From evidence of Covid-19 community spread in Maharashtra to PM’s meet with CMs: Top updates

Amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, which will come to an end on May 17, the government has decided to start some interstate passenger trains from May 12.

Coronavirus cases continue to rise unabated in the country. India’s Covid-19 cases breached the 67,152 mark on Monday.

Maharashtra disease surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate told HT. However, the overall picture in the state is that of cluster cases, the official said. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, which will come to an end on May 17, the government has decided to start some interstate passenger trains from May 12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with chief ministers later in the day over the prevailing coronavirus situation in the country.

Here are the top developments:

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold the fifth video-conference on tackling the Covid-19 outbreak with the chief ministers at 3 pm today, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced on Sunday. Officials have told HT that Monday’s meet is likely to focus on increasing the economic activity in the country while tackling the Covid-19 infections in the containment zones.

2. The Union Home Ministry has asked all the states and union territories to cooperate with railways in running more ‘Shramik’ special trains for the repatriation of migrant workers to their native places. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, in a letter to states, said, “I urge upon you all to allow receiving of all Shramik special trains without any hindrance and facilitate faster movement of stranded migrant workers to their native places”.

3. The Ministry of Railways on Monday issued revised guidelines for ‘Shramik’ special trains and decided to increase the capacity of these special trains from existing 1,200 to over 1,700. As per the guidelines, the capacity of these trains should equal the number of sleeper berths.

4. Some evidence of community transmission of Covid-19 in parts of Mumbai and Maharashtra is found, Maharashtra disease surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate told HT. However, the overall picture in the state is that of cluster cases, the official said.

5. India witnessed the biggest Covid-19 spike till date reporting over 4,200 cases of the coronavirus and 97 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Monday. The southern state of Tamil Nadu overtook Delhi as the third worst-affected state with 7,204 coronavirus cases. The national capital has recorded 6,923 Covid-19 cases.