
testing. Widespread and rapid antibody testing and Pune by strictly implement- PEOPLE TESTED TOTAL TESTS DONE
can help identify those who have been exposed to ing the lockdown. There are hot
individuals tested by 9pm on samples tested

RESTARTING
BUSINESSES
The key to restarting
the virus and are, therefore, immune to it. These
people can then safely return to work – without
the risk of infecting others, or themselves getting
infected.
For almost two weeks now, officials in the
spots identified, in the contain-
ment zones, with the highest posi-
tive cases and they will be strictly
monitored,” said state home min-
ister Rajesh Tope.
As on Monday, 2334 people had
202,551 April 13, 2020, according data
released by India Council of
Medical Research (ICMR) 217,554 by April 13,
2020, accord-
ing to ICMR

health ministry and the Indian Council of Medi-

economic activity lies tested positive and 149 had died.
cal Research have spoken of these rapid tests,
in conducting anti- to officials, 11 committees were 41 deaths, 30 were from Indore. may not have tested aggressively The state, with 95 Covid positive
body tests. Wide- which they plan to use to test for infections in
UTTAR PRADESH set up to oversee the situation. UP Additional chief secretary, enough. Less than 8000 tests have cases and seven deaths, has been
spread and rapid clusters and so-called containment zones. These
The state focused. on 41 districts, was the first state to announce health, Mohd Suleman, been carried out so far. State warned by the home ministry for
antibody testing can tests, it was held out by these people, would also
from where Covid-19 cases were financial relief of ₹1000 to half a appointed head of department a chief secretary Deepak Kumar, not enforcing lockdown norms
help identify those improve India’s abysmal testing statistic (137 per reported and adopted a multi- million workers, daily wagers week back after the incumbent however, said the state tested all strictly. CM Mamata Banerjee,
who have been million). The kits had been ordered (from China) pronged strategy of aggressive and vendors. UP so far has 550 officer reported Covid-19 posi- international passengers who however, had said they had opted
exposed to the virus and were on their way, the officials said. All good; identification of hot spots, inten- Covid-19 cases with 190 hot spots tive, said, “Our strategy has four came between March 18 and 23 for “lockdown with humane face”
and are, therefore, except for one problem. The kits have already
immune to it. These sification of restrictions and crea- in 41 districts. components — Identification, and all symptomatic cases, who and imposed complete clamp-
missed two deadlines. The officials are now hop- tion of new health facilities com- Isolation, Test and Treatment came between March 15 and 17, down in Covid-19 hotspots.
people can then safely
return to work
ing they will meet a third (April 15) (see page 1). bined with relief to people. MADHYA PRADESH (IITT).” He said any area visited were also tested. It identified “Some areas where people
Separately, Indian states have also been try- UP chief secretary RK Tiwari With a full Cabinet not yet in by a foreigner or known for ILI around 3,556 international trav- have tested positive for Covid-19,
ing to order these kits, but without much success. said that the UP model of “aggres- place after the formation of the (Influenza like illness) is declared elers between March 15 and 23 and there is a threat of the disease
A minister in Tamil Nadu said last week that kits sive action to identify and act” new government, and 72 health a containment zone. Door to door and samples of 2,254 people, who spreading, have been totally
his state ordered were diverted to the US. There’s has been appreciated by the Cen- department officials tested as survey is done. “The test is then were within the 14-day incuba- sealed,” said a health department
clearly a shortage of these kits, and because tre and others states have been Covid-19 positive, containing the either done of high risk persons tion period, were taken for tests. official, on the condition of ano-
countries have figured out that these are the easi- asked to follow. When the pan- disease has proved to be a chal- eat home or at a testing centre,” Bihar also followed the model nymity. The state has formed an
est, fastest, and most efficient way of deciding demic first broke out, there was lenge for chief minister, Shivraj he said, adding that fourth com- of containment zones, said San- advisory body roping in interna-
who gets to return to work, that shortage could not even a single testing lab in the Singh Chouhan. ponent is treating people .” There jay Kumar, Bihar’s principal sec- tional experts (such as Nobel lau-
intensify. state. Now, the state has 10 labs The data provided by the state are 282 containment areas. retary, health. For instance, reate economist Abhijit Baner-
and more are come up, he said. government shows that Covid-19 Panjwar village of Siwan district, jee) . The state has been criticised
Meanwhile, the state-owned HLL Lifecare,
The spurt in Covid-19 cases in has primarily been restricted to BIHAR where 23 of the 29 cases were for opaque information system
THE DELAYS which last week said that it would begin produc-
UP has been substantially attrib- Indore and Bhopal, even though With 65 cases in the state of 100 reported, was declared ‘red zone’ on Covid with the health bulletins
tion of similar rapid testing kits on Monday
Among the challen- uted to the Tablighi Markaz . cases have been reported from 21 million people, the Bihar govern- and complete barricading of the providing information only on
ges faced by India (April 13), will now do so only later this week Additional chief secretary, of the 52 districts. Of the 614 cases, ment has now opened its outpa- village was done . Places visited active cases. Officials, however,
include receiving kits because it has just received clearances to do so. Home, Avanish Awasthi said 50% Indore had 311 patients and Bho- tient facilities for all, the first big by Jamaat attendees were sani- explained that the information
in time to conduct When Israel fell short of the RT-PCR kits of the cases in the state are linked pal 134. Overall, MP has 7.29% state to do so, in an indication of tised and mosques, where they was being provided only after vet-
rapid tests. Already needed to test for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that to Jamaat and the administration death rate while in Indore the the state’s confidence that the sit- were staying were sealed. ting by experts, who termed most
two deadlines have causes Covid-19, it deployed its spy agency got them quarantined as soon as death rate of 9.64%, higher than uation was under control. deaths because of co-morbidity.
been missed to Mossad to source kits. In March, the agency they were identified. According the national average of 3.4. Of the Experts however believe the state WEST BENGAL (With inputs from state bureaus)
receive testing kits delivered, sourcing half-a-million kits (in two
from China, while
batches) from undisclosed countries.
Indian states that
have been trying to
procure them said
they have been
unable to
India has to realise that sourcing the rapid
kits could mean the difference between a func-
tioning economy (or, at the least, a partially func-
tioning one) and an economy in lockdown.
4 new containment zones take Delhi total to 47
Ashish Mishra “The patient from Patel Nagar patient used to work at Agrasen
n ashish.mishra2@htlive.com is admitted to a private hospital Hospital. He tested positive two
and as per the hospital, the days ago. Lanes around his
NEWDELHI:The Delhi government patient had a travel history to a house have already been disin-
on Monday declared four new foreign country. One positive fected. Two more cases were sus-
Covid-19 containment zones, case was reported from Krishna pected in the locality but their
taking the total of such zones in Apartment. The patient from test reports were negative.”
htweather the national capital to 47. Madipur JJ colony is a contrac- Sant Nagar in central Delhi
While three new containment tual employee. Contact tracing of was declared a containment zone
ALMANAC TEMPERATURE
Today is
zones are in west Delhi district, these cases is on. The area on Monday, after a person tested
14th April 2020 IN FOUR METROS one is in central Delhi. Till Mon- around these locations have positive for Covid-19. With this,
l 19 Shaban 1441 Delhi day evening, Delhi recorded been made containment zones,” there are four containment
TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY l Vaishakha, Krishna
Mainly clear sky Mainly clear sky Mainly clear sky Paksha, 7 39°c I 22°c 1,510 Covid-19 cases and 28 n An MCD worker sprays disinfectant at Police Lines. Medical a west district official, request- zones in central Delhi, which has
l Samvat 2077 Mumbai deaths students have been roped in to help with checks. SANCHIT KHANNA/HT ing not to be named, said. reported 13 deaths due to Cov-
Sunset: Tuesday
at 06:55 p.m.
34°c I 26°c Days after five persons, from He added that community id-19 so far. DM (central) Nidhi
Sunrise: Wednesday
Kolkata the same family, tested positive middle-class neighbourhood. Patel Nagar and a JJ cluster in screening will be started in these Srivastava said Balaji Apart-
at 06:21 a.m.
34°c I 26°c 36°c I 26°c 35°c I 26°c Moonrise: Wednesday 37°c I 26°c for Covid-19 in Paschim Vihar, With this, there are two contain- Madipur after one case each was localities from Tuesday. Madi- ments, in Sant Nagar, Burari,
at 01:23 a.m. Chennai another case was reported from ment zones in Paschim Vihar. reported from these areas. There pur councillor and mayor South was included in the list of con-
• • Moonset: Wednesday 35°c I 25°c the area but from a different The other two containment are now seven containment Delhi Municipal Corporation tainment zones after one person
at 00:39 p.m.
locality — Krishna Apartment, a zones in west Delhi are East zones in west Delhi district. Sunita Kangra said, “Madipur tested positive a few days ago.
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, MUMBA I
T UESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0 hindustantimes 05

p g
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: SCIENCE & NATION

WHERE INDIA’S BATTLE STANDS

2
NATION AT A CRUCIAL
The steep graphs of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases across the world paint an alarming picture even as the human cost of JUNCTURE
the pandemic continues to mount, with over 117,000 dead and nearly 1.9 million infected. With India crossing 10,000 cases, we India has fared better than many countries so far. While India’s
curve has been nowhere as steep as most of the other countries
take a look at where the country stands when its infection numbers are compared to other countries ravaged by the virus.

1
we see here, it remains steadily planted on a path where it is
doubling every 4-5 days and has shown no signs of dropping.
UNDERSTANDING THE PANDEMIC IN THE MIDDLE
To ensure that we compare countries going through the same phase of the outbreak, for each nation, we have taken Day 1 as the first day they reported With the worst-performing countries bunched up far above India and the best performing ones such as Japan
more than 100 cases. These charts show that within about 20 days of the outbreak, China fared poorly, at times, even straying above the ‘doubles every far below, the country appears to be paving its own path on the chart. On Day 30, it is vital at this point for
the country to bring its curve down before it inches closer to the ‘doubles every three days’ mark.
day’ line. However, by Day 20, China managed to bring its curve down and around this point, nations such as the US, Italy, Spain and Germany started
1 million
posting soaring new infections. But, in the past few days, as can be seen in the flattening of the curve, these countries appear to have curbed their YS YS

DAY
DA DA
alarming numbers, with all of them dropping below the ‘doubles every three days’ line. Y2 Y3

RY
ER VER

EVE
EV SE
China Germany INDIA France Italy LE
S BLE

S
100000 U
UB DO

BLE
DO

DOU
Japan South Korea Spain US UK CASES
1 million INDIA
UNITED 555,313 10,444
DAY

10000
S
DAY
EEK
Why a logarthmic scale? S DAY 30 ERY W
LES EV
AY 3
STATES DAY 42
RY

RY DOUB
2D
In order to understand the rate
EVE
EVE

of change in exponential terms, Y ES

ER UBL
S

EV
which is crucial for viral 1000
BLE

S DO
outbreaks where cases multiply LE
DOU

overnight, we must see the UB DOUBLES EVERY MONTH

DO
100000 data on a logarithmic scale to 100
enable us to chart out drops in
infection rates more accurately. Day 1 Day 50

COMPARING THE RISING NUMBER OF DEATHS

In terms of the rising number of deaths in India, we see a similar trend as we did for cases. India remains in the
‘4-to-5 day’ doubling rate. What is alarming is that India is slowly drifting far above the better performing
CASES nations such as South Korea and Japan that managed to keep their deaths low. As a cautionary tale, India
10000 INDIA S EVER
Y WEE
K must be wary of its proximity to the chart plotted by the US – a model that is best avoided.
L E
10,444 DOUB 100000
YS

DAY
DA YS
DA
DAY 30 Y2 Y3

RY
ER VER

EVE
EV SE
LE
S BLE

S
10000 U

BLE
UB DO
DO

DOU
1000 1000 DEATHS
EEK
INDIA LES EV
ERY W
DOUB
355
DAY 23
DOUBLES EVERY MONTH 100

DOUBLES EVERY MONTH

10
100
Day 1 Day 50
DAY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

3
FOR THE WEST, UNITED STATES SPAIN ITALY SOUTH KOREA
FINALLY A BIT 1 million 1 million 1 million 1 million

10,423
In terms of the rise in the
total number of cases, by
Day 30, India just crossed

OF RELIEF
100000 100000 100000 South Korea, a nation that is
100000 DAY 50 an example for the rest of
the world. While cases in
For many western nations that have 10000 10000 10000 South Korea spiked in the
become the new hot spots of the 555,313 161,807 152,271 10000 initial days, it managed to
plateau its cases around the
pandemic, the charts hint at some 1000 DAY 42 1000 DAY 42 1000 DAY 50 9,000-case mark. At the
relief. While the number of cases in start of the outbreak, South
1000 Korea was doubling its cases
countries such as the US, Italy and 100 100 100 every two days, but since
Spain remain rising at a high rate, the Day 1 Day 50 Day 1 Day 50 Day 1 Day 50 then, it has managed to
curves have finally edged below the drop its doubling rate to
The exponential rate of case growth that countries such as the United States, Spain and Italy have seen in the initial 100
over a week.
‘doubles every three days’ line. stages of the pandemic appears to be finally relenting. Day 1 Day 50

GRAPHIC: MUKESH SHARMA; SOURCE: JOHNS HOPINS UNIVERSITY

For now, doctors bank on HCQ, antibiotic Dip in electricity

TREATMENT Administered orally, HCQ and
azithromycin have worked; efficacy of plasma
therapy needs to be tested by Indian experts
Sanchita Sharma
n sanchitasharma@htlive.com
Agrawal.
Some clinicians are recom-
usage a slowdown
THE TREATMENT PROTOCOL
From testing samples to isolating patients to assessing clinical symptoms , a look
mending oxygenating patients
through nose tubes or other devi- indicator: Experts
ces, while some are adding nitric
patients have mild to moderate at the steps that health officials follow while treating a Covid-19 patient oxide to improve oxygen and
Jayashree Nandi
illness, with symptoms of cough,
fever and tiredness, with around
blood flow to the least damaged
parts of the lungs.
INDIA RECORDED A
ADMIT PERSON WITH COUGH/COLD/DIFFICULTY IN ADMIT PERSON WHO jayashree.nandi@htlive.com
DIP OF 18.72% IN
n

