Rlys to operate 15 trains from May 12; PM to interact with CMs on Monday with focus on economy revival

(Eds: updates with resumption of passenger trains, new virus tally)

New Delhi, May 10 () As India enters the last week of the 54-day coronavirus lockdown, the Railways on Sunday said 15 air-conditioned special trains will operate from May 12 in a gradual resumption of passenger services announced on the eve of of Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's video conference with chief ministers that is expected to focus on a a strategy for a phased exit from the shutdown.

Modi's discussions with chief ministers of states and union territories on Monday are expected to revolve on steps for reviving the battered economy and scaling up all efforts to bring more 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones, as they push for stepping up economic activities in a calibrated manner.

The Centre also weighed the pros and cons of further easing of restrictions for a graded exit from the twice extended lockdown due to end on May 17 but sources said the restrictions still in place are unlikely to be withdrawn in one go.

The Prime Minister's Office(PMO) on Sunday said the video conference will begin at 3 PM on Monday. This will be Modi's fifth interaction with the chief ministers since the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, meanwhile, said no COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, asserting India was "moving fast on the path of success" in the fight against the pandemic.

According to health ministry data, 1,511 COVID-19 patients recovered in the last 24 hours -- the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day.

Announcing the phased resumption of passenger services that was suspended from the first day of the lockdown on March 25, the Railways said in a statement that air-conditioned services will initially begin with 15 pairs of trains(30 return journeys) on Rajdhani routes and the fare would be equivalent to that of the super-fast train,.

The special trains will run from New Delhi to Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. Passengers have been asked to reached the railway stations an hour early before the train's departure.

Officials said unlike 'Shramik Specials' to transport migrant labourers , in which only 54 passengers were allowed instead of the regular 72, these trains will run on full capacity, but no concession in fare is likely to be allowed. A total of 366 trains have transported nearly four lakh migrant workers since the first special train was rolled out on May 1.

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/).

Sources in the union government said the focus of the prime minister's meeting would be on boosting economic activities and pushing efforts to convert 'red' zones with high COVID-19 case load into 'orange' or 'green' zones.

The Union Health ministry on May 1 classified 733 districts as 130 in the red zone, 284 in the orange zone and 319 in the green zone, taking into consideration incidence of cases, doubling rate, extent of testing and surveillance feedback.

In some good news in efforts to ramp up testing, Vardhan said the National Institute of Virology(NIV) in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous test kit that will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of population exposed to coronavirus infection.

The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps on their patients' triage paths, Vardhan said.

"National Institute of Virology, Pune has successfully developed the 1st indigenous anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of COVID-19," the minister said in a series of tweets.

Vardhan said India carried out 86,000 tests for COVID-19 on Saturday and its testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day.

Till Saturday, 16,09,777 tests for COVID-19 have been conducted in India, he noted.

India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital.

There are 4,362 coronavirus care centres across the country where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept, he added.

"We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19. The doubling rate for the last three days is 12 (days). The recovery rate has crossed 30 per cent. Out of around 60,000 COVID-19 patients, about 20,000 have recovered and gone home."

"Our mortality rate is still at 3.3 per cent.... In the last 24 hours, there has been no case in 10 states and Union territories. There are four states or Union territories where there has not been a single case till now," Vardhan noted. India has 36 states and Union territories.

At a meeting on Sunday, state chief secretaries told Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba that while protection is required from COVID-19, economic activities also need to be stepped up in a calibrated manner.

Former chief economist of World Bank Kaushik Basu said it is not easy exiting from the lockdown but if India is determined the country can do it.

"We must not make the mistake of locking ourselves down in a fear psychosis. This can cause an economic setback for many years to come," he told .

The coronavirus death toll in the country rose to 2,109 on Sunday and the number of cases climbed to 62,939, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.

According to a tally based on data from inputs from states, the cases jumped to 67,026 while 20,469 patients had recovered and the death toll rose to 2,135.

A Maharashtra state official reported 1,278 new COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, taking case count to 22,171 and number of fatalities to 832.

The union health ministry data updated in the morning showed that the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was in the worst affected state of Maharashtra at 20,228, followed by Gujarat at 7,796, Delhi at 6,542, Tamil Nadu at 6,535, Rajasthan at 3,708, Madhya Pradesh at 3,614 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,373.

As many as 334 coronavirus 'super-spreaders' have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep shops of groceries and vegetables closed till May 15, an official said.

'Super-spreaders' are the infectious disease carriers who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people.

They could be vegetable vendors, grocery and milk shop owners, petrol pump attendants or garbage collectors, who by the nature of their job carry the risk of getting infected and infecting others.

Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reported one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31.

This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, a senior government officer told in Bengaluru. ASG NAB ASK ACB RRT UD PM PD KA BKS GMS GSN GSNGSN