TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Updated: Mar 26, 2020, 20: 51 IST
NEW DELHI: As the number of coronavirus cases mounted to 694 in India, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a relief package for the poor and migrant workers amid a 21-day countrywide lockdown to mitigate the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia‘s King Salman urged G20 leaders to take “effective and coordinated” action to combat the global crisis, amid forecasts of a deep economic recession.
Here are the top developments:
1
India
- The government announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore stimulus that included free foodgrain and cooking gas to poor for three months, and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens as it looked to ease the economic impact of the nationwide lockdown.
- While over 80 crore poor ration card holders will each get 5 kg of wheat or rice and one kg of preferred pulses free of cost every month for the next three months, 20.4 crore women having Jan Dhan bank accounts would get one-time cash help of Rs 1,500 spread over three months.
- The government also announced an insurance cover worth Rs 50 lakh per person for sanitation workers, ASHA workers, doctors, nurses and paramedics who are on the frontlines of the corona battle.
- The Central government allowed doorstep delivery of medicines to people during the 21-day nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.
- The health ministry said that 17 states have started work on earmarking hospitals for dedicated treatment of Covid-19 patients.
- The ministry of health has said that the “community transmission phase” of coronavirus will start if the community and government will not work collectively and follow guidelines.
- All international commercial passenger flights will remain suspended till