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A the success of the janata curfew on Sunday, the Government has decided to suspend all inter-State buses, passenger trains and Metro services across the country till March 31. At the same time, authorities have decided to completely lockdown 75 districts except essential services where coronavirus cases were reported as several States announced extraordinary measures to check the spread of the disease which has left 396 infected and seven dead. The three casualties reported on Sunday were from Bihar, Gujarat and Maharasthtra. A 38-year-old man with a kidney ailment and recent travel history to Qatar died at AIIMSPatna and a 67-year-old man died at a hospital in Surat in Gujarat, state officials said. The Union Health Ministry was yet to confirm the deaths were caused by coronavirus. Another death was reported from Mumbai of a 63-year-old man. Even before the Government order, several States like Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra went for complete lockdown with an aim to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission. The Union Health Ministry has asked the States to earmark a certain number of hospitals to exclusively treat COVID-19 patients. The Railway Ministry has urged the people to “postpone all journeys”, a day after three incidents involving 12 people were reported as they were found to be travelling on trains despite being instructed to go for quarantine. All of them tested positive. Soon after the Centre and State Governments following a meeting led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to completely lock down 75 districts across the country where coronavirus cases have been reported, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Director Balram Bhargava told reporters here that a lockdown was the most essential aspect to the break the chain of transmission as of now. “Each State has pledged that they will earmark hospitals exclusively to treat COVID-19 patients,” Bhargava said. “For example, in Delhi, AIIMS’ division of National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Jhajjar (Haryana) — which has around 800 beds — would be used only to treat COVID-19 patients,” he said. Bhargava stated that 60 private labs had registered so far to conduct coronavirus tests. He said India is capable of conducting 10,000 coronavirus tests a day and conducted 5,000 tests last week. Speaking to the media, Bhargava said the testing capacity could be increased above 10,000, if needed. “It’s important that indiscriminate testing is not done. Those returning from abroad should go for isolation,” he said. In view of no let up in the Covid-19 cases, the Government gave an order to procure 1,200 new ventilators, said Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal. He talked about the steps taken to contain the virus that has claimed over 13,000 lives worldwide. The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting of chief secretaries of all States and the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, officials said on Sunday. In the meeting, it was decided to suspend all train services till March 31, including suburban rail services. However, goods trains are exempted. All metro rail services were also suspended till March 31, the officials said. Subsequently, the railways announced suspension of all its 13,523 passenger trains from March 22 midnight to March 31 midnight and said only goods trains will run during the said period. The suspensions also include all suburban train services. The railways had already trimmed down its services on Friday by cancelling a majority of trains. However, it had allowed all trains that had already started the journey to continue. “No train except goods trains will run till 2400 hrs of March 31. However, a bare minimum of suburban services and the Kolkata Metro Rail service will continue to run till 2400 hours of March 22. Thereafter, these services will also be stopped till 2400 hours of March 31,” a spokesperson of the Indian Railways said. The trains that had already commenced their journey prior to 4 am on March 22 will run up to their respective destinations, the railways said, adding that adequate arrangements would be made for the passengers during the travel and at their destinations. “To ensure the essential supplies in various parts of the country, movement of goods trains will continue,” the Railway Ministry said in a statement. Continued on Page 5 56 75182