China to lift lockdown over coronavirus epicentres Hubei province, Wuhan city
Beijing/Wuhan: China on Tuesday announced that it will lift the three-month lockdown on more than 50 million people in the central Hubei province, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, on Wednesday as the COVID-19 began to abate.
The prolonged lockdown of Hubei's capital Wuhan will end on April 8, lifting the mass quarantine over the city with a population of over 11 million.
Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus cases were first detected in December last year on Monday reported one new confirmed case of the COVID-19 after reporting zero cases for five consecutive days.
Hubei province and Wuhan city which together have over 56 million population were kept under strict lockdown since January 23 with a ban on all movement of people and transportation.
Residents currently living in other parts of Hubei province will be able to travel with a green health code starting Wednesday, according to a government notice, state-run People's Daily reported.
China to lift travel curbs of coronavirus-hit Hubei province on March 25 and to end lockdown of Wuhan on April 8, the official media reported.
The Hubei Health Commission announced on Tuesday that residents of Wuhan would be allowed to travel outside the city starting April 8 in a bid to resume the outbound movement of people, state-run CGTN TV reported.
Local officials announced plans to gradually ease the severe measures as the virus cases dropped dramatically in recent days. Hubei, however saw seven new deaths, all of which were in Wuhan, bringing the total number of deaths in the province to 3,160.
The province still has 4,200 patients being treated in hospitals of which 1,203 were still in severe condition and another 336 in critical condition, according to China's National Health Commission (NHC).
Hubei has so far reported a total of 67,801 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 50,006 in Wuhan.
On Tuesday, the NHC reported 78 new confirmed cases, including 74 imported infections, while the death toll from the novel coronavirus increased to 3,277 after seven more fatalities.
The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland have reached 81,171 on Monday. This included 3,277 people who died of the disease, 4,735 patients who were still being treated and 73,159 patients discharged after recovery, the NHC said on Tuesday.
Also on Monday, seven deaths and 35 new suspected cases were reported on the mainland with all the deaths in Hubei Province.
According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the death toll from the virus globally has risen to 16,559 with 381,598 cases reported in 168 countries and territories.
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India needs aviation giants, not 'Fly-by-Night' operators, says ex-minister Praful Patel
Mumbai (PTI): Former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Friday warned against "fly-by-night" operators entering India's aviation sector, arguing that only established, high-capital players can survive the industry's "tough" financial demands.
Speaking to PTI, the 68-year-old Rajya Sabha member emphasised that while India has no restrictions on new airlines, the "tough, capital-intensive" nature of the business requires long-term commitment.
"That is why it is important that big players should come into the aviation business, and not just fly-by-night people. Some new airlines have been given licenses, but I don't