The campaign will run for seven days on Ketto and the proceeds will be directed to ACT Grants, the implementation partner which will work towards providing oxygen and medical manpower.

NEW DELHI: India captain Virat Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma have donated Rs 2 crore to a fund-raising project, which will raise a total of Rs 7 crore to support the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign will run for seven days on Ketto and the proceeds will be directed to ACT Grants, the implementation partner which will work towards providing oxygen, medical manpower, vaccination awareness and tele-medicine facilities all through the pandemic and the amount.

“We are going through an unprecedented time in the history of our country and our nation needs all of us to unite and save as many people as possible. Anushka and I have been shocked to see the human suffering since last year,” Kohli said.

Kohli said that he and his wife had tried to help as many peope as possible in their fight against the virus. “We have been working towards helping as many people as possible all through the pandemic and now, India wants our support more than ever,” he said in a statement that was also shared on his social media handle.

“We are starting this fund-raiser with the confidence that we will be able to raise substantial funds to aid those in dire need. We are confident that people will come forward to support fellow countrymen in crisis. We are in this together and we shall overcome this,” he added.

Anushka said it has been painful to watch the suffering of people as the country’s health-care system struggled to cope with the case load. “Virat and I have been hugely pained looking at the inexplicable suffering that people are going through and we hope that this fund will aid in our fight against the virus that we are all helplessly witnessing,” she said.

Gayatri Yadav, spokesperson ACT Grants said, “Having strong voices like Anushka and Virat help drive fundraising efforts will go a long way towards helping us realise this goal. On behalf of India’s startup ecosystem, ACT Grants is truly grateful to have them join this mission.”

MUMBAI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has arrested a drug peddler in Goa in connection with the drugs case linked to Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, an official said on Friday.

The accused, Hemal Shah, was nabbed by a team of the anti-drug agency, he said. “Shah’s alleged involvement came to light during the investigation of a drugs case linked to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death,” he said.

Accordingly a trap was laid and Shah was apprehended in Goa, he said, adding that he will be produced before a court later in the day. The NCB had launched a probe into the alleged use of drugs in the film and entertainment industry after Rajput was found dead at his home in Mumbai in June last year.

The central agency had earlier arrested Rajput’s girlfriend, actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and a few others under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Rhea and some other accused are currently out on bail.

BHOPAL: With the second wave of Covid-19 now spreading to villages of Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the extension of coronavirus-related curfew across the state till May 15. 

Indore and Bhopal have imposed the curfew till May 10 morning and some districts including Jabalpur and Chhindwara imposed it till May 17, while Rewa’s restrictions go on till May 15.

“While the positivity rate in the state has come down from 25% to 18% in three weeks, the concerning aspect is that the pandemic is spreading to villages.

Some districts have done commendable work in controlling the spiraling positivity rate, while some other districts have more work to do. I’m not naming those districts, as I’ll take up the situation individually with district collectors,” the CM said.

With the infection spreading into rural areas, the CM also announced that works/labour under the MGNREGA won’t be allowed till May 15 in those villages, which has even a single positive case, while in villages with no positive cases also, the works will be allowed only with proper safeguards.

“We’ll ensure that no one suffers by giving three months free ration to villagers,” Chouhan assured.

Blaming marriages also for the spiraling number of cases, the CM said, “no marriages will be allowed in May, marriages can be solemnized on muhurats (auspicious dates) in June. Marriages are meant to bring progress and prosperity and not misery, but allowing marriages to happen this month will end up plunging the lives of people into grave risk.”

He also said that strict action will be taken against hospitals charging hefty sums from commoners particularly from poor people.

“Currently over 500 hospitals are treating COVID-19 patients, but some of these hospitals are looting people, which will not be allowed at any cost. We’ve started identifying and initiating action against such hospitals starting from the state capital Bhopal and similar action will be replicated against similar hospitals.”

“We’ll leave some hospitals for treating people who can afford costly treatment, but all others will have to treat people at fixed rates. We’re working on war footing to ensure that all hospitals in the state treat the Ayushman Scheme card holder families free of cost. We’re making arrangements for free of cost treatment of all poor, lower middle class and middle class people at hospitals,” the CM maintained.

