(Contains Press releases concerning Covid-19, issued in last 24 hours, inputs from PIB Field Offices and Fact checks undertaken by PIB)

Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Physical distancing and behavior etiquettes are potent ‘social vaccines’ for battling COVID-19; “Our recovery rate has improved at 37.5%, and more than 22 lakh tests have been conducted”

As the country reaches the exit of Lockdown 3.0, Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health & Family Welfare has stated “While the doubling time in the past 14 days was 11.5, it has improved to 13.6 in the last three days”. He added that the fatality rate has fallen to 3.1% and the recovery rate has improved to 37.5%. He also added that (as of yesterday) there are 3.1% active COVID-19 patients in ICU, 0.45% on ventilators and 2.7% on oxygen support.As on 17th May 2020, a total of 90,927 cases have been reported from the country in which 34,109 persons have been cured and 2,872 deaths had occurred. In the last 24 hours, 4,987 new confirmed cases have been added.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that while India sees a return to a New Normal, following simple hygiene measures like washing hands with soap frequently for at least twenty seconds or using alcohol based sanitizers; not spitting in public; sanitizing one’s workplace, regularly touched surfaces like table tops; always using face covers in public places to ensure other’s safety along with oneself and ensuring proper respiratory hygiene, are a must. He said that physical distancing is the most potent social vaccine available to us and hence it was advisable to ensure ‘Do GazkiDoori’ while interacting with others and to limit social gatherings by opting virtual gatherings.

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Finance Minister announces Government Reforms and Enablers across Seven Sectors under AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan

Announcing the 5^th and last Tranche of measures towards Government Reforms and Enablers, Smt. Sitharamantoday detailed seven measures for providing employment, support to businesses, Ease of Doing Business, and State Governments as well sectors such as Education and Health. These include Rs 40,000 crore increase in allocation for MGNREGS to provide employment boost; Increased investments in Public Health and other health reforms to prepare India for future pandemics; Technology Driven Education with Equity post-COVID; Further enhancement of Ease of Doing Business through IBC related measures; Decriminalisation of Companies Act defaults; Ease of Doing Business for Corporates; and Public Sector Enterprise Policy for a New, Self-reliant India. She also announced increase in borrowing limits of States from 3% to 5% for 2020-21 only & promoting State level reforms.

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Presentation of details of 5th Tranche announced by Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. NirmalaSitharaman under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan to support Indian economy in fight against COVID-19

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Today’s Announcements by FM to greatly boost our Rural Economy and Infrastructure, as well as provide Employment to crores of Poor people and Migrant Workers: Home Minister

Union Minister for Home Affairs, ShriAmit Shah, thanked Prime Minister ShriNarendraModi and Finance Minister Smt. NirmalaSitharaman for today’s economic package announcements. He said, “Today’s announcements by Modi government will go a long way in realising the idea of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. These steps will prove to be a game changer for health, education and business sectors, which would provide employment to crores of poor.

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Finance Minister announces new horizons of growth; structural reforms across Eight Sectors paving way for AatmaNirbhar Bharat

The Finance Minister on Saturday announced policy reforms to fast track investment in an effort towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat:There will be fast tracking of investment clearance through Empowered Group of Secretaries; Project Development Cell will be constituted in each Ministry to prepare investible projects, coordinate with investors and Central/State Governments; There will be ranking of States on investment attractiveness to compete for new investment; Incentive schemes for promotion of new champion sectors will be launched in sectors such as solar PV manufacturing; advanced cell battery storage etc.The Finance Minister also announced the following structural reforms in the eight sectors of Coal, Minerals, Defence production, Civil Aviation, Power Sector, Social Infrastructure, Space and Atomic energy.

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Union Home Minister lauds the slew of Structural Reform Measures announced by the Union Finance Minister

Lauding the slew of structural reform measures, announced by the Union Finance Minister on Saturday, Union Home Minister, ShriAmit Shah said, "I thank PM ShriNarendraModi and FM Smt. NirmalaSitharaman for today’s landmark decisions which would surely boost our economy and further our efforts towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat". PM Modi‘s mantra of 'Reform, Perform and Transform' is the key to India’s phenomenal growth in the last 6 years, he added.

