Praying in a desolately empty St Peter's Square, Pope Francis on Friday likened the coronavirus pandemic to a storm laying bare illusions that people can be self-sufficient. According to him, the pandemic has&nbsp;instead&nbsp;left "all of us fragile and disoriented". Francis led a special prayer service on the steps of St Peter's Basilica, usually reserved for two times of the year &mdash; on Christmas and at Easter.&nbsp;Francis also kissed a wooden crucifix that was carried in religious processions in Rome during an early 16th-century plague. The Vatican has confirmed four cases of Covid-19 so far.

Praying in a desolately empty St Peter's Square, Pope Francis on Friday likened the coronavirus pandemic to a storm laying bare illusions that people can be self-sufficient. According to him, the pandemic has instead left "all of us fragile and disoriented". Francis led a special prayer service on the steps of St Peter's Basilica, usually reserved for two times of the year — on Christmas and at Easter. Francis also kissed a wooden crucifix that was carried in religious processions in Rome during an early 16th-century plague. The Vatican has confirmed four cases of Covid-19 so far.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to all chief ministers on Thursday, and sought their views on extension of the ongoing nationwide lockdown beyond May 31.&nbsp;The telephonic conversations of the home minister came just three days before the end of the fourth phase of the lockdown. The nationwide curbs, which were first imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, and has been extended thrice.

The annual Amarnath Yatra, earlier curtailed on account of the coronavirus pandemic, will this year be held only for 15 days, say reports.&nbsp;Pilgrims will be allowed to travel to the holy shrine only from the Baltal route.&nbsp;The Amarnath Shrine Board has however said, a decision on the pilgrimage would be taken after a fresh review of the coronavirus situation in the near future.&nbsp;The 42-day-long yatra to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas was scheduled to start from Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district on June 23.

Delhi saw its highest single-day rise of 1024 fresh cases with its tally of confirmed cases rising to 16,281 and death toll to 316. This was the first time when Delhi reported over 1000&nbsp;Covid-19 cases in a single day. India's tally increased to 158,333 and the death toll to 4,531, registering a growth of 6,566 cases and 194 deaths in 24 hours. Over 6,000 fresh cases have been registered in India for the seventh straight day, while the recovery rate improved further to over 42 percent.

The International Cricket Council on Thursday decided to defer the decision of hosting the World T20 till 10th June. The council lead by Chairman Shashank&nbsp;Manohar&nbsp;had a teleconference chat and decided to defer some important decisions including the World T20. The ICC also started an investigation lead by the Ethics Committee over information leaking from the meetings and the CEO of the board will present a report on 10th June. In addition to that, the ICC&nbsp;will continue to speak to the local boards along with medical authorities about the restart of cricket in the times of Covid-19. It was widely reported earlier that the World T20 scheduled in&nbsp;October in Australia&nbsp;will be cancelled and the BCCI will host the Indian Premier League in that window.&nbsp;

Continuing his Twitter rant against China, US President on Thursday said, all over the world the coronavirus, a very bad 'gift' from China. His tweet came minutes after issuing a statement on the US crossed 1 lakh coronavirus deaths. Trump said the US has reached a very sad milestone and extended his sympathy and love to the families of victims, for everything that they stood for.

Almost 122 million Indians were forced out of jobs last month alone, according to estimates from the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private-sector think tank. Daily wage workers and those employed by small businesses have taken the worst hit. At least 49 million people across the world are expected to plunge into extreme poverty -- living on less than $1.90 per day -- as a direct result of the pandemic's economic destruction. India leads this projection as the World Bank estimated some 12 million of its citizens will be pushed to the very margins this year.

Taking cognisance of the plight of migrant workers, the Supreme Court issued interim directions to centre, states, and UTs that need to be implemented immediately. The Court said:&nbsp; 1. No fare either by train or bus will be charged from migrant workers. Railways to share fare but no fare from migrants 2. All migrants who are stranded shall be provided food by the concerned state at places publicized and notified to them so that they can meet both ends.&nbsp; 3. The originating state should provide food and water and thereafter food should be given by railways. Post reaching, the state shall give transport, food and meals from stations to their villages. This is applicable to both camps on the way or buses. 4. States shall speed up registration of migrant workers and build help desks near places where they are stranded, where they would be asked to board buses or trains at an early date. Complete information needs to be publicized so that migrants are aware of the arrangements made for them. 5. The Court added, that whenever a migrant is found walking on the road they will be taken to the camps at the earliest and help them with facilities. The Apex Court will take up this matter next on June 5.

The Karnataka&nbsp;govt has again suspended incoming transport from 5 neighbouring states to contain the&nbsp;coronavirus infection in the state. No flights, trains, or other vehicles will be allowed to come to the state from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The ban will be observed for 8-10 days before a review will be conducted. The state government took the decision after it turned out that most of the fresh coronavirus cases have been of people travelling in from other states or countries.

Biotechnology major Biocon on Wednesday said it has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for a medical device to treat critical Covid-19 patients. The go-ahead is for an extracorporeal blood purification device called 'CytoSorb' to reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines levels in confirmed Covid-19 patients admitted to the ICU with confirmed or imminent respiratory failure. Studies have shown that Covid-19 patients who develop serious complications experience a 'cytokine storm', also known as Cytokine Release Syndrome, which leads to excessive inflammation, organ failure, and death. The licence granted to Biocon will be effective until control of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. The device was introduced by Biocon in India in 2013 and since then, many patients undergoing organ transplant and sepsis treatment have benefited from it.

