The Evening Wrap Lockdown for 40 days In his televised address to the nation today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the national lockdown till May 3. He said containment measures will be ramped up in designated as hotspots till April 20. Thereafter, subject to improvements in the infection rate scenario, some relief in terms of freedom of mobility may be granted, especially for hawkers and daily-wage workers. He added that detailed guidelines on the contours of this extended lockdown will be issued tomorrow. The PM explained that it was not yet the right time to relax one’s guard, and that the economic cost of an extended lockdown “may appear big, but is not so when compared to the lives of our citizens.” The extension was, by this morning, almost a foregone conclusion given that several chief ministers had not only sought such a measure but also gone ahead and imposed an extension of restrictions in their own States. The government’s circular to be issued tomorrow might offer more details of how a calibrated exit can be negotiated post-April 20, given that migrant workers are getting restive in different States. “I keep in my mind our poor brothers and daily-wage workers when I speak of opening spaces, but even if one case emerges from these hotpots, the lockdown will be back in place again,” Modi said in his address today. All domestic and international flights will remain suspended until the midnight of May 3, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The railways have also stopped all passenger trains till May 3. Covid Watch - numbers and developments The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to 11,350 with 390 deaths. Three States are now reporting over a thousand cases, with Maharashtra, at 2,684 cases, the worst-affected. Delhi has 1,561 cases, while 1,204 cases have been reported from Tamil Nadu. At the Health Ministry briefing today, officials shared the rationale behind the extension of the lockdown period from 21 to 40 days. The assumption is that if no new cases are reported for 28 days at a stretch, then there will be no more cases in that particular area, a spokesperson said. Migrants baton-charged Mumbai's Bandra (West) railway station was flooded with migrant labourers hoping to get back home -- they were expecting the lockdown to end today. The visuals from Bandra station show a massive crowd, and police had to resort to lathi-charge to disperse it. The crowd mostly comprised daily wage workers who have been unable to earn since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25. Meanwhile in Surat, hundreds of migrant workers gathered together and occupied a road in protest, demanding to be sent to their home towns and villages despite the lockdown. Behind in the testing game Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said mass testing for COVID-19 infection is key to fighting its spread, but the country is currently “nowhere in the game“. Citing figures, Gandhi said that with only 149 tests per million population, India was in the company of countries like Laos, Niger and Honduras. “India delayed the purchase of testing kits & is now critically short of them,” he said on Twitter. “With just 149 tests per million Indians, we are now in the company of Laos (157), Niger (182) & Honduras (162). Mass testing is the key to fighting the virus. At present we are nowhere in the game.” Scholar-activist in jail Activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde surrendered before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. Teltumbde happens to be the grandson-in-law of B.R. Ambedkar, whose 129th birth anniversary is being observed today. Civil rights activist and journalist Gautam Navlakha also surrendered to the NIA today. The Supreme Court had on March 17 this year rejected both their bail pleas. Zero rate of growth The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said India’s growth is expected to dip to 1.9% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and rebound to 7.4% in 2021. The IMF, in its 2020 World Economic Outlook, also forecast the global economy to shrink by 3 percent this year due to the collapse of economic activity. It noted that this would be “much worse” than the 2008-’09 financial crisis. Meanwhile, the investment bank Barclays has slashed India’s growth forecast for 2020 to 0%. It attributed this drastic downward revision to the economic losses caused by the lockdown. Pool testing norms The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is now advising the feasibility of using pooled samples for molecular testing of COVID-19 in order to increase the number of tests conducted by laboratories. “Positivity rate in cases is still low. Hence, it may help to use the pooled samples for screening. A pooled testing algorithm involves the PCR screening of a specimen pool comprising multiple individual patient specimens, followed by individual testing (pool de-convolution) only if a pool screens positive. As all individual samples in a negative pool are regarded as negative, it results in substantial cost savings when a large proportion of pools tests negative,’’ it noted in its one-page advisory. Waiting on crucial PPE Indian companies and government entities have placed orders for 15 million Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, including gowns and masks, and 1.5 million rapid testing kits from China, officials said on Tuesday. The Indian government is calling on China to fulfil those orders, amid concerns over tightened regulations on export of such equipment by Chinese authorities, following criticism from several European countries regarding the quality of exports. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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