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AatmaNirbhar Bharat scheme to provide free food grains to migrant labour kicks off

Under AatmaNirbhar Bharat package, Government of India has decided that food grains will be provided free of cost at the rate of 5 Kg per month for two months i.e. May and June 2020, to about 8 Crore migrant labour who are not covered under NFSA or State scheme PDS cards. The total estimated cost of about Rs. 3500 Crore for implementation of this scheme will be fully borne by Government of India. All India Allocation of food grains under this scheme is 8 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT).Delivery of food grains under this scheme has already started by Food Corporation of India (FCI).

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Relief package announced by Union Government for different sectors and new MSME definition will give huge boost to industry: ShriGadkari

Union Minister for MSME and Road Transport and Highways ShriNitinGadkari has said that the relief package announced by the Union Government for different stakeholders/sectors including MSME, labour, agriculture etc. and the new definition of MSMEs will give huge boost to industry. He called for exploring the rating of MSMEs and asked the participants to give suggestions for effective implementation of Fund of Funds announced as part of the package for MSMEs.

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National Migrant Information System (NMIS) - a central online repository on Migrant Workers - developed by NDMA to facilitate their seamless movement across States

In order to capture the information regarding movement of migrants and facilitate the smooth movement of stranded persons across States, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has developed an online Dashboard - National Migrant Information System (NMIS).The online portal would maintain a central repository on migrant workers and help in speedy inter-State communication/co-ordinationto facilitate their smooth movement to native places. It has additional advantages like contact tracing, which may be useful in overall COVID-19 response work.

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In order to ensure safer and quicker transportation of migrants , Indian Railways ready to run Shramik Special trains from all the districts connected by Railways in the country

Indian Railways is ready to run Shramik Special trains from all the districts connected by Railways in the country.Minister of Railwayshas asked the district collectors of the country to prepare a list of stranded labourers and destination, and apply it to Railways through State nodal officer.Indian Railways has got the capacity to run almost 300 Shramik special trains a day, however, less than half are being presently utilised.

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OP SAMUDRA SETU PHASE 2 - INS JALASHWA BRINGS HOME 588 INDIANS FROM MALDIVES

INS Jalashwa, deployed for Op SamudraSetu, entered Kochi harbour today morning concluding her second voyage to bring back Indians from Male, Maldives. The ship disembarked 588 Indian citizens including 70 women (06 expectant mothers) and 21 children at the Samudrika Cruise Terminal, of Cochin Port Trust.

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Union Minister DrJitendra Singh discusses COVID follow up with Chief Secretaries and senior officers of the eight States of the North East

In a one-hour long video conference meeting, representatives from the governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura provided their inputs regarding the current scenario with regard to the movements of migrant labourers and others from different parts of the country, the impact of Prime Minister’s 20 lakh crore economic package and assessment about the relaxations to be given in the days to come.

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INPUTS FROM PIB FIELD OFFICES

• Arunachal Pradesh: 200 MT pulses provided under PMGKY for May and June month already delivered to two godowns. NAFED to provide extra food grains to the State soon for non ration card holders.
• Assam; A nine year old boy from ward no.3 of Jorhat district who came from Delhi, tested COVID19 positive. Total cases 96, active case 51, recovered 41, deaths 2. Tweeted Assam Health Minister.
• Manipur:Govt extends lockdown till 31st May with exemptions to agriculture, MSMEs and MNREGA works. Also stops issuing fresh permits to people entering the state by road until existing backlog of testing is complete.
• Meghalaya:Total 163 people from Meghalaya who were studying or working in Gujarat have arrived in Guwahati railway station.
• Mizoram: 36 residents of Serchhip District in Mizoram stranded in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry reached the State and being quarantined at Eklavya Residential School Hostel.
• Nagaland: 134 citizens of Nagaland who were stranded in Manipur reach home in 6 buses. Section of public and colleges object to use of educational institutions as quarantine centers.
• Sikkim: State Project Director, Education department, BhimThatal said that laptops with pre-loaded educational contents are being sent to the students in remote places who are deprived of online education classes during lockdown.
• Chandigarh:Due to lockdown, some of the migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons are stranded in Chandigarh. For smooth movement of these persons, the Chandigarh Administration has made elaborate arrangements to ensure their comfortable and safe journey back home. Yesterday i.e. 16.05.2020, a total of 166 persons from UT of Ladakh were medically screened and sent by 07 special buses to Leh. Previously on 13.05.2020, a total of 242 stranded persons were sent to Ladakh.
• Punjab:  Amid a decline in the daily count of new cases over the past four days, Punjab Chief Minister has announced replacement of the strict curfew with a lockdown till May 31 in the state, while indicating resumption of limited public transport and maximum possible relaxations in the non-containment zones from May 18. The details of all relaxations would be announced by Monday, taking into account the new guidelines of the Centre for Lockdown 4.0.Chief Minister has congratulated the girl students of ITIs of the state for making 10 lakh masks.
• Haryana: Chief Minister has expressed his special gratitude towards Prime Minister, ShriNarendraModi for including several welfare schemes for the benefit of small shopkeepers, farmers and labourers, agriculture sector, infrastructural up gradation of the Mandis and ensuring ‘roof above all’ while announcing a mega economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore. The Chief Minister said that the mega economic package announced by the Central Government at the time of the global COVID Pandemic will definitely benefit the MSMEsin Haryana and would further strengthen Prime Minister's vision of 'Make in India'. This will increase the self-sufficiency of MSMEs and also increase the export opportunities.
• Himachal Pradesh: Chief Minister has urged the PanchayatPradhans to give their wholehearted support to the State Government to sensitize the people of their respective areas regarding COVID-19 and also ensure that the people who had arrived from other parts of the country do not jump home quarantine. CM said that collective efforts were required to tackle the situation. He said that Pradhans must educate people regarding importance of home quarantine.
• Kerala: State Finance Minister while welcoming the announcement of Centre raising the borrowing limit of States, said that the stipulations put forward has to be either withdrawn or discussed with states. He demanded that the state should be allowed to borrow 5% of its income from Union Budget as the increase in borrowing limit will only cover half of the revenue loss of the State.  He also said that GST arrears should be cleared completely and the wages under MNREGA under should reach the workers in advance. More than 580 Indian citizens stranded in Maldives reached Kochi today under "Operation SamudraSetu". 568 of them are from Kerala. Two flights from the Gulf are to arrive late this evening. 11 more Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the state yesterday taking the number of active cases to 87.
• Tamil Nadu: Lockdown extended in T.N. till May 31, public transport to resume in 25 districts; curbs to continue in 12 other districts, including Chennai. Two Chennai ration shop employees test Covid positive in Nagapattinam, tally in the district reaches 50. Total cases reported till yesterday : 10,585, Active cases: 6970, Deaths: 74, Discharged: 3538. Active cases in Chennai is 5939.
• Karnataka: CM says that the announcements made today under Aathmanirbhar Bharat will benefit the State and will also enhance employment opportunities. The policy changes in mineral sectors will complement the State’s Mineral Policy and mining activities can be carried out without much hurdles, he said. 54 new Covid cases reported till 12pm today; Mandya 22, Kalburgi 10, Hassan 6, Dharwad 4, Yadagiri 3,  two each in Dakshin Kannada &Shimoga, Kolar 3, One each in Udupi and Vijayapura. Total positive cases in the State reach 1146. Active cases: 611, Recovered: 497, Deaths: 37.
• Andhra Pradesh: State to provide cost-free travel facility to migrant workers of neighbouring states. Circular issued on evacuation of migrant workers, with instructions to police not to resort to lathi-charge. Petition filed in AP High Court against salary cut, demanding payment of entire salary from March to government employees and suspension of GO in this regard. 25 new cases, one death reported with 103 discharged in the last 24 hours. Total cases: 2230. Active: 747, Recovered: 1433, Deaths: 50.  Active cases among returnees from other states are 127. Districts leading in +ve cases: Kurnool (611), Guntur (417) & Krishna (367).
• Telangana: 168 Indian passengers returned to Hyderabad from Chicago (USA), on an Air India special flight which landed at 4.45am on Sunday as part of Vande Bharat Mission. Covid-19 graph soars to 1,509 in Telangana continuing with the upward surge as seen throughout this week. 52 migrant workers who have returned to Telangana in the recent past have been tested for the virus so far.

PIB FACTCHECK

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