Coronavirus live updates: Only those authorised by states allowed in special trains, says Railways

The first special train bringing migrant workers back to Uttar Pradesh from outside the state will arrive here on Sunday and talks are on with officials of many states to ensure their return, said an official. “On CM Yogi Adityanath's directives, talks are going on with officials of Maharashtra and Gujarat for running more special trains on Sunday,” he said.

Four more trains are expected to leave with the workers from Tirur, Kozhikode, Ernakulam South and Aluva stations later this evening for Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. This is the second train which left with the guest workers, a day after around 1,100 migrant workers from Aluva in Kochi departed for Bhubaneswar on Friday night.

The excise department has directed four government-run agencies, which are responsible to sell liquor in the city, to identify such outlets which fulfil all conditions prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, liquor shops will not be allowed in Covid-19 containment zones.

"The Cabinet approved suitable amendments to The Punjab Good Conduct Prisoners Act 1962," the dept said in its statement.

The armed forces have made elaborate arrangements to conduct aerial fly-pasts, light up ships at sea and shower flower petals on several hospitals across the country on Sunday to express gratitude to lakhs of doctors, paramedics, sanitation staff and other front-line workers engaged in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The current economic situation has been reviewed during the meeting along with discussions on credit flows to different sectors of the economy - including liquidity to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), microfinance institutions, housing finance companies and mutual funds.

District collectors can permit export units to operate with 50% strength in the urban areas after due inspection. Hardware manufacturing permitted with 50% strength. Spinning mills allowed with 50% strength in shift and social distancing norms. IT and ITeS allowed with 50% strength and a minimum of 20 staff members.

PM held discussions with Shah and Sitharaman and would have follow up meetings with ministers of key economic ministries such as Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), sources said. The finance ministry is scheduled to make a detailed presentation to the PM later in the day on the state of economy and several initiatives that it plans to undertake to stimulate Indian economy.

"This is not acceptable. All private hospitals and clinics are directed that every non-COVID hospitals should keep a designated isolation unit to accommodate critically ill suspected COVID patients until their condition is stabilised for transfer to COVID hospital after testing," the order said.

Samples will be collected from Covid-19 patients to study whether the novel coronavirus strain has mutated or not, a senior scientist from ICMR said. However, the study can begin once the lockdown is lifted since currently there are difficulties involved in transportation of samples from different states and Union Territories, scientists said.