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New Delhi: The total number of people infected with COVID-19 in India has crossed the 2000 mark (officially confirmed figure is 1965) and a total of 50 people have died of the infection.

A total of 151 people in the country have recovered from the novel coronavirus infection.

In the last 24 hours (till Thursday 2 April 2020), 328 new cases and 12 deaths had been reported. This was informed by the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Luv Aggarwal, at the daily media briefing.

Tablighi Jamaat

The Ministry of Home Affairs informed that a massive effort has been launched by the Ministry, with respect to the meeting of Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. Around 9,000 people related with the meeting have been identified and quarantined, out of which around 1,306 people are foreigners. Out of around 2,000 TJ workers in Delhi, 1,804 have been shifted to quarantine centres and 334 symptomatic people have been hospitalized. The number of those who have tested positive among these persons was 396 on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with Chief Ministers of states via video conferencing to discuss measures to combat COVID-19.

The Prime Minister thanked the States for supporting the decision of lockdown due to which India has achieved some success in limiting the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister outlined that the common goal for the country is to ensure minimum loss of life. In the next few weeks, testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine should remain the areas of focus. He highlighted the necessity of maintaining supply of essential medical products, availability of raw material for manufacture of medicines and medical equipment. He said it is necessary to ensure availability of separate, dedicated hospital facilities for COVID-19 patients.

The Prime Minister talked about the need of setting up Crisis Management Groups at district level and appointment of District Surveillance Officers.

The PM said that considering that this is the time to harvest crops, the government has given some relaxation from lockdown but it is necessary to continuously monitor and maintain social distancing as much as possible.

The PM appealed to the leaders to reach out to community leaders and social welfare organizations at state, district, town and block levels to build up a united front based on community-approach in the battle against the pandemic.

The Home Secretary has written to states and UTs to implement lockdown measures in letter and spirit by exercising their powers under the Disaster Management Act, 2005; the Supreme Court too has emphasized this in its order dated March 31, 2020. Violation of lockdown is a punishable offence under Disaster Management Act and Indian Penal Code

Government of India launches a mobile App

At the press briefing, the Government of India launched the App called Arogya Setu to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19. The App will inform people about the risk for their catching the Corona Virus infection. It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.