COVID-19: India observes 1st day of lockdown, crosses 600-mark of positive cases

At least 46 new positive cases of Coronavirus surfaced on Wednesday itself.

According to Union Health Ministry website and other live tracking sites like  worldwometers.info and John Hopkins map, the death toll in India is 10. However, an India Today report claimed that the country registered its 12th COVID 19 death after an infected person died in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.

The victim was a 65-year-old Ujjain-based woman, who was admitted at government-run MY Hospital in Indore and undergoing treatment for the COVID-19 infection.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu recorded the 11th death, as per reports, after a 54-year-old man, who tested positive on March 23 and was undergoing treatment at Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, succumbed to the disease.

Maharashtra remained the most affected state with 128 positive cases, followed by Kerala 109 cases, Karnataka 41, Gujarat 38, Uttar Pradesh 37, Rajasthan 36 and Telangana 35.

In Delhi, 31 cases are reported, Punjab 29, Haryana 28, Tamil Nadu 18, Madhya Pradesh 14, Ladakh 13 while Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal 9 cases each.

Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir has 7 cases apiece, Bihar and Uttarakhand 4 each, Himachal Pradesh 3, Odisha 2 and Chhattisgarh 1.

To stop the spread of the pandemic, India has placed the entire country under a stringent lockdown amid cases of coronavirus emerging and claiming lives.

Indian PM Narendra Modi in a national address on Tuesday announced a complete lockdown in the country for 21 days to contain the spread of the virus and to enable people to maintain social distancing.

The lockdown started at midnight on Mar 24 and will be effective till Apr 14 midnight.

During his address, the Prime Minister said: "During these 21 days, forget about venturing out. You all have to stay at home no matter what happens in your lives. This is the only one way we can save our people, country and ourselves."

"If you venture out during these 21 days, the country might have to pay a huge price for it," he warned the nation.

In an attempt to provide more medical facilities to the infected people of Coronavirus the Centra have also undertaken several measures.

The Indian Army at present is furcating medical facilities for evacuees at Manesar, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur with evacuees from Iran, Italy and Malaysia occupying there.

"Evacuees from Wuhan & Japas have already been discharged after full protocol was observed. Of the over 1200 evacuees, medical staff and Air crew kept in these facilities till now, only one case of +ve COVID-19 has been reported so for. This does not include another case reported from on IAF Facility in Hindon," a government statement claimed.

In addition, more Army medical facilities at Jhansi, Binnaguri and Gaya are kept at standby with an additional collective capacity of 1600.

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has designated 285 beds for isolation wards in handling Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases.

Considering the hardship which people might face due to lockdown, the Government announced to provide rice and wheat at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively to the 80 crore poor people.

"Every person will get 7 kg ration every month,” Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said after attending a Cabinet Meeting.

Meanwhile, the Census 2021, scheduled to be conducted in two phases and the updation of NPR, proposed to be done along with the Phase I of Census 2021 in all the States/UTs, except Assam, have been postponed by the Centre.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday once again reminded the nation that people should maintain social distancing and stay at home to keep themselves safe from Coronavirus infection.

Modi interacted with people belonging to his constituency Varanasi via video conference where he said: "I want to tell that social distancing and staying in your homes are the only two ways to keep yourself safe from the virus right now."

There are 438,749 coronavirus cases worldwide now with 19675 people succumbing to the virus, according to JohnHopkins live tracking map. A total of  111,895 people have recovered.

(With inputs from UNI)