2. Corona virus disease (COVID-19)
INTRODUCTION
• Corona virus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious
disease caused by a newly discovered corona virus.
• Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will
experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and
recover without requiring special treatment.
• Older people, and those with underlying medical
problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more
likely to develop serious illness.
3. corona virus pandemic in India
• The first case of the 2019–20 corona virus
pandemic in India was reported on 30 January
2020, originating from China.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the
country’s first case was in a patient in Kerala, a
southwestern coastal state.
• The ministry said in a statement that the patient is a
student at Wuhan University in China
4. LOCKDOWN IN INDIA
• On 22 March 2020, India observed a 14-hour
voluntary public curfew at the instance of the prime
minister Narendra Modi. The government followed it
up with lockdowns in 75 districts where COVID cases
had occurred as well as all major cities.
• Further, on 24 March, the prime minister ordered
a nationwide lockdown for 21 days, affecting the
entire 1.3 billion population of India.
• On 14 April, the prime minister extended the
ongoing nationwide lockdown till 3 May.
5. • Michael Ryan, chief executive director of the World Health
Organisation's health emergencies programme, said that
India had "tremendous capacity" to deal with the
coronavirus outbreak and, as the second most populous
country, will have enormous impact on the world's ability
to deal with it.
• Other commentators worried about the economic
devastation caused by the lockdown, which has huge
effects on informal workers, micro and small enterprises,
farmers and the self-employed, who are left with no
livelihood in the absence of transportation and access to
markets.
6. • Observers state that the lockdown has slowed
the growth rate of the pandemic by 6 April to
a rate of doubling every six days, from a rate
of doubling every three days earlier.
• Oxford Covid-19 Government Response
Tracker under the Oxford University in its
report based on data from 73 countries said
that the Indian Government is functioning
better than any other countries in tackling the
pandemic.
7.
8. TRANSMISSION OF CORONA VIRUS IN
INDIA
• On 12 March, a 76-year-old man who had
returned from Saudi Arabia became the first
victim of the virus in the country.
• Confirmed cases crossed 100 on 15
March, 1,000 on 28 March, 5,000 on 7
April and 10,000 on 14 April. The death toll
crossed 50 on 1 April and 100 on 5 April.[
9. • On 31 March, a Tablighi Jamaat religious
congregation event that took place in Delhi in
early March emerged as a new virus hotspot
after numerous cases across the country were
traced back to the event
• Over 9,000 missionaries may have attended
the congregation, with the majority being
from various states of India and 960 attendees
from 40 foreign countries.
• As of 6 April, 1,445 out of 4,067 confirmed
cases were linked to this event in 17 Indian
states and union territories
10. Government responses
January–February
• Protective measures were first applied in January.
India began thermal screening of passengers
arriving from China on 21 January
• Initially carried out at 7 airports, it was expanded
to 20 airports towards the end of January.[ During
February, the screening was extended to
passengers from Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Japan and South Korea.Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia
and Malyais were added to the list towards the
end of February.
11. March
• By early to mid March the government had
drawn up plans to deal with a worsening of
the pandemic in the country which includes
seven ministries working together to set up
additional quarantine and treatment facilities
across the country.
• he Ministry of Textiles has been assigned the
task of making sure the availability of
protective and medical materials.
12. • The Department of Pharmaceuticals is tasked
with making sure of the availability of
essential medicines. Ministry of Consumer
Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has been
asked to ensure availability of essentials.
• On 17 March, The Government of India issued
an advisory urging to all Indian states to
take social distancing measures as a
preventive strategy for implementation till 31
March.
13. • On 17 March, The Government of India issued an
advisory urging to all Indian states to take social
distancing measures as a preventive strategy for
implementation till 31 March.
• A government directive was issued asking
all Central Armed Police Forces to get into battle
mode; all non-essential leave has been cancelled.
• On 27 March, The Tamil Nadu government has
issued appointment orders to 1508 lab
technicians, 500 doctors and 1000 nurses with
immediate effect in view of the current status of
corona virus. With this, orders have also been
given to increase 200 new ambulances in the
state
14. Travel and entry restrictions
• All visas were suspended 13 March 2020,
except for diplomatic and other official visas,
as well as the visa-free travel for Overseas
Citizens of India. Indians returning from
COVID-affected countries were asked to be
quarantined for 14 days.These measures were
expanded to Europe, Gulf countries and Asian
countries including Malaysia on 17–18 March.
15. • The land border with Myanmar began to be
restricted on 9 March with the initiative of the
stategovernmentsof Mizoram and Manipur.
On 13 March, the Government of India closed
passenger traffic from all neighboring
countries other than Pakistan.The traffic from
Pakistan itself was closed on 16 March.Travel
and registration for Sri Kartarpur Sahib was
also suspended on this date.
