1. Ten states and one Union Territory have extended the lockdown to rein in the coronavirus pandemic till April 30. This includes Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and West Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation tomorrow at 10 am and is expected to extend it until the end of the month.
  2. India has so far reported 9,352 coronavirus cases and 324 deaths, according to the health ministry’s latest update. The country recorded 905 new positive cases and 51 deaths in the last 24 hours.  
  3. The Supreme Court modified its April 8 order directing the Centre to make coronavirus tests free of cost in private laboratories, and said free testing will only be available to persons eligible under the flagship healthcare programme Ayushman Bharat, and any other category of economically weaker sections of the society as notified by the government.
  4. The top court dismissed a petition that questioned the legality of the creation of the “PM-CARES fund” formed to fight the spreading coronavirus pandemic in the country. The court also refused to pass any interim orders in a petition seeking action against the media for communalising the coronavirus pandemic in light of the Tablighi Jamaat meeting held in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin area in early March. 
  5. In Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, the number of Covid-19 cases went up to 49 after two more people were infected.
  6. Congress President Sonia Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking the government to offer increased rations to people who are identified as beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act as well as vulnerable sections who may not enlisted under the Act during the nation-wide lockdown.
  7. Liquor shops in Assam and Meghalaya will be allowed to remain open from Monday – for seven hours a day – amid the nationwide lockdown to contain the spreading Covid-19. 
  8. The Kerala government has said the state’s Covid-19 curve is now flattening and the number of patients who have recovered may soon be more than the number of active cases. Meanwhile, Delhi has classified areas hit by Covid-19 outbreaks as red and orange zones, and began a sanitisation drive there on Monday
  9. Globally, the coronavirus has infected nearly 18.7 lakh patients and killed more than 1,15,000, according to an estimate by Johns Hopkins University. New York City alone now has over 1 lakh cases.
  10. Nagaland on Sunday reported its first Covid-19 case, with a resident testing positive at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital in Assam.