A high-level committee, chaired by Kerala Chief Secretary VP Joy, on Monday decided to impose a night curfew from 9 pm to 5 am starting Tuesday, for the next two weeks in order to curb the rising spike in Covid cases in the state.

Restriction on non-essential activities and movement at night between 9 PM and 5 AM shall come into force from 9 PM of April 20, 2021, the government order said.

US' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had advised its citizens to avoid travelling to India amid a massive surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. In a statement, the CDC said: Because of the current situation in India even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to India. If you must travel to India, get fully vaccinated before travel. All travellers should wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands.

Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Monday alleged that Covid-caused deaths are being under-reported in Gujarat.

Citing media reports, Chidambaram said Covid-caused deaths are being mis-reported as caused by cardiac arrest, chronic diabetes.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 141.1 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.01 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 141,113,721 and 3,017,412, respectively.

The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed BJP leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar for objecting to Mumbai police's grilling of a pharma firm's top executive over alleged stocking of Remdesivir vials, and wondered if there was a conspiracy to disturb the law and health order.

An editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' accused the BJP of having a clear agenda that the Maharashtra government should fail in handling the COVID-19 situation, and charged it with making persistent efforts in that direction with the help of the Centre.

The Rajasthan government on Sunday imposed 15-day lockdown-like curbs in the state from April 19, 5 am to May 3, 5 am owing to the surge in COVID-19 cases. The lockdown will be called 'Jan Anushasan Pakhwara' or 'self-discipline fortnight'. During this period, all markets, restaurants, non-essential shops and offices will remain shut. Essential services to remain open.

The country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has once again cautioned its 45 million customers against online fraud practices. There is no denying the fact that banking facilities have improved significantly with the launch of online banking, but it has also created new difficulties for the account holders. This is the reason why several banks and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) itself keep on issuing alerts for their customers from time to time regarding the digital frad.

Hong Kong has announced the suspension of all flights connecting with India for 14 days starting Tuesday amid the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the region. The authorities have also suspended flights from Pakistan and the Philippines.

The government announced today (April 18) the invocation of the place-specific flight suspension mechanism for India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Half of all adults in the US have received at least one COVID-19 shot, the government announced Sunday, marking another milestone in the nation's largest-ever vaccination campaign but leaving more work to do to convince skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves.

Almost 130 million people 18 or older have received at least one dose of a vaccine, or 50.4 per cent of the total adult population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Almost 84 million adults, or about 32.5 per cent of the population, have been fully vaccinated.

Train passengers from Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Delhi-NCR, Gujarat and Uttarakhand will now be required to produce a negative RT-PCR test report taken at most 48 hours before travelling to Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government has categorised these six states as 'places of sensitive origin' amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

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