NEW DELHI: Indian doctors are
depending on a combination of a
tried and tested antimalarial
drug and an antibiotic to treat
people hospitalised in isolation
wards and intensive care units in
the absence of a specific treat-
ment for the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19).
“It is not a miracle therapy, but
this is all we have. All patients in
isolation wards are given a com-
bination of hydroxychloroquine
(HCQ) twice a day and azithromy-
cin once a day for five days, and it
has been tolerated well. No
adverse reactions have been
reported,” said Dr Yatin Mehta,
chairman, Institute of Critical
Care and Anaesthesiology, Med-
anta-the Medicity, where 15 Cov-
id-19 patients are currently being
treated, of whom three are in ICU.
Medanta also treated 14 Ital-
ians infected with the disease; 13
being discharged last month, and
one, a 78-year-old woman died.
Hydroxychloroquine and
chloroquine are oral prescription
drugs that have been used for
treatment of malaria and certain
inflammatory conditions for over
a century. Both drugs are under-
going clinical trials for pre-expo-
sure or post-exposure prophy-
laxis of Sars-CoV-2 infection, the
virus that causes Covid-19, and
treatment of patients with mild,
moderate, and severe symptoms
of Covid-19.
“Hydroxychloroquine is not
mean to be taken by healthy peo-
ple as a prophylaxis to prevent
infection, only Covid-19 patients
are being given a combination of
this drug along with the antibi-
otic azithromycin for treatment.
Antivirals have been withdrawn
by ICMR as they didn’t show
much benefit,” said Dr RR Gang-
akhedkar, chief, epidemiology,
ICMR.
The majority of Covid-19
5% developing severe pneumonia
and acute respiratory stress syn-
drome (ARDS), which is marked
by worsening respiratory symp-
toms within one week of known
clinical infection.
In India, around 2% of Covid-19
cases are in ICU, according to
ICMR, with a little more than 100
being on ventilator support
across India to treat ARDS, which
makes it difficult for a patient to
breathe without oxygenation.
“All patients with ARDS are mon-
itored closely for signs of clinical
deterioration, such as rapidly
progressive respiratory failure
and sepsis, and apply supportive
care interventions immediately,”
said Dr Mehta.
The signs of ARDS include
worsening respiratory symp-
toms within one week of known
clinical infection and chest imag-
ing, including X-rays, CT scan or
lung ultrasound, showing bilat-
eral opacities, not fully explained
by effusions, lung collapse, or
nodules.
Intensive management is
needed if the patient is a smoker
or has cardiovascular disease
and lung diseases, like asthma
and chronic obstructive respira-
tory disease, which puts them at
a higher risk of severe disease
and complications. “In patients
with chronic diseases, prescrip-
tion medication is continued,”
said Dr Mehta.
With some hospitals in the US
and Italy reporting unusually
high death rates of 65% to 80% of
Covid-19 patients despite ventila-
tor support, compared to 40-50%
for other severe acute respiratory
infections, there’s a global debate
on whether ventilating patients
could be doing certain patients
more harm than good.
“Covid-19 causes death by res-
piratory failure and cardiac
arrest, just like other severe
BREATHING TO HOSPITAL
Provide mask/isolate/send sample for testing
NEGATIVE RESULT
Treat symptomatically/
monitor for 14 days
PATIENT RESPONDS
Monitor and continue treatment
Assess clinical symptoms/ chest X-ray
Test after 14 days of first positive test
POSITIVE
Assess clinical
symptoms and
Retest
POSITIVE
pneumonias, the difference is
lack of immunity, greater sever-
ity of disease and relatively less
lung damage. These are lungs not
difficult to ventilate but there is
relatively more hypoxia. A possi-
bility is clots in blood supply to
lung, but no one is fully sure,”
said Dr Anurag Agrawal,
TESTS POSITIVE FOR
COVID-19
POSITIVE CASES
MOVE TO COVID WARD
Treat with HCQ , Azithromycin for 5 days
PATIENT DOESN'T RESPOND
Move to Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
PATIENT
RESPONDS
Continue drugs, provide oxygen
and ventilator support/ Monitor
for signs of deterioration
PATIENT
DOESN'T
RESPOND
NEGATIVE
Try convalescent plasma therapy in
clinical trial
Test again
after 24 hours
NEGATIVE DISCHARGE
director, CSIR Institute of the pressure in the lung), and sec-
Genomics and Integrative Biol- ond with normal mechanics and
ogy, New Delhi. increased dead space.
“If you see the published data The second group may have
of good quality - mostly Italian – micro-thromboembolism (clots
you see two subtypes of patients. obstructing blood flow), but
The first present with typical nobody is sure yet as there are not
ARDS needing high PEEP (posi- enough autopsies being done for
tive end-expiratory pressure is obvious reasons,” added Dr
“What does one do? You have
to oxygenate. Our experience in
treating Covid-19 patients found
non-invasive ventilation wasn’t
very effective and HFNC (high-
flow nasal cannula) didn’t work
as well as mechanical ventila-
tion,” said Dr Mehta.
Some hope came from the
Indian Council of Medical
Research on Sunday announcing
protocols for convalescent
plasma therapy trials in the coun-
try. “Convalescent plasma is an
experimental procedure for Cov-
id-19 patients. Hospitals and insti-
tutions planning to provide this
modality of treatment should do
so in a clinical trial with proto-
cols, which are cleared by the
institutional ethics committee,”
the ICMR said in a statement on
Sunday.
Convalescent therapy
involves drawing blood packed
with antibodies against Sars-
Cov-2, the virus that causes Cov-
id-19, from people who have
recovered.
Platelets that carry antibodies
are separated from other blood
components like red blood cells,
white blood cells and platelets,
and given to Covid-19 patients to
reinforce their immunity to fight
infection.
While studies from China have
shown it raised lymphocyte
counts, improved liver and lung
function, and reduced inflamma-
tion, lung lesions and other
severe symptoms within a week,
clinical trials to study the safety
and efficacy of convalescent
plasma therapy on Indian
patients is still needed before it’s
approved for treatment.
“The disease is four months
old and till we have a vaccine or
treatment specifically targeting
the Sars-CoV2 virus, we have to
use all the tools we have on hand
to save lives,” said Dr Mehta.
NEW DELHI: Economists and envi-
ronmental experts at the Energy
ELECTRICITY
Policy Institute of the University CONSUMPTION ON
of Chicago (Epic) have started APRIL 3 COMPARED TO
documenting the initial signs of
a massive economic slowdown DECEMBER 2019 AND A
resulting from the coronavirus 6.8% IN PM POLLUTION
disease pandemic -- closure of
industries, shops and restau-
ON APRIL 1 — AN
rants and a dip in power con- UNINTENDED BENEFIT
sumption, and an unintended
benefit -- a decline in pollution
Historically, electricity con- (PM) pollution on April 1 com-
sumption has proven to be a pared to December 2019 in these
“reliable, early indicator” of countries, the data tracker
broader economic trends, the launched on Monday indicated.
team at EPIC said. “Declining and increasing
This time, too, the institu- consumption has historically
tion’s data tracker shows a 3.37% preceded economic recessions
dip in electricity consumption in and recovery. The Covid tracker
the US, European Union, China is an indicator of the health of the
and India combined on February economy at a higher temporal
29 relative to the average elec- resolution (updated daily) than
tricity consumption in Decem- anything else that is available.
ber 2019. On January 1, the dip Most other measures of eco-
was 7.99%. The data tracker nomic health will only be availa-
updates both electricity con- ble every quarter so tracking
sumption and PM levels every this information is critical,”
day from government and non- Anant Sudarshan, South Asia
government sources and docu- director of the Energy Policy
ments the number of Covid-19 Institute at the University of
deaths in these countries. The Chicago, said by email.
graphs on the dashboard are The dip in both electricity con-
interactive. sumption and PM pollution is
“The Covid-19 pandemic has significant in India as per EPIC’s
forced governments around the data analysis. India recorded a
world to impose tough restric- dip of 18.72% in electricity con-
tions on daily life to prevent the sumption on April 3 compared to
spread of the virus. With these December 2019 and a 6.8% in PM
restrictions, roads and airports pollution on April 1. The PM pol-
are nearly empty, shops and res- lution had dipped by 36.72% on
taurants are closed, and indus- January 18.
trial activities are largely at a “There is no robust evidence
halt. In this environment, in India that PM level has gone
real-time information about down in pre-Covid era due to eco-
economic activity is at a pre- nomic slowdown. Unless trends
mium, but often hard to in source specific PM2.5 concen-
acquire,” Epic said in a state- trations are estimated, it is not
ment on Monday. possible to conclude that way,”
An unintended benefit of the said Sagnik Dey, associate pro-
dip in electricity consumption is fessor at the Centre for Atmos-
a 6% dip in particulate matter pheric Sciences, IIT Delhi.
06 hindustantimes
p g
htspotlight
Bringing citizens
back could pose
risk to population
here, govt tells SC
Abraham Thomas
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI:The Centre on Monday
told the Supreme Court that
evacuation of Indian students
and expatriates stuck abroad
amid the lockdown to curb the
spread of the coronavirus dis-
ease could pose a risk to India’s
domestic population.
Echoing the Centre’s con-
cerns, the bench of Chief Justice
SA Bobde and justices LN Rao
and MM Shantanagouder said,
“Stay where you are”.
The Centre made the submis-
sion in response to a batch of
petitions seeking the court’s
intervention for evacuation of
Indian migrants stranded in
Middle East, fishermen in Iran
and students from the US and the
UK.
The petitioners criticized the
travel ban at a time when other
countries were making arrange-
ments to evacuate their citizens
from India.
The Centre, in its status report
said that the country had evacu-
ated citizens from China, Iran,
Japan and Italy when the condi-
tion in India was not as grim.
“However, given the present
situation of the corona virus out-
break in India and the available
limited resources, it is not feasi-
ble to selectively evacuate
Indian citizens from abroad,” the
report by the Centre said.
“Travel back of such passen-
gers to different regions of India
poses a grave risk to the country
of a population of over 1.3 bil-
lion.”
The bench also noted the
logistical constraints in arrang-
ing quarantine facilities for
returnees.
The Centre proposed to the
Court, “The approach of the Gov-
ernment has, therefore, been to
advise the Indian nationals to
stay put where they are in line
with Government’s approach to
contain the further spread of the
virus in India and allow health
machinery to focus on domestic
containment effectively.”
Govt mulls pool testing
in areas with no cases
SURVEILLANCE TOOL Experts say ICMR should have initiated process at least a month ago
Rhythma Kaul
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: As the number of
cases of coronavirus disease in
India crossed 10,000 , the health
ministry is considering pooled
testing of people with symptoms
in areas from where no Sars-
Cov-2 (the virus that causes
Covid-19) infections have been
reported, a health ministry offi-
cial said on condition of ano-
nymity.
There are around 450 dis-
tricts (out of a total of around
730) which have not reported
any Covid-19 cases. The plan is
to test people with symptoms
(cough, fever) using both
RT-PCR, or Reverse Transcrip-
tase Polymerase Chain Reac-
tion, and rapid antibody testing.
Pooling of samples involves
testing them in batches. When a
pooled sample tests positive,
then individual samples are
assessed. Research shows that
this method can be used to do up
to three times as many tests
with the same number of kits —
an important consideration
given India’s population.
The regions will be selected
on the basis of data available
through the integrated disease
surveillance programme net-
work, and also the new mobile
application, ArogyaSetu, which
has started generating relevant
data on the disease pattern, the
health ministry official added.
“Pooled testing is a good sur-
veillance tool and can be used to
test symptomatic people in non-
Covid areas to confirm if the
areas are actually Covid-19-free.
It has not happened yet but is
being considered as one of the
options to get an idea on the dis-
ease spread. The idea is already
there, testing will only confirm
it,” this person said.
India is yet to get the rapid
test kits it ordered from China,
so the plan will be put into effect
n Healthcare workers collect a swab sample of a girl for tests at Sadar, a hotspot for Covid-19, in Lucknow
on Monday.
ICMR has taken cognizance of the need to
› expeditiously expand Covid-19 testing facilities in all
parts of the country… efforts are being made for
proactive search of potential laboratories which could be
enabled for Covid-19 testing.
ICMR DOCUMENT
with RT-PCR tests.
Once the rapid test kits arrive
-- these antibody test results are
available in 30 minutes as
opposed to the RT-PCR tests
which take about five hours --
they will be used.
The Indian Council of Medi-
cal Research (ICMR) on Monday
said people should not worry
about testing as India had
enough stock of the kits.
“We currently have enough
stocks to do be able to do testing
for at least six more weeks.
There is no need to fear,” said Dr
PTI
Raman Gangakhedkar, head of
the division of epidemiology and
communicable diseases, ICMR.
Experts in the field say the
ICMR is already late.
“They should have started at
least a month ago; even if they
didn’t have rapid test kits; they
should have gone ahead with the
RT-PCR tests. We had to test
more to know better,” said a sen-
ior epidemiologist, who asked
not to be identified.
Meanwhile, ICMR is also
working on increasing the num-
ber of laboratories that can test,
and is in the process of upgrad-
ing laboratories of both private
and government medical col-
leges so that these can also be
utilised for Covid-19 testing.
It is currently in the process
of identifying college laborato-
ries that can be upgraded with
the help of some mentoring by
advanced labs already doing
Covid-19 testing.
“ICMR has taken cognizance
of the need to expeditiously
expand Covid-19 testing facili-
ties in all parts of the country…
efforts are being made for pro-
active search of potential labo-
ratories which could be enabled
for Covid-19 testing…,” says an
ICMR document seen by HT.
ICMR has identified 14 insti-
tutes of national eminence, such
as All India Institutes of Medical
Sciences; Armed Forces Medi-
cal College, Pune; National
Institute of Mental Health and
Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru; the
Jawaharlal Institute of Post-
graduate Medical Education &
Research in Puducherry; King
George Medical University,
Lucknow; and Nizam’s Institute
of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad
to mentor colleges.
The mentor labs will form
teams to conduct a comprehen-
sive review of the college labora-
tories.
The mentors will see what
facilities these laboratories
have and what they need to be
able to do Covid-19 testing.
At least 400 such laboratories
have been identified by the gov-
ernment for assessment.
“It is a good idea as there are
some states with good infra-
structure, and their labs can be
taken up almost immediately.
For those states that don’t have
good medical colleges, the gov-
ernment can help set up/
upgrade lab based on Covid-19
testing requirement. The good
thing is labs can be created or
upgraded in a short span of time,
so we can increase the capabili-
ties of the testing labs,” said Dr
Jugal Kishore, community med-
icine expert, Safdarjung Hospi-
tal.
virusupdates
THREE ELECTION
COMMISSIONERS TO
TAKE 30% PAY CUT
NEW DELHI: The three election
commissioners of India decided on
Monday to forego 30% of their
salary for a year starting this month
amid the Covid-19 pandemic, after
the President, Vice-President, Prime
Minister, the Union council of
ministers and members of Parlia-
ment. The decision was taken at a
meeting of chief election commis-
sioner Sunil Arora and election
commissioners Ashok Lavasa and
Sushil Chandra.
Shortage of workers, choked
ports disrupt supply chains
Anisha Dutta
n anisha.dutta@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI:At least 50,000 shipping
containers have been lying
orphaned at container freight sta-
tions and private container ter-
minals at three large ports in
Tamil Nadu with no trucks avail-
able to transport them.
Most Indian ports have
declared a so-called force
majeure -- declared when unprec-
edented events overtake them
and prevent them from doing
their job.
At ports across India, cargo
terminals are operating at capaci-
ties less than 30%. On April 3, in a
video conference with Union
minister of shipping Mansukh
Mandaviya, port operators,
importers, and shipping compa-
nies raised some of these issues,
including the unavailability of
trucks (and drivers), the shortage
of workers in ports and cargo ter-
minals, and choked ports .
The 21-day lockdown enforced
by India on March 25 -- it ends
midnight April 14; the Prime Min-
ister is to address the nation on
Tuesday morning on whether it
will be extended and if so, fully or
in part -- has hit the handling of
cargo across Indian ports, chok-
ing shipping lines.
There has been a shortage of
workers to handle cargo and a
dearth of truck drivers to ferry
the cargo to factories leading to a
huge inventory pile up at ports.
The Centre’s move to waive
demurrage charges during the
lockdown is acting as a disincen-
tive for importers to figure out
ways to move cargo.
The closure of factories has
also left cargo grounded. India’s
7,516.6 km long coastline caters to
more than 90% of India’s trading
by volume. The statistics are
worrying because a snag in the
supply chain could stoke distress.
Cargo volumes at the Indian
ports were already witnessing
some slowdown in FY2020 on the
back of various factors such as
the US-China trade war and the
ongoing economic slowdown,
according to credit rating agency
ICRA. Bottlenecks in the ship-
ping and logistics part of the sup-
SC modifies order, says free
private testing only for poor
Murali Krishnan
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Free testing for Cov-
id-19 in private laboratories will
be available only to people cov-
ered by the Ayushman Bharat
scheme and to economically
weaker sections of the society
notified by the government as eli-
gible for such free tests, the
Supreme Court said on Monday,
modifying its April 8 order, which
had forced private laboratories to
offer free tests to everyone.
Private laboratories, the apex
court said, can continue to charge
people who can afford the testing
fee as fixed by the Indian Council
of Medical Research (ICMR).
“Government of India, Minis-
try of Health and Family Welfare
may issue necessary guidelines
for reimbursement of cost of free
testing of Covid-19 undertaken by
private labs,” the bench of justice
Ashok Bhushan and S Ravindra
Bhat clarified.
The order was passed after the
ICMR, private laboratories and a
Delhi-based doctor approached
the top court seeking modifica-
tion of its earlier order.
The SC also gave liberty to the
central government to decide
whether any other categories of
the weaker sections of the society
like workers belonging to low
income groups in the informal
sectors or beneficiaries of Direct
Benefit Transfer should also be
eligible for free testing.
The Supreme Court had, on
April 8, ordered that tests for Cov-
id-19 across government and pri-
vate labs should be free of cost
and no person should be deprived
of Covid-19 tests because he was
42 EVACUEES FROM
IRAN TEST POSITIVE
IN RAJASTHAN
NEW DELHI: Forty-two people, all
evacuees from Iran, tested positive
for the coronavirus disease at the
Indian Army’s two quarantine
facilities in Rajasthan, two govern-
ment officials said on Monday.
Figures released by the Rajasthan
government show that a total of 52
evacuees are among the 796 people
who have tested positive for the
disease. However, the officials said
that nine of them had been cured,
bringing down number to 42.
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
CORONAVIRUS: NATION
n Goods trucks at a parking bay in Kolkata on April 4.
ply chain, which are critical for
timely movement and evacuation
from ports, could be an aggrava-
ting factor, the firm noted.
Manufacturers whose compa-
nies aren’t producing anything
“aren’t taking deliveries” of
imports, said FIEO director gen-
eral Ajay Sahai. The Federation
of Indian Export Organisations is
India’s apex export promotion
body.
“The ports are choking with
imports. There is no place to put
the containers. There is no
unloading happening at factories.
The entire import and export
trade is a chain activity and even
if one link is missing, the entire
chain gets disrupted,” he added.
Sahai listed the problems: cou-
rier companies that are not work-
ing during the lockdown; facto-
ries that are unoperational; cus-
toms and ports that are working
but a fraction of capacity. “You
can’t force people to come to
work. Supply chain disruption
will continue once factories start
even in limited way,” Sahai said.
In a letter to the home ministry
on Sunday, the commerce minis-
try proposed allowing companies
operating large factories making
textiles, automobiles, electron-
ics, cement, and fertilisers to
restart operations with proper
sanitation and distancing norms
in place. It suggested restricting
their capacities to 20-25% in a sin-
gle shift to start with.
“Commerce ministry has sent
Free testing shall be
› available to persons
eligible under Ayushman
Bharat and any other
category of economically
weaker sections as notified
by the government...
SUPREME COURT BENCH
unable to afford it.
Until that order was passed,
private laboratories were
allowed to charge up to ~4,500 for
conducting Covid-19 tests.
The petitioner, advocate Sha-
shank Deo Sudhi, had
approached the top court, sub-
mitting that government hospi-
tals are packed to capacity, mak-
ing it difficult for the common
man to get himself/herself tested
in the government labs.
With no alternative in sight,
people are forced to pay money to
get the tests done at private labs,
the petitioner said, adding that
saddling ordinary citizens with
such a financial burden deprives
them of their accessibility to med-
ical facilities. He had prayed that
Covid-19 tests should be free even
in private laboratories.
After the court allowed Sudhi’s
plea on April 8, Dr Mishra, a sen-
ior orthopedic surgeon, moved
the top court submitting that sev-
eral citizens have been confined
to hospitals and other facilities as
Covid-19 suspects, but their test
results remained pending, put-
ting a strain on the system.
He said that in such a scenario,
casting the additional burden of
NAVY DEVELOPS AIR SC DISMISSES
EVACUATION POD PETITION AGAINST
FOR COVID PATIENTS PM-CARES FUND
NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy has
developed equipment for safe air
evacuation of coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) patients from remote
ships and remote islands, an
official release said on Monday.
The air evacuation pod (AEP),
developed by the Naval Aircraft Yard
Kochi, under the Southern Naval
Command, will allow fully sealed
patient transfer eliminating the risk
of pilots or the team getting
infected.
SAMIR JANA /HT PHOTO
the government recommenda-
tion on allowing certain indus-
tries. The industry also does not
have liquidity to pay for duties.
The key is to allow some activity,
then ease liquidity. At present
there are no incentives to clear
the consignment,” Sahai said.
Earlier this month, the minis-
try advised major ports to invoke
force majeure. This means, for
existing and operational projects,
the Major Ports can permit
waiver of all penal consequences
on a case-to-case basis along with
deferment of certain perform-
ance obligations under the rele-
vant provisions of a concession
agreement.
The Centre has issued several
orders to states asking them to
allow movement of all transport
vehicles. Tens of thousands of
trucks have been left stranded
across state borders since the
lockdown took effect on March 25.
The government has issued sev-
eral advisories to state chief sec-
retaries that movement of both
essential and non-essential goods
be allowed, seeking to avoid
shortages. To address the snag,
ports are also encouraging trans-
portation of goods by railways.
“ As of now we are operating at
70% of our capacity... We are hop-
ing it will get better slowly as fac-
tories are allowed to open. There
is substantial movement happen-
ing through rail right now ,” said
Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) chair-
man Vinit Kumar.
offering tests for free could lead to
private labs stopping their func-
tioning altogether.
Further, private labs, through
senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi,
told the court that if they are not
allowed to charge any fee for the
tests, it will be impossible for them
to carry on the tests due to finan-
cial constraint and other factors.
Solicitor general Tushar
Mehta, referring to the affidavit
submitted by ICMR, argued that
approximately 50 crore beneficia-
ries, are covered under the
Ayushman Bharat scheme and
can avail the benefit of free Cov-
id-19 tests even in the private labs.
“Free testing for Covid-19 shall
be available to persons eligible
under Ayushman Bharat Prad-
han Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana
as already implemented by the
Government of India, and any
other category of economically
weaker sections of the society as
notified by the government for
free testing for Covid-19, herein-
after... Private labs can continue
to charge the payment for testing
of Covid-19 from persons who are
able to make payment of testing
fee as fixed by ICMR,” the court
directed after hearing the plea.
Private labs welcomed the
modified SC order.
Ameera Shah, the promoter
and managing director of
Metropolis Healthcare Ltd,
which has been approved by
ICMR for Covid-19 testing, said,
“We stand by the decision of the
honourable Supreme Court. The
Government of India’s stand of
allowing the free tests of the peo-
ple covered under the Ayushman
Bharat Scheme is a welcome
move.”
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on
Monday dismissed a petition
against the setting up of the Prime
Minister Contingency Relief Fund to
battle the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) pandemic. The bench of
Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices
LN Rao and MM Shantanagouder
termed the petition “misconceived”.
The bench asked the petitioner to
withdraw the petition or else
threatened to impose cost on him
for filing such a petition.
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, MUMBA I
T UESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
Covid spread, curbs delay procurement ‘Infections among frontline
Vishal Rambani, Gurpreet Singh
Nibber, Pawan Sharma and
Brajendra K Parashar
n letters@hindustantimes.com
PATIALA/CHANDIGARH/LUCKNOW:
Farmers of Punjab trooped to the
mandis, or agricultural markets,
to sell their produce on Baisakhi,
the spring harvest festival, on
Monday, holding invitations
sent by the state government.
The government of chief min-
ister Capt. Amarinder Singh is
trying to limit crowds at the
mandis and maintain social dis-
tancing norms to avoid the
spread of the coronavirus dis-
ease and has restricted the entry
into markets to invitees.
“To ensure smooth procure-
ment and also follow the instruc-
tions in the wake of the Covid-19
outbreak, no farmer can enter a
mandi without the invitation of
the Punjab Mandi Board
through the {agricultural pro-
duce} market committee,” Pun-
jab agriculture secretary KS
Pannu said.
Each day, a limited number of
farmers will be sent coupons
with holograms and more cou-
pons will only be issued after the
produce that is already in the
market is lifted. The sale of
wheat of up to 50 quintals of per
farmer started on Monday.
The procurement by invita-
tion is an innovation adopted by
the Punjab government in the
backdrop of Covid-19 and the
ensuing lockdown that have
already delayed procurement of
foodgrains by state agencies by a
fortnight in the northern state,
neighbouring Haryana and in
Madhya Pradesh.
The nationwide lockdown due
to Covid-19 had pushed states
like Punjab, Haryana and Mad-
n Farmers harvest wheat crops in a field on the occasion of the Baisakhi festival on the outskirts of
Amritsar on Monday.
hya Pradesh to delay the pro-
curement from farmers by a fort-
night. Many states such as
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and
Telangana have already relaxed
lockdown norms allowing work
in agriculture fields for harvest.
Punjab’s food and civil sup-
plies minister Bharat Bhushan
Ashu said that to spread out the
procurement, 1,897 rice shelling
mills with large open spaces
have been converted into pro-
curement centres, in addition to
1,864 markets and procurement
centres. Gloves, masks and sani-
tisers are being provided at all
procurement centres, said addi-
tional chief secretary (develop-
ment) Viswajeet Khanna.
India is expecting a 7%
increase in rabi, or winter-sown,
crop production this year, the
highest in a decade, because of a
wetter-than-usual winter, which
prompted farmers to increase
acreage by 15-20%. The Centre
has announced an increase in
the minimum support price ran-
ging from 4.5% to 7.5% for rabi
crops this season.
Punjab alone is expecting an
output of 13.5 million tonnes of
wheat worth Rs 26,000 crore.
AFP
Haryana’s production is esti-
mated at 12 million tonnes, Uttar
Pradesh 10 million tonnes and
Madhya Pradesh about 6 million
tonnes.
In Haryana, procurement will
start at 140 purchase centres
from Tuesday, April 14, of har-
vested mustard seeds. The real
test will begin on April 20 when
wheat will arrive in about 2,000
procurement centres. “Until last
year most of the procurement
operations used to be over in 25
days, now we will stagger the
procurement operations up to
two months. The procurement
INDIA IS EXPECTING A
7% INCREASE IN RABI,
OR WINTER-SOWN,
CROP PRODUCTION
THIS YEAR, THE HIGHEST
IN A DECADE, BECAUSE
OF A WETTER-THAN-
USUAL WINTER, WHICH
PROMPTED FARMERS
TO INCREASE
ACREAGE BY 15-20%
will continue till June 20,” Hary-
ana CM Manohar Lal Khattar
said.
In Uttar Pradesh, despite the
lockdown, 34% of the wheat crop
has been harvested. “Of the total
wheat coverage 9.88 million hec-
tares, 33.89 hectares was har-
