1. Unlock Delhi, We’re Ready: Kejriwal
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked the Centre on Sunday, 3 May, to lift the lockdown in the Capital, underlining that both the government and citizens will have to learn to live with the coronavirus disease, and that the lockdown – while necessary – was now causing a grave economic crisis. Kejriwal acknowledged that this may lead to an increase in cases, but said that Delhi’s infrastructure was prepared to deal with it.
Outlining the relaxations in the city from Monday, as per central guidelines, the Delhi CM said the state government told the Centre that barring the 97 containment zones in the city, which should remain sealed, the rest of the city should be declared a “green zone”. This was necessary to ease the suffering of the people, as well as ensure the economy got back on its feet, which was necessary for the government itself to function, Kejriwal said.
All of Delhi is currently a “red zone” – where restrictions on activities are the most severe. The decision to relax the classification of an administrative jurisdiction rests with the Centre.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. Colonel, Major Among Five Security Personnel Killed in Eight-Hour Gunbattle in North Kashmir
A decorated Commanding Officer of the army’s counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles, a Major and a J&K Police officer were among the five security personnel killed in a gunfight that stretched on for over eight hours in North Kashmir’s Handwara on Saturday.
The security forces had lost contact with the men towards Saturday evening, after they went inside a house in Chanjimullah village of Handwara in North Kashmir, to flush out militants. The dead included the two militants, one of them identified as a Pakistani.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Mumbai Doc Booked for ‘Sexual Assault’ of COVID Patient, Confined to Home
A 34-year-old doctor has been booked for allegedly sexually assaulting a 44-year-old male patient of COVID-19 in the ICU ward of Wockhardt hospital in Mumbai on 1 May — the accused had joined the hospital just a day earlier.
Agripada police, however, said the accused has not been questioned or arrested due to fears that he may be infected by the coronavirus. Instead, they said, he has been placed in quarantine inside his home in an apartment block in Thane, and is being monitored.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. At Vadodara Station, Migrants Wait, With Medical Certificates and Tickets That Cost Rs 700
Shortly after midnight, 38-year-old Mohammad Alam, from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, reached the Vadodara Railway station by a City bus sent by the district administration. The buses were fetching 1,209 migrant workers from UP, stranded in Vadodara since the COVID-19 lockdown in March. They are now part of the first batch of migrants to return home by the special Shramik Express, from Vadodara Junction to Lucknow. The train is scheduled to depart at 2:30am Monday, 4 May.
Clutching two pieces of paper as if his life depended on them, Alam picked his red-and-brown shoulder bag and followed the instructions of the police officers, making sure the groups maintain distance and board their designated compartments. The two pieces of paper included a blank chit block, rubber stamped by the Vadodara City Mamlatdar, with “700” written in Gujarati under his name, and a medical certificate by the local urban health centre where Alam stayed for over a month, counting minutes of the lockdown.
(Source: The Indian Express)
5. Man Who Gave Dignity to Dead Loses Life After 5 Hospitals Turn Him Away
Breathless with depleting oxygen levels, a 52-year-old Dongri man died after allegedly being tossed around from one south Mumbai hospital to another. Calls to 1916, the BMC helpline, yielded no concrete response. Khalid Ali Shaikh passed away early on Saturday, merely four hours after he managed to find a bed at the staterun St George Hospital.
Shaikh had dedicated the last five years of his life to giving a dignified burial to the many who died in the city but whose mortal remains could not be taken to their home in Kerala. He headed a committee formed for the purpose.
(Source: The Times of India)
6. Migrants in Maha Pay Through Nose for Med Certs, Travel Home
Ajay Tiwari, who used to work in a denim factory in Saki Naka, is desperate to return to his hometown in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district. But he is down to his last Rs 150 after shelling out money for a medical certificate.
He filled an application to return home with the local police but the mandatory medical certificate cost him a steep Rs 350. “Private doctors are charging Rs 400-500 for a medical certificate which says we don’t have symptoms. We went in a group, so the cost was reduced to Rs 350,” said Tiwari. With no public hospital nearby, he had few options. In other areas, charges range from Rs 150 to Rs 400.
(Source: The Times of India)
7. 1L Tests a Day by May-End Planned: Govt
As the third phase of the national lockdown begins on Monday with relaxations, the government plans to step up its COVID-19 testing capacity to conduct one lakh tests per day each for rapid antibody (blood-based tests) and the more definitive RT-PCR by May-end.
The supply of new rapid test kits would mean the government’s plan to use them, particularly in red zones as well as in low prevalence areas to keep a tab on trends, will be back on track after an initial lot of Chinese kits failed to function properly. The kits have been embroiled in controversy with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) finding them to be unreliable, as they gave a wide variation in results.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. 480 Return from Kota, Relief Writ Large on Their Faces
“Words can’t describe the relief I felt on seeing my father and brothers waiting for me near our house where I was dropped in the morning,” said Juhi Verma, a 19-year-old Badarpur resident. She is one of the 480 students from Delhi who were preparing for NEET in Rajasthan’s Kota and got stranded there after the COVID-19 lockdown was announced in March end. On Sunday morning, all of them finally reached home.
Following an announcement by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, Delhi government sent 40 private buses to Kota on Friday night, and after health screening by accompanying personnel, the students left for the capital on Saturday evening. After the buses reached Kashmere Gate Interstate Bus Terminus, the students were sent home in Delhi Transport Corporation buses.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. Multiple-Step Process Goes into Formulation of MHA Guidelines
The government’s broad response to the coronavirus pandemic – symbolised in bureaucratic orders, guidelines, and clarifications with wide ranging impact – is shaped by a complex decision making process, which involves key Union ministries and sectoral experts, inputs from state governments, intensive analysis of data, an assessment of daily reports, and finally a nod from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, three officials said.
Ever since the lockdown was announced on 24 March, guidelines by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have regulated lives of citizens. But behind the formulation of these guidelines is an elaborate process.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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