The official count of the infected stood at 433 at the end of day, and the dead at seven. 24 cases have been cured/discharged. There was no fresh death case, with one casualty in Maharashtra later confirmed as having tested negative.
India has so far screened 15,17,327 persons at airports.
Meanwhile, during the day, the global death toll crossed 15,000, and the total number of the infected inched closer to the 3,50,000 mark.
With the rising count stoking further fear among people, authorities and businesses responded with a series of measures ranging from curfew to plant shutdowns. Here we collate what all happened today, in India and across the world.
TOP DEVELOPMENTS
— India’s stock market sees its worst meltdown in history, Sensex crashes 4,000 points. Also, trading halted for 45 minutes after circuit broken.
— Covid task force okays anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for high-risk patients, with strict riders
— Both Houses of Parliament adjourned sine die
— Rupee tanks 109 paise to all-time low of 76.29 against dollar.
— Reliance opens India’s first dedicated Covid-19 facility
— Labour ministry, in an advisory, tells companies not to cut pay of workers who’ve been staying home, nor to lay off workers
— 68-yr-old man who recovered from COVID-19 dies in Mumbai
NEW LOCKDOWNS AND ISOLATION RULES
— Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray puts state under curfew to ensure lockdown compliance; all district borders sealed.
— Punjab government imposes a curfew to stop the spread of coronavirus, making it the first state to take the drastic measure.
— Mumbai Pune expressway shut
— Tamil Nadu to impose Section 144 all over the state, starting tomorrow 6 pm, till March 31.
— Centre asks states to strictly impose coronavirus lockdown, take legal action against violators. People not following the lockdown will be punished under the provisions of The Epidemic Diseases Act.
— Assam to be under lockdown from 6 pm on Tuesday till March 31, announces state government.
— Arunachal Pradesh orders lockdown from Monday evening till March 31.
— Ladakh imposes lockdown till March 31
— Himachal Pradesh under complete lockdown till further orders
MARKETS, BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS
— Lok Sabha passes Finance Bill without discussion
— To ensure there’s enough liquidity, RBI announces it will conduct variable rate Term Repos of Rs 1,00,000 crore.
— ICICI, HDFC Bank push customers to go digital, change banking hours amid virus outbreak
— IGL shuts nearly two-third of CNG stations in national capital territory as vehicles go off-road due to lockdown.
— Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd to close retail stores till March 31, suspends factory operations
— TVS Motor Company shuts down plants for two days
— Vedanta Sesa Goa extends plant shutdown for 3 more days.
— Ford decides to halt production in India, South Africa
— Bajaj Auto announces temporary shutdown of manufacturing facilities
— Nestle CEO tells staff to get ready for coronavirus storm
— Kia Motors may suspend production at its Andhra Pradesh plant
— Phone manufacturer Lava shuts Noida manuacturing factory till March 25
FOR DOMESTIC TRAVELLERS
— Indian Railways comes to a screeching halt, passenger operations discontinued till March 31.
— The Cental government announces that all domestic flights would be suspended from tomorrow midnight. Earlier in the day, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to PM asking for all incoming flights to be banned.
— Mumbai’s ‘lifeline’ local trains stopped till March 31
— Railways directs station masters to let stranded railway passengers stay in retiring room till normal train services resume.
HOSPITAL UPDATES & PATIENT WATCH
— AIIMS to shut down OPD, including speciality services, all new and follow up patients’ registration from March 24 till further orders.
— 12 laboratory chains have come on board and are testing for the virus, announces ICMR.
— Maharashtra says coronavirus suspects who have tested negative for COVID-19 will now be kept in isolation for 14 days, as per the Centre’s new precautionary rule.
— Houses of 3,000 people advised home quarantine following screning for coronavirus in Chennai under watch; Houses to be stamped with stickers for alerting others
SOME MORE SUSPENSIONS
— NCLT shuts down all benches across India till March 31
— Delhi High Court suspends its functioning as well as of district courts till April 4 in view of coronavirus threat
— India to wait for at least a month before any decision on Olympic participation: IOA after Canada’s pullout due to COVID-19 pandemic.
— Anti-CAA ‘Mumbai Bagh’ protest put on hold over virus fears.
— Kerala closes all bars till further orders
— Ola and Uber suspend operations temporarily in locked-down cities
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD
— Spain death toll tops 2,000 after 462 deaths in 24 hours.
— New York to shut down as it becomes next virus hot spot. Over 400 die of coronavirus in US, confirmed infections jump to nearly 34,000.
— Saudi Arabia imposes dusk-to-dawn curfew over coronavirus.
— Nepal closes its borders with India and China for a week starting today, in a bid to prevent a possible outbreak in the nation.
— Bangladesh turns lone liquor plant into hand sanitiser producing unit
— 200 hotel management students remain stuck in Mauritius
— Singapore Airlines to chop 96% of the capacity that had been originally scheduled up to end-April over Covid
— More than 1 billion people worldwide told to stay home over virus
— First doctor dies from coronavirus in Pakistan
— Hong Kong bans all non-resident arrivals over coronavirus
— Malaysia coronavirus cases up by 212 in biggest daily jump
COURT STEPS IN
— The Supreme Court expresses satisfaction over the “very active steps” taken by the central government to deal with coronavirus pandemic.
— SC directs all states and UTs to set up high-level committees to determine class of prisoners who could be released on parole.
— Eligible convicts will be granted special parole or furlough to decongest prisons in view of COVID-19 outbreak, Delhi govt tells HC.