The world's most watch football league, the Premier League will return from the Covid-19 induced break on 17th June. The English league competition will see defending champions&nbsp;Manchester City taking on Arsenal in what promises to be a blockbuster return. The other fixture of the evening will be Aston Villa vs Sheffield United. The other set of fixtures will be released soon as a total of 92 matches are still pending from the current season which was suspended in March due to the pandemic. The matches will be played in empty stadiums and the staff along with players will be tested frequently.&nbsp;

The US Labour Department has announced that 2.1 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last week. Since mid-March, more than 40 million Americans have lost their jobs - that's about a quarter of the US workforce. Last month, the unemployment rate hit nearly 15%, which is the highest since the Great Depression. These latest numbers come as all 50 states begin to ease Covid-19 restrictions in some form and businesses nationwide slowly start to reopen. The United States' Covid-19 death toll has passed 100,000, the highest in the world.

Briefing the media, Principal Scientific Advisor to the govt, Prof K. Vijay Raghavan said, 30 groups in the Indian industry and academia are working on developing the Covid-19 vaccine. He said, vaccines take 10-15 years to develop but India is trying to develop it in a year but for that, we need a parallel process. He added that when the vaccine is made it will not be a switch, everybody, from the youngest to oldest will need a vaccine. In a unique initiative, he said the AICTE and CSIR have embarked on a drug discovery hackathon, this is a high-end hackathon where students are trained with information on how to do computational drug discovery and those promising will be selected.

In what could blow up in the govt's face, the Centre seems to be admitting that it is not paying the 85% rail travel fare of migrant workers, something that union ministers have repeatedly told the public. After Supreme Court pulled up the Centre, asking who is paying for the transportation of migrant workers, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court on Thursday, that, either originating state pays their fare, or the receiving state. Mehta said originating state picks up migrant workers and gets them to railway stations, where they are screened, meals during their travel are provided by the railways free of cost. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press conference had said the union govt is bearing 85% of the train fare for migrant workers, while states were bearing the remaining 15%.

The Dutch Formula One Grand Prix&nbsp;has been now postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 scare. The event was scheduled for&nbsp;May 3rd. Dutch GP sports director Jan Lammers&nbsp;said that the authorities had investigated the potential to hold a reschedule race this year&nbsp;without spectators but he further said that the option was dismissed. He said that it was a special event for Zandvoort&nbsp;and he would like to celebrate the moment. It was a special race for the country as it would have been the first time F1 would have raced in the Netherlands&nbsp;in 35 years.&nbsp;The organisers have also&nbsp;affirmed that all the tickets will remain valid for next year.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Supreme Court has sought clarity from Centre on the policy that a state can not reject migrants from entering, who pays the fare and knowledge to a migrant that he or she does not have to, the mechanism to let a migrant know when he or she will get transport instead of waiting indefinitely without any information, and arrangement of food and shelter till they go back to their home states. The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it has moved 97 lakh migrant workers to date, further underlining that it has taken &ldquo;unprecedented steps&rdquo; to send then home.

With the football leagues around the world having resumed behind closed doors or with limited fans as part of strict social distancing measures, 2 teams of Czech top-flight football found a unique way for their fans to watch their match on Wednesday.&nbsp;Sparta Prague and Viktoria Plzen played before a limited crowd of 300 in Prague but the die-hard fans who could not make it inside were invited to watch the game on big screens from inside their cars at drive-in movie theaters in Plzen and Prague.&nbsp;Despite social distancing, fans went wild with cheers and celebrated every goal.&nbsp;

Boeing is going to cut more than 12,000 jobs through layoffs and buyouts as the coronavirus pandemic seizes the travel industry. One of the United States' biggest manufacturers will lay off 6,770 employees this week, and another 5,520 workers are taking buyout offers to leave voluntarily in the coming week. Air travel within the US tumbled 96% by mid-April.

On a day where English Premier League clubs unanimously voted to resume&nbsp;contact training,&nbsp;Manchester City players continued with isolated practice&nbsp;sessions on Wednesday.&nbsp;The likes of Raheem Sterling,&nbsp;Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho,&nbsp;Nicolas Otamendi&nbsp;and others&nbsp;took part in fitness exercises and individual work, while manager Pep Guardiola watched on wearing a face mask. Training session went on even after 4 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the EPL. The league&nbsp;has been suspended since March 13 due to the pandemic and is targeting a mid-June restart.

A Delhi based mushroom farmer turned messiah for 10 migrant labourers as he gave wings to their dream of going back home amid the Covid lockdown. The desperate group of migrant labourers tried to get a seat on a special train to home in Samastipur in Bihar, but to no avail. Their employer, Papan Singh Gehlot, a mushroom farmer in Capital's Narela, then stepped in and bought flight&nbsp;tickets for the group of 10 to fly back home.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, there are over 57&nbsp;lakh confirmed Covid-19 infections globally, and at least 3,57,509 people have lost their lives in the pandemic so far. The United States, Brazil, and Russia&nbsp;are the worst-affected countries.&nbsp;&nbsp;The US tops the list with over 16.9 lakh cases and nearly 100,442 deaths.&nbsp;&nbsp;
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Pope's solitary prayer service at empty St Peter's Square

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Pope's solitary prayer service at empty St Peter's Square

Mar 28, 2020 14:23 IST

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