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Updated: Apr 24, 2020 08:40 IST

Government officials say that the nationwide lockdown has led to reduced rates of Covid-19. The lockdown, according to health officials, has also helped ramp up medical facilities and testing. US president feels that the pandemic was not ‘just a flu’ but an ‘attack on the United States’. Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar feels that cricket will return with few changes in once the pandemic recedes.

Virus spread slowed by a month of lockdown: Govt

Medical experts and government officials steering India’s battle against Covid-19 said on Thursday that the country’s prophylactic measures have led to a reduction in the disease’s doubling rate, while allowing the ramping up of testing and the bolstering of health care preparedness. Read more here.

DA revision on hold to save Rs. 1.2 L crore

The department of expenditure, an arm of the finance ministry, on Thursday issued an order freezing dearness allowance (DA) payments to central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners until July 2021, citing the “ crisis arising out of Covid-19”. Read more here.

India to take a 23% hit on remittances: World Bank

Remittance flows into India may decline by 23% in 2020 to $64 billion, the sharpest fall in recent history, due to declining oil prices and the Covid-19-led global recession, said a World Bank report. Read more here.

Covid-19: What you need to know today

Low and middle income countries (LMICs) receive most of the remittances. In 2019, these stood at around $554 billion of a total of around $710 billion (78%). This year that number will fall to $445 billion (out of a total of $568). Read more here.

India to get lead role at WHO next month amid global Covid-19 crisis

The appointment of India’s nominee as chairperson of the WHO’s executive board will come at a time the world and the United Nations agency is struggling to stop the highly contagious Sars-Cov-2 pathogen from spreading. Read more here.

Delhi Police team conducts raids at Tablighi Jamaat chief’s farmhouse in Shamli

A six-member team of Delhi’s crime branch raided the farm house of Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad on the outskirts of Kandhla town in Shamli district on Thursday. Read more here.

ICMR will continue restricted Hydroxychloroquine use despite critical US study: Official

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will continue with the restricted use of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat critical coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients even though a US study has found it did not benefit a group of patients admitted in health centres, according to an official. Read more here.

House panel backs 30-day salary for retrenched staff

The proposed law is one of the four labour reforms aimed at simplifying myriad and archaic labour laws and to make the sector more attractive for investors. Read more here.

BJP continues to spread virus of communal prejudice, hatred: Sonia Gandhi

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said the Centre doesn’t appear to have a clear idea on how the situation will be managed after May 3, when the nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to end. Read more here.

Covid-19 update: US was ‘attacked’, Donald Trump says as layoffs and fatalities mount

The United States was “attacked”, President Donald Trump has said of the novel coronavirus epidemic has rendered 26.4 million Americans jobless since mid-March with 4.4 million more filing for unemployment benefits last week, according to new data released Thursday; and killed more than 46,000. Read more here.

Cricket will emerge a different sport in post-Covid world: Sachin Tendulkar

In a chat with Hindustan Times, a day before Sachin Tendulkar’s birthday, he speaks about routines athletes need to follow during the lockdown to keep themselves fit and motivated, and how cricket will emerge as a different sport post this pandemic. Read more here.

Time will reveal value of India’s lockdown

In early March, my research group projected that by early August, at least 300 million Indians would be infected by the novel coronavirus. That was before there were any lockdowns or domestic travel restrictions. Read more here.

Spike in demand for NREGS jobs, PDS ration hints at rural distress

Demand for work under the Centre’s rural job guarantee scheme and food from the public distribution system (PDS) has spiked in a signal of economic distress in the Hindi-speaking heartland, where hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have returned since the coronavirus disease lockdown went underway on March 25. Read more here.

China Covid-19 toll could have been four times more, says new study in Lancet

China might have had more than 232000 people infected with Covid-19 by February 20, nearly four times the official figure on that date, new research by Hong Kong experts have found. Read more here.