Articles by News Desk

Lockdown relaxations in Bengaluru As Bengaluru (Urban) is categorised as a red zone district by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), relaxation in restrictions from May 4 will be minimal here unlike districts categorised as orange and green zones. However, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, S Suresh Kumar, said Bengaluru will not be completely locked down, and that economic activities would restart in wards that do not have containment zones. He said restrictions will be more in the 24 containment zones in the city. State government has also categorised wards within the city as red, orange and green zones…

Nationwide lockdown extended: COVID-19 lockdown 3.0 The Centre extended the lockdown in the country for another two weeks beyond May 3rd, profiling the region into red, orange and green categories. The decision to extend the lockdown was taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs, after a comprehensive review and in view of significant successful outcomes achieved during the earlier lockdown. However, certain relaxations have been allowed for all zones. MHA has categorized districts as red zone (taking into account the total number of active cases, doubling the rate of confirmed cases), green zones (being districts with either zero confirmed cases…

COVID-19: Chennai Corporation gets new nodal officer; door-to-door sanitation in six zones; ATMs to be disinfected after every use In a recent move in the COVID battle, the state government has appointed senior bureaucrat and Commissioner of Revenue Administration J Radhakrishnan as the Special Nodal Officer for Chennai Corporation for coordinating COVID-19 related activities. He will be supported by a team of five IPS officers -- Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, Abhash Kumar, Amaresh Pujari, Abhay Kumar Singh and K Bhavaneeswari. On the evening of May 2nd, Chennai recorded 174 COVID-positive patients, taking the total number of cases to 1257, according to…

COVID-19 updates: Chennai under intense lockdown, cops and frontline staff contract virus, GCC plans dignified burial for COVID victims On April 24th, Tamil Nadu recorded 72 new cases of COVID-19 and the total stood at 1755. Of the 72 patients, 52 were from Chennai. With 452 patients, Chennai tops the chart with the highest number of positive patients. 133 COVID-positive patients from the city are from Zone 5 (Royapuram). In a bid to contain the spread, the state government announced an intense lockdown in Chennai and four other cities in Tamil Nadu from April 26th to 29th between 6 am…

Partial relaxation of lockdown Karnataka government has announced partial relaxation of lockdown from the midnight of April 23, so as to mitigate hardships faced by the public. An official order issued by Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar explained that some select activities would be allowed outside COVID-19 containment zones. Public transportation will remain suspended till May 3. Only private vehicles with passes for emergency services and for commuting to workplaces and back, will be allowed. Construction activities will be allowed for Metro rail projects within the municipal corporations. Meanwhile, IT and ITeS (IT-enabled services) will be allowed to work…

Situation alarming in Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad, Chennai: MHA The central government recently formed 10 Interministerial Central teams for spot assessment of COVID-19 hotspot districts in the country. In its statement the MHA has said, "The situation is alarming in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat (Gujarat), Thane (Maharashtra), Hyderabad (Telangana), and Chennai (Tamil Nadu)." The statement also said that these cities have reported instances of violation of lockdown conditions posing serious health hazard and the risk of spreading COVID-19. Source: Livemint Small shops reopen in India The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued directions allowing small…

It's almost a month since Bengaluru has been under complete lockdown so as to contain COVID-19 spread. Besides, two wards have been sealed off, and 19 localities designated as Containment Zones; movement for even essential services have been restricted in these areas. With the majority of us spending time at home, have you wondered what the city looks like now? What about hyper-crowded areas like Silk Board junction, the traffic signal near St John's Medical College, and so on? Naveen Thomas Prasad, an IT employee in the city, decided to shoot what his area looked like. Here's his video, which…

COVID-19 testing scaled up The number of tests for COVID-19 has been scaled up by five times, said Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K. He said that earlier, 200-300 real time RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) tests used to be conducted in the state everyday. This has been increased by around five times, to 1500 tests per day. Given the rate at which the disease is spreading, Karnataka needs to further ramp up testing but is ill-equipped for this, said health experts. There is shortage of PCR machines, testing kits, biosafety level-2 labs, and trained technicians. Sources admitted that the…

COVID-19 updates: 228 patients in Chennai, rapid antibody testing kits reach Chennai, GCC identifies 4,787 people with coronavirus-like symptoms As of April 17th, Tamil Nadu had 1323 COVID-19 positive cases, of which 228 are from Chennai. Of the total number of patients, 283 have been discharged. Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has advised residents not to pay their bills until the lockdown ends or pay the same online. However, many residents in Arumbakkam walked through MGR Nagar, a containment zone, to pay fearing power disruption. While the movement inside the containment zone is prohibited, cops at the entry…

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting everyone, but more so the vulnerable citizens – the homeless, migrants, destitute, those with disabilities, among others. As responsible citizens of our neighbourhood, we can support the government to avert a humanitarian crisis. Citizen Matters and Wipro Foundation are partnering to collate updates from the local community. This data will go into a dashboard that can be used by the civil society as well as the government to fill gaps in responses to the needs of all citizens. Do help by sharing this information - this form will be open for the period of the…