India Coronavirus: Millions Under Lockdown As Major Cities Restrict Daily Life

India Coronavirus: Millions Under Lockdown As Major Cities Restrict Daily Life

                                      ©    XAVIER GALIANA/AFP/Getty Images A man crosses a deserted Rajpath during a nationwide one day Janata (civil) curfew imposed as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in New Delhi on March 22, 2020. - Millions of people in India were in lockdown on March 22 as the government tests the country's ability to fight the pandemic that has killed nearly 13,000 worldwide. (Photo by Xavier GALIANA / AFP) (Photo by XAVIER GALIANA/AFP via Getty Images)
Millions of people across India have been placed under lockdown until the end of the month as efforts to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country intensify.
Residents living in 75 districts across the country, including in major cities such as the capital New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have been placed under travel, work and movement restrictions until March 31.
India -- the world's second most populous country -- has 415 cases of the coronavirus, including seven deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A sudden rise in cases has led to growing concerns over the country's capacity to test for the virus and that a major outbreak on the scale seen in Europe -- the pandemic's new epicenter -- will spread in the country.
Dr. Balram Bhargava, director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said that India has conducted 5,000 tests in the past week and a total of 15,000 so far. There are 111 labs operational with a per week testing capacity of 60,000 to 70,000 and around 60 more private labs are in the process of being approved to further increase testing capacity, according to Bhargava.
The decision to lock down parts of the country comes after India launched the world's biggest exercise in social distancing on Sunday, with the nation's 1.3 billion people asked to observe a self-imposed quarantine for 14 hours.
From 7 a.M. To 9 p.M. On Sunday, offices and businesses shut, people stayed inside their homes, and the usually busy streets, markets and highways were eerily empty across the nation. In a display of public solidarity expressing thanks to the nation's healthcare workers, people across India stood in their doorways and on balconies applauding, ringing bells and blowing conch shells, following similar scenes days prior in Italy and Spain.
The "public curfew," announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, was a test on whether an official curfew could be imposed across the country to stop the spread of Covid-19. Those restrictions were extended across large parts of the country late Sunday, effectively forcing millions of workers in India's huge technology and financial sector to work from home for the rest of the month.
In New Delhi, public transportation, including the metro and rickshaws, has been suspended, all shops, factories, places of worship and offices have been shut, interstate travel has stopped, borders with neighboring states have closed and people are required to stay in their homes until March 31.
Exempt from the order are essential services such as grocery stores, hospitals, pharmacies, petrol stations, telecoms and postal services and restaurants that deliver food.
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures," Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Sunday.
Several districts, including the financial capital of Mumbai, have banned gatherings of four or more people, and officials can take legal action against those who violate the rule.
Numerous state governments have extended the "district-ban" to include their entire states. In the northern Indian state of Punjab, the chief minister announced that, except for essential services, the whole state will be under a lockdown until March 31. Punjab has confirmed more than 20 cases, including one death.
Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Telangana have all initiated state-wide lockdowns versus targeted restrictions of cities and districts.
The central government advised the restrictions in 75 districts as these are places where coronavirus cases have been reported. Local governments can extend those restrictions to other areas at their discretion.
Maharashtra state, which includes Mumbai and Pune, has reported the most cases, with at least 67 infections, according to government figures. Kerala reported at least 52 cases and New Delhi has at least 26.
In the past few weeks, India has taken unprecedented steps to shut its borders, cancel visas and ban passengers from certain countries from entering Indian airspace.
On Sunday, India suspended passenger train services until March 31 after several travelers tested positive for coronavirus. India's mammoth railway network spans more than 760 million kilometers (472 million miles) and carried 8 billion passengers in 2018-19.
Asia spurred into action The measures in India come as other Asian nations see jumps in cases and rush to implement emergency measures of their own.
On Sunday, Thailand reported 188 new novel coronavirus cases, its biggest single-day rise, bringing its total to 599. Thailand's Ministry of Public Health has announced new measures, which include the closure of dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and amusement parks.
Fears of a second surge in cases from patients traveling from overseas has prompted officials in China to divert all Beijing-bound international flights to other cities starting on Monday.
China confirmed 39 additional cases of coronavirus as of the end of day Sunday, according to the country's National Health Commission -- all were imported cases.
Singapore said it will shut its borders to all short-term visitors and travelers transiting though the city starting from Monday, according to its Health Ministry, which said the majority of its new infections were "imported cases."
On Monday, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced new measures that "place the most significant restriction on New Zealanders' movements in modern history."
The country will issue its highest alert level in 48 hours and close all non-essential businesses across the country, such as bars, gyms, and cinemas. All schools will be closed from Tuesday while supermarkets and service stations will remain open, Ardern said.
Australia has also taken unprecedented measures in its response to the pandemic. Businesses across the country on Monday followed the government's orders to shut down bars, restaurants, gyms, places of worship and other venues where people traditionally congregate.
"Life is changing in Australia for every Australian and life is going to continue to change," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. "For many young and old, 2020 will be the toughest year of our lives."
The state of South Australia declared a "major emergency" and shut its border with the rest of the country on Sunday after an increase in confirmed cases from travelers entering the state.
South Australia's Premier Steven Marshall said anyone entering South Australia "will be required to undertake 14 days of self-isolation."
The country's biggest state, New South Wales, will shut down all "non-essential services" in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. The measures come after both Tasmania and the Northern Territory introduced similar measures requiring all travelers to self-isolate for 14-days upon entry into the state.
Olympics could be postponed As sporting events across the world have been canceled, one of the biggest questions remains over whether the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics will go ahead.
Speaking to lawmakers on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said postponing the Olympics was a possibility.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that a final decision on postponement will be made within four weeks, due to the vast complexities of rescheduling a massive global sporting event like the Olympics.
"The IOC's decision is along the lines of what I said before, of holding the event in its complete form. If that becomes difficult -- and thinking first about the health of the athletes -- we may have no option but to consider postponing the Games," Abe said, speaking at the budget committee in Japan's upper house of parliament.
It's the first time that Abe has changed his staunch public position that the Olympics will start on July 24 as scheduled.
In recent days, a growing number of countries and athletes have called for the Games to be postponed. On Monday, Canada announced that it wouldn't be sending athletes, making it the first country to back out of the Games.
"This is not solely about athlete health -- it is about public health," Team Canada said in a statement. "With Covid-19 and the associated risks, it is not safe for our athletes, and the health and safety of their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training towards these Games."
Australia's Olympic Committee has also told its athletes to prepare for the possibility that the Games could be postponed until 2021.
Scrapping the Olympics during peacetime would be unprecedented -- they have only been canceled before during the two World Wars.