vested by April 12 and this is 34%
of the total wheat sown in UP,”
said UP’s director (agriculture)
Soraj Singh said.
“The rabi harvesting is going
as smoothly as earlier and the
lockdown has had no impact on
agricultural activities...,” said
Ram Saran Verma of Barabanki,
a Padam Shri awardee progres-
sive farmer.
In MP, the procurement of
rabi crops including wheat,
pulses and mustard will start on
Tuesday except in the Covid-19
hotspots of Indore, Ujjain and
Bhopal.
Farmers would be given spe-
cific time slots to bring their pro-
duce to 1,241 markets and not
more than 10 farmers will be
invited in a particular time
frame. Farmers have been
advised to sell produce to traders
through letter of sale, MP CM
Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.
medical staff minuscule’
Rhythma Kaul
n lettters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Healthcare profes-
sionals who have tested positive
for Covid-19 in India are mainly
medical staffers with a recent
travel history or had come in
contact with people carrying the
virus and they outnumber those
infected in the line of duty,
health ministry joint secretary
Lav Agarwal said on Monday.
“There are two categories of
infection largely seen among
healthcare professionals: one is
of those cases that had a travel
history or contact history with a
positive case and infected their
colleagues through regular
interaction. The number of this
category of cases is higher as
opposed to those who were
infected in the line of duty,” he
said.
CENTRE COVID RELIEF
323 mn poor get cash aid under scheme
Rajeev Jayaswal
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: The Union government
has disbursed ₹29,352 crore in the
bank accounts of 323.2 million
beneficiaries since the March 26
launch by finance minister Nir-
mala Sitharaman of a ₹1.7 lakh
crore welfare scheme aimed at
protecting the poor from the
impact of national lockdown
imposed to contain the spread of
the coronavirus disease (Cov-
id-19), according to an official
statement on Monday.
hindustantimes
CORONAVIRUS: NATION
Our effort from day
› one has been that our
healthcare professionals
on the ground follow all
infection control practices
to avoid contracting the
infection.
LAV AGARWAL , health ministry joint
secretary
“The number of healthcare
workers who got infected in the
line of duty is a very miniscule
percentage; even though our
effort from day one has been that
our healthcare professionals on
the ground follow all infection
control practices to avoid con-
tracting the infection,” he added.
Meanwhile, several research
The welfare package under the
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Yojana (PMGKY) has already
covered financial support to 198.6
million women under the Prad-
han Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
(PMJDY), the finance ministry
statement said, adding that this
covering 97% of PMJDY’s women
account-holders and amounted to
₹9,930 crore. PMJDY is a national
mission for financial inclusion to
provide universal access to bank-
ing facilities to the poor. Accord-
ing to the PMJDY website, there
were nearly 381 million accounts
07
efforts are underway on Cov-
id-19, and health, and science &
technology minister Harsh
Vardhan is looking at the work of
Council of Scientific and Indus-
trial Research labs that are
working in close partnership
with the private sector and other
ministries. The research pro-
jects are divided into five verti-
cals: digital and molecular sur-
veillance, rapid and diagnostic,
new drugs/ repurposing of drugs
and associated production proc-
esses, hospital assistive devices
and personal protection equip-
ment, and supply chain and
logistics support systems.
“… using cutting edge tech-
nology at all levels for timely
response to Covid-19. Live case
tracking, case management and
implementation of containment
plans are also being done,” said
Agarwal.
under the scheme with total
deposits of ₹1,19,707 crore as on
April 1, 2020. The finance minis-
ter last month announced finan-
cial assistance of ₹500 per month
to 200 million women Jan Dhan
account-holders for three
months. “The robust digital pay-
ment infrastructure has enabled
the prompt transfer of cash pay-
ment under the PMGKY. About
93% of the 8 crore farmers have
already received ₹14,846 crore
cash aid under the PM-KISAN,” a
finance ministry spokesperson
said, citing the latest figures.
08 hindustantimes
frompageone
Cases...
The Union health ministry
said that 25 districts across 15
states that reported cases earlier
had not detected fresh infections
over the last two weeks, an opti-
mistic statistic that stood in con-
trast to some states that have
alarmingly turned into big Cov-
id-19 hot spots.
The number of cases in Maha-
rashtra surpassed 2,000 as it
remained the state with the most
Covid-19 patients across the
country. Three-hundred-and-fif-
ty-two tested positive for Cov-
id-19 on Monday, taking the state
tally to 2,334, according to the
state’s health bulletin. Among
the new cases, 59 were reported
from Mumbai.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led
government issued an official
notification extending the lock-
down in the state till April 30 after
a previous announcement to this
effect. “Since there has been no
reduction in the number of Cov-
id-19 cases... the lockdown was
extended till April 30,” an official
said.
Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, is the
third state other than Maharash-
tra and Delhi to report more than
1,000 cases. The government in
the state also announced the
extension of the lockdown till
April 30.
Eight doctors have contracted
Covid-19 in the state, which said it
was focusing on “aggressive test-
ing” now in coordination with the
private sector. The death toll
from the virus in Tamil Nadu now
stands at 11. While the state has
scaled up its infrastructure to
trace and treat patients, there
have been other states that
present worrying trends.
Rajasthan reported its highest
single-day addition of Covid-19
cases on Saturday, with 65 of
these being identified in Ram-
ganj, Jaipur, which has become a
hot spot for the infection. On
March 29, the number of cases in
Jaipur was 10. By March 30, the
count doubled to 20. By April 6,
Jaipur recorded 100 cases. As of
Monday night, the case count was
897 across Rajasthan.
Madhya Pradesh has reported
the highest death rate of Covid-19
patients in India, with almost the
entire health department either
in quarantine or in hospitals.
Public health experts say the high
deaths and spurt in cases indicate
poor state response to the deadly
virus.
Indore, the state’s industrial
hub, has been one of the worst
affected in the country. A 42-year
old man died of the disease in
Indore on Monday, taking the toll
in the Madhya Pradesh city to 33.
While the government has cre-
ated more than 1,200 containment
zones across the country, much
more needs to be done on the test-
ing front to guard against the dis-
ease spreading undetected, they
say.
Other than swab tests to diag-
nose the disease, the government
is waiting to launch rapid testing
kits that can check for antibodies
and indicate if a person was ever
infected with Sars-CoV-2, and if
they have now developed an
immunity to it. The rapid kits,
however, are still to arrive from
suppliers in China amid untrace-
able delays since April 8.
“The first consignment of
some rapid test kits is likely to
reach from China on April 15,”
said Raman R Gangakhedkar,
head of epidemiology and com-
municable diseases at the Indian
Council of Medical Research
(ICMR), at a news briefing. The
government also said that 200,000
tests have been conducted so far
and there are enough swab kits to
carry out diagnoses for the next
six weeks.
An official said on condition of
anonymity that ICMR is also con-
sidering “pool testing” to ramp up
testing speed – under the proce-
dure, labs pool samples collected
from an area and test for the dis-
ease; if nobody tests positive, they
move on, and only when infec-
tions are detected do they test
individually.
The number of cases in Delhi
increased from 72 on March 29 to
1,510 so far . Delhi recorded its
biggest daily spike with 356 cases.
Most of the 356 cases reported on
Monday appeared to be linked to
the Nizamuddin gathering. The
Capital reported its first case on
March 2, when a 45-year-old who
travelled from Italy tested posi-
tive. According to officials in the
Delhi government, about 1,050 of
the total cases are attendees of the
Nizamuddin event or their con-
tacts.
Modi to...
A majority of India’s states
have backed an extension of the
lockdown so as not to fritter
away the benefits that may have
accrued from the strict social
distancing norms put in place to
keep the highly infectious virus
at bay, but some sought an eas-
ing of the lockdown in areas out-
side the so-called red zones that
include Covid-19 hot spots and
containment zones.
At least seven states -- Maha-
rashtra, Odisha, Punjab, West
Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
and Telangana -- have already
announced an extension of the
lockdown until April 30.
Some ministries have sug-
gested reopening production
units and restarting work in the
agricultural sector provided all
the mandatory guidelines for
sanitation and social distancing
are followed.
Prime Minister Modi indi-
cated his thinking at the meeting
by video conference with state
chief ministers.
“While announcing the lock-
down, I had said ‘jaan hai to
jahan hai’ (health is wealth)...
Most people in the country
understood it and discharged
their responsibilities by remain-
ing indoors. And now it is imper-
ative to focus on both aspects,
‘Jaan bhi, jahan bhi’ ((lives as
well as livelihoods), for India’s
bright future, and prosperous
and healthy India,” Modi said.
On Monday, members of the
Union council of ministers
returned to work at their offices
for the first time since the lock-
down began. The government, in
an order last week, also asked all
officers of the joint secretary
level and above to be present in
the ministries along with one-
third of the essential staff from
Monday.
The Union ministry of home
affairs (MHA), which has been
issuing guidelines to be followed
by all sectors, reaffirmed that all
offices except those in the
defence, central armed police
forces, essential services such as
power and postal services will
GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB
DEPARTMENT OF POWER
(Energy Branch)
Applications are invited for the post of Director/Generation,
Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, Patiala
For details, login to www.punjab.gov.in, www.pspcl.in, www.
pstcl.org and www.pserc.nic.in. Last date of receipt of applications
is 18.05.2020.
723-C
remain closed.
The ministry also directed all
States and Union territories to
implement lockdown guidelines
in letter and spirit and also to
ensure smooth movement of
inter and intra-state cargo,
trucks, workers and functioning
of warehouse and cold storages,
Punya Salila Srivastava, joint
secretary in the MHA ,said on
Monday.
“Vehicles carrying essential
and non-essential items should
be permitted to avoid the short-
age of commodities,” Srivastava
told reporters.
“Warehouses of companies
should also be allowed to oper-
ate. Railways, airports, seaports,
and customs authorities have
already been authorised to issue
passes for their staff and con-
tractual labour,” she added.
The Department for Promo-
tion of Industry and Internal
Trade (DPIIT) recommended to
the home ministry that certain
identified industries and servi-
ces be allowed to resume limited
activity with “reasonable safe-
guards” to restart economic
activity and put money in the
hands of people.
It said industries engaged in
manufacturing telecom equip-
ment and components including
optical fibre cable; compressor
and condenser units; steel and
ferrous alloy mills; spinning and
ginning mills, power looms;
defence; cement plants; pulp and
paper units; fertiliser plants;
paints; plastic; automotive units;
gems and jewellery; and all units
in special economic zones (SEZs)
and export oriented units
(EOUs) be allowed to open lim-
ited operations.
The Federation of Indian
Export Organisations (FIEO)
welcomed the suggestion.
“Opening of all export indus-
tries, large as well as MSMEs
(micro, small and medium enter-
prises) including SEZs and EOUs
, will help the exporters execute
whatever little orders remain
with them after huge cancella-
tions in the last two months,”
FIEO president Sharad Kumar
Saraf said in a statement. It will
also send a signal to overseas
buyers that the situation in India
is returning to normal, and
encourage them to place more
orders, he said.
The Federation of Retailer
Association of India (FRAI)
urged the government to let
small shops open immediately,
as the daily cash flow of small
retailers has stopped completely
since the lockdown came into
force.
Covid-19 is expected to take a
heavy toll on Asia’s third largest
economy, which was already in
the midst of a slowdown when
the virus hit. The World Bank
said on Sunday that India’s econ-
omy is expected to grow 1.5% to
2.8% in 2020-21 in a baseline sce-
nario, the slowest pace since
India in 1991 embarked on a path
of reform that reversed four dec-
ades of semi-socialist insulation.
Centrum Institutional
Research said the country again
stares at the possibility of low
single-digit growth in the year to
March 2021.“Nationwide com-
plete lockdown is likely to shave
off at least ~7-8 trillion,” it said.
On Monday, Congress presi-
dent Sonia Gandhi wrote a letter
to Prime Minister in which she
emphasised the humanitarian
aspect of the pandemic ,demand-
ing the provision of 10kg of foodg-
rains free for six months to the
poor who don’t hold ration cards.
“The current crisis has
pushed many relatively food
secure families into food insecu-
rity and poverty,” she wrote in
LIFEINTHETIMEOFCOVID-19
Something old, into something new
Cherylann Mollan
Confined to the indoors, it can
become impossible to ignore the
things we’ve swept under the car-
pet , promising to take care of
later. That stack of magazines,
clothes or bottles you’ve been
meaning to get rid of. The piece of
time-worn furniture you keep
slamming your toe, shin or hip
into. Instead of letting these items
get to you, use this time to upcycle
and turn them into things you can
use. It’ll help you ease the clutter,
and give your mood a boost as you
get creative. “The lockdown has
given us a chance to slow down,”
says Shailaja Rangarajan, whose
Bengaluru company, Rimagined,
upcycles waste into fashion and
home decor products. “It’s the
perfect time to see how we can
minimise consumption by reus-
ing, repurposing things.”
Anthony Dcosta, 30, an artist
manager from Mumbai, used
some of his free time last week to
convert an old plastic shoe-stand
into a fish-tank divider. “These
frompageone
the letter. “In our fight against
the pandemic we must ensure
that no one faces hunger.”
(PTI and ANI contributed to
this story)
Maha jumps...
State health commissioner
Anup Kumar Yadav said the cor-
onavirus spread is not “exponen-
tial” and is under control. “We
are still in stage two of transmis-
sion. The spread is now in clus-
ters, but it is not exponential. Our
cluster containment plans are
showing results and it is not going
out of control. Any infectious dis-
ease has a growth pattern. One is
the way it is growing now, and the
other is it growing exponentially,
which is seen in some other coun-
tries. We are confident that the
measures we have taken at an
early stage are well-placed; it is
responding well. So it should not
go out of control,” Yadav said.
According to Yadav, the state
is conducting an average of 3,000
coronavirus tests daily, and he
attributed the increasing number
of cases to aggressive testing too.
The state government, he said, is
now awaiting antibody test kits
from the Centre to carry out
“rapid testing”. “We are waiting
for the kits. It would be first used
by the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC). We do not
plan to use it elsewhere in the
state. Besides, we are also await-
ing the Centre’s nod for pool test-
ing permission, which the state
had sought,” he said.
Malegaon in Nashik district
has seen a surge in the number of
coronavirus cases. On Monday,
14 cases were reported from the
area, taking the tally to 29. It is
being looked at as another cluster
where the spread had spiked. The
district authorities in conjunc-
tion with the municipal council
are looking at demarcating con-
tainment areas in Malegaon.
Meanwhile, the state govern-
ment is considering allowing
industrial operations across the
state except for areas of Mumbai
and Pune, which has a high num-
ber of coronavirus case. State
industries minister Subhash
Desai held a review meeting on
Monday and had directed the
department to submit a proposal
on where the MSME and other
industries can be reopened.
“Excluding the areas of Mum-
bai and Pune, which has a high
number of Covid-19 cases, a pro-
posal should be prepared to allow
industries to start their opera-
tions with certain restrictions in
the rest of the districts of the
state,” said Desai, in a statement.
Desai further asked the depart-
ment to give priority to food proc-
essing units that would provide
relief to farmers. These units
would also provide employment
to labourers, said Desai, adding
that all these things will be put
before the chief minister for
approval.
Senior state government offi-
cials said the state has so far not
decided to relax lockdown meas-
ures in the areas that are less
affected by the outbreak. Senior
officials also added that no deci-
sion on colour-coding districts
has been taken so far. Thackeray
held a meeting with divisional
commissioners and senior police
officials on Monday to take stock
of the situation.
On the lockdown extension, a
notification issued by chief secre-
tary Ajoy Mehta on Monday read
“It is expedient to take measures
further to contain the spread of
coronavirus, therefore, in exer-
cise of the powers conferred
under section 2 of the Epidemic
Disease Act, 1897 the state gov-
ernment directs that the lock-
down orders shall now be
extended up to and inclusive of
April 30, 2020.”
Officials said that the rising
numbers of cases have forced the
state government to extend lock-
down till April 30 to prevent the
state from slipping in to phase
three — community spread — of
Covid-19 outbreak.
“It was necessary to extend the
lockdown period as the state has
n All those bottles, cards and papers you swore you’d do something
with, now’s the time. It’s not even hard. You can turn coconut shells
into planters, for instance, in a matter of minutes.
are porous partitions that sepa-
rate aggressive fish species from
the more docile ones,” he
explains. “I’d mistakenly placed
a Flowerhorn in the tank and it
was making a meal of the other
fish. To stop the carnage, I sawed
off a portion of an old plastic shoe
stand, smoothed the edges and
been the worst-hit by the pan-
demic and more than a hundred
cases are coming per day for more
than a week. The spread can be
arrested only with the help of a
lockdown,” said a senior official
requesting anonymity.
“We are planning to give relax-
ations in areas that are not
affected or have minimal cases.
We have advised to allow to start
industries with conditions such
as they will have to accommodate
workforce if not at the work
place, then somewhere near the
workstation so that workers
won’t have to commute and social
distancing can be maintained,”
said a senior official, requesting
anonymity.
There won’t be any relaxations
in the Mumbai Metropolitan
Region (MMR) and Pune Metro-
politan Region, he added.
Tech...
“During the Ebola crisis, we
realised contact tracing is a tedi-
ous effort and people have terri-
ble recall,” he said.
The idea was also floated by
researchers from Oxford Uni-
versity in a paper published on
March 31 in which they said, “a
mobile phone app implementing
instantaneous contact tracing
could reduce transmission
enough for sustained epidemic
suppression, stopping the virus
from spreading further.”
On April 2, the Indian govern-
ment launched its own contact-
tracing mobile application and
roughly a week later, Apple and
Google – who together dominate
the cellphone software platform
market almost entirely –
announced they are working on
similar mechanism for iPhone
and Android-based phones.
The apps work on a simple
premise: a phone will exchange
details – converted into a ran-
dom, unique alphanumeric –
with another phone if the two are
in the range of their Bluetooth
radios. Bluetooth is a short-dis-
tance radio wave, which is
picked up only when someone is
close enough to, say, be in the
same flat or office.
The data will be shared with
health authorities in the event
that either of the device’s users
test positive for an infection,
triggering an alert to all other
devices that may have been in
the contact chain, according to
the workings disclosed by
India’s Aarogya Setu (health
bridge) app and the proposed
Google, Apple mechanism.
Union health ministry joint
secretary Lav Agarwal, during
the daily briefing on Covid-19,
said the Aarogya Setu applica-
tion was downloaded by 35 mil-
lion people till Monday.
PRIVACY WORRIES
The approach, however, has
drawn questions about privacy
violations. “People will wonder:
who profiteers from these apps?
Will there by government intru-
sion?” said Ding.
India’s Aarogya Setu has
drawn criticism by privacy
advocacy groups such as the
Internet Freedom Foundation,
which says the programme has
“a systemic lack of auditability
and transparency”.
“[There] appears to be a much
wider collection and possible
sharing [of data] outside of the
device, than envisioned under
other apps,” said a working
paper by IFF, which analysed a
similar application used in Sing-
apore and one developed by
researchers at MIT.
Technology lawyer Rahul
Matthan, who advised the Indian
government in the development
of the Aarogya Setu app, said the
features in the application need
to be looked at in the context of
the circumstances of the epi-
demic.
“If we agree we need some sort
of a technological solution to
carry out contact tracing, we
know that the only way to do that
is fundamentally privacy inva-
sive,” said Matthan, a partner-
lawyer at Trilegal.
“Our approach in designing
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
placed it in the tank as a divider,”
he says, laughing.
Dcosta has fashioned his own
guitar picks and straps in the past
too. “You can make guitar picks
from credit or gift cards, or PET
bottle caps. Smoothen the edges
using sandpaper and a coat or two
of nail polish for colour.” He sug-
the privacy features have been to
look at what basic privacy prin-
ciples are around the world,” he
said, adding that he supported
calls for the programme code to
be made public if there was a
trust deficit between users and
the government.
Matthan said the Aarogya
Setu app seeks details needed to
create demographic profiles
since it is crucial to understand
the scale of the disease in India.
“Age and gender data is relevant
because we know the disease
stratifies by age. Location data is
used to create heat maps – this is
crucial because in India, we are a
densely populated country and
not a lot of people have smart
phones. If you contact only those
with phones, you leave out a lot
of others,” he said.
Matthan said the app is dis-
tinct from an operating system-
level solution that Google and
Apple are working on because it
involves health officials.
“Putting too much trust in
algorithmic solution is danger-
ous. They cannot take into
account several factors that can
influence the probability of con-
tracting an infection. They may
also give people a false sense of
hope,” he said, adding that
health officials ultimately deter-
mine which people identified by
the Aarogya Setu must be tested.
Rapid test...
“We cannot comment on
whether our Chinese consign-
ment of rapid testing kits got
diverted to the US or somewhere
else because we neither main-
tain commercial data nor are we
manufacturers who would know
where our supplies are going.
Kits are coming from China, and
we have been told some of the
kits should reach us by April 15,”
said Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar,
head, division of epidemiology
and communicable disease,
ICMR.
An ICMR official who asked
not to be named said that after
many kits failed quality tests, the
Chinese regulator, National
Medical Products Administra-
tion, restricted exports, allowing
only five to six companies to sell
them. “Quality control is impor-
tant as there is no point in getting
a product and then realising it is
of no use. The products from
China have to be cleared by their
local regulator and we will also
conduct tests on batches to check
their accuracy on a random
basis,” added this person.
In addition to the order for
500,000 kits that has already been
placed, ICMR raised a tender on
April 11 for 4.5 million more
rapid testing kits to be delivered
in batches. The plan is to have
the first batch in by May 1 and
the final batch latest by May 31.
India ordered 500,000 kits
from Chinese suppliers on
March 30, and in anticipation of
the arrival of the kits first on
April 5, India issued an advisory
on starting rapid antibody test-
ing on April 4, and revised the
testing guidelines on April 9 to
include rapid testing of all symp-
tomatic individuals in hot spot
areas with symptoms at least a
week old.
In addition, several Indian
states have also placed orders for
RTKs. Tamil Nadu, for instance,
awaits 400,000 RTKs from China
in order to scale up testing across
the state. “The consignment
which was to come to India is not
for Tamil Nadu alone. Reports
from the vendor’s side suggest
seven lakh kits (700,000) were
supposed to be shipped out, of
which five lakh was for the gov-
ernment of India, one lakh for
TN and another one lakh for
other states. Unfortunately, due
to some issues, these never made
it out of China,” a state govern-
ment official said.
TN health secretary Beela
Rajesh said on Monday that the
kits were expected to reach the
state within two days, but Tamil
Nadu has already expanded its
testing pool using existing
RT-PCR tests. “We have ordered
gests upcycling old belts and
straps from laptop and duffel bags
into guitar straps.
Rangarajan says that a host of
things can be made from coconut
shells. “You can make hanging
planters by poking holes in the
shell and attaching ropes.
Replace soil with grain or seeds to
make a bird-feeder or wax to
make coconut-shell candles.”
If you’re looking at upgrading
your home, glass bottles can be
upcycled as trendy lamps. “Deco-
rate the glass with enamel paint
or decoupage work and slip in
some string lights for a nice dim
glow,” Rangarajan says. Addi-
tionally, she suggests gluing
wooden Scrabble tiles or carom
coins together to make coasters.
Amishi Parasrampuria, foun-
der of Upcycler’s Lab, suggests
using old bills, magazines and
newspapers to create papier-mâ-
ché projects. “Or you can cut the
material into long strips and
weave them together to make
coasters or a waste paper basket,”
she adds.
rapid test kits that will serve as a
screening and surveillance tool.
We have already ordered four
lakh kits, and they will reach us
in a day or two. But we are not
waiting for that [to scale up
screening]. The confirmatory
test is our PCR test and that is
now deployed as part of a large-
scale massive testing.”
On Saturday, Tamil Nadu
chief secretary K Shanmugam
told reporters that China had
diverted kits meant for India to
the US. HLL Lifecare Limited, a
public sector company whose
rapid antibody testing kit is
approved by ICMR, will start
manufacturing kits this week
and may be able to deliver some
to the government for large-scale
testing in the community by the
end of the week.
But other domestic manufac-
turers are dependent on China
for some components to manu-
facture these kits, and con-
strained by an embargo on
exports of these components.
On April 10, the National
Institute of Virology (NIV),
Pune, said eight antibody-based
rapid tests have been validated
and found satisfactory by the
facility. Some of those test kits
are made by Indian manufactur-
ers. “HLL got a clearance from
Indian Council of Medical
Research, National Institute of
Virology, Pune to manufacture
rapid antibody testing kits but
we were awaiting a license from
the Central Drugs Standard Con-
trol Organisation (CDSCO)
which we have received today.
Manufacturing is likely to start
in the next three to four days in
our Manesar plant. In the initial
phase, we plan to manufacture
two million kits till May 30,” said
an HLL executive who asked not
to be named.
A member of the Association
of Diagnostics Manufacturers of
India (ADMI), a body represent-
ing testing kit manufacturers,
said some of the important com-
ponents for the kits are imported
from China. “China has an
embargo on exports now. This
has slowed down manufacturing
of these kits in India. The process
takes time, if your order hasn’t
been delivered by a vendor, you
will have to then look for other
vendors. Logistics are not at
their best now.”
Dr Tarun Bhatnagar, epide-
miologist, ICMR-National Insti-
tute of Epidemiology, said:
“Antibody testing will not tell us
who is currently infected. It will
tell us who has been infected in
the past. Generally, antibodies
are developed five to seven days
after contracting the infection. If
people test positive, it tells us
that they were exposed to the
virus sometime in the past and
developed no symptoms or very
mild symptoms. Firstly, such
testing tells us how widespread
the infection is in the community
and how large is the proportion
of asymptomatic patients
because infection spreads more
from a person who is sympto-
matic. It tells us what is more
common, mild symptoms or
severe. Antibody tests are
required to understand the
virus. It is a surveillance tool and
is cheaper than RT-PCR (which
detects active infection).”
Veena Kohli, CEO of Van-
guard Diagnostics Limited,
which has also been validated for
manufacturing of these kits and
president of ADMI, said: “The
Indian diagnostics manufactur-
ers are working earnestly
towards making the detection
kits available for the screening of
Covid-19 infection. Depending
on the assay design of the manu-
facturer’s product, each kit has
some imported and some indige-
nous components. A majority of
these components including
antibodies and antigens are
imported from China. As we are
given to understand, the Chinese
government has slowed down
the process of export. The Indian
manufacturers are also develop-
ing alternative sources of raw
materials and components to
tide over the current situation.”
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, MUMBA I
T UESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0 hindustantimes 09
HTSPOTLIGHT CORONAVIRUS: SPORT

