An Indian-American nonprofit organisation has distributed 30,000 masks and other medical supplies to first responders, hospitals and county officials in Houston to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as the city prepares for a 30-day mandate to wear a face cover in public. Sewa International’s Houston chapter on Saturday distributed 30,000 masks, gloves, and 20,000 ounces of hand sanitiser in an “invitation only” drive-through event. In an executive order signed on Sunday, Harris county Judge Lina Hidalgo has directed all residents to wear some kind of face covering in public for 30 days, starting from Monday. It will apply for any person over the age of 10. There is a USD 1,000 fine for violating of the order.
“The event of distributing PPEs to about 100 agencies on Saturday was very gratifying and we will continue this drive on weekly basis,” Gitesh Desai, President of the Sewa Houston chapter said. “Sewa has set up eight regional non-medical helplines for a coordinated national response, to offer information and resources about travel, health, visas and visa status,” he said. The helplines will also provide information about delivery of masks to first responders and those at the frontlines, delivering food, groceries, and medicines to those who need them, helping seniors in the community with medical advice and assisting stranded students with accommodation needs and food, he said.
Over 400 Pakistanis stranded in Afghanistan due to the restrictions in place to curb the coronavirus pandemic crossed over to Pakistan through the Torkham border and have been placed under quarantine, according to a media report on Sunday. The 462 returnees, who arrived on Saturday, include 379 men, 47 women and 60 children. With this, the total number of Pakistanis who have returned from Afghanistan amid the ongoing crisis has reached 1,632, the Dawn newspaper reported. Hundreds of Pakistanis and Afghan nationals are stuck on either side due to closure of the border as a precautionary measure to contain the deadly coronavirus from spreading. Shamsul Islam, the focal person for the return of stranded Pakistanis, said that more people were expected to come back via the Torkham border in the coming days. They were shifted to a quarantine facility in Jamrud in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after completion of the necessary immigration procedure, he said. The swab samples of the newly returned people would be taken after 48 hours of their arrival and they would be given complete health facilities, the report said.
The Maharashtra government may extend the lockdown in the coronavirus-hit urban areas of the state after May 3, an official said on Sunday. The state government is closely monitoring the situation in areas outside the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Amravati, a senior state official said. “It is the cities where most of the COVID-19 cases are concentrated. If the state has to relax its current stringent lockdown measures, it would be in rural and least affected areas of the state. However, we are looking at the scenario as rural and urban areas are connected,” he said. Despite minimum COVID-19 cases in rural areas of Pune district, the industries there have not resumed because most of their workforce live in cities, he said. We need to work out some plans for every city or district-wise to get things moving. The administration needs more time to come up with solutions, hence it is highly unlikely to lift the lockdown restrictions May 3 onwards in all parts of the state, the official said. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope had on Saturday said the number of COVID-19 cases in the state is not coming down. “The state is yet to reach a stage where the number of coronavirus cases would stabilise.
