The updating of the National Population Register (NPR) and the first phase of the Census 2021 have been postponed due to the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials said on Wednesday.

Iran on Wednesday announced 143 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the official death toll to 2,077 in one of the world's worst-hit countries.

 With the COVID-19 spread looming large and the government ordering a lockdown to combat the threat, it was a low-key Ugadi celebrations in Karnataka with people mostly staying indoors.

In what is reported to be the first instance in Udupi District a 34-year old man on Wednesday tested positive for COVID-19 here in the District.

In the wake of spread of Coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday evening announced a 21-day country-wide lockdown. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel on Wednesday afternoon added that the District will go under complete lockdown from Thursday and that no shops or market will be open.

At least 25 worshippers were killed and eight others injured when heavily armed suicide bombers blasted their way into a prominent gurdwara on Wednesday in the heart of Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, in one of the deadliest attacks on the minority Sikh community in the strife-torn country.

The large oval table was gone and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministerial colleagues sat in chairs kept at a distance from each other as they practised "social distancing" to combat coronavirus during a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday.

Pegging the cost of the COVID-19 lockdown at USD 120 billion (approximately Rs 9 lakh crore) or 4 per cent of the GDP, analysts on Wednesday sharply cut their growth estimates and stressed on the need to announce an economic package.