National Coronavirus News Updates Oct 18 

Punjab:Reminding the Sarpanches of their moral duty as Head of their village, the Chief Minister has asked them to maintain strict vigil on the health situation and encourage anyone showing Covid symptoms to undergo testing. He further asked the Sarpanches to ensure that the patients inflicted with Covid, as well as their contacts, are identified and kept in isolation, for which elaborate arrangements should be made.
Haryana:In view of the upcoming festival season, Haryana Chief Secretary has directed the officers concerned that Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) regarding movement of people and possibility of congestion in shops should be issued at the earliest. The Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police have also been directed to ensure strict compliance of the COVID-19 guidelines such as wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene under the ‘COVID Appropriate Behaviour Campaign’.
Himachal Pradesh:Addressing the Annual General Meeting of the Indian Red Cross Society and St John Ambulance (India), Governor Shri BandaruDattatraya, who is the President of State Red Cross Society said that the State Red Cross Society in Himachal Pradesh did excellent work during the Corona pandemic and came forward to help the poor and the needy people. He expressed his gratitude towards Indian Red Cross Society for providing health relief material and other items like masks and sanitizers from time to time, which were made available to the people through the State Society.
Arunachal Pradesh: One more person succumbed to COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh today, taking its death toll to 30. Meanwhile, the State during the past 24 hours recorded as many as 203 positive cases and also saw off 195 patients following their recovery from the virus. The 42-bedded Dedicated COVID-19 Hospital (DCH) at Chimpu in Arunachal Pradesh is being upgraded into a 152-bedded hospital. This was informed by State Health & Family Welfare Minister AloLibang.
Assam: Assam Health Minister HimantaBiswaSarma tweeted that 1,263 patients were discharged yesterday. The total number of discharged patients is 6 times that of active patients. Total discharged patients 85.09%,& active patients 14.47%.
Manipur: Mapping begins for localised lockdown; One more succumbs to COVID-19 in Manipur.
Meghalaya: In Meghalaya, COVID-19 total active cases are 2445, total BSF and Armed Forces 117, total Others 2,328, & total recovered 5,646.
Mizoram: Nine more cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Mizoram yesterday. Total cases 2,229, active cases 108.
Nagaland: Of Nagaland's COVID-19 positive total of 7,492, 3,395 are from security personnel, 2,134 are traced contacts, 1,586 returnees and 377 are frontline workers.
Sikkim: With 41 new cases, Sikkim’s COVID-19 count reaches 3500; active cases 312.
Kerala: After 6-month-long break, devotees will throng the famous Lord Ayyappa temple from tomorrow onwards. Covid negative certificate obtained within 48 hours of Darshan will be mandatory for registration. 250 devotees who have booked for darshan via virtual queue portal of Kerala Police will be allowed to visit the temple per day. Meanwhile four more fatalities were reported today taking the state’s Covid death toll to 1093. 7,789 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the state yesterday. At present, there are 94,517 patients under treatment and 2.49 lakh people under observation across the state.
Tamil Nadu:Over 12 lakh tonne paddy procured during Covid says Food Minister R Kamaraj. The Minister said that it was the highest procurement, of which a total of 12.77 lakh tonnes were procured during the pandemic period, and Rs 2,416.05 crore disbursed to farmers. With heavy rush expected on trains and at railway stations during the festive season, the Railway Protection Force has issued guidelines to be followed by passengers to combat Covid: No entry on trains without mask and all passengers to adhere to Covid-19 norms on trains. Covid-19 death toll crosses 400 in Madurai; Tamil Nadu’s first Covid fatality was recorded in the district on March 25.
Karnataka: Following a few RT-PCR negative cases presenting typical Covid-19 symptoms, the health department in the state has directed all government and private hospitals to strictly follow a syndromic approach in treating such cases. In view of festival season, tourist places in Kodagu, Mysore and Mandya have been closed in order to control spread of infection. Highcourt of Karnataka has asked state government to conduct drive to ensure people wear mask. Railway ticket counters opens today after over seven months.
Andhra Pradesh: State decided to reduce school holidays to compensate loss of working days owing to Covid-19 pandemic. The State government has decided to reopen from November 2 and the education officials are also working to prepare a calendar for the current academic year as the working days are reduced by almost five months. The government is planning to reduce the festive holidays for students and also impose a limit on teachers availing leaves. The state government has drawn up a plan to have six working days a week. The Covid-19 tally jumped up by 4,000-odd cases on Thursday, taking the cumulative number of cases past the 7.71 lakh-mark. But with 5,622 recoveries, the active cases have come down to 40,047.
Telangana: 1554 new cases, 1435 recoveries & 7 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 1554 cases, 249 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 2,19,224; Active cases: 23,315; Deaths:1256; Discharges:1,94,653. Telangana government performed the best among the five southern States as per Covid-19 Performance Index developed by the FICCI, ASCI and FTCCI. The heavy rains and the resultant floods in the State had resulted in the death of 50 persons, including 11 from GHMC area, besides damaging standing crops to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore in the State.