India’s Stock Futures Tumble As Nation Edges Toward Lockdown

(Bloomberg) -- India’s stock indexes posted their worst losses on record, as the world’s second-most populous nation went into a lockdown after the number of coronavirus cases in the country surpassed 400.

The S&P BSE Sensex Index tumbled 13% to 25,981.24 at the 3:30 p.M. Close in Mumbai - its biggest one-day drop ever since data going back to 1979 -- while the NSE Nifty 50 Index sank by a similar amount. The gauges triggered a trading halt earlier in the day, after a 10% fall within minutes of the opening bell tripped circuit breaker. The regional MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 3.1%.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state leaders over the weekend imposed an almost-complete lockdown, which will probably worsen an economy already set to slow to an 11-year low. While the spread of the coronavirus pandemic has so far been slow in India, T. Jacob John, the former head of the Indian Council for Medical Research’s Centre for Advanced Research in Virology, warned the virus could spread to as much as 10% of India’s 1.3 billion population.

“The pandemic comes at a time when India was showing some signs of emerging out of a slowdown and this has been a setback,” Shibani Sircar Kurian, head of equity research at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Said by phone. “A prompt announcement of financial and monetary measures can help clam the market nerves.”

Policy makers’ immediate focus is ensuring Indians have cash in hand to buy essentials, the government’s principal economic adviser, Sanjeev Sanyal, said in an interview in New Delhi on Friday.

Economic management of the situation “now depends on the resilience of domestic demand,” ANZ Banking Group Ltd. Analysts wrote in a note on Monday. “The ability to support domestic demand with fiscal and monetary accommodation is constrained and most of all, the dysfunctional financial system will restrict the availability of credit for a long time,” they added.

The S&P BSE Sensex Index last week marked its biggest weekly decline since October 2008. The ferocity of India’s sell-off has left equities way below the street’s forecasts. The average 12-month price target for companies in the S&P BSE Sensex Index has fallen less than 3% in March, versus a 32% plunge in the nation’s main stock gauge.

India’s stock exchanges will remain open despite a lockdown in the country’s financial capital of Mumbai, Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty said in an interview.

Read more: India Lockdown May Be ‘Too Slow’ to Stop Millions of Infections

The nation’s market regulator Friday evening raised margin requirements and capped derivatives exposure. The measures, which will stay in force for a month, are aimed at discouraging traders from aggressively building short positions at a time when volatility in the nation’s equities has spiked to levels last seen in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Its central bank last week announced measures to boost liquidity but held back from following global peers with a rate cut. India’s government is considering offering easier loan repayment terms and tax breaks for smaller companies, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.Com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Here's The List Of 75 Districts Placed Under Lockdown In India Due To Coronavirus COVID-19

© Provided by Zee News In a major step to curb coronavirus outbreak in the country, the central and state government issued order to lock down all the coronavirus affected district in the country. More than 75 districts have now been put under lockdown in India to practise social distancing and avoid the spread of virus in the country.
Only essential stores like that of grocery,medicine and petrol pumps will remain open in the locked down districts and public transportation movement is completely restricted. State governments have also ordered closure of schools, colleges and offices amid the virus outbreak.
Here's the complete list of districts put under lockdown:
                                                                  State District Andhra Pradesh Prakasam Vijaywada Vizag Chandigarh Chandigarh Chhattisgarh Raipur Delhi Central East Delhi North Delhi North West Delhi North East Delhi South Delhi West Delhi Gujarat Kutchh Rajkot Gandhinagar Surat Vadodara Ahmedabad Haryana Faridabad Sonepat Panchkula Panipat Gurugram Himachal Pradesh Kangra UT of Jammu and Kashmir Srinagar Jammu Karnataka Bangalore Chikkaballapura Mysore Kodagu Kalaburgi Kerala Alappuzha Ernakulam IDUKI Kannur Kasargod Kottayam Mallapuram Pathanamthitta Thiruvanthpuram Thrissur UT of Ladakh Kargil Leh MP Jabalpur Maharashtra Ahmednagar Aurangabad Mumbai Nagpur Mumbai Sub-Urb Pune Ratnagiri Raigad Thane Yavatmal Odisha Khurda Puducherry Mahe Punjab Hoshiarpur SAS Nagar SBS Naagr Rajasthan Bilwara Jhunjhunu Sikar Jaipur Tamil Nadu Chennai Erode   Kanchipurum Telangana Hyderabad   Bhadradri Kothagudam Medchai Ranga reddy Sanga Reddy Uttar Pradesh Agra GB Nagar Ghaziabad Varanasi Lakhimpur Kheri Lucknow Uttarakhand Dehradun West Bengal Kolkata North 24 Parganas In India the coronavirus cases rose to 415 on Monday (March 22, 2020) and a total of 8 deaths were reported in the country. Maharashtra is the worst hit state in India with 89 cases.