As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread like wildfire across India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday informed that the total number of people affected by the virus in the country has reached 7,447. The figure includes 6,565 active cases, 643 patients who have been cured, discharged, or migrated and 239 deaths.

According to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, more than 40 deaths and 1,035 new cases have been recorded in India in the past 24 hours, thereby registering the sharpest ever increase in cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with chief ministers of all states on Saturday via video conferencing to make a call on further extension of the 21-day lockdown to tackle the coronavirus crisis.

Several states like Odisha and Punjab have already extended the lockdown period, and it seems more and more likely that the Centre will prolong the period of lockdown in the entire nation.

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak continues to spread, the United States has now become the first country in the world to record more than 2,000 deaths due to the virus in one day. According to the Coronavirus Resource Center at the John Hopkins University, the US has registered 2,108 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

A report by the AFP news agency elaborates on the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country. The US has now recorded 18,586 deaths, a close second to Italy, which has recorded 18,849 deaths, the most fatalities in the world so far.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Saturday stated that a total of 1, 61, 330 samples have been tested on April 10 out of which 6872 individuals were confirmed positive.

Today on 10th April 2020, till 9 PM IST, 15,663 samples have been reported. Of these, 433 were positive for SARS-CoV-2, an ICMR statement read.

An ICMR official said that a total of 213 testing laboratories are present in the country which includes 146 government and 67 private labs.

Amazon.com has started building a lab that will enable it to test employees for the Covid-19 virus, the latest step the online retailer is taking to try to protect its warehouse workers and delivery drivers who are getting essential products to customers sheltering at home.

Amazon acknowledges its ad-hoc effort may not accomplish much during the current pandemic.

In a bizarre incident, seven police Personnel and a judge in Punjab were among 10 people who were quarantined after an alleged thief tested positive for COVID-19, the police stated on Friday.

In the Focal point area of Punjab, two alleged snatchers were caught by the residents of the area and handed over to the police and were later produced before a court of judge Monika Singh. , Assistant Commissioner of Police Vhaibh Sehgal stated.

The Government has approved the proposal for grant of ex-gratia monetary compensation to over a one lakh workers and officers of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) including contractual labourers who are working non-stop to ensure the supply of food grains across the country amidst the lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.

While there is already an existing provision of one-time monetary compensation to kin of FCI employees in case of death due to various unnatural causes, the approval now includes death due to COVID-19 as well.

The global coronavirus deaths on Friday crossed one lakh mark with the United States registering second-highest death of nearly 18,000 behind Italy.

As of 11:30 pm on Friday (IST), 100,376 deaths have been recorded with 1,650,210 global cases of COVID-19, John Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker showed.

The US has recorded 475,749 cases and 17,925 deaths while Italy has 147,577 total COVID-19 infections with 18,849 deaths.

Maharashtra government on Friday sent a senior IPS officer on compulsory leave for allowing DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan to travel despite the ongoing lockdown, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said.

The bureaucrat had issued a letter exempting the Wadhawans from the lockdown norms citing a family emergency.

India's largest airline IndiGo will fill its airport buses at 50 per cent capacity when service resumes. The airline will also discontinue on-board meal services, CEO Ronojoy Dutta told employees on Friday.

These along with frequent deep cleaning of aircraft are part of the multiple changes that the airline will do its protocols in order to keep crew and passenger crew safe when the airline starts operating again.

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