Football in wait & watch mode Women cricketers find solace in ludo
NEW DELHI: Smriti Mandhana on
Monday revealed the Indian
women team has traded the bat
ON THE SIDELINES While there is eagerness to get on the field, situation in Europe isn’t ideal yet and ball for a dice as the players
are maintaining their bond by
Agencies playing ludo online.
n sportm@hindustantimes.com newstracker The BCCI on Monday tweeted
a video of Mandhana talking
about how she is spending time
off the field. “We, all friends
home workouts to stay fit. “Stay-
ing fit is very important, so I am
working out. I keep in touch with
together play ludo online, so that
keeps us all bonded, all the team-
the trainer and receive the feed-
back. He keeps sending us all the
mates,” Mandhana said. workouts that we need to fol-
The ace batter has turned to low,” Mandhana said. PTI

PARIS: A month has now passed

since the last football matches
were played before packed stadi-
ums in Europe, and the havoc
wrought by the coronavirus pan-
demic means that nobody can say
with any certainty when the sport
might return.
A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox
Stadium in Glasgow on Thurs-
day, March 12 to see Rangers lose
3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen in the
Europa League.
Other matches that night were
played behind closed doors, or
postponed altogether, as Italy
announced its death toll from the
virus had passed 1,000.
Fast forward 31 days and the
figures make for grim reading
throughout Europe, with Italy,
Spain, France and the United
Kingdom the worst hit. Countries
across the continent are now
weeks into restrictive lockdowns.
Nobody knows when sport will
be allowed to restart behind
closed doors let alone before
crowds. The psychological
impact of the current situation
means many people may well
now have second thoughts about
mixing with vast crowds at a foot-
ball match in future.
German football authorities
are set to decide this week
whether Bundesliga matches can
resume behind closed doors next
month, and players are already
back in training.
FA OFFERS WEMBLEY
TO COMPLETE SEASON
LONDON: England’s Football
Association (FA) has offered
Wembley Stadium and St
George’s Park, the National Foot-
ball Centre, as venues to help the
n Zlatan Ibrahimovic (3rd from right) during practice with Swedish team Hammarby in Stockholm.
Premier League complete the
season, the Times has reported
citing a source familiar with
the matter.
Wembley could host multiple
matches on the same day
while limiting travel between
venues once restrictions are
eased, the report, adding that fans
were unlikely to be allowed
to attend.
“When we know about the
length of lockdown and exit
mechanisms we can see which
options are viable,” the source
told the Times.
St George’s Park, which has a
hotel with 228 guest rooms on site
as well as 13 pitches, five of which
are floodlit, could be used as a
quarantined training centre, the
report added.
ITALIAN FA EYE RETURN
TO TRAINING IN MAY
ROME: Italy’s football federation
hopes that players can be tested
for the new coronavirus at the
start of May to prepare for the
season to restart, its president
Gabriele Gravina has said.
Serie A has been suspended
since March 9 and there are still
12 rounds of matches to be played,
plus several outstanding fixtures.
Gravina told Sky Sport Italia:
“As soon as the conditions are
right, we’ll finish the champion-
ship,” he said.
“Soon we will meet, we will
establish the procedure. We will
start, I hope, at the beginning of
the month (May) with tests to
ensure that players are negative
and the training can follow.”
AP
SOCIEDAD BACKTRACK
ON TRAINING RETURN
MADRID:Spanish La Liga side Real
Sociedad said that they had
shelved plans to resume training
from Tuesday after talks with
government officials.
Like all other clubs, Real Socie-
dad players have been in lock-
down since mid-March as the cor-
onavirus has wreaked havoc on
the country, causing almost
17,000 deaths.
“After today’s discussions
with (local officials), and in
accordance with Real Sociedad’s
desire to respect and act accord-
ing to the needs of society at all
times, we have decided to con-
tinue with the individual work of
our players as it has been devel-
oped so far,” said the club.
SPURS REVERSE
PLANS TO USE
FURLOUGH
LONDON: Tottenham on
Monday reversed a much-
criticised decision to cut the
wages of non-playing staff
at the Premier League club
by 20 per cent and use
government money to prop
up the other 80 per cent.
That decision led to wide-
spread criticism as Tottenham
have not yet cut the salaries
of their playing squad. “We
have decided that all non-
playing staff, whether
full-time, casual or fur-
loughed, will receive 100 per
cent of their pay for April
and May,” Tottenham said in
a statement.
RON, MATES
PROVIDE
FINANCIAL HELP
LISBON: Cristiano Ronaldo
and his Portugal teammates
have donated half of their
bonus for qualifying for the
Euro 2020 finals to help
amateur football in the
country that has been hit
by the coronavirus shutdown.
The Portuguese football
federation said on Monday
the money would go towards
a fund that it hopes will
reach €4.7 million to help
amateur clubs survive the
crisis. The federation
last week decided to end
the already-suspended
amateur season with
immediate effect.

NADAL, MURRAY Cycling faces tough times

CONFIRMED TO PARIS: The Tour de France is not
only a French monument, but
Nice on June 27. The Tour is the
central economic pillar which

PLAY IN VIRTUAL also the economic heartbeat of

professional cycling itself and
analysts fear heavy consequen-
supports the 22 professional
teams on the roster for 2020.
“Cancellation opens the door

TENNIS EVENT
Agencies
ces if the coronavirus crisis for-
ces its cancellation.
An announcement is expected
to a possible economic meltdown
in the cycling sector,” says
Jean-Francois Mignot of the
n sportm@hindustantimes.com this week on either a postpone- French National Centre for Sci-
ment or an outright cancellation entific Research, who has writ-
NEWYORK: Rafael Nadal and Andy of the 21-day extravaganza that ten the book “A History of the
Murray are among 12 players is currently scheduled to start in Tour de France”. AFP
confirmed to play in the virtual
Madrid Open tennis tournament
this month.
David Goffin, John Isner,
Karen Khachanov, Eugenie Bou-
chard, Kristina Mladenovic and
Kiki Bertens will also participate
from their homes in the April
27-30 online competition that is
expected to be broadcast live on
TV and social media channels.
There will be €150,000
distributed in prize money
for each of the men’s and
women’s events. The winners
then decide how much they want
to donate to tennis players who
are having a hard time finan-
cially without any tournaments
to play.

WOODS EMOTIONAL
OVER MASTERS WIN
LONDON:The Masters over, Tiger
Woods slipped on the green jacket
again on the second Sunday
in April. He just wasn’t at
Augusta National this year.
Woods got emotional on Sun-
day after CBS re-aired his victory
last year. In a video production
from earlier in the week, Woods
joined network host Jim Nantz to
provide commentary during the
final round, the first time in his 15
major victories that he came from
behind to win.
His best commentary was talk-
ing about the celebration with his
two children, his mother, girl-
friend and most loyal supporters.
Woods had a lump in his throat at
one point said, “Now you’re get-
ting me choked up.”

DROGBA OFFERS HIS

HOSPITAL’S SERVICES
ABIDJAN:Former Chelsea forward
Didier Drogba has offered his
hospital in his native Ivory Coast
to the fight against the coronavi-
rus pandemic, a local politician
said. Drogba, who scored 65 goals
in 105 appearances for his coun-
try and won the Champions
League with the English club dur-
ing his playing career, has pro-
posed the use of the Laurent
Pokou hospital in Abidjan.
“We thank Drogba for this gift
considered as an act of patriot-
ism,” the head of the city’s
regional council Vincent Toh
Bi said.

