COVID-19: Centre Asks Ministries To Hold Daily Briefing

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet held an emergency meeting on Friday over the COVID-19 health emergency in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the situation with his cabinet colleagues, mainly from the ministries of health, finance and external affairs.

All ministries have been advised to conduct daily briefings in view of the proportion and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutions, theatres and public places have been shut down across cities in several states.

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, has clarified that while there is a visa ban till April 15, it could be relaxed if the situation improves.

State governments have suspended biometric attendance and in states where COVID-19 cases have been reported, government officials are tracking contacts of the patients who tested positive.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka government is trying to do contact tracing of those who would have come in touch with the first casualty of COVID-19. A 76 year old patient from Kalburgi, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia, died of symptoms of COVID-19 on Thursday. He was returning to his home-town from Hyderabad where he had gone for treatment and was being brought to Kalburgi against the advice of the doctors to get him admitted in Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad.