NEW DELHI: The railways on Wednesday said it has run 115 Shramik Special trains since May 1 and ferried home over one lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown. The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 1,694 and the number of cases climbed to 49,391 in the country, according to the Union ministry of health.
Here are the top developments:
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India
- Of the 42 trains which have been planned for Wednesday for stranded migrants, the railways has already run 22 of them. Twenty more trains are scheduled to run by tonight.
- Coronavirus has infected around 548 doctors, nurses and paramedics across the country so far, according to data maintained by the Centre, official sources said.
- Public transport services may resume operations soon and the government is formulating guidelines for safe usage adhering to social distancing norms to check the spread of coronavirus, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said.
- The government banned exports of alcohol-based hand sanitizers to boost its availability in the domestic market amid coronavirus pandemic.
- The government has provided Rs 34,800 crore financial assistance using digital payment infrastructure to about 39 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package to protect them from the impact of Covid-19 lockdown.
- The Centre slammed the West Bengal government for not allowing movement of essential goods through the Indo-Bangladesh border, saying such acts were violation of the Constitution and will have international implications.
- The Centre also said the Covid-19 response in West Bengal is characterised by a