- Nineteen Indians are stuck at the Dubai International Airport for the last 21 days after India announced its COVID-19 lockdown, leaving them tired, homesick and desperate to return home, according to a media report. Most of these stranded persons were in transit when India stopped inbound flights in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Gulf News reported
- Baisakhi will not be marked with the customary large gatherings and melas in different parts of the UK this year as the community is urged to stay safe amid the coronavirus pandemic, with all events cancelled. Virtual kirtans and shabads being streamed from gurdwaras are aimed at supporting the UK Government’s stay-at-home message for a festival usually marked by large gatherings and festivities across different parts of the country
- South Korea plans to send 6,00,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from US President Donald Trump, a Seoul official told Reuters on Monday. Trump made the request for testing kits in a telephone call on March 25 with President Moon Jae-in, as the United States was grappling with fast-growing outbreaks in many states
- A Vietnamese entrepreneur in Ho Chi Minh City has invented a 24/7 automatic dispensing machine providing free rice for people out of work following an ongoing nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Vietnam has reported 262 COVID-19 cases, and no deaths so far, but as a result of a 15-day social distancing programme that began on March 31 many small businesses have been shuttered and thousands of people temporarily laid off from work. Nguyen Thi Ly’s husband was among those who have lost their job
- Singapore is preparing to house hundreds of foreign workers in accommodation vessels typically used for offshore and marine industry staff as it races to find alternatives to dormitories where the novel coronavirus has been spreading rapidly. Tens of thousands of migrant workers, many from South Asia, live in cramped dormitories across Singapore, which have become the biggest source of coronavirus infections in recent days. Authorities are moving some of the healthy residents of those facilities to other sites including military camps, an exhibition centre, vacant public housing blocks and the accommodation vessels, which they have called “floating hotels”
- Pope Francis says he prays for all the countries struggling with COVID-19 cases, the United States and European nations among them. He has also expressed his closeness and affection to these nations, “several with great numbers of the infected and the deceased. “Italy, the United States, Spain, France, the list is long,’’ said Francis before giving a blessing to mark what is celebrated in many places Monday as “Little Easter”
- As China plans a measured opening of schools following a drop in the number of coronavirus cases, the ministry of education has suspended the resumption of major sports events and mass gatherings on campus to ensure the safety and health of students and faculty. According to a guideline issued by the ministry, major sports events including single-sport events and comprehensive sports games have been suspended, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Monday
- The head of a hospital involved in handling the coronavirus crisis in China’s epicentre Wuhan on Monday said wearing masks and mandatory isolation of people with mild symptoms in special centres instead of their homes are essential to contain the spread of the vicious virus. Wang Xinghuan, the head of the Wuhan Leishenshan (Thunder God Mountain) Hospital, advocated the use of facial masks specially in cities like New York which are experience a higher rate of cases and casualties of coronavirus