The national pharma lobby Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) on Saturday said it will take every step to ensure that all coronavirus patients get timely access to medicines.

Towards this, the alliance and its members are working with the governments and other public agencies, pharma industry associations and all other key stakeholders, it said in a statement.

Over 3,700 passenger trains scheduled to start between Saturday midnight to 10 pm on Sunday will stay grounded in the wake of Janata curfew announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid coronavirus outbreak.

Railways said on Friday said that no passenger train will originate from any railway station in the country from midnight to 10 pm on Sunday.

Railways issued an advisory on Saturday relaxing refund rules for passengers who had booked tickets to travel between March 21 and April 15 in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country to avoid crowding on trains and encourage social distancing.

The order states if a train is cancelled by Railways for journey period March 21-April 15, refund across counter can be taken on submission of ticket up to 45 days from the date of journey instead of the present three hours.

The World Health Organization said Friday that the Chinese epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak at last reporting no new cases gave hope to the rest of the world battling the pandemic.

The city of Wuhan registered no new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours -- for the first time since reporting its first case in December in an outbreak that has gone on to infect more than 250,000 people around the world and kill more than 11,000 people.

Amid businesses getting affected due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country's largest lender State Bank of India has opened an emergency credit line to meet any liquidity mismatch for its borrowers.

The additional liquidity facility Covid-19 Emergency Credit Line (CECL), will provide funds up to Rs 200 crore and will be available till June 30, 2020, SBI said in a circular issued on Friday.

In the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic, IKEA has closed its store in Hyderabad from today till further notice.

In the interest of the safety of our customers and co-workers, we are temporarily closing the IKEA Hyderabad store for the public with effect from March 20, 3 pm until further notice, read an official statement of IKEA.

Commercial airline GoAir has announced that it will voluntarily suspend all flights on Sunday, in support of the 'Janata Curfew' proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a measure to check the spread of coronavirus.

In a statement, GoAir said, Goa Air is responding to the clarion call given by the Prime Minister of India to lead the nation in stemming the spread of coronavirus. GoAir will voluntarily suspend all flights on Sunday, March 22, in support of the Janata Curfew proposed by the Prime Minister.

Hindustan Unilever (HUL), country’s largest consumer goods company, on Friday said it had committed Rs 100 crore to fight the COVID-19 epidemic in India.

It has also taken a host of other measures such as price cuts, free availability of soaps to the needy, a Rs 10-crore donation for better testing facilities, and public awareness programmes.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies rallied by up to 14 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after Accenture reported a better-than-consensus Q2 performance. Meanwhile, the Rupee hit a new low on Thursday, falling below 75 against the US dollar for the first time.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Wipro, MindTree, and NIIT Technologies gained in the range of 10 per cent to 14 per cent on the NSE as investors indulged in some value-buying as valuations turned attractive after the recent fall in stock prices.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday declared island-wide curfew in the country till March 23 morning as a part of preventive measure to contain the coronavirus spread.

The island nation has reported 53 cases so far.

Island-wide curfew declared from 6 pm today (20) till 6 am Monday (23), Rajapaksa tweeted.

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