LARSON SUSPENDED FOR

USING RACIAL SLUR
CHARLOTTE: NASCAR star Kyle
Larson was suspended without
pay by Chip Ganassi Racing
on Monday for using a racial
slur on a live stream during a
virtual race. Larson was compet-
ing in an iRacing event on Sunday
night when he appeared to lose
communication on his headset
with his spotter. During a check
of his microphone, he said, “You
can’t hear me?” That was fol-
lowed by the N-word.
10 hindustantimes
E STA B L I S H E D I N 1 9 24
§
Challenges of a Time for Parliament to meet, virtually
It is an institution of public trust and needs to
partial lockdown scrutinise executive actions, especially in a crisis
CHAKSHU
Erring on the side of caution has ROY
ABHIJIT
hurt individuals and businesses BANARE
O
n Saturday, the secretary of the department for
W
promotion of industry and internal trade in the ith the coronavirus dis-
ease (Covid-19) upon us, it
ministry of commerce wrote a letter to the home is inevitable that there will
ministry. While the note focused on a possible be changes in how we
engage to get things done.
road map to resume economic activity, one key Prime Minister Narendra
concern it flagged was the need to Modi is holding Cabinet meetings and inter-
allow the “free movement of all vehi- ourtake acting with political leaders through video
conferences. Last month, 82 Congress leaders
discussed the party’s response to Covid-19 on
cles and manpower” for activities per-
a video call. The Supreme Court is using video
mitted so far, since there had been a “lot of problems” on this conferencing to hear cases. Government con-
ferences are moving online.
front. On Sunday, the home ministry followed up by sending Parliament has been disrupted and the
a note to all state governments. It pointed out that in parts of Budget session was cut short by eight days,
delaying the debate on key bills. Many state
the country, trucks were still being detained; workers needed legislatures such as Maharashtra, Tamil
for the manufacturing of essential items were not getting Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala curtailed their
sessions. Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pra-
authorisation to move; there were problems in inter-state desh issued ordinances to enable them to
movement of personnel and goods; and operation of cold spend money in the new financial year.
It is here that technology-centric solutions
stores and warehouses were being impeded — and asked all can ensure work continuity in law-making
institutions. Parliament has been agile in its
states to make the necessary corrections.
adoption of technology through its history in
The intra-government communication is an illustration of three key areas.
First, to empower members of Parliament
the gap that exists between policy framed at the top, and (MPs) to work more efficiently, as early as
implementation on the ground. It is revealing that the com- 1954, a teleprinter was installed in the lobby of
the Lok Sabha to enable MPs to keep up to
merce ministry is complaining to the home ministry, which in
turn, is telling the states to improve their record, two-and-a-
half weeks into the lockdown. This shows that for this dura-
tion, many industries, businesses, individuals — all eligible to straightforward
move under the rules — were facing obstacles.
But more critically, it shows the implementation challen-
ges that lie ahead. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled
SHASHI SHEKHAR
to speak on Tuesday, and outline the contours of the next
phase of restrictions to tackle the pandemic. It is likely that
the government will adopt a model of a differential lockdown
India can’t bear the costs
— where some sectors and districts will be allowed to func-
tion. This, then, will require extremely nuanced implementa-
of the lockdown anymore
tion on the ground. State governments, municipal and district It is causing grave anxiety, unemployment, and can
authorities, and most important, personnel of the security for-
ces must understand the new guidelines well and implement
undermine the nation’s agriculture and industry sectors
them in letter and spirit. They have to be humane, sensitive,
O C
n Sunday afternoon, an SUV tried to
enter the sabzi mandi in Patiala. The
and awake to the needs of individuals and businesses. Punjab police personnel on the
premises tried to stop the vehicle.
The driver veered into the barricades and
§
tried to push on ahead. But since the barri-
cade got entangled with the car, it got stuck.
What the pandemic Upon this, five Nihangs ( a Sikh sect, mem-
bers of which specialise in traditional mar-
tial art) got out of the car and assaulted the
means for Europe
more than half-a-dozen policemen who were
present. A violent conflict took place in
which an assistant sub-inspector was griev-
ously injured. Taking advantage of the ensu-
The EU and its member-states were ing chaos, the offender left the scene and took
refuge in a nearby gurudwara.
They were later arrested by commandos of
inept. But the Union will survive the Punjab police. They recovered weapons
and lakhs of rupees from the gurudwara. I
A
nother international crisis, another poor show by could not help but think what would have
unfolded had the perpetrators of violence
Europe. No government or multilateral institution been maulanas hiding in a mosque instead of
has covered itself in glory in the current coronavi- Nihangs in a gurudwara. I suspect it would
have led to a public furore. Sikhs and Mus-
rus pandemic. Even by these low standards, the lims both are minority communities, but the
response of the European Union (EU) and its member-states incident reflects the kind of contradictions
we live with as a society.
has been remarkably inept. Existing protocols on sharing The national lockdown has led to serious
medical supplies during a health crisis were ignored. Freedom unemployment issues. This has led to frus-
tration and misery. This explains why some
of movement principles so beloved of Brussels was hastily workers from other states came out on the
streets in Surat on Friday, their helplessness
abandoned. There was a eurozone crisis redux over “corona- and anger turning very quickly into violence.
bonds,” with frugal northern Europeans fearing they would The police responded with force to disperse
them. It was migrant workers like them who
end up paying for the fiscal irresponsibility of southerners. fled cities and went back home after the lock-
There was a palpable sense of virus-ravaged Italy and Spain down was declared. Given their numbers, no
action was taken against them. But the work-
having to fend for themselves, with China providing the only ers in Surat were smaller in number and so
outside assistance. the police did not hesitate to take them on.
One could argue that the police was left with
Yet, the idea that a united Europe will be one of the victims no choice. But the frustration and helpless-
of the pandemic is an exaggeration. The EU is not responsible ness caused by this sudden unemployment
can very well lead to violence in other places.
for medical crises because the member-states never came up If the lockdown period is extended — some
states have already done so — substantial
with a common health policy. Euroscepticism has risen, but efforts have to be made to give daily-wage
mostly in Italy, and has been partly offset by the poor example workers assistance. This lockdown has
become a cause for anxiety, hunger and rest-
set by Brexit Britain. The supplies provided by China, much lessness among them. The government must
of it paid for and subsequently shown to be defective, have be sympathetic to their plight.
Agriculture is the main source of liveli-
been surpassed by what European governments have given to hood for a majority of the people and the rabi
each other. The European Central Bank has spearheaded a crop is ready to be harvested. Workers will be
required for the harvesting, which seems dif-
swathe of financial relief efforts, including for developing ficult given the lockdown and the norms on
countries. Much will be forgiven if a post-crisis Brussels uses social distancing. Even if harvested in time,
the crop has to reach the mandis and farmers
the opportunity to expand the ambit of the EU’s policy action. have to be given a fair price for their produce.
For this, the supply lines will have to be
New Delhi will be among the capitals that will hope Europe opened up. Not doing this will create several
can restore some of its credibility. India and the EU have made challenges, the consequences of which could
hurt us for a long time.
progress in their relations, moving beyond seemingly endless The shutting of industries and small-scale
trade and human rights disputes, and starting to recognise industries for a longer duration will harm
not just the people but also the economy.
that they have common strategic concerns that must be priori- Industrialists and entrepreneurs have
tised. The hope is that these strands can be picked up again voiced their fears, and demanded that they be
allowed to run at least one shift daily. Air
after the virus is defeated. routes, trains and national highways will
also have to be opened alongside.
This is not to undermine the scale of the
RNI No. MAHENG/2005/15186, Air Surcharge : Ahmedabad, Nagpur and beyond by Rail or Road - Rs. 2 /-.
Printed and published by DINESH MITTAL (Interim) for and on behalf of HT Media Ltd., 9th Floor, Tower 3, Indiabulls Finance Centre, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road (West), Mumbai-400013 at
HT Media Ltd. Press at Plot No. 6, TTC Industrial Area, Thane - Belapur Road, Navi Mumbai - 400 708.
Phones: Board: (022) 66134000/01, ● Circulation: (022) 67764242. ● Fax No: (022) 66134322.
Executive Editor: SACHIN KALBAG
comment
speed with important developments. Now
MPs can access wireless Internet on their
phones and tablets inside the Houses. Gone
are the days when MPs or their staff had to
visit the Parliament House to submit notices
for their interventions. Now, there is a dedi-
cated portal where they can electronically file
their questions, zero-hour submissions and
other notices for participating in debates.
Second, there has been rapid technology
adoption in the two parliamentary secretari-
ats. They started using computers for their
work in the mid-1980s. An example of their
digital prowess is the daily uncorrected
debate: A transcript of proceedings in the
Houses is uploaded online on the same day the
debate takes place.
Making Parliament an open and transpar-
ent institution is the third area where the
institution has leveraged technology. The pro-
ceedings of the Houses are broadcast on dedi-
cated TV channels and also streamed online.
The parliamentary websites maintain
records of all its work, and the two secretari-
ats have also digitised parliamentary debate
since 1858, and made them freely available to
the public.
The pandemic challenges the ability of the
institution to physically assemble and debate
matters of national importance. There are two
occasions when MPs have to assemble in per-
son. One, when they meet as a whole to consti-
tute a sitting of the House. This situation will
arise in July when MPs assemble for the mon-
soon session of Parliament. Parliaments
around the world are gearing up to ensure
that some parts of their proceedings can be
conducted online. For example, the Scottish
parliament recently conducted its question
n Agriculture is the main source of livelihood
for many. The rabi crop is ready to be
harvested and taken to mandis for sale. For
this, the government needs to open up
supply lines MANOJ DHAKA/HTPHOTO
health challenge. Some restrictions can be
enforced to prevent the spread of the pan-
demic. For example, the number of passen-
gers travelling in buses, trains and planes
can be limited so that social distancing rules
are not compromised. This will not only
restart the economic process but create a
sense of hope for the future. In districts still
free of the virus, the rules can be relaxed toa
greater extent.
According to the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI), India cannot sustain the burden of a
lockdown for much longer. The federation
has also appealed to the government to
advise district magistrates that they should
take the help of the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme for workers engaged in harvesting
the rabi crop. It has also suggested imposing
heavy taxes on imports for the next six
months to help the domestic small-scale
industry get back on its feet.
It’s obvious that while grappling with this
pandemic, the government will have to find
ways to deal with the economic crisis. As far
as the communal virus is concerned, all of us,
as a society, will have to fix it. If we don’t, then
the future generations could well ask us
whether even an enormous blow like the cor-
onavirus was not enough to bring us to our
senses and make us banish the communal
virus forever.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan
The views expressed are personal
n The workings of legislatures around the world are marked by rigid rules of functioning. But
they also have an advantage. They can effect institutional changes quickly A YADAV/HT PHOTO
hour virtually for the first time. Meanwhile,
in London, 100 MPs signed a letter calling for
the creation of a virtual parliament. In
response, the Speaker of the House of Com-
mons has urged the government to ensure
that some part of parliamentary proceedings
can be done virtually before the house
resumes next week. The second occasion
when MPs meet in person is during meetings
of parliamentary committees. These commit-
tees are smaller sub-groups of MPs which
meet outside the House to deliberate on issues.
The committees play a critical role as they are
tasked with the in-depth examination of gov-
ernment bills. Currently, there are six bills
being examined by different committees.
There are international examples that our
Parliament could examine to restart the func-
tioning of committees. For example, the
House of Commons has successfully com-
pleted a trial in conducting the proceedings of
their committees digitally. Its treasury com-
mittee recently heard witnesses on a video
conference on the subject of the economic
impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In New
Zealand, the Epidemic Response Committee,
led by the leader of opposition, has been oper-
ating via video conferencing to evaluate the
Covid-19: Private sector
has a key role in the battle
The State cannot fight the pandemic alone. It needs
help on testing, treatment, PPEs, and a lot more
INDU
BHUSHAN
ountries across the development
spectrum are grappling with an
unprecedented situation in which a
seemingly innocuous viral illness,
the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), has spi-
ralled into a global pandemic in less than 90
days. It has infected more than 1.5 million
people in more than 200 countries, claimed
over 100,000 lives, and brought most of the
world to a standstill.
In India, the authorities have responded
decisively with a strong whole-of-govern-
ment approach. However, given the enor-
mity of the challenge, we also need a whole-
of-society response.
According to the World Health Organi-
zation, a critical lesson from the 2014-16
West African Ebola crisis is that both the
public and private sectors need to work in
tandem in responding to large-scale epi-
demics. In the Covid-19 response, the pri-
vate sector in the country — for-profit and
not-for-profit segments — has to play an
even more important role, as it is the domi-
nant provider of health services. The
National Sample Survey Office’s 71st
round data shows that private hospitals,
clinics and nursing homes provide over
70% of health care. Data on the nearly 10
million treatments received under the
Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan
Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) corroborate
this finding.
At present, most of the Covid-19 testing
and treatment are being done in public
facilities. As the epidemic progresses, both
these services will need to be expanded sev-
eral-fold, and the private sector will need to
step in as a major partner and stakeholder.
First, the creation of a large and accessi-
ble testing infrastructure is a key weapon
to battle the virus. Countries such as South
Korea, Singapore, Germany and Japan
have been successful in controlling its
spread and reducing mortality through
early detection and quick containment.
This has been possible only through
widespread testing. India has opened test-
ing up to private labs and payment for test-
ing is covered under the ABPM-JAY as
well. We need to substantially expand our
testing capacity, something not possible
without the active participation of the pri-
vate sector.
Second, as the government deepens its
containment efforts, the numbers of quar-
antine units, isolation wards and intensive
care unit (ICU) beds in dedicated Covid-19
hospitals have to be rapidly increased. It
will also need to ensure increased and con-
tinued supply of essential medical prod-
ucts, from testing kits, masks and other
personal protective equipment (PPE) items
to oxygen and ventilators. According to a
recent Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) study, around 5% of those infected
will need intensive care and half of those in
ICUs will need mechanical ventilation. The
study was based on available global epide-
miological parameters from the initial
phase of the outbreak and comparison with
other countries with similar transmission
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
government’s response to Covid-19. The pro-
ceedings of the committee are streamed on
social media and on the Parliament website.
The Australian Parliament also has a provi-
sion in its rules of procedure to allow for audio
and video links to be used for committee pro-
ceedings.
The workings of legislatures in India and
around the world are marked by ceremony
and rigid rules of functioning. But they also
have an advantage. They can regulate their
functioning, allowing them to effect institu-
tional changes quickly. Working remotely is
the new normal, and for Parliament to adapt
to it is a necessity.
This disruption by the pandemic is an
opportunity for our Parliament. It should
evaluate which aspects of its functioning are
amenable to being done online. The virtual
working of parliament in other countries
underlines one key principle. Parliament is an
institution of public trust and needs to con-
tinue its role of scrutiny of government’s
actions, especially in times of crisis.
Chakshu Roy is head of legislative and civic engage-
ment, PRS Legislative, Abhijit Banare is a Chevening
scholar at Cambridge University
The views expressed are personal
dynamics. These projections translate into
large numbers that considerably exceed
the capacity of the government’s health
care system.
During the current crisis, the activities
of the private health sector should be the
core part of national health efforts. Private
hospitals with adequate infrastructure will
need to be converted into dedicated Cov-
id-19 hospitals. This process will, of course,
have to be steered by the government
through a clear policy framework of desig-
nated hospitals, reporting and referral sys-
tems, and an appropriate payment system.
The experience of purchasing health care
services through the ABPM-JAY can be the
template.
Some private hospitals can help in man-
aging the treatment of non-Covid-19
patients. With many government facilities
being converted into dedicated Covid-19
hospitals, a large number of non-Covid-19
patients will need facilities and providers
to take care of their health care needs.
The ABPM-JAY has started a process to
bring on board more hospitals to respond to
such needs. It is assisting state govern-
ments in temporarily empanelling addi-
tional health facilities to provide emer-
gency care and treatment for other serious
illnesses to all citizens, particularly the
poor and vulnerable.
Third, as more private providers join
this fight, a major concern that is bound to
arise is keeping health care workers from
getting infected. Ensuring the protection of
doctors, nurses, paramedics, lab techni-
cians and other health care facility staff
from infection is of paramount importance.
Companies manufacturing essential medi-
cal products such as ventilators, masks,
face shields, clinical gloves, hand-sanitis-
ers, and sterilisation equipment will need
to crank up their production lines. Direct
support from banks may be needed for this.
Fourth, the private sector will need to
vigorously support the large ecosystem
that drives the health system, as the lock-
down and ongoing epidemic restrict move-
ment and normal economic activities. The
production of essential drugs and medical
products, logistics to maintain smooth sup-
ply, transportation of health workers, and
delivery of food and other essential items
must continue and also accelerate. Support
for community activities such as night
shelters and community kitchens must be
strengthened.
Finally, an adequate stage-wise
response to the pandemic and its economic,
social and political aftermath will require
filling many knowledge gaps. Government,
private and not-for-profit research institu-
tions need to collaborate to understand the
nature of transmission of the virus, the fac-
tors that helps to slow down its spread, the
most at-risk communities, or the optimal
quarantine period.
The fight against Covid-19 involves the
continuous management of an evolving
public health crisis that threatens to create
economic and social disruptions. This is an
appeal to all private and charitable health
care institutions to join this effort for our
people and humanity. It is the time to
embrace reality and play our individual
and collective roles in the fight.
Indu Bhushan is CEO, Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY
and National Health Authority.
The views expressed are personal
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, MUMBA I
T UESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
LOCKDOWN
shortstories
FEARS AFFECT
MARKETS
MUMBAI: Indian equities ended
lower on Monday with investors
expecting an extension of the
lockdown, while weakness in
global markets and rise in crude
prices dented sentiments further.
The BSE Sensex ended at
30,690.02, down 469.60 points, or
1.51%, while the 50-share Nifty
index was at 8,993.85, down 118.05
points, or 1.3%. According to
analysts, investors are worried
that a continuation of the
lockdown will intensify pressure
on India’s economic growth as
well as corporate earnings, which
in turn will impact the markets in
the future. Shrikant Chouhan,
executive vice president, equity
technical research, Kotak Securi-
ties, said trading momentum seen
in core economy related stocks
and sectors, such as infrastruc-
ture, auto and cement stocks,
indicate that an economic
stimulus package announcement
by the government may follow
soon. The markets will closely
follow the Prime Minister’s
speech scheduled for today at 10
am, wherein he is likely to an-
nounce measures to fight virus.
SOFTBANK SEES
$12.5 BN LOSS AS
BETS BACKFIRE
TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp.
forecast a 1.35 trillion yen ($12.5
billion) operating loss for the
fiscal year ended in March, a sign
of how badly Masayoshi Son’s
bets on technology startups have
been battered in recent months.
The Japanese company expects to
record a 1.8 trillion yen loss from
its Vision Fund and another 800
billion yen in losses from Soft-
Bank’s own investments. It has
written down the value of
investments in companies,
including office-sharing startup
WeWork and satellite operator
OneWeb, which filed for bank-
ruptcy last month. Another sign
of the troubles is Oyo, a hotel-
booking service into which
SoftBank invested about $1.5
billion. Its business model has
been slammed as global travel
screeched to a halt. This month,
founder Ritesh Agarwal said the
company would furlough em-
ployees in countries outside India
as it struggles to survive the virus.
COMPILED FROM AGENCIES
AND REPORTERS
HTSPOTLIGHT
B AT T L I N G L O S S E S I N L O C K D O W N
K’taka puts vacant govt sites on sale
Venkatesha Babu
n letters@hindustantimes.com
BENGALURU: Admitting that the
state is in “financial trouble”,
Karnataka chief minister B S
Yediyurappa on Monday
announced measures to help in
resource mobilisation, includ-
ing by authorising the auction-
ing of 12,000 corner sites in the
state capital.
The Bangalore Development
Authority intends to raise ~
14,000 to ~15,000 crore from the
auctioning. Apart from this,
corner and vacant sites in all
urban development authorities
across the state would be auc-
tioned for additional resource
mobilisation. Yediyurappa
made it clear that the auction of
government-owned sites would
be done only if they fetch a “good
price”.
“The possible situation once
the [Covid-19] lockdown is
ended was widely discussed in
the meeting. Discussion was
Punjab man, his mother say faith SC orders release
kept them strong during recovery oflodged
Assam detainees
Initially, I was worried
Gagandeep Jassowal
n letters@hindustantimes.com
SBS NAGAR: Harpal Singh’s worst
fears came true when his mother,
Pritam Kaur, 72, tested positive
for Covid-19 four days after he
was diagnosed with the disease
on March 22. He was more wor-
ried about his mother since she is
diabetic and more vulnerable.
But luckily for them, the two were
admitted to the same isolation
ward at Civil Hospital in Punjab’s
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
This helped them at least to keep
each other’s morale high.
Harpal Singh, 48, has since
recovered but he continues to
stay back at the hospital to look
after his mother, who doctors say
is stable and likely to be dis-
charged after she is retested this
week. He said it is their faith that
helped them stay strong. They
would listen to religious hymns
on their phones and talk to their
family over video calls.
“Initially, I was worried
because I had heard that people
Labour woes, logistics gaps
key hurdles to reboot plan
LIMITED RESTART Firms unsure if they’ll have required workforce to restart work
Swaraj Singh Dhanjal
swaraj.d@livemint.com
n
MUMBAI: Broken logistics and a
crippling manpower crunch pose
the biggest hurdles to resuming
operations, multiple executives
said, as the government weighs a
limited restart of industries in a
phased exit from the nationwide
lockdown.
Even as many states have
extended the three-week lock-
down till April-end in an attempt
to keep the pandemic under con-
trol, there is growing realisation
that a controlled resumption of
the industry is vital to sustaining
livelihoods.
“Recovery of the (auto) indus-
try is heavily dependent on the
vast supply chain vendors,” said
YS Guleria, director, sales and
marketing at Honda Motorcycle
& Scooter India Pvt. Ltd (HMSI),
India’s second-largest two-
wheeler maker. “They are
equally impacted by the various
factors that are unprecedented in
scale. It is going to be a challenge
to immediately start the manu-
facturing operations and very dif-
ficult to ascertain the time by
when it will be able to fully
bounce back. Vehicle manufac-
turing is very labour-intensive
and there is a large pool of man-
power that has to report back at
work for operations to resume
smoothly,” Guleria said.
In a video-conference with
state chief ministers on Saturday,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
suggested the idea of a lock-in,
with industrial, agricultural and
construction workers housed in
their own work zones. The
Department for Promotion of
Industry and Internal Trade
(DPIIT) also wrote to the home
ministry to let more industries
operate with reasonable safe-
guards in the extended lockdown
period. However, stranded
trucks and missing workers
could upend those plans.
“We are geared up, but the sup-
porting things like packing mate-
n Chief minister BS Yediyurappa interacts with people during a
nationwide lockdown, in Bengaluru on April 12.
also held about the financial sit-
uation of the state government
and how to mobilise resources.
Many suggestions were given
and it was decided to implement
those suggestions,” Yediyur-
appa said after a meeting with
for 2 years
› because I heard that
people suffering from
chronic diseases [like
diabetes] and those
aged may not survive...
HARPAL SINGH
suffering from chronic diseases
[like diabetes] and those aged
may not survive [if infected by
coronavirus],” Singh said.
Harpal Singh, whose Pathlawa
village was on March 22 declared
Punjab’s first Covid-19 contain-
ment zone, was one of the 27 peo-
ple infected by super-spreader
preacher Baldev Singh. The
preacher died on March 18 and
tested positive a day later. Baldev
Singh, 70, returned from Ger-
many via Italy on March 7. He
visited several places before his
death that triggered a scramble
for identifying all the people he
came in contact with. At least 14
Truck movement has collapsed to less than a tenth of normal levels, as per All India Motor Transport
n
Congress, an umbrella body of goods vehicle operators representing about 10 million truckers. BLOOMBERG
rials, consumables, raw materi-
als, transportation, everything
has to cooperate and that has to be
enabled,” said the founder of a
speciality chemicals maker that
manufacturers ingredients for
cleaning, sanitisation and hand
washing applications. Speaking
on condition of anonymity, he
said his company is currently
operating at just around 30%
capacity, having resumed partial
operations from April 6.
“Supply chain is a major
aspect which has to improve,
whether it is getting raw materi-
als from the port or transporting
finished goods to customers
across the country. This is some-
thing that has to smoothen out
and we are hoping that it will hap-
pen fast,” the person cited above
said.
Resumption of work in certain
industries also depends on the
nature of their supply chains, as
some industries tend to operate in
closely-knit clusters, while some
have dispersed chains.
Last week, Mint had reported
that truck movement has col-
PTI
officials of various depart-
ments.
According to officials aware
of developments, the state has
lost nearly ~ 2,500 crore in reve-
nue from just the stoppage of
liquor sales since March 24
members of his family were
infected along with four in Jalan-
dhar and five in Hoshiarpur.
In Pathlawa, 19 people con-
tracted the disease and 14 in
nearby villages of Shaheed Bha-
gat Singh Nagar district, which
were sealed within days. Harpal
Singh is among the 13 people from
his village to have been recov-
ered. At least 10 of them have been
discharged. As of Monday, Pun-
jab had 176 Covid-19 cases. The
state has reported 12 deaths
related to the pandemic while 23
patients have recovered.
Harpal Singh said he is grate-
ful to the doctors and medical
staff at the civil hospital for pro-
viding them moral support and
counselling as well as the best
possible treatment.
Dr Harwinder Singh, the Civil
Hospital’s senior medical officer,
said Harpal has been asked to
remain under home quarantine
for two more weeks after his dis-
charge. “We focused on their
counselling so that patients
should be mentally strong.”
lapsed to less than a tenth of nor-
mal levels, citing All India Motor
