Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday interacted with the chief ministers of all the states and UTs in the country to discuss the road ahead in India’s fight against COVID-19.

In his opening remarks, the Prime Minister said, We now have a reasonably clear indication as to the geographical spread of the pandemic in India, including the worst affected areas. Moreover, over the past few weeks, officials have understood operating procedures in a time such as this, right up to the district level.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday requested deployment of the Central forces in Maharashtra to give rest to police personnel who are exhausted due to COVID-19 duty.

During his interaction via video conferencing with the PM who chaired a COVID-19 strategy meeting with chief ministers, Uddhav said, We need some help from the Central forces so that our police staff can take some rest. The staff is currently exhausted. We can not let them fall sick.

Amid criticism over the privacy issue and user data of Aarogya Setu app, the government on Monday said ‘Privacy first’ has been the principle on which the app has been developed and its has been playing and will continue to play a crucial role in India's fight against COVID-19.

Addressing a media briefing, Ajay Sawhney, Chairman of Empowered Group 9 which deals with Technology and Data Management, said the Aarogya Setu App has been developed in order to make proper health data on testing and contact tracing available to health professionals and administrators.

The government Monday said a revised discharge policy has been issued by the ICMR as several countries have changed their discharge criteria from ‘test-based strategy to ‘symptom-based strategy or ‘time-based strategy’.

According to the revised policy, for mild, very mild, pre-symptomatic cases and moderate cases, the discharge will be based on clinical conditions, testing is not required while under the previous policy, a patient was considered fit to be discharged if he or she tested negative on day 14 and then again in a span of 24 hours.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who filed nomination for the Legislative Council on Monday, has declared that he and his family have assets worth Rs 143.26 crore, including movable and immovable property, but does not own a car.

Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the president of the Shiv Sena, is contesting his first election ever. Earlier, his son Aaditya became the first member of the Thackeray family to contest an election when he was fielded by the party during assembly election last year.

Shares of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) were locked in the upper circuit band of 5 per cent at Rs 1,302.85 apiece on the BSE in the early trade on Monday after Ministry of Railways announced that the Indian Railways will gradually restart passenger train operations from May 12, initially with 15 pairs of trains.

IT Services firm Tech Mahindra has been issued a notice by the office of the Labour Commissioner, Pune, in Maharashtra on a complaint that the company had reduced salaries of its employees to maintain ‘profitability’ in the midst of the pandemic.

A similar notice was issued earlier this month to another IT firm, Wipro, on a complaint alleging that the firm was benching its employees.

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to restore 4G internet connectivity in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. However, the Court ordered the central government and the Jammu and Kashmir administration to form a committee of Secretaries from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the local administration to take a call after reviewing the ground security situation.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 67,000-mark on Monday, while the death toll has topped the 2,200-mark as well. At 9 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 67,152 cases, which includes 44,029 active cases; 20,917 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 2,206 deaths.

As the number of patients affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) surges in Uttar Pradesh's Agra, the administration has ramped up measures to get a solid grip of the situation as soon as possible since the pandemic outbreak is spreading like wildfire across India. With an urgent action from the Yogi Adityanath-led state government, the Chief Medical Officer and the Additional Director of Medical and Family Welfare have both been removed from their posts with immediate effect, new individuals having replaced them.

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