17th March 4:45pm: A total of 28 trains were cancelled today because of non-occupancy of the trains on account of the coronavirus in Mumbai scare. Apart from that, the Central Railway has gone on to hike the ticket prices from Rs.10 to Rs.50 in the Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, and Bhusawal districs to keep people away from public transport and overall, to avoid crowding at stations.
Trains cancelled due #COVID19 preventive measure and non-occupancy. pic.twitter.com/NdGgrrR9Gv
— Central Railway (@Central_Railway) March 17, 2020
17th March 12:30pm: All major tourist attractions in Maharashtra have been shut to avoid unnecessary crowding as the coronavirus scare in India only worsens now. Among these attractions are Saibaba temple, Pandharpur’s Vitthal Rakhumail temple, ISKCON Juhu, Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak and Babulnath temples, Pune’s Dagdusheth Halwai temple, Shaniwar Wada Fort, Sinhagad Fort, Maharaj Bagh Zoo and others.
17th March 9:25am: India’s death toll has risen to 3! After a couple of deaths in Karnataka and Delhi, Mumbai had its first COVID-19 death as a 64-year old man died at Kasturba Hospital. It is being said that the patient had hid some details from the authorities, including a recent travel to Dubai.
15th March 11:20am: Mumbai Police has restricted private tours for tourists. If anyone needs to travel under exceptional circumstances, they can after getting permission from the Commissioner of Police, Greater Mumbai. In the mean time, the total COVID-19 count in Maharashtra is said to have gone up to 31 cases! Maharashtra now has the highest number of cases in the country at the moment.
Various kind of false information is being circulated on issues related to #COVIDー19
Know the facts on such issues related to #COVIDー19
as released by @WHO👉https://t.co/jjRzjbcW8J#StayInformed #StaySafe #coronoavirusoutbreak #COVID2019 #COVID19india pic.twitter.com/122UhoKImL
— ROB Chandigarh (@ROBChandigarh) March 14, 2020
14th March 10:15pm: Maharashtra has 20+ coronavirus cases now. The state government recently announced that for children to be safe, all exams up to Class 9 will be postponed. This means all exams underway will be halted while the ongoing board exams for Class 10 and 12 will continue as scheduled.
14th March 12:15pm: Countries across the globe have been affected. Thailand recently added 7 new cases to their list which takes their count up to 82 while the travel industry around the planet is also taking a hit. Recently, Saudi Arabia announced 2-week ban on international travel. See here:
Precautionary Health Measures |
– @MOISaudiArabia: The Kingdom’s government decided to suspend international flights for two weeks [Starting from Sunday March 15th] as part of its efforts to prevent the spread of #CoronaVirus
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) March 14, 2020
14th March 10:10am: Two more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the state of Maharashtra this morning. While one has been confirmed to hail from Ahmednagar city, we are still awaiting the location of the second case. Currently, the total count for Maharashtra is at 19 cases in all. Elsewhere at Tihar Jail, a total of 17,500 inmates have been screened for coronavirus and an isolation ward has also been set up in the premises.
14th March 8:10am: The global count of coronavirus cases has reached 145,000 which includes a total of 5,400 deaths, which has increased the severity of his disease. However, stay calm as what the stats don’t tell you is that 72,000+ people have also recovered form the disease. Currently, India isn’t even in the top 30 for most numbers of cases, country wise. Currently, the Indian count is at 83 cases.
14th March 6:30am: Last night, a 69-year old woman from Delhi became the second casualty of COVID -19 in India. A number of sporting events have been cancelled including cricket, football and most recently, badminton too. Overnight, the Chinese coronavirus death count was declared to be 3,189 confirmed cases which includes a total count of 80,824 confirmed cases.
In Mumbai, the panic continued to spread after a patient tested positive for coronavirus at Mahim’s Hinduja Hospital on Thursday. Two nurses involved in the direct treatment of the patient have been sent to isolation while a total of 85 low-risk staff have also been sent to home quarantine. Similarly, a suspected case was also reported in Chembur’s Tilak Nagar but this news hasn’t been confirmed as yet.
13th March 8:20pm: We’re set to see a disruption in every industry across the world, and court cases will be affected too. The Bombay High Court recently gave a statement saying, “All litigants, public and advocates in Maharashtra are informed that they should avoid visiting Court complexes unless necessary.”
13th March 7:00pm: A 6-storey building in Thane was a little while earlier announced as a quarantine facility by the municipal corporation. The building will have a total of 16 beds which will be reserved for people who have recently travelled to India from other countries or have come in personal contact with a suspected COVID-19 patient.
13th March 6:00pm: While places in Delhi and other states were already taking action, Maharashtra decided to join in to with the government announcing a complete lockdown of the state including shutting of malls, gyms, cinema halls, and swimming pools in five districts – Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
This is considerably reduce the risk of the rapid spread of COVID-19. The lockdown is effective from Midnight on Friday, 13th March and will be in effect till 30th March for now. Thackeray also had a message for offices in the state, saying “Wherever possible, companies should allow employees to work from home in view of coronavirus threat.”
13th March 4:30pm: In Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra too, the panic has spread. It was only 2 days ago that an elderly couple from Thane was diagnosed with the disease and that’s when CM Uddhav Thackeray took the chance to announce that we have 10+ cases of coronavirus in the state, which took all by surprise.
13th March 1pm: Novel coronavirus which was first discovered in Wuhan, China, has now gone on to spread to almost every country on the planet and it just keeps getting worse by the day. Slowly, the epidemic has spread to India as well and what was just around 30 cases a couple of days back is now 80+ confirmed cases, with the global toll crossing 120,000!
We know that the global mortality rate for the diseases also called COVID-19 is just between 1-2% and that too mostly among elderly citizens. However, that doesn’t mean we take the disease lightly. All unnecessary travel plans should be kept on hold, while being a part of large gatherings is a complete NO!