Transport Congress, an umbrella
body of goods vehicle operators
representing about 10 million
truckers.
“Industries with supplier eco-
systems in vicinity or in the same
cluster could possibly operate at
reduced levels but those depend-
ent on cross-country inputs could
see supply chain disruption,”
said Sameer Bhatnagar, partner
at KPMG in India. Thus, an indus-
try-specific and planned
approach could be one option for
a structured way to resume
industries, he added.
Smoothing out the logistics
issues will need strong coopera-
tion between the Union and state
governments, said Vimal Kejri-
wal, managing director and chief
executive officer of KEC Interna-
tional Ltd, the construction busi-
ness of RPG group. “Logistics is
an issue where there seems to be
a gap between central govern-
ment and local authorities. Most
trucks are still stranded and very
little movement is happening.
when the 21-day lockdown to
halt the spread of Covid-19 was
declared. The lockdown is
expected to be extended on
Tuesday.
The officials said the govern-
ment is likely to take a call on
Tuesday whether liquor stores
could be opened in the state.
They added the state has also
decided to use the ~1,000 crore
available for upgrading medical
college hospitals. To help dairy
farmers as well as poor people,
the state would continue to dis-
tribute free milk among the poor
living in slums, the officials
said.
Yediyurappa also announced
~45 crore compensation for
farmers of Raichur and Koppa,
who have lost their paddy crop
due to hailstorm. While appeal-
ing sugar factory owners to
clear pending payments to the
tune of ~ 2,834 crore due to farm-
ers across 11 districts, the chief
minister warned of strict action
in case they failed to do so.
NEW DELHI: Relaxing its earlier
conditions in view of the corona-
virus pandemic, the Supreme
Court on Monday directed the
release of detainees in Assam
who were declared foreigners
and have been in detention cen-
tres for two years or more.
A bench of Chief Justice S A
Bobde and Justices L N Rao and
M Shantanagoudar, reduced the
minimum period of detention
from three years to two years.
“Having regard to the present
circumstances prevailing in the
country... and... the fact that we
have already permitted the
release of prisoners and people
under detention in general, and
such detenues who have com-
pleted three years upon their
declaration as foreigners, we see
no reason why the period should
not be reduced from three years
to two years, that is to say, the
prisoners or detenues who have
been under detention for two
years shall be entitled to be
released…,” the bench said. PTI
Logistics is a big grey area, where
we honestly do not know how
much time it will take for things
to regularise. Today, my factories
are full of finished goods; those
have to be shipped out and we
need to bring in raw materials,”
he said.
While the Union home minis-
try has asked state authorities to
allow trucks to move freely, a
major challenge on this front is
getting trucks that are stranded
on the highways running again.
“State agencies could use the
state transport buses currently
lying idle to mobilise drivers to
the trucks. Many drivers come
from certain pockets and buses
with social distancing norms
could run on select pockets to
meet the short-term requirement
to get the wheels rolling,” said
KPMG’s Bhatnagar.
Manpower is another pain
point. With several migrant
workers fleeing cities, companies
are unsure whether they will
have the required workforce
needed to resume work at full
capacity.
Agra registers its
biggest 24-hr spike
with 35 new cases
Hemendra Chaturvedi
n letters@hindustantimes.com
AGRA: Agra recorded the biggest
spike in Covid-19 cases in a day on
Monday as 35 people tested posi-
tive for the disease and took the
district’s tally to 138 even as offi-
cials attributed the sharp rise to
aggressive testing and contact
tracing as part of a containment
model that the Centre has asked
states to emulate.
The Centre on Saturday cited
the model while instructing
states to learn from it. Officials
say the Agra Model has involved
a proactive approach in identify-
ing cases, conducting intensive
testing, door-to-door surveys and
implementing strict quarantine
measures to prevent the spread.
Officials said the 35 new cases
include eight that are linked to
Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi that last
month emerged as a Covid-19 hot
spot. “We are witnessing a sharp
rise in the number of patients but
soon it will start decreasing. The
institutional quarantine is the
only solution to such types of
cases,” said district magistrate
Prabhu N Singh.
He added they have been shift-
ing those who come in contact
with positive cases to quarantine
centres before collecting their
samples. Singh said they will con-
tinue with their model based on
massive sampling, social distanc-
ing and institutional quarantine.
TA B L I G H I JA M A AT
Probe laxity behind event: SC to govt
Abraham Thomas
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court
has asked the Centre to examine
a petition demanding inquiry
into the aspects leading to the
Tablighi Jamaat convention in
the national capital last month.
The petition, filed by a Jam-
mu-based lawyer Supriya Pan-
dita, questioned the role of the
Centre, the Delhi government
and the Delhi Police for risking
the health of millions of citizens
by allowing the huge congrega-
tion comprising foreign dele-
gates. The matter will be taken
March retail inflation eases
to four-month low of 5.91%
Asit Ranjan Mishra
n asit.m@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: A sharp fall in vegeta-
ble prices has led India’s retail
inflation to ease from 6.58% in
February to a four-month low of
5.91% in March. However, supply
shortages due to the 21-day lock-
down could push up inflation in
the short run, said analysts.
Food inflation declined from
10.81% in February to 8.76% in
March because of falling onion
prices, shows data released by the
National Statistical Office (NSO)
on Monday. This was reflected in
vegetable inflation softening
from 31.61% to 18.63% in the two-
month period. The number gives
a false sense of improvement in
inflation, given that the real
impact of the lockdown will be felt
in April as prices of food items
have increased quite sharply,
said Madan Sabnavis, chief econ-
omist at Care Ratings.
“With the lockdown and lim-
ited movement of goods because
of the absence of labour, trucks,
MPC minutes Oil gives up gains despite
reiterate focus on historic Opec+ output cut
mitigating risks
Reuters
n feedback@livemint.com
MUMBAI: The impact of the out-
break on the Indian economy
would depend on the depth, dura-
tion and diffusion of the crisis, the
Reserve Bank of India said in the
minutes of its emergency mone-
tary policy committee (MPC)
meeting in March.
“The covid-19 pandemic is an
invisible assassin which needs to
be contained quickly before it
spreads and wreaks havoc,” RBI
governor Shaktikanta Das wrote
in his minutes. “It is important to
ensure that finance, which is the
lifeline of the economy, keeps
flowing seamlessly to various
sectors.” “Arresting risks to the
growth outlook and preserving
financial stability should, accord-
ingly, receive highest priority.”
SCIENCE AND NATION
Bihar, Odisha may
resume Nrega work
Arun Kumar and
Debabrata Mohanty
n letters@hindustantimes.com
PATNA/BHUBANESWAR: Bihar and
Odisha will soon allow resump-
tion of works under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employee
Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),
the world’s biggest rural social
security scheme, in an effort to
provide relief to the rural poor hit
by Covid-19 and consequent lock-
down.
The nationwide, three-week
lockdown ends on Tuesday, April
14. On Monday, most states sub-
mitted their plans for the post-
lockdown phase with a majority
suggesting that the emergency
measure continue with exemp-
tions for agriculture and allied
services and more measures to
provide relief to the poor.
Bihar chief minister Nitish
Kumar told divisional commis-
sioners and zonal inspectors gen-
eral of police on Monday that a
comprehensive plan was being
prepared to generate employ-
ment opportunities for people.
The biggest concern of the
state has been the lack of work for
large number of people, including
migrant workers who have
returned from different states.
The state also wants to complete
flood management work before
the onset of the monsoon.
Officials said the second phase
of the lockdown after April 14
would be different, with the gov-
up by the court after two weeks.
The petition came up for
hearing before a bench of Chief
Justice SA Bobde and Justices
LN Rao and MM Shantana-
gouder. The court directed a
copy of the petition to be served
to the Solicitor General Tushar
Mehta appearing for the Central
government.
The Court also heard a
related petition filed by Jamiat
Ulama i-Hind which demanded
an end to demonizing of Mus-
lims following the Tablighi
event. The petition raised objec-
tions to news reports naming
the members of Tablighi Jamaat
hindustantimes
POWERED BY
AN ARRAY OF FORWARD-
LOOKING INDICATORS BY
RBI LIKE HOUSEHOLD
INFLATION EXPECTATION
SURVEY POINTS TO A
SOFTER TRAJECTORY
GOING AHEAD
and activity in wholesale mar-
kets, there have been sharp
decline in supplies of foodgrain,
horticulture, and sugar, which is
reflected in high prices in the
market. This can push food infla-
tion towards the 10% mark,” said
Sabnavis.“However, core infla-
tion will trend downwards as ser-
vice prices would not change and
those products with maximum
retail price would not witness a
change in prices even with sup-
plies declining.”
Trucks are getting detained,
workers needed for producing
essential goods are not getting
passes, and cold storages are not
Bloomberg
n feedback@livemint.com
CALGARY: Oil pared gains as inves-
tors weighed whether an unprec-
edented deal by the world’s big-
gest producers to cut output
could stabilise the market reeling
from the coronavirus pandemic.
Futures in New York were lit-
tle changed after earlier surging
8.7% after the Opec+ alliance
agreed to slash production by 9.7
million barrels a day starting in
May. The group reached the deal
following days of intense negotia-
tions after Mexico declined to
endorse the original agreement
reached Thursday. While the
Opec+ deal amounts to the largest
coordinated cut in history, it’s
dwarfed by the estimated 20 mil-
lion barrels a day or greater
decline in oil consumption as a
result of the pandemic.
The US, Brazil and Canada will
contribute an additional 3.7 mil-
ernment planning to allow work
under MGNREGS to resume or
the conservation of traditional
water sources, soil conservation,
environment-specific crop
cycles, organic farming, drip irri-
gation, rain water harvesting and
use of solar energy.
“After harvesting, employ-
ment generation in rural areas
will be the main focus, there is no
reason to be complacent at any
stage in view of the Covid-19 out-
break,” he added.
In Odisha, which has already
announced extension of the lock-
down until April 30, the govern-
ment on Monday announced that
work under MGNREGS and con-
struction under Swachh Bharat
(Clean India) scheme will be
allowed, apart from all agricul-
tural activities.
The state also plans to hire
retired state and central police
officers to enforce social distanc-
ing norms for the next six
months, the police said.
According to the order issued
by chief secretary Asit Tripathy,
shops and establishments selling
agricultural implements, cattle
feed and fish feed, and food proc-
essing and packaging units will
also be allowed to remain open
during the extended lockdown.
The order said that activities
relating to MGNREGS and con-
struction of toilets under Swachh
Bharat mission and individual
houses under the rural housing
scheme would be allowed.
who were infected. Advocate
Ejaz Maqbool argued that the
petition had led to violence
against members of the Muslim
community in Karnataka.
The bench told Maqbool that
the remedy for defamation
against media organizations
cannot be in a writ petition.
Also, it questioned why the peti-
tion did not make Press Council
of India (PCI) a party. Not
inclined to pass any interim
orders gagging the media, the
court allowed the petition to join
PCI as a party and posted it for
hearing along with Pandita’s
petition.
11
being allowed to function, home
secretary Ajay Bhalla said in a
letter to states on April 12.
There is a strong likelihood of
an uptick in urban retail inflation
during the lockdown period, fol-
lowed by a subsequent resump-
tion of the correction in CPI infla-
tion as the situation normalises,
said Aditi Nayar, principal econ-
omist at ICRA Ratings. “Revenue
considerations of central and
state governments suggest that
the fall in crude oil prices is
unlikely to transmit to a reduc-
tion in retail prices of diesel and
petrol in the near term,” she said.
In March, rural inflation at
6.09% stood higher than urban
inflation at 5.66% while fuel infla-
tion marginally rose to 6.59%
from 6.36% in February.
However, an array of forward-
looking indicators by the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), such as
household inflation expectations
survey and professional forecast-
ers survey, points to a much
softer inflation trajectory going
ahead.
lion barrels in nominal produc-
tion cuts as their output declines,
and other Group of 20 nations will
cut 1.3 million more. The G-20
numbers don’t represent real vol-
untary cuts but rather the impact
that low prices have already had
on output, and they would need
months to take effect.
The Opec+ deal came after
days of brokering by US Presi-
dent Donald Trump, who spoke
by phone Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,
followed by a three-way confer-
ence call with Russian President
Vladimir Putin and King Salman
of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco reduced pricing
for all its grades to Asia, signaling
the state company’s intention to
defend sales in its biggest market
even while paring output. Oil pri-
ces have been in freefall since the
middle of February as the world
went into lockdown to try to stop
the coronavirus from spreading.
28 bureaucrats
empanelled to
secretary-level
posts at Centre
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Appointments Com-
mittee of the Cabinet (ACC),
headed by Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi, approved on Mon-
day the empanelment of 28 top
bureaucrats to the secretary
level.
Tarun Bajaj, an Indian
Administrative Service (IAS)
officer of 1988 batch of Haryana
cadre, and his batchmate from
Gujarat, Arvind Kumar
Sharma, have been empanelled
as secretary, or secretary equiv-
alent, officers. Significantly,
both the officers are currently
posted in the prime ministers’
office.
Among others who have been
empanelled to the secretary-
level rank are: National High-
way Authority of India (NHAI)
Chairperson Sukhbir Singh
Sandhu and Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE)
chairperson Anita Karwal.Both
the officers belong to the 1988
batch.
Others who are now eligible
to join as secretaries are IAS
officers Ajay Tirkey of the 1987
batch, Madhya Pradesh, Ram-
eshwar Prasad Gupta of Gujarat
cadre and his batchmate from
Jammu and Kashmir Sudhan-
shu Panday.
Former CBSE chairperson
Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, a
1987 batch officer of the Madhya
Pradesh cadre, has also been
empanelled for holding secre-
tary-level post at the Centre.
Currently, he is posted as an
additional secretary and finan-
cial advisor in the ministry of
culture.
Among officers promoted to
secretary-equivalent rank are
IAS officers Jyoti Arora of the
1987 batch of Haryana cadre,
and Alka Tiwari of the 1988
batch of Jharkhand cadre.
IAS OFFICERS OF THE
1988 BATCH, TARUN
BAJAJ AND ARVIND
KUMAR SHARMA, HAVE
BEEN EMPANELLED AS
SECRETARY OR SECY
EQUIVALENT OFFICERS
12 hindustantimes
spotlig t
htspotlight
Russia border in focus
as China’s cases spike Britain
at its best
in a crisis, says
SECOND WAVE? 108 coronavirus cases reported in mainland China; 98 of them imported
Sutirtho Patranobis & Agencies
n spatranobis@htlive.com
BEIJING/ SUIFENHE: China’s north-
east Heilongjiang province,
which borders Russia, has
become the new battleground
against the coronavirus as
authorities reported the highest
number of new daily cases in
nearly six weeks, driven by
infected travellers from over-
seas.
China fears a rise in imported
cases could spark a second wave
of Covid-19 and push the country
back into a state of near paraly-
sis.
A total of 108 new coronavirus
cases were reported in mainland
China on Sunday, up from 99 a
day earlier and marking the
highest number of cases since
143 infections were reported on
March 5.
The National Health Commis-
sion said 98 of the new cases were
imported, a new record. A total of
49 Chinese nationals who
entered Heilongjiang province
from Russia tested positive.
On Monday, two people were
reported dead in Hubei, pushing
the toll to 3,341 while total cases
stood at 82,160. As of Sunday, the
mainland had reported a total of
1,378 imported cases.
“Our little town here, we
thought it was the safest place,”
said a resident of the border city
of Suifenhe, who only gave his
name as Zhu. “Some Chinese cit-
izens they want to come back,
but it’s not very sensible, what
VIRUS TRACKER
1,877,205
GLOBAL CASES
116,814
GLOBAL DEATHS
WORST-HIT NATIONS
COUNTRY
1 US
2 SPAIN
3 ITALY
4 FRANCE
5 GERMANY
6 UK
7 CHINA
8 IRAN
9 TURKEY
10 BELGIUM
(AS OF APRIL 13, 9.30PM IST)
Very few nations
will get ‘A grade’
on response to
pandemic: Gates
Indo Asian News Service
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW YORK: If we believe billion-
aire philanthropist Bill Gates,
very few countries will get
‘A-grade’ for new coronavirus
response when it comes to
understanding the scale of the
damage Covid-19 could do.
Speaking to BBC, Gates said
several countries have failed on
providing proper healthcare and
there will be a “post-mortem”
when the disease is tackled. “We
are in uncharted territory due to
a lack of investment and prepa-
ration for such a pandemic.”
Gates has announced his
foundation is paying for the con-
struction of facilities that will
manufacture seven promising
vaccines and the best two vacci-
nes would be picked up for final
trials. According to the scien-
tists, a vaccine may take up to
12-18 months after successful
human clinical trials.Gates has
also called upon donor govern-
ments to help low- and middle-
income countries prepare for
this “pandemic”.
The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation in February
announced that it would imme-
diately commit up to $100 million
for the global response to the
novel coronavirus.
n A teacher and students wearing face masks in a classroom as schools reopened on Monday after the
term was delayed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, in Jiaxing city, China's eastern Zhejiang province.
are you doing coming here for?”
Though the number of daily
infections across China have
dropped sharply from the height
of the epidemic in February,
China has seen the daily toll
creep higher after hitting a
trough on March 12.
Chinese cities near the border
with Russia are tightening con-
trols and imposing quarantines
in response to influx of infected
patients from the country. Suife-
(BY CASES)
CASES DEATHS
563,009 22,843
169,496 17,489
156,363 19,899
132,591 14,393
127,916 3,022
88,621 11,329
82,160 3,341
73,303 4,585
56,956 1,198
30,589 3,903
SOURCE: WORLDOMETER
Lockdown eased in Spain,
but death toll crosses 17K
Agence France-Presse
n letters@hindustantimes.com
MADRID:Workers in Spain’s con-
struction and manufacturing
sectors cautiously returned to
work on Monday as the daily
death toll resumed its downward
trend and new infections fell to
the lowest level in three weeks.
Spain is one of the worst-hit
countries in the world, and saw
the daily death rate fall for three
consecutive days last week, only
to rise again on Sunday.
But on Monday it fell again,
with 517 deaths in 24 hours, put-
ting the overall death toll at
17,489 with the number of cases
now standing at 169,496.
Confirmed cases also rose by
3,477 — the lowest daily figure
since March 20 — as Spain began
reopening parts of its economy
after a two-week “economic
hibernation” period.
Although health chiefs say the
outbreak in Spain has peaked,
they have urged the population
to keep observing a strict
national lockdown imposed on
March 14 to slow the spread of
the virus. The restrictions were
further tightened on March 30
when all non-essential activities
were frozen for two weeks —
largely targeting the construc-
tion and manufacturing sectors.
But those restrictions were
lifted on Monday, and train sta-
nhe last week announced
restrictions on movements and
gatherings similar to those
imposed in Wuhan city and
extended the closure of its bor-
der with Russia.
Also, the rise in imported
cases has triggered instances of
harassment of foreigners in
China, especially the black com-
munity in the southern city of
Guangzhou.
A group of African ambassa-
COPS COLLECT 800 BODIES IN ECUADOR
Ecuador said police have removed almost 800 bodies
in recent weeks from homes in Guayaquil, the epicenter
of the country’s Covid-19 outbreak, after the disease
overwhelmed emergency services, hospitals and funeral
parlours. Mortuary workers (above) have been unable to
cope with a backlog, with residents posting videos online
showing abandoned bodies in streets.
n Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli rehearses in an empty Duomo
Square ahead of his live-streamed ‘Music for hope’ event amid the
Covid-19 outbreak, in Milan, Italy, on Sunday.
tions were staffed with police
and Red Cross volunteers hand-
ing out face masks for those
returning to work.
At Madrid’s Atocha station,
commuters took the masks from
officers at arm’s length to avoid
getting too close.
“It’s amazing that the govern-
ment is doing this because either
AFP
dors in Beijing had written to
China’s State Councilor Wang Yi
over the weekend, drawing his
attention to the discrimination
that Africans were encountering
in Guangzhou, after which the
US consulate in the city also
issued an alert for its citizens.
Reports said Africans were
targeted by local businesses and
hotels after a member of the com-
munity is said to have violated
quarantine rules.
Ecuador has recorded 7,500 cases since the first
case was confirmed on Feb 29. The province of Guayas
accounts for over 70 per cent of those infected in the
country, with 4,000 cases in the capital Guayaquil,
according to the government. The military and police
began removing bodies from homes three weeks
AFP PHOTO after the mortuary system in Guayaquil collapsed
REUTERS PHOTO
you can’t find them in shops or
they’re very expensive,” said
nurse Brenda Palacios, who took
two of them. “I have one at work
but I can’t take it home with me
so I leave it there.” Masks have
been hard to come by in recent
weeks and some commuters said
the handouts put them at ease
during their trips to work.
n Prince William. AFP FILE PHOTO
Prince William
Reuters
n letters@hindustantimes.com
LONDON: Prince William has said
Britain is at its best in a crisis, his
office said on Sunday, the latest in
a series of messages from the
royal family seeking to galvanise
the nation during the coronavi-
rus pandemic. Queen Elizabeth
has twice addressed Britons in
the past week, while heir-to-the-
throne Prince Charles, who
tested positive for the virus, has
also issued several video and
audio messages since he recov-
ered. William’s message came on
a day when the Covid-19 death toll
in hospitals across the United
Kingdom passed 10,000.
“I think Britain is at its best
when faced with a crisis,” the
queen’s grandson said during a
call with a community charity in
northern England that runs a
food bank and has been deliver-
ing hot meals to isolated people.
“We all pull together and that
community spirit comes rushing
back quicker than anything
else,” he said.
William, who is second-in-line
to the throne after his father
Charles, has become the patron of
the National Emergencies Trust
for 2020, the palace said.
Created in 2019, the NET seeks
to coordinate with not-for-profit
organisations to direct public
donations to specific appeals and
to distribute funds fairly and effi-
ciently.
ISRAEL’S FORMER
CHIEF RABBI DIES
OF CORONAVIRUS
Agencies
n letters@hindustantimes.com
JERUSALEM : A former Israeli chief
rabbi has died after contracting
the coronavirus, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said on
Monday, in what is the country’s
highest-profile death from the
pandemic.
Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who
served from 1993 to 2003 as the
state’s top chaplain for Sephar-
dim, or Jews of Middle Eastern
and North African descent, suc-
cumbed late on Sunday to com-
plications from the respiratory
virus in a Jerusalem hospital,
aged 79, Israeli media said.
“Tragically, Rabbi Bakshi-Do-
ron contracted the coronavirus
and doctors’ efforts to save him
did not succeed,” Netanyahu
said in a statement.
Born in Jerusalem in 1941, he
was chief rabbi of the northern
port city of Haifa for 18 years
before being elected chief rabbi
of Israel.
He met Pope John Paul II in
2000 during the pontiff’s visit to
Israel, sparking criticism from
some ultra-Orthodox rabbis.
An advocate of interfaith dia-
logue, he increased engagement
with Muslim and Christian lead-
ers.
As of Sunday, Israel had
reported 11,145 cases of the coro-
navirus and 103 deaths.
NYC has more virus
cases than China, UK
n Hashim, an essential worker in the healthcare industry, greets his daughter through the closed door as
he maintains social distance from his family in New Rochelle, New York.
Yashwant Raj and Agencies
n letters@hindustantimes.com
WASHINGTON: New York City, the
epicenter of the American coro-
navirus epidemic, alone had way
more confirmed cases on Monday
than the whole of China, where
the pandemic started last Decem-
ber, the United Kingdom and oth-
ers, as President Donald Trump
said decision on reopening the
country to come “shortly”.
The city had reported more
than 104,410 confirmed cases,
which was way over 88,621 in the
United Kingdom and 83,213 in
China. The death toll stood at
6,898. New York state had 190,288
confirmed cases, more than the
world’s three worst affected
countries after the United States
— 169,496 in Spain, 156,363 in Italy
and 133,472 in France. The death
toll was up by more than 1,500
over the previous day to 9,384 in
the state.
New York City mayor Bill de
Blasio told reporters on Sunday
that the past week was a “very,
very tough” one in the city’s hos-
pitals. “We have never, ever
underestimated this enemy we’re
fighting. Coronavirus is fero-
cious and has presented us with
challenges that we have never
ever seen. Certainly our nation
has not seen anything like in a
century,” he said.
The number of cases in all of
the US was up to 557,663 and
deaths to 22,116 deaths. Despite
these rising numbers, public
health officials have expressed
cautious optimism based on
thetimescrosswords
CRYPTIC CLUES
Across
1 An accident to make light of (5)
4 Singular-looking giant? (7)
8 Frequently no distance at all (3)
9 It is placed in a challenging
position (6,3)
10 Prospect following land clearance (4,3)
11 Urge preparation for breakfast? (3,2)
13 Vessel - showing its nationality? (6)
15 Company guard (6)
18 Animal comes from Asia and is taken
in by father (5)
19 Bright red name tag perhaps (7)
21 Free of duty? (2,7)
23 It may be trained to kill (3)
24 Once more a good man is in
opposition (7)
25 Made a record and was famous (5)
Down
1 No performance? He’ll be
disappointed (4-3)
2 At sea for the most part? (2,3,4)
3 Goes over the ground where the
knights used to fight (5)
4 Be able to repeat a vigorous dance (6)
5 Stays in different sectors (7)
6 An alternative to a key ring (3)
7 Old English boy holds a number (5)
12 Usual wish for a happy
retirement? (4,5)
14 Eggs turn into cheers (7)
16 One should be in entering a new
trade (7)
17 Come to a hill (6)
18 Square market place abroad (5)
20 Colour, being inexperienced (5)
22 Area of grass in a clearing (3)
SOLUTIONS FOR 15562
Cryptic
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, MUMBA I
TUESDAY, A PRIL 14, 2 02 0
CORONAVIRUS: WORLD
TRUMP RETWEETS CALL TO FIRE
COVID-19 EXPERT AMID CRITICISM
WASHINGTON : US President
Donald Trump retweeted a
call to fire Dr Anthony
Fauci after the nation’s top
expert on infectious dis-
eases said lives could have
been saved if the country
had shut down sooner
during the novel coronavi-
rus outbreak.
Trump retweeted a mes-
sage on Sunday from a
former Republican con-
gressional candidate who
cited Fauci’s comments
during a television inter-
view on Sunday and
tweeted “time to #Fire-
Fauci”. The Republican
president in the past has
emerging signs of an improve-
ment, such as drop in hospitalisa-
tion and “flattening” of cases,
fatalities.
The Trump administration
has been pushing for reopening
the country, or parts of it, based
on these signs. Trump has said he
will be announced a task force to
determine the right time for it.
But on Monday he signaled he
will be deciding that in consulta-
tion with state governors.
“A decision by me, in conjunc-
tion with the Governors and
input from others, will be made
shortly!” Trump wrote on twitter.
Trump has been raring to
reopen the country worried
PUZZLE 15563 ©GeminiCrosswords2017 All rights reserved
QUICK CLUES
Across
1 Fashion (5)
4 Word of same meaning (7)
8 Melody (3)
9 Person used for
experimentation (6,3)
10 North European
country (7)
11 Swoon (5)
13 Overcast (6)
15 Changes (6)
18 Expenses of lawsuit (5)
19 Musical performance (7)
21 Russian composer (9)
23 Large edible sea fish (3)
24 Take over duties of (7)
25 Pass on (5)
Quick
REUTERS PHOTO
repeated critical tweets of
officials or enemies rather
than make the criticism
himself. The retweet fueled
speculation Trump was
running out of patience
with the popular scientist
and could fire him.Fauci
has assumed national
prominence — and a degree
of affection — as a leader
in the fight against the
coronavirus. He has contra-
dicted or corrected Trump
on scientific matters during
the public health crisis,
including whether the
anti-malaria drug hydroxy-
chloroquine is effective
against the virus. REUTERS
about the impact of the lockdown
on his re-election prospects in
November, according to news
reports.
Close to 17 million people have
been left jobless by the epidemic,
the stock market has ben savaged
and economists have warned of a
slowdown comparable to the
Great Depression of 1929. Trump
is also battling increasing criti-
cism of his administration’s
“botched” and “delayed”
response to the epidemic. He hit
back in a string of tweets Sunday
calling these reports “Fake” and
cited his February 16 ban on for-
eign travelers from China as
proof.
Down
1 Illegal trade (7)
2 Incorrect (9)
3 Code of
beliefs (5)
4 A disturbance (6)
5 Necessary (7)
6 Short sleep (3)
7 Power (5)
12 Exactly similar (9)
14 Arrange (7)
16 Unanimously (7)
17 Commend (6)
18 Leap about (5)
20 Lid (5)
22 Lubricate (3)
 HIN DU STA N T IM ES , M U M BA I
T U ES DAY, A PRIL 14 , 2020 TIME OUT htcafé 13
Mona Singh
would like a
JJKN re-run
RIGHT CLICK: EFFECTIVE TIPS
Rishabh Suri

