TIMESOFINDIA.COM | May 3, 2020, 20: 03 IST
NEW DELHI: Fighter jets and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force on Sunday carried out fly-pasts over major cities and towns while military choppers showered petals on leading hospitals across the country as part of a mega exercise to express gratitude to lakhs of doctors, paramedics and other front-line workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, India registered a record jump of 83 deaths and 2,487 cases in 24 hours as the number of Covid-19 fatalities rose to 1,306 and total cases climbed to 40,263, according to the Union health ministry.
Here are the top developments:
1
India
- The third phase of the countrywide lockdown begins Monday with “considerable relaxations”, but curbs will continue in containment areas so that the gains achieved so far in the fight against COVID-19 are not “squandered away”, officials said.
- According to the home ministry, activities prohibited throughout the country, irrespective of the zones are: air, rail, metro travel; inter-state movement by road; schools, colleges, and other educational, training and coaching institutions; hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants.
- Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that India’s Covid-19 mortality rate of 3.2 per cent is the lowest in the world and over 10,000 coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the disease, so far.
- Vardhan said the rate of growth of new Covid-19 cases has been steadying for a while and the recovery rate improving, adding that India is on the path of success and will win the war against the pandemic.
- The continuous rise in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus is expected to stabilise anytime soon, Niti Aayog member V K Paul said. He also said the rationale behind the government’s decision to extend the lockdown by two more weeks is to consolidate the gains of the first and second phase of restrictions.
- Sports minister Kiren Rijiju said his ministry is devisi