16. • Sikkim restricted entry of domestic tourists in
the state from 17 March and asked those who
are already in the state to leave.Himachal
Pradesh banned entry of foreign and domestic
tourists on 19 March until further
notice.Other states followed such as
Uttarakhand, which has also banned tourists
till further orders.Punjab banned the use of
public transport as of 21 March
17. Screening
• On 4 March 2020, the Minister of Health and Family
Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, announced compulsory
screening of all international passengers arriving in
India. He also said that so far, 589,000 people have
been screened at airports, over one million screened at
borders with Nepal and around 27,000 were currently
under community surveillance.
• The government shall also now start universal
screening for all passengers flying into India from
abroad. Earlier, only passengers coming in from China,
Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore,
Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia were
checked.
18. Legal announcements
• On 11 March 2020, the Cabinet Secretary of
India, Rajiv Gauba, announced that all states and
UTs should invoke provisions of Section 2 of
the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
• On 14 March, the union government declared the
pandemic as a "notified disaster" under
the Disaster Management Act, 2005, enabling
states to spend a larger part of funds from the
State Disaster Response Fund to fight the virus.
19. Evacuations
• On 1 February, India evacuated 324 people which
included three minors, 211 students and 110
working professionals from Wuhan region on its
first Air India flight evacuation.
• On 2 February, India evacuated a second Air India
flight carrying 323 Indians and
seven Maldivians from Wuhan region.
• On 7 February, Brazil evacuated 34 Brazilians,
four Poles, a Chinese and an Indian national from
Wuhan by Air Force planes.[
20. • On 27 February, Indian Air Force evacuated
112 people from Wuhan, which included 76
Indian nationals and 36 foreign nationals (23
nationals from Bangladesh, 6 from China, 2
each from Myanmar and Maldives and one
each from South Africa, USA
• On 11 March, 83 people were evacuated from
Italy by Air India. The evacuees were 74 Indian
citizens and 9 US citizens of Indian origin. All
evacuees were placed under quarantine for 14
days in an army facility.
21. • On 15 March, 218 Indians from Italy were evacuated by
a special Air India flight. The evacuees brought to New
Delhi will be shifted to Indo-Tibetan Border Police's
camp in Chhawla area where they will be quarantined
for 14 days.[
• On 16 March, 53 Indians which includes 52 students
and 1 teacher were evacuated
from Tehran and Shiraz cities of Iran and were then
quarantined at Army wellness centre, Jaisalmer.[
• On 22 March, 263 Indians were evacuated by Air
India from Rome, Italy and then were quarantined at
Indo-Tibetan Border Police's camp near Delhi.
• On 29 March, 275 Indians who were evacuated from
Iran landed in Jodhpur, and after preliminary screening
they were quarantined at Army Wellness Centre
Jodhpur.[
22. Aarogya Setu
• The Indian Government launched a smart
phone application called Aarogya Setu to help
in "contact tracing and containing the spread"
of COVID-19 pandemic in the nation.
The World Bank lauded the early deployment
of such technology to combat the pandemic.
Global technology giants Apple and Google
announced on 11 April, that they will taken up
the building of software for smartphones
which would help in contact tracing, just as
the Aarogya Setu application does.
23. Testing and countermeasures
Testing
• A sample collection kiosk for COVID-19 testing in Kerala
• Summary of test results Samples tested274,599Tests
per 1 million people203Tested
individuals258,730Tested positive11,297As of
15 April 2020[The Union Health Ministry's war room
and policy making team in New Delhi consists of the
ministry's Emergency Medical Response Unit,
the Central Surveillance Unit (IDSP), the National
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and experts from
three government hospitals.
24. • 15 labs across India led by the National Institute
of Virology (NIV), Pune, are testing for the virus,
with more labs being trained. On 14 March 65
labs were named capable for testing for the virus
(though as of 17 March not all are fully
functional).
• On 14 March, scientists at the National Institute
of Virology isolated a strain of the novel
coronavirus. By doing so, India became the fifth
country to successfully obtain a pure sample of
the virus after China, Japan, Thailand and the US.[
25. • The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
said that isolation of the virus will help
towards expediting the development of drugs,
vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits in the
country.NIV has shared two SARS-CoV-2
genome sequences with GISAID.
26. Initial testing
• Initially, the labs tested samples only from
those with a travel history to 12 countries
designated as high-risk, or those who have
come in contact with anyone testing positive
for the coronavirus, or showing symptoms as
per the government guidelines.
• The first and second confirmatory tests for
the virus has been made free by the
government.
27. Expansion of tests
• On 17 March, the Union Ministry of Health had
decided to allow private pathology labs to test for
COVID-19. The ministry official claimed that by
allowing private labs, the work of testing can be
doubled. The ministry said that about 60 private
labs may soon be allowed.