W
ith so many old shows
such as Ramayan and
Mahabharat making a
comeback on Indian
television, there’s a buzz about
Mona Singh’s Jassi Jaissi Koi
Nahin (JJKN) making a
comeback too.
“I have not heard any such
news, but what I did
experience was a lot of people
writing to me on social media
that I should speak to channel
heads and tell them to re-run
the show. It’s the perfect time
for it to re-run,” says the 38-
year-old actor, adding that it
was the absence of
unnecessary dragging that
made old shows better.
“We never changed
our story according to
PHOTO: ISTOCK, FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY
ON SAVING DATA The unfortunate
it Instagram, Facebook or
Twitter — offers video
sharing and therefore
comes with an
reality of the Covid-19 autoplay feature.
Switch it off.
Mona Singh; (inset) in a still
from Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin induced nationwide Instead, manually
select the videos
that you want to
the ratings we got. Now what
lockdown is that data is now watch.
n Streaming
happens is, if they call me for a
cameo and my track works,
they will then start my track.
a resource that needs to be apps: Every
streaming app
comes with a
This is something not very
well-planned. That never
managed. We list eight download option.
Use it to download
happened with Jassi. Every
heroine in shows today looks
the same, either she’s crying
simple ways you can do series and movies
when you have
access to free data.
or angry,” Singh says.
n rishabh.suri@htlive.com
so effectively Alternatively, opt for the
SD option while streaming.
Do remember that the higher
the resolution, the more data
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK more access to shared files is required. And if you are
and team productivity apps watching on the small screen
Sneha Mahale you are using mobile data. no doubt. But if you are off photo, video and audio such as Slack. So use of your phone or tablet, the
But once you are connected to worried about data downloads on WhatsApp by browser-based interfaces as low quality won’t even be
ow, with the lockdown the Wifi, it is usually a free- consumption, most of these visiting the Data And Storage far as possible. noticeable.

N extended, it is quite
evident that work-from-
home suit is here to stay.
Here’s how you can save your
data from being exhausted:
n Device settings: Most
devices have in-built
protection that can prevent
expensive downloads when
for-all since these safeguards
no longer apply. So, comb
through the settings of your
network and configure them
sensibly to reduce the load on
your Wifi connection.
n Automatic updates: Your
device’s software and apps
need to be updated regularly,
can wait. Switch to manual,
and decide on a case-by-case
basis. Update the ones you
need and will use frequently
while at home.
n Syncing: Avoid the
n App settings: You can
control what is downloaded
by an app by changing its
setting. For example, switch
section in Settings. This way,
the app will only allow
manual downloads initiated
by you.
automatic syncing of cloud-
based file services such as
Dropbox and Google Drive.
Working from home means
n Photos: You are probably
clicking multiple pictures/
selfies right now to beat
boredom. Chances are your
device has a backup function
that uploads all these images
to the cloud. Disable it.
n Autoplay: Almost every
social media app you use — be
n Smart downloads: Some
streaming video and podcast
apps give users the option to
download an episode in
advance. Use it to ensure that
the download takes place at a
time when there is lesser load
on your Wifi.
n ht.cafe@htlive.com

SUDOKU DIFFICULTY LEVEL CALVIN AND HOBBES Bill Watterson

Quarantine cooking:
Men take the plunge
Kritika Sehgal
ith the lockdown
cook yourself but it’s worth
the challenge....”
John Cyril, an engineering
MATHDOKU DID YOU KNOW?
Actor Allu Arjun, who played the role of
Gona Ganna Reddy in Rudhramadevi
(2015), supposedly saved the film from
Fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and
each of the 9X9 squares contains all the digits from 1 to 9.
a financial muddle, and didn’t charge a
penny for his role in the film.
SCRAMBLE - 3421
Solve the four anagrams and move one letter to each square to
form four ordinary words

W turning many into

culinary enthusiasts,
and spiritual leader Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar starting a
cooking challenge,
#LetMenCook, the motivation
to take over the kitchen is
reignited in men.
He wrote on Twitter, “How
about #WomenOnStrike on
Monday? #LetMenCook
Women can guide others in the
house, including children to
cook. In some cases, it might
be tougher to teach than to
student, says, “I have always
loved cooking but with the
hectic college schedule, it was
tough to keep up. However, I
recently stumbled upon this
challenge, #LetMenCook, and
took hold of the kitchen.”
Anirudh Arora, a student of
Ramanujan College, DU, says,
“It gives peace of mind and
relaxation. I spent hours binge
watching series, but now I
cook. My mother is happy to
have a helping hand.”
n kritika.sehgal@hindustantimes.com
H RUIO
FH SIT
IIORC N
E E FSUF
Now arrange the letters marked with an asterisk (*) to form the
answer to the riddle or to fill in the missing words as indicated.
______________ is the truth inside the lie.
SOLUTION SUDOKU
- Stephen King (7)
SOLUTION MATHDUKU
Place numbers into the puzzle cells so that each row and column contains each of the digits from 1 to 5. No number is to be repeated in any row or
ANSWER: Fiction is the truth inside the lie. - Stephen King
column. Each bold-outlined cells contain a hint of a number and one of the mathematical symbols + x - /. The number is the result of the operation
SCRAMBLE SOLUTION: Houri, shift, ironic, effuse
represented by the symbol to the digits contained.

