India will start pool testing of coronavirus samples after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved guidelines surrounding it. In pool testing, five samples will be tested in one go. The announcement came as India today crossed the 10,000-mark as Covid-19 cases reached 10,815 while the death toll hit 353. Of the total cases, 9,272 are active while 1,189 are cured. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said 31 deaths and 1,211 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The figures continued to rise even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation today announced an extension of the lockdown till May 3.
The global infections have crossed the two-million mark. US President Donald Trump has said he was very close to completing a plan to reopen the country. As a result of the deadly spread of the novel coronavirus, more than 95 per cent of the country's 330 million population are under stay-at-home order. The social mitigation guidelines have been in place for a month now and will continue till April 30.
"I've been having many discussions with my team and top experts and we're very close to completing a plan to open our country hopefully even ahead of schedule, and that's so important,” Trump told reporters at his White House news conference on coronavirus.
Trump said that his administration will soon finalise new and very important guidelines to give governors the information they need to start safely opening their states. "My administration's plan and corresponding guidelines will give the American people the confidence they need to begin returning to normal life,” he said.
“That's what we want. We want to have our country open, we want to return to normal life. Our country is going to be open and it's going to be successfully opened, and we'll be explaining over very short number of days exactly what is going to be,” he said.
On Tuesday, he plans to announce a second task force consisting of eminent people from various walks of life. The task force would recommend him on reopening the country's economy.
The impact of coronavirus on the US economy has been devastating. New York, the epicenter of coronavirus in the US, has come to a standstill, the booming tourism and travel industry has come to a halt, a record number of millions of people have lost their jobs.
It has spent a whooping $2.2 trillion as part of its efforts to stimulate the economy, but has failed to make any impact so far.
In the past, Trump has asserted that the American economy is not meant that way and people need to come out and work. “We want to have our country open, we want to return to normal life,” he said.
“Our country is going to be open and it's going to be successfully opened, and we'll be explaining over very short number of days exactly what is going to be -- we've also, as you've probably heard, developed a committee. We're actually calling in a number of committees with the most prominent people in the country, the most successful people in the various fields. And we'll be announcing them tomorrow,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he and the president reviewed a very broad list of over 100 business people that are going to help advise him on what needs to be done to reopen the economy.
“We want to make sure and again the combination of economic impact payments, small business payments, enhanced unemployment insurance. The president made very clear we want to make sure that hard-working Americans have liquidity while we wait to reopen the government,” he said. The president is expected to make a decision on this later this week.
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