• Once set up, a person can get COVID-19 test
done at a private lab after a qualified physician in
a government facility recommends it.
• The ICMR has appealed to the private labs to
offer the tests for free as the government labs do.
28. • On 18 March, A top health ministry official said that a
Swiss private company named Roche Diagnostics has
been given the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
emergency approval to conduct tests for coronavirus.
The Indian regulator has given them a licence to
conduct diagnostic tests of the virus on 17 March.
• The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) was
assessing giving another firm license while two Indian
diagnostic companies have also sought approval for the
coronavirus testing kits developed by them.
• The government has also issued guidelines to cap the
cost of sample testing by private labs at ₹4,500
29. • On 19 March, Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of
the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics &
Policy stated that India could be facing a "tsunami of
cases within a few weeks" as testing increases and the
reason for the low number of confirmed cases
currently is due to under-testing.
• He also said that according to mathematical models
applied in the US or UK at least 20%-60% of the
population will be affected. Applying the same models
in India means that at the lower end of the estimate
there could be 300 million cases of which 4-8 million
could be severe
30. • On 14 April, ICMR and DGCI approved 18 new
suppliers of test kits that included three Indian
firms, bringing the total suppliers to 51.
31. Testing community transmission
• Testing for community transmission began on 15 March. 65
laboratories of the Department of Health Research and
the Indian Council of Medical Research(DHR-ICMR) have
started testing random samples of people who exhibit flu-
like symptoms and samples from patients without any
travel history or contact with infected persons.
• As of 18 March, no evidence of community transmission
was found after results of 500 random samples tested
negative.Between February 15 and April 2, 5,911 SARI
(Severe Acute Respiratory Illnesses) patients were tested
throughout the country of which, 104 tested positive (1.8%)
in 20 states and union territories.
32. Treatment
• In Rajasthan, a combination of anti-malaria, anti-
Swine flu and anti-HIV drugs resulted into
recovery of three patients in March.
• In same month, Indian Institute of Chemical
Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research and Cipla corporation, launched a joint
venture to develop anti-COVID-19 drugs.
• Another Indian firm Stempeutics plans to
introduce a stem-based agent for treating COVID
patients in critical situation
33. • In March, Pune based SciTech Park'startup
incubatee introduced Airon, a negative ion
generator capable of reducing a room's viral load
by 99.7%.Following early April, funds for a
number of preventive agents were released to
initiate research.
• On 23 March, the National Task Force for
COVID19 constituted by Indian Council of Medical
Research recommended the use
of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID19
for high-risk cases.
34. • According to estimates, India has around
40,000 ventilators, of which 8,432 are with the
public sector. Various Indian PSUs, firms and
start ups including DRDO and ISRO, have
repurposed their production lines to
manufacture general PPEs, full body suits and
ventilators and designing low cost or mobile
medical equipment.
35. • The focus remains to attain innovation and
increased production of low cost, compact
and portable and multi patient ventilators
• Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology has
been working on genome sequencing of
COVID 19.
• Pune-based Serum Institute of India is
expected to apply for clinical trials of certain
strains from Drug Controller General of India.
36. Impact
Commercial establishments
• On 19 March, Delhi chief minister Arvind
Kejriwal announced the closure of all
restaurants in the capital by 31 March in view
of the ever increasing case of coronavirus. He
said that there will be a ban on eating in
restaurants but food delivery will continue.
37. • On 20 March, Delhi government announced that
all malls in Delhi will close with only vegetable,
grocery and medicine shops remaining
open. Shops in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur will
remain closed till 31 March
• On 22 March, Punjab chief minister Amarinder
Singh has said that in view of coronavirus, the
state has ordered lockdown till 31 March. All
essential government services will continue and
shops for essential goods such as food, medicines
etc. will remain open.
38. Education
• On 16 March, the union government declared a
countrywide lock-down of schools and
colleges. On 18 March, CBSE released revised
guidelines for examination centres.
• This includes maintaining a distance of at least 1
meter between the students taking the exam
with a class not having more than 24 students. If
the rooms of the examination centres are small,
divide the students and make them sit in different
rooms.
39. Economy
• On 2 March, the BSE SENSEX witnessed a flash
crash on the back of Union Health Ministry's
announcement of two new confirmed cases.
• A UN report estimated a trade impact of
US$348 million on India due to the outbreak,
making India one of the 15 worst affected
economies across the world.
40. • On 12 March, Indian stock markets suffered their
worst crash since June 2017 after WHO's
declaration of the outbreak as a pandemic. The
BSE SENSEX dropped 8.18 per cent or 2,919
points which was its lowest in 23 months while
the NIFTY dropped 9 per cent or 950 points.
