Heena Sharma Blog

The total number of coronavirus cases in India had reached 17,615, with 1,553 cases and 36 deaths recorded in 24 hours. The overall death toll in the country has jumped to 559, according to the Worldometer data. The Centre on Monday said the Covid-19 situation is "especially serious" in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata and a few other places in West Bengal, and violation of lockdown measures risk the spread of the novel coronavirus. Globally, 2,407,414 people have been infected and 165,073 people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. Coronavirus-related deaths in the US has topped 45,000, with New York recording nearly half of all fatalities. Read More

Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing complex models of chemical systems, has an optimistic take on the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic . In his view, the fast-spreading disease is likely to come to a halt, but gradually. Levitt, whose specialty is not in epidemiology, cited the slowing rate of increase in the number of deaths in China to support his hypothesis. Levitt said that just like China, the United States too will get through the worst of the coronavirus outbreak sooner than many specialists anticipate, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. The laureate had already started studying the number of coronavirus cases around the world back in January this year. According to him, the world needs to control the panic, and abide by the reasonable social distancing measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Read More

Coronavirus , officially known as Covid-19 , that started spreading from China's Hubei province, has now affected over 150 countries across the globe. China has the most number of cases recorded and most number of deaths. Italy has seen a shocking and sudden rise in the number of cases and deaths. The country has been in total lockdown as the death toll increased. Iran has reported several deaths and has been trying to contain the impact of Covid-19. India is gradually seeing the impact of the virus. Worried about the influx of people carrying the virus from abroad, India suspended all visas till April 15. Worldwide, a number of sporting events, conferences, meets, summits and gatherings have been cancelled. Threat looms over Tokyo Olympics 2020 as well. A total of 415 individuals have so far been confirmed positive in India, according to the latest update by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Read More

The Health Ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines that have been formed for the management of dead bodies infected with novel coronavirus (Covid-19) to define a set of protocols in handling such cases. In a press briefing, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry Lav Aggarwal gave details about these. Guidelines for dead body management towards precautions, infection prevention and control measures, handling of body and environmental disinfection have been formed. Lav Aggarwal also said that all tests for coronavirus at private laboratories should be offered when prescribed by a qualified physician according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines. "Private labs testing is to ensure real time reporting to Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and the ICMR," he said. Read More

With the coronavirus reaching tech parks, campuses of multinational companies and even schools and colleges in Bengaluru, the IT city is gearing up to shoot the trouble with the help of technology. The city has so far reported four positive coronavirus cases . As more employees opt for work from home in this time of crisis, start-ups are launching a suite of products to support collaboration and communication among workers. Ozonetel, a city-based start-up, for example, has rolled out a cloud-based solution for call centre companies to switch to work-from-home, in order to contain the spread of the virus. Using the solution, a company can route calls to mobile phones or even landlines, instead of them taking calls via desktop. Human resource management software start-up Kredily has started providing its attendance management app for free to companies. Unlike a contact-based biometric system, the web-based authentication system rules out the possibility of spreading the virus th

The coronavirus outbreak which spread from central China has now spread to more than 78 countries — from South Korea to Italy, Iran, Japan and the United States. At least 11 people have died of the COVID-19 disease in the US. In India, a new case of COVID-19 was reported after Paytm in a statement said that one of its employees in Gurgaon office had tested positive, taking the number of confirmed cases in India to 29. With concerns mounting over the spread of the virus, the Delhi government has decided to form a task force and set up isolation wards in 19 government and six private hospitals. Three schools in Noida and adjoining areas were also shut as a precautionary measure. President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders have cancelled Holi gatherings over the coronavirus scare. The PMO also organised an inter-ministerial meet to review preparedness and response to Coronavirus. South Korea's total number of novel coronavirus infections — the

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China rose to 1,868 as of the end of Monday, up by 98 from the previous day, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday. The central Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, reported 93 deaths, while in the provincial capital of Wuhan, 72 people died. Across mainland China, there were 1,886 new confirmed infections on Monday, bringing the total so far to 72,436. Read More

Three persons with a travel history to China have been kept under observation at an isolation ward of the RML Hospital here for a possible exposure to novel coronavirus , officials said on Tuesday. The three -- all men aged between 24 and 48 -- were admitted on Monday and their samples have been sent for testing to ICMR-NIV Pune laboratory, Dr Minakshi Bhardwaj, Medical Superintendent of RML Hospital, said. While two of the men are residents of Delhi, one hails from NCR. All the three patients have respiratory problems like cold and cough along with fever and they self-reported at the designated health facility to deal with such cases. According to Bhardwaj, two of the patients had returned from China about a week ago while the other about a month back. Till Monday, a total of 33,552 passengers arriving in India from China in 155 flights have been screened As per data received on Jan 14, total 17 samples have been received by the ICMR-NIV Pune Lab, out of which 14 have