1. India’s total number of Covid-19 cases has gone up to 18,985, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Tuesday evening update. Of the confirmed cases, 603 patients have died, 15,122 people are undergoing treatment, 3,259 people have recovered, and one person has left the country.
  2. The Ministry of Home Affairs told chief secretaries of all states that bedside attendants and caregivers of senior citizens are allowed to work during the lockdown. The order added that public utilities are exempted from the lockdown, including recharge facilities for prepaid mobile phone connections. Food processing industries are also allowed to function, the ministry said.
  3. The Trinamool Congress criticised the visit of Centre’s inter-ministerial teams to review the coronavirus situation in West Bengal. Party leader Derek O’Brien termed the visit as “adventure tourism” and questioned why teams were not sent to states with much higher number of cases and hotspots. Meanwhile, Apurva Chandra, central team leader, said the state government has not been giving logistical support to visit affected areas.
  4. Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain on Tuesday said a Covid-19 case has been reported from the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex. According to reports, about 125 families living in the premises have been asked to go under quarantine.
  5. Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said India is heaven for Muslims and that their social, economic and religious rights are secure in the country. His comments came after the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had on Sunday urged the Narendra Modi government to take urgent steps to protect Muslims who are being “negatively profiled”, facing “discrimination and violence” amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
  6. Twenty-five hospital employees, including 19 nurses and six paramedics, of the Ruby Hall Clinic in Maharashtra’s Pune city have tested positive for the coronavirus.
  7. Media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières said the coming decade will be decisive for the future of journalism, with the coronavirus pandemic “highlighting and amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported, independent, diverse and reliable information”.
  8. The price of the United States crude oil benchmark turned negative on Monday for the first time in history, falling more than $50 a barrel within a day to close at $37.63 below zero. President Donald Trump said that the US would take advantage of the historic drop in oil prices to replenish its national stockpile.
  9. Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would sign an executive order to suspend immigration to the US because of the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement comes at a time when the US economy has come to a near standstill because of the pandemic, with more than 22 million people applying for unemployment benefits in the last month. So far, the US has been the worst-hit by the pandemic.
  10. A 12-year-old girl from Chhattisgarh, who worked in a field in Telangana, died after walking 150 kilometres for three days to Bijapur district amid the nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus. The child collapsed and died just an hour away from her village.
  11. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 24.8 lakh people and killed more than 1.7 lakh. The United States has reported 7,87,901 Covid-19 cases and 42,094 deaths, making it the worst-hit country in the world.