India entered an unprecedented nationwide 21-day lockdownon March 25, 2020 after it was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 8 pm the night before as a measure to combat the global novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The health ministry release a guideline for practicing telemedicine in the wake of the countrywide lockdown.
Meanwhile, the police in national capital Delhi and Telangana capital Hyderabad assaulted at least four journalists on March 24, according to non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists. Newspersons have been exempted from the lockdown.
- India recoerded 603 cases positive of SARS-CoV-2, according to crowd-sourced covid19india.org. The website also put the deqath toll at 10.
- The tally was, however, at 562, going by the statewise break-up released by the Union health ministry. Nine have been reported dead while 41 have been discharged after recovery. Among those tested positive, 43 were foreigners.
- Kerala has become the first state to have recorded a 100 cases. But there have been no deaths there. Maharastra is a close second with 98 reported cases and two deaths.
- Karnataka (41 cases), Uttar Pradesh (34), Gujarat (32), Delhi (30) and Rajasthan (30) also reported high numbers. Punjab, which already has 29 cases, have received 90,000 inbound travellers — a potential cause for worry.
- The North East is not free of infection anymore with Manipur and Mizoram reporting a case each.
- There were already 539 SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in India, according to Indian Council of Medical Research. India has tested 22,694 samples from 21,804 individuals.
- The Kerala government will provide all ration card holders at least 15 kilogramme rice free for a month, Manoramaonline reported.
- Newspapers and magazines have started rethinking their distribution strategies. The Outlook magazine announced a suspension of its print edition.
Across the world
- Worldover, 19,638 people have died, according to Worldometers, among a total of 436,422 infected. Until now 111,880 have recovered.
- In neighbouring Pakistan, the tally reached 1,000, including eight deaths. Bangladesh, on the other hand, was still at a relatively low 39 cases.
- There was a spurt in cases in western Europe, including 5,552 in Spain and 1,018 in Germany. In Spain, 443 patients died in a day.
- Iran recorded 2,206 new cases and 143 deaths.
- British heir apparent Prince Charles was tested positive.
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