• On 1 April, the coal mining operations
of Singareni Collieries Company in Telangana wer
halted due to the threat of the COVID pandemic
41. Entertainment
• The International Indian Film Academy Awards, planned to take
place on March 27, was canceled.
• Cinema halls were shut down by most state governments. Film
bodies decided to stop the production of films, TV shows and web
series till 31 March.
• On 25 March, all video streaming services, jointly decided to offer
only SD quality content on cellular networks. They also decided to
lower the bitrates to 480p to lower the stress on telecom networks
throughout the 21-day lockdown during which there would be an
unprecedented surge in mobile internet consumption since people
were confined to their homes.
• The release of Sooryavanshi, which was initially scheduled to
release on 24 March, was postponed indefinitely
42. Events
• On 6 March, the Border Security Force announced that
the Wagah-Attari border ceremony would be
conducted without any spectators as a precautionary
measure, effective from 7 March.[
• The 21st IIFA Awards ceremony, which was scheduled
to be held in Indore on 29 March, was postponed
indefinitely.
• The India Fashion Week, scheduled to begin on 11
March in New Delhi, was put off.
• The Padma Awards ceremony that was scheduled to
be held on 3 April was postponed.
43. .
Historical buildings
• On 17 March, All the historic buildings in the
country will remain closed till 31 March.
According to Union Tourism Minister Prahlad
Patel the Taj Mahal, Red Fort and Qutub
Minar and all the National Monuments and
Museums under the Archaeological
Department of India will remain closed till 31
March.The Statue of Unity will be closed to
visitors till 25 March.
44. Religion
• Temple Ram Mandir in the heart of
Bhubaneswar.
• On 17 March, Mumbai's Siddhivinayak
Temple was closed till further notice.The next
day, the Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage
in Jammu and Kashmir was called off.
45. • On 19 March, entry at Har Ki Pauri, Ganga Ghat,
in Haridwar was closed till 31 March. However,
the aarti at Har Ki Pauri Ghat continued and
shown to devotees through live streaming.[
• On 21 March, Rameswaram Ramanathan Swamy
Temple in Tamil Nadu was closed till 31st. During
this period, devotees were banned from entering
the temple.[
• On 26 March, The Mecca Masjid of Hyderabad
was closed to devotees.
46. • Many Christian churches have suspended in-
person mass and have offered worship for
their congregants through livestreaming, radio
and television.
• The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ranchi has
appealed to the Christian faithful to aid
refugees from the Indian state
of Jharkhand who have been stranded since
the lockdown
47. Sports
• The 2020 ISSF World Cup, which was to
commence on 15 March in New Delhi, was
postponed. The Indian Open badminton
tournament which was scheduled to be held
in New Delhi from 24 to 29 March was
suspended until 12 April.
48. • On 13 March, the Board of Control for Cricket
in India announced that the opening of 2020
Indian Premier League was postponed from 29
March to 15 April.[Later that day, it cancelled
the ODI matches between India and South
Africa on 15 and 18 March, which were
originally announced to be played without
spectators
49. Transportation
Flights
• IndiGo cancelled its Delhi-Istanbul and Chennai - Kuala
Lumpur flights starting 18 March to prevent international
travel from Turkey and Malaysia. This ban will continue till
31 March. On 17 March 2020, Go Air suspended its
international flights till further notice. On 19 March,
the Government of India announced that no international
flights will be allowed to land in India from 22 March.
• On 23 March, the union government announced the
suspension of all domestic flights in the country starting 25
March.[
50. Railways
• On 14 March, Western and Central
Railways removed curtains and blankets from AC
coaches. On 17 March, Western Railways hiked
platform ticket charges from Rs. 10 to Rs. 50
across 250 stations.[
• after the Prime Minister Modi extended the
nationwide lockdown till 3rd May. the Indian
Railways not only extended the suspension of all
its passenger trains during the period but also
suspended all ticket bookings till further notice.[
51. Road
• On 19 March, bus services between the cities
of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have been
postponed from 21 to 31 March 2020. Punjab
government imposed a ban on public
transport including buses, autorickshaws and tem
pos from 21 March.Public transport including
buses, mini buses, maxi cabs and auto services
were banned in Srinagar.
52. Exodus of migrant workers
• An estimated 139 million migrant workers from
the countryside work in India's cities and towns.
With factories and workplaces shut down, they
were left with no livelihood. In the first few days
of the lockdown, television screens captured long
processions of migrant workers walking miles to
go back to their native villages, often with
families and young children on shoulders.[
53. • The central government issued a press
statement stating that it had asked state
governments to set up immediate relief camps
for the migrant workers returning to their
native states.
• On 29 March, the government issued
sweeping orders directing that the landlords
should not demand rent during the period of
the lockdown and that employers should pay
wages without deduction.