Astrologer Prem Kumar Sharma can be contacted at: Delhi: 011-47033152, Sarah Michelle Gellar: The American actor,
TUESDAY
DAILY HOROSCOPE APRIL 14,
2020
40532026 (Sat to Mon): Panchkula: 91-172-2562832, 2572874 (Tues to Thurs);
Mumbai: 09716145644 (Last week of every month)
known for films such as I Know What You Did Last
Summer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions, Scooby-Doo,
The Grudge, turns 43 today.

Some compromises may be required on
the financial front. Those in the travel
sector can find the business improving.
Good eating habits are likely to be
adopted by some just to keep a lifestyle
ARIES disease at bay. You are likely to keep
(MAR 21 - APR 20) in touch with your near and dear ones,
who are not in town. Those in love may
want to plan an outing together but may have
to wait for some more time. Achieving a distinction on the academic
front is possible.
Love Focus: Love may knock at the door of those looking for it.
Lucky Number: 6 Lucky Colour: Turquoise
Judicious spending will allow you to both
enjoy as well as save. Those in show
business will get a chance to promote
themselves. On the health front,
meditation will prove a good remedy in
TAURUS countering mental tensions. Relationship
(APR 21 - MAY 20) with spouse will remain on an even keel,
for those experiencing turbulence. Those
planning to travel abroad may have to prepare
for some additional documentations. Be careful while meeting
strangers online.
Love Focus: Some of you can get romantically involved.
Lucky Number: 2 Lucky Colour: Lemon
Good earning will help boost your quality
of life. You will fare much better if you
don’t play for short-term gains.
Adopting an active lifestyle will do a
whale of a good in keeping minor
GEMINI ailments at bay. Your love and admiration
(MAY 21 - JUN 21) for spouse is likely to make the home
front a paradise. Some of you are likely to
plan to buy a property in the form of a plot or
an apartment.
Love Focus: Those in a long-term relationship may seriously consider
taking the plunge.
Lucky Number: 3 Lucky Colour: Rose
Gifting money to the one you love
cannot be ruled out. On the professional
front, those seeking job will need to
enhance their market value to succeed.
On the health front, your new initiative
CANCER will prove effective in coming back in
(JUNE 22 - JULY 22) shape. A celebratory atmosphere may
be created at home by someone’s
achievement. Those wanting to dispose of
property should wait for some more time. Things look well on the
academic front.
Love Focus: An opposite number is likely to attract you.
Lucky Number: 15 Lucky Colour: Rosy Brown

Don’t get emotionally swayed by a Buying a new car or two-wheeler may have Financial security will make you more Financially, things brighten for you as
scheming person and give in to his or her to be postponed to a later date. confident in the present environment. pending payments are received.
demands. It will be important to Marketing personnel may need to You may feel hesitant to broach a Celebrations regarding a promotion or a
understand a task correctly initially rethink strategy. A home remedy may contentious issue with a rival at work. raise are just round the corner for some.
than to revert back time and again. On prove effective in curing a persistent Those unwell may neglect to take There will be nothing to complain about
the health front, condition of those LEO health problem. Family life cruises along VIRGO medicine and prolong their illness. A LIBRA on the health front. Domestic SCORPIO
recuperating from surgery will improve (JULY 23 - AUG 23) smoothly as you enjoy special bonding (AUG 24 - SEPT 23) pre-planned out of town business trip (SEPT 24 - OCT 23) environment needs to be handled with (OCT 24 - NOV 22)
quickly. Enjoying togetherness with family with other family members. A real estate may not materialise but should not get you care. A piece of information may prove
is indicated and will keep you in high spirits. transaction may have to be arranged on a short worried. Someone’s help and support on the important for getting new opportunities on
Taking help from someone clued up on the academic front will help notice, so start preparing for it now. academic front is likely to give a big boost to your performance. the academic front.
clarify your mind. Love Focus: Falling in love with someone you have recently met Love Focus: Someone from the opposite camp may tug at your Love Focus: Sprinkle some romance in your relationship to make your
Love Focus: Romance will be farthest from your mind today. cannot be ruled out. heartstrings and usher in romance! marital boat cruise smoothly.
Lucky Number: 18 Lucky Colour: Red Lucky Number: 22 Lucky Colour: Dark Turquoise Lucky Number: 11 Lucky Colour: Beige Lucky Number: 15 Lucky Colour: Rosy Brown

On the financial front, investment options
may appear confusing. An out of town
business deal may have to be planned
via some other medium rather than
travelling there directly. A new workout
regime will serve your purpose
SAGITTARIUS excellently, on the health front. Changes
(NOV 23 - DEC 21)
on the home front are likely to be
welcomed by all. A good morale booster will
work wonders for those appearing for a tough competition on the
academic front.
Love Focus: Marriage may be on the minds of the eligible.
Lucky Number: 17 Lucky Colour: White
Those in financial doldrums may need to do
something about it urgently. A good turn
done to someone at work is likely to be
repaid soon. You feel at the top of the
world, where health is concerned. You
are likely to do some fun things with
CAPRICORN family today. Those planning to travel
(DEC 22 - JAN 21)
abroad in the coming days may face some
hassles, so prepare well and keep your papers in
order. A property may come into your name.
Love Focus: Romantic mood may wane as you get busy with other
priorities.
Lucky Number: 8 Lucky Colour: Rose
Some relief on the financial front is
foreseen. Thorough knowledge about
your trade is likely to place you head and
shoulders above others. You will do well
to give your system a break by fasting or
eating a special diet. Organising a family
AQUARIUS get-together cannot be ruled out. Some
(JAN 22 - FEB 19)
of you may plan to shift to a new
accommodation. Guiding someone on the
academic front will give you an immense sense of satisfaction.
Love Focus: Your way with words will impress someone from the
opposite camp!
Lucky Number: 1 Lucky Colour: Cream
This is the time to consolidate your position
on the professional front. You will be able
to complete the paperwork to get a loan
released. Those feeling unwell for
sometime are likely to recover quickly.
You are likely to achieve much
PISCES satisfaction in catering to a family elder.
(FEB 20 - MAR 20)
Property dealers need to plan for new
strategies and offers to boost their sales. Some
of you can organise a surprise party for someone close.
Love Focus: A golden opportunity to win over the one you love is
about to present itself.
Lucky Number: 4 Lucky Colour: Parrot Green

htcafé
MUMBAI, TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2020 I Entertainment & Promotional Features
SIXSHOTSOFLIFE
There’s negativity all around, but we will focus on the
positivity. Our editor picks shots of life that bring a smile
Y THE NEEDY
STANDING B p of people
who got toge lp the
s, a grou
Caring Indian ve set up food infrastruc
ci al m ed ia , ha
so ve nt ila to r de
ost
poor, a low-c ckdo wn helpline.
al th lo
mental he
ys, helped ov
up in three da
Pune. They
will soon
TOM HANKS IS
‘AMERICA’S DAD’
Tom Hanks was one of the
first celebrities to test
positive for Covid-19.
Hosting Saturday Night
Live show from home,
he joked, “Ever since
being diagnosed, I
have been more like
America’s dad than
ever before, since
no one wants to be
around me
anymore,” he said.
PHOTOS:
INSTAGRAM
Adaa Khan shared
an artwork of a
man clicking a
selfie while
distributing food
FRIENDS CAST
FILM 90-MIN
SPECIAL
T
he cast of Friends were set
to reunite for a special but
plans were delayed due to
the Covid-19 scare. Now
they’ve recorded a 90-minute
special. Actor Courteney Cox
and director Ben Winston
filmed a “mock rehearsal”
over a live video app, reports
thesun.co.uk. A source said
Cox set up online meetings.
“Their sessions have been
brilliant fun, and there’s some
hilarious material which they
hope can be aired as teasers, or
a special,” the source added.
NOTE TO READERS: Some of the
coverage that appears on our pages
is paid for by the concerned brands.
No sponsored content does or shall
appear in any part of HT without it
being declared as such to our valued
readers.
LITTLE CHILDREN MAKE
BIG DIFFERENCE!
Filmmaker Farah Khan Kunder’s
12-year-old son Czar Kunder has
composed a rap titled Need To
Survive, urging people not to
step out during the pandemic.
Her 12-year-old daughter Anya
has also raised ₹70,000 in five
days by sketching people’s pets
and selling the sketches. The
money is being used to feed
starving animals as well as
needy people.
ther via
he
ture to
and a
si gn ed w ith IIT Kanpur set-
in it ia ti ve,
Their food
in Mumbai and
pe op le
er 35,000 her cities.
be ad di ng Delhi and ot
PHOTO:
REUTERS
Sangeeta Yadav
A
ctor Jay Bhanushali’s
recent tweets, calling out
people posting photos
and videos while distributing
food to the needy, triggered a
debate — were the pictures
publicity or a bid to inspire?
Of late, videos of actors
Mahira Sharma and Paras
Chabbra, and Prince Narula
and Yuvika Chaudhary,
distributing food to the
underprivileged were widely
shared on social media. Soon
after, Bhanushali tweeted
without naming anyone, but
netizens assumed it was
aimed at Paras-Mahira.
“It’s a pity when someone
makes publicity out of
Weight gain? It can wait
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/
RADHIKAMADAN
DON’T LET
As everyo
IT GO
ne’s stayin
TO WASTE
g home
in the wak
e of
actor Dia M Covid-19,
irza called
upon
her follow
kitchen w
ers
pollution b to beat air
y compost
in
aste. She p g the
she had re osted a vid
corded for
Day last ye World Env
ar on her In
must consi st a, caption
der the op
difference portunity
to make a
at this tim
e...”
VICTORY OF GOOD
ASI Harjeet Singh, the brave Punjab policeman,
has had successful surgery to reimplant his
hand. A few violent men in Patiala had
chopped off his hand with a sword while he
was on duty. “The hand is viable, warm with
good circulation,” doctors from PGIMER
Chandigarh who performed the 7.5-hour long
and challenging plastic surgery said.
someone’s helplessness. You
can click pictures with the
stuff you’re donating but the
recipient’s name and identity
should be kept secret as not
everyone who’s receiving
food packets is a beggar,”
Bhanushali tells us.
Actors Kushal Tandon and
Adaa Khan, too, shared an
artwork on their Instagram
showing a man taking a selfie
while giving food packets.
“Identity of the person
receiving help should never
be revealed,” opines Khan,
adding, “If they do this to
inspire others, then instead
endorse it.” Tandon is against
the idea of filming the act of
helping someone. “Some
people have made it an event
Radhika Bhirani
B
aking, boiling, roasting,
frying — celebs are
indulging more than ever
in their kitchens during the
lockdown. And they’re glad to
be gorging on home-cooked
delicacies, avoiding piling on
weight with home workouts.
Busy shooting outdoors
since last June, Rasika Dugal is
looking at this time “to detox,
eat healthy and exercise well”.
Stressing on the limited food
supply, she adds, “It’s not time
for extravagance, hence, I’m
enjoying simple, healthy food
in small meals every two to
three hours, and working out at
home at least six times a week”.
Radhika Madan has made a
www.hindustantimes.com
www.facebook.com/HTcity
twitter.com/htshowbiz
instagram.com/htcity
www.youtube.com/user/ht
SCAN FOR
SHARE OR
MORE
STORIES
eo which
ironment
ing it: “We
big
SALUTE TO KHAKI!
Constable Anand
Pandey walked for
450km from
Kanpur to
Jabalpur to join
duty. He had
gone to Kanpur to
meet his wife. As
he got stuck there
due to the lockdown,
he decided to walk. It
took him three days to
reach Jabalpur.
(From left) Prince Narula,
Mahira Sharma and Paras
Chabbra donating food;
Jay Bhanushali criticised
the publicising of such
actions on social media
and their PRs ensure they are
in the frame,” he says.
But some feel there’s no
harm if they can influence
people through social media.
Sharma tells us, “For me,
donating essentials is a
gesture to show I care... I’m
using my social media to
encourage people.”
Narula too says, “My
intention was to use my social
media platform to inspire my
followers. If people think it’s a
show-off, I don’t care.
Even if 20 people
get inspired
and donate,
mera
show-off
safal ho
jayega.”
lifestyle change by
removing sugar and
dairy from her diet. “I’m
also learning to cook, so
I’m eating a lot of good stuff. I
do yoga everyday besides
walking for an hour.”
Maanvi Gagroo says
quarantine has made her
“more regular” with exercise.
Shweta Tripathi Sharma
calls herself “an anda in the
kitchen”. But she loves “paneer
dosas and rajma tikkis from the
home kitchen”.
Physical work in the house
is helping Adah Sharma most.
“There’s definitely no weight
gain! Also, I’m not a very good
cook, so my weight will be
under check,” adds Sharma,
whose usual diet is rice,
AFTER MYTHOLOGY,
IS IT SAAS-BAHU
(Clockwise
from left) Stills from
Balika Vadhu,
Kahaani Ghar Ghar
Kii, Kasautii Zindagi
Kay and Kyunki Saas
Bhi Kabhi
Bahu Thi
Shruti
Haasan
Shruti
says no to
pressure
about being
productive
Kavita Awaasthi
S
tuck in the lockdown for
almost three weeks now,
actor Shruti Haasan, who
is living with just her cat in
Mumbai, has realised that she
enjoys her own company. “The
most challenging thing for me,
at this point, is the inability to
work and travel. The latter has
made me a little bit angsty. But
I value this time as well,” she
says.
She works out daily, cooks,
practises playing the piano
and looks after her cat, which
gives her “a sense of routine”.
“But I’m not putting pressure
on myself to be productive...
It’s a time of heavy
anxiousness and nervousness
for everybody — financial
worries, emotional concerns
and mental well-being... I had
taken a break from work two
years ago, and since then, I’ve
realised that one should take a
break to balance work with
free time,” Haasan shares.
Pointing out that situations
like these can “bring out the
best or the worst in people”,
she says that she’s glad to see
(Clockwise)
Rasika Dugal,
Shweta Tripathi Sharma,
Adah Sharma and
Radhika Madan
sambhar and a vegetable.
Evelyn Sharma, a vegan,
feels “it’s alright to indulge in
home-made food. Make fresh
smoothies and try out healthy
snacking options”.
n radhika.bhirani@hindustantimes.com
TIME?
The sagas that
had redefined
Indian TV, now
hope to win
audiences all
over again
Sangeeta Yadav
A
great strategy or crisis
management — reruns
of phenomenally
popular mythological
shows Mahabharat and
Ramayan or sitcoms Dekh
Bhai Dekh and Shrimaan
Shrimati during the
lockdown are proving to be
quite the game-changer on
TV. Now, with Balika Vadhu
the latest to return, many feel
getting back iconic saas bahu
sagas such as Kahaani Ghar
Ghar Kii, Kasautii Zindagi
Kay and Kyunki Saas Bhi
Kabhi Bahu Thi, among
others, will boost TRPs.
Producer Rajan Shahi feels
good shows will resonate
whenever they air. “If we
bring back saas-bahu shows
which started a new phase on
Indian TV, broadcasters can
cash in on the popularity
again,” he says.
Avika Gor, aka the young
Anandi of Balika Vadhu, is
overwhelmed as her show
returns. “It was a one-of-its
kind show, and each episode
had a message that made a
difference,” she says.
How can
I think about
work amid this
crisis?
people helping each other
and valuing the “small things
we were taking for granted”.
She adds, “But the xenophobia
and discrimination around the
world is really upsetting and I
feel if something like this
pandemic can’t unite us, then I
don’t know what will.”
While her peers have been
chatting with friends or media
outlets, Haasan did live chats
on Instagram with “inspiring”
women, who shared their
Juhi Chakraborty
views on body image issues,
music, mental health, among
D
other topics. “I believe in the ue to the Covid-19
power of sisterhood and have pandemic, every
met many interesting women industry is facing grim
through my work. So, other prospects — including the
than my friends, I spoke to film industry, with projects
some women on different halted and releases
aspects of life which I thought postponed indefinitely. But
would help others,” she says.
n kavita.awaasthi@htlive.com
filmmaker Shoojit Sircar is
keeping a positive outlook.
“I’m not worried about
when I’ll be able to get back
to work. How can I think
Dalgona about getting back to work
rice; amid this crisis? I’m not
(below) thinking about when my
Dalgona films will release or when I’ll
peg be able to start a project,” he
PHOTO: says, adding that he’s also
TWITTER keeping away from news “as
too much information is also
poisonous”. Sircar’s film,
Gulabo Sitabo was slated to
release this month. Besides,
he was also directing a biopic
rinks
ist to food, d
Netizens’ Dalgona tw
Ashish Kedia
W
hile people lately went
crazy over Dalgona
coffee, some applied the
layered concept of food
preparation to their favourite
cuisine and drinks. Two such
preparations — Dalgona rice
and Dalgona peg — are now
winning hearts. Rohan
Kachalia from Mumbai, who
posted a picture of Dalgona rice
in a glass jar, says it was an
attempt “to make our lives a
little less mundane”.
Dalgona rice is basically an
Actors who became a
household name with these
shows also feel it’s a great idea
to bring them back.
Urvashi Dholakia aka
Komolika of Kasautii... feels
people will love to go down
memory lane. Other than her
show, she says, “I’d also like
to see Kahaani... because I
love Sakshi Tanwar’s acting
and the whole cast was
perfect. Even Ghar Ek
Mandir and Mehndi Tere
Naam Ki were very relatable
and the characters
beautifully etched.” Echoing
the sentiment, Hiten Tejwani
of Kyunki... says, “All these
shows hold a great recall
value and will definitely get a
good audience. Even the
current generation will be
able to connect.”
Though the popular
sitcoms are doing well on
screen, getting daily soaps
back “involves calculative
risk”, points out scriptwriter
Gajra Kottary. “Most of these
are long-running shows and
once the lockdown is over, the
new shows would be back.
Balika Vadhu for instance,
went on for eight years, so it
will club two episodes and air
for an hour daily. So, some
broadcasters are playing it
safe by going for shows with
shorter episodes,” Kottary
adds.
n sangeeta.yadav@hindustantimes.com
Shoojit
Sircar
starring Vicky Kaushal.
In the meantime, he is
keeping himself busy
sharing interesting posts on
social media. He recently
shared, “As spas are shut,
practice self slapping. It
improves blood circulation
and gives your skin a rosy
glow. It massages and firms
up your facial muscles —
taking years off your face.
And also can awaken our
sleeping conscience...”
Asked where is this
coming from, Sircar replies,
“I’m just posting what comes
to my mind... There are
times when I feel worried
because of the children. But I
have a mantra to deal with it.
Anything can happen
anytime in life. You just have
to adapt and reboot
accordingly.”
n juhi.chakraborty@htlive.com
aesthetic presentation of good
ol’ dal-chawal — layers of rice,
lentils, and veggies of your
choice in a jar or glass. Aalok
Singh from Delhi, who used a
Cognac glass, says, “The
aesthetic, combined with taste,
makes it great to serve.”
A Dalgona-inspired spin to
Scotch peg — distinct layers of
whisky and water in a glass —is
also trending. While some point
out that a layered peg isn’t new,
it can’t be denied that the
Dalgona tag has brought new
fans as people find ways to stay
busy during the lockdown.
n ashish.kedia@hindustantimes.com