Meanwhile, the state reported 12,421 new COVID cases over the last 24 hours at a positivity rate of 18.23%, which was lowest in 24 days.

As many as 86 deaths too were reported during the last 24 hours, which also saw 12,965 recoveries.

While three districts, including Indore, Bhopal and Gwalior continued to report four-digit daily spike in cases, 34 other districts reported daily spike in triple digits, while remaining 15 districts reported double digit single day spike.

With this the state currently has 88,614 active cases, while the total positive cases since March 2020 have grown to 6,37,406 cases. Since March 2020, the state has officially reported 6160 deaths and 5,42,632 recoveries.

PATNA:  Come May 9, RJD chief Lalu Prasad may become active again in Bihar’s politics. He and his son Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar Assembly’s opposition leader, are set to appear in a virtual meeting with the party leaders and the MLAs.

It is believed here that Lalu Prasad will return to his party’s active politics after years of gaps in Bihar. 
Lalu Prasad will be speaking from New Delhi, where he is now staying at residence of his elder daughter Dr Misa Bharti, days after he was granted bail in multiple cases of fodder scams.

Enthused over getting to interact with the party’s boss on May 9, many RJD leaders said: “Ab khela hobe Bihar me (Now a game will be held in Bihar) after West Bengal with the start of first virtual meeting by ‘Sahab’”.The NDA government is surviving in Bihar with the supports of smaller allies, which have won the eight seats in the recent elections. 

The RJD is learnt to be in effort as how to lure the smaller parties to the Mahagatvandhan. Sources, meanwhile, said that the posts of deputy chief minister can be offered by the Mahagatvandhan to the MLAs, who will like to come out from the NDA.

Places of worship will be closed, MGNREGA works will be suspended and movement from one city/village to another city/village within the state will be prohibited.

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government on Thursday announced a strict lockdown in the state from May 10 to 24 under which marriage functions, intrastate movement have also been disallowed.

The amount given for the booking of marriage gardens, band etc. will be either returned or adjusted later.

However, marriages will be permitted only in courts or at home in the presence of maximum of 11 people, according to a state cabinet decision.

The decision to impose a “strict lockdown” was taken at a cabinet meeting Thursday night.

All MGNREGA works and intrastate movement will be restricted during the period.

Many restrictions were already in force in the state under ‘Red Alert Public Discipline Fortnight’ which have been made stringent on the basis of the suggestions given by a group of five ministers during a meeting of the council of ministers.

Barring emergency vehicles, no other vehicle, both private and public transport, will be permitted.

Places of worship will be closed, MGNREGA works will be suspended and movement from one city/village to another city/village within the state will be prohibited.

Those coming from outside the state will have to produce a negative RT-PCR test report.

In case there is no negative report, the person will be quarantined for 15 days.

Shops which have been permitted to open as per the earlier guidelines will continue to open.

During the meeting, the ministers expressed concern on the shortage of oxygen.

It was informed in the meeting that work orders for the purchase of 47,000 oxygen concentrators have been issued.

India reported 4,14,188 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

With this, the cumulative count of COVID-19 cases in the country has gone up to 2,14,91,598, informed the Union Health Ministry.

Around 3,915 people succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, with this the total death toll reached 2,34,083. India registered a total of 3,31,507 recoveries, taking total discharge to 1,76,12,351.

Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 36,45,164 comprising 16.96 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has dropped to 81.95 per cent.

The fatality rate is over 1 per cent.

According to the ICMR, 29,86,01,699 samples have been tested up to May 6 with 18,26,490 samples being tested on Thursday

On Thursday, Kerala, which accounted for over 10% of the nation’s tally, announced a rigourous nine-day complete lockdown till May 16, starting Saturday, as it recorded its highest single-day spike of 42,464 and 63 deaths. 

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh also decided to implement a lockdown to break the chain as COVID cases surged across the country.

After almost a week of reporting less than 60,000 cases, Maharashtra’s tally increased by 62,194 on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on Thursday was not satisfied with Centre’s oxygen supply strategy.