China supplied nearly 400 tonnes of coronavirus-related medical supplies including RT-PCR test kits, Rapid Antibody Tests, PPE kits and thermometers, said Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday adding that 20 more flights are expected to bring more supplies from China in the coming days.
"In the past two weeks, around two dozen flights departed for India from five cities in China carrying nearly 400 tonnes of medical supplies, including RT-PCR test kits, Rapid Antibody Tests, PPE kits, thermometers etc," said Ministry of External Affairs' spokesperson Anurag Srivastava. "Around 20 more flights are expected to bring supplies from China in the coming days, and this is likely to be stepped up considerably in the next few months as our procurement efforts gain momentum," he added.
Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for government employees has been put on hold till June 2021, in view of the country's financial situation amid the coronavirus pandemic. If the states follow the Centre's example, the combined savings will be 1.20 lakh crore, which will help in the battle against the coronavirus, the government said.
A component of salary and pension of government employees, Dearness Allowance is meant to offset the cost of inflation. The decision will hit the income of around 48.34 lakh Central government employees and 65.26 lakh pensioners.
Fitch Ratings has slashed India's economic growth projections to 0.8 per cent in the current 2020-21 fiscal saying an unparalleled global recession was underway due to disruptions caused by the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic and resultant lockdowns.
For the first time since the coronavirus crisis began, Congress President Sonia Gandhi accused the government of not acting upon the suggestions put forth by her party despite the coronavirus increasing "both in spread and speed" in the past three weeks. Mrs Gandhi, speaking at a key leadership meeting of her party, said that the government had failed to show "compassion and alacrity" in softening the impact of the lockdown. The Congress president took on the BJP and sounded concern on what she called the "virus of communal hatred" spread by the ruling party; it should worry each and every Indian, she said.
Mrs Gandhi's comments came on a day when the number of those infected with the virus crossed over 21,000. The highly infectious has killed 681 people in the country, government data showed. Forty one people who test positive for the virus have died in 24 hours. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 16,454, while 4,257 people have been cured and discharged, one patient has migrated, it said. The total number of cases includes 77 foreign nationals.
According to the health ministry's data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 5,652, followed by Gujarat at 2,407, Delhi at 2,248, Rajasthan at 1,890, Tamil Nadu at 1,629 and Madhya Pradesh at 1,592.
