Coronavirus pandemic rip menacingly,leaving in its trail numbing number of over 3,51,000 afflicted people & over 15,370 deaths
Stringent measures being enforced worldwide to ensure social distancing to beat the pandemic; "The pandemic is accelerating. It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and just 4 days for the third 100,000 cases. You can see how the virus is accelerating: WHO.
By Neeraj Bajpai
The World today nervously tasted palpable ghostly silence and unimaginable havoc unleashed by the invisible Coronavirus. Eerie streetscapes increased manifold with more and more lockdowns and sealing of borders in various countries amid staggering 3,51,731 positive cases and 15,374 deaths besides mayhem in money markets.
Tensions for frontline health workers spiked and governments braced up to contain the virus through social distancing, capacity building in hospitals while mounting vigil on unscrupulous elements engaged in hoarding and black-marketing of food items.
Scientists are working round the clock to come out with vaccine and dish out testing kits capable of predicting the infections within minutes. A company in the US has come with such a kit and the FDA has granted its approval.
Italy, despite reeling under nightmarish experience with the world’s highest death toll of about 5,500 and 60,000 cases, has mounted more strict measures to ensure lockdowns while boosting sagging spirits.
Authorities scrambled to control the pandemic situation in the US as cases charged to more than 33,000 and over 400 deaths. Forces have been geared up to ensure lockdowns in some states. Washington, New York, and California are the worst-hit places.
“More than 300,000 cases of COVID-19 have now been reported to WHO, from almost every country in the world. That’s heartbreaking, WHO DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today.
The pandemic is accelerating. It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and just 4 days for the third 100,000 cases. You can see how the virus is accelerating, he said.
According to him, “But we’re not prisoners to statistics. We’re not helpless bystanders. We can change the trajectory of this pandemic.
Numbers matter, because they’re not just numbers. They’re people, whose lives and families have been turned upside down.
But what matters most is what we do.
You can’t win a football game only by defending. You have to attack as well.
Asking people to stay at home and other physical distancing measures are an important way of slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time – but they are defensive measures.
To win, we need to attack the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics – testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case, and tracing and quarantining every close contact”.
The fate of Olympics -2020 hangs in the fire with the pandemic showing no signs of abatement. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), backed by their Athletes’ Commissions, National Sports Organizations and the Government of Canada, have made the difficult decision to not send Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020.
The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring. While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.
In India, at least 80 districts imposed lockdowns till March 31 while trains have come to screeching halt. The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to nine on Monday after West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh reported a casualty each, while the number of confirmed cases soared to 468. The number of active COVID-19 cases is 424 now and 35 people have been cured/discharged/migrated, while nine have died, taking a total number of confirmed cases to 468, including 40 foreign nationals, according to the ministry data.
States have been asked to strictly enforce #lockdown and Legal action should be taken against violators.
“Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please save yourself, save your family, follow the instructions seriously. I request the state governments to get the rules and laws followed, PM Narendra Modi has tweeted.
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Major cities, such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata are going in lockdown. It means millions of workers in the technology and financial sectors will be working from homes as only essential services are operating.
Uttar Pradesh government has declared lockdown in 16 districts -Lucknow, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Aligarh, Moradabad, Lakhimpur Kheiri, Bareilly, Azamgarh, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, and Pilibhit.
The J&k Government has declared lockdown in the entire union territory of Jammu and Kashmir till March 31 during which only 16 Essential services will be operational.
Arunachal Pradesh government has imposed Complete Safety Restrictions’ in the state l the midnight of 31st March. Jharkhand government has announced the lockdown of the state till March 31. Though no positive cases of COVID19 have been detected in the state so far.
In Mizoram, the state government announced partial lockdown across the state in the interest of public health and safety till 29th March. Chhattisgarh government has also decided to impose the lockdown in urban areas of the state till March 31. During this period all the offices, institutions, transport services, and other activities will be closed. Essential services will remain open.
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