This is the first pandemic to be live tweeted. Yup, we are talking about the coronavirus that has wreaked havoc across the world.

We are waking up every day to live updates from Spain, Italy, Iran, the UK, the US and, indeed, India, each more dire than the last. For those of you who are self-isolating — and we hope that’s most of you — this information overload can get stressful. So, we at Newslaundry have decided to put up quick updates every day on some positive developments related to COVID-19 from around the world.

The aim is not to let our guard down. The battle for South Asia has only begun and we are in for a long haul. In India, our healthcare workers are woefully underprepared, and just this afternoon the death toll rose to 10. The latest casualty was from Mumbai.

But it’s important to remember that there’s a lot to be hopeful about — big and small acts of human kindness, innovate ideas, medical breakthroughs. Basically stuff to let you know that we shall, well, overcome.

Here we go.

March 26

Maharashtra’s first coronavirus patients test negative

While the growing number of coronavirus infections around the world has got us all breaking into a cold sweat, there are many cases of recovery that have gone unnoticed. A recent one is that of a Pune couple, the first coronavirus patients in Maharashtra. Both were discharged from the hospital yesterday after testing negative twice for the deadly virus.

"Their first samples after 14 days of isolation period tested negative on Monday. The repeat samples were sent in the next 24 hours on Tuesday and in that also, the couple tested negative," an official from the Pune civic body's health department said.

Significant improvement in air quality

Apart from containing the spread of coronavirus, the nation-wide lockdown seems to have another important silver lining: the AQI is all major cities across the country is improving by the day. The levels of nitrogen oxide, a vehicular pollutant, have dropped by almost 45 per cent in Mumbai and Pune. In Ahmedabad, it fell by 50 per cent.

In fact today, on the second day of the lockdown, Delhi, the world’s most polluted city, has an AQI of 67, better than Mumbai that has an AQI of 79.

March 25

Teachers lead the way

Rajasthan's education minister, Govind Singh Dotasra, announced that the state's teachers and officials from the education department will donate one day's salary towards the Chief Minister's Relief Fund's COVID-19 mitigation fund. According to Dotasra, this amounts to nearly Rs 80 crore.