By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, APR 28, 2020: THE Ministry of Health has stated that 16 Districts in the country, which earlier had cases, have not reported any fresh cases since the last 28 days. Three new districts which got added to this list from include (24th April):

• Gondia in Maharashtra,

• Devangere in Karnataka

• Lakhi Sarai in Bihar

Two districts have now shown fresh cases, which earlier did not have any fresh case in last 28 days and those are Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar in Punjab. Further, a total of 85 districts from (25 States/UT) have not reported any new cases since the last 14 days.

At the press briefing here yesterday, the Empowered Group 5 (EG5) of Government of India shared updates related to supply chain and logistical arrangements made in the country since the COVID-19 outbreak to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic and the measures taken to control its spread in the country.

Addressing the media, Mr Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Convener of the EG5, shared the steps being taken by the government to tackle challenges in four critical sectors, viz. agriculture, manufacturing, logistics and feeding vulnerable groups. He said that the percentage of trucks moving food and pharmaceuticals has increased from 46% on March 30th to 76% on April 25th, 2020. In the same period, the percentage of railway rakes moved has increased from 67% to 76%, percentage traffic handled by ports has increased from 70% to 87%, and percentage of operational major mandis has gone up from 61% to 79%. More than 1.5 cr people are being provided cooked meals every day by Government agencies, NGOs and industries.

Speaking about the role of EG5, he said that the Government is focusing on easing policy and implementation bottlenecks in supply chains of essential items, troubleshooting specific bottlenecks on the ground and tracking key indicators and disseminating best practices of supply warriors. For this, he said, they are collaborating with line Departments, Ministry of Home Affairs, and other key stakeholders from industry including food, pharma, transporters, wholesalers, retailers and mandis.

As of now, 6,184 people have been cured with a recovery rate of 22.17%. Since yesterday, an increase of 1396 new cases has been reported. Also, a total of 27,892 people have been confirmed positive as of now for COVID-19 in India. In the last 24 hours, 48 new deaths have been reported with total fatality of 872.