'On April 18, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal gave a 10-minute speech on the coronavirus situation in New Delhi. It was also live-streamed on YouTube. At the 2:00 mark, Kejriwal pointed out that some people in coronavirus hotspots area continue to step out on streets and visit their neighbours. He said in Hindi (from 2:00 to 2:44), “Yesterday in a containment zone at Jahangirpuri, 26 members from one community (translated from कुनबा) tested positive for corona… all members are from one family.
'The Delhi Police Wednesday invoked the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against Jawaharlal Nehru University PhD scholar Sharjeel Imam, months after arresting him in connection with the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia in December 2019. The development comes two weeks after the police accused Imam, 31, of allegedly instigating riots at the university on December 13 and 15 through “seditious” speeches outside campus, during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) last year...'
'When the Indian Council of Medical Research invited bids for the supply of rapid antibody test kits on March 25, it made an elementary mistake: it did not ask the bidding companies to produce an import licence. As a result, companies without a licence to import the kits submitted bids – and won. These distributing companies in turn subcontracted the order to an importer. This had a cascading effect on the price of the kits, with both the importer and the distributors factoring in a profit margin.
'A 12-year-old boy succumbed to 16 hours of excruciating pain in Agra after half-a-dozen nursing homes and hospitals allegedly refused to treat him, fearing that he might be Covid-19 positive. Nihal Singh, the deceased, was suffering from acute stomach pain. After being turned away from six private nursing homes and hospitals, when his father finally took him to the government-run S.N. Medical College, they were told that it was meant for Covid patients only and he would be treated in the same ward as these patients.
'A fruit vendor in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri was thrashed by people after they accused him of gargling water and spitting it on the watermelons. Kheri police on Tuesday said that the allegations made against the vendor, Chand Ali, that he spat on the watermelons turned out to be “false and baseless” after a probe and questioning of the locals...'
'Zubair Ahmed, a journalist working in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has been arrested allegedly for a tweet asking why a family was put under quarantine for speaking over phone to a COVID-19 patient.
'BJP MLA Suresh Tiwari has reportedly asked people in Deoria district not to purchase vegetables from Muslim vendors. The legislator from the district’s Barhaj constituency was heard making the remarks in a video doing the rounds on social media. “Keep one thing in mind, I am telling everyone openly, no one should purchase vegetables from Muslims,” he told some people, including government officials...'
'Karnataka reported its 20th COVID-19 related death on Monday, and nine new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the state, taking the total number of infections to 512. As of Tuesday morning, as many as 193 people had been recovered. While a 50-year old COVID-19 patient allegedly committed suicide at a hospital, the Health Department has categorised it as "death due to non-COVID cause". Confirming the 20th COVID-19 death in the state, Medical Education Minister Sudhakar said the 57-year-old person was a resident of Aland and had tested positive on April 21...'
'A survey of 11,159 migrant workers stranded in various States found that between April 8 and April 13, more than 90% did not receive rations from the government. Close to 90% of those surveyed did not get paid by their employers. From March 27 to April 13, 70% of the surveyed workers had only less than ₹200 left with them. The survey was conducted by the Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN)...'
'India could find itself in an acute health crisis over the next few months and the direct cause of it will not be the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Hundreds of thousands of children might already have missed vital immunizations, shows a Mint analysis of the latest health ministry data. Thousands of adults may have missed potentially life-saving medical treatment as the novel coronavirus epidemic spread and a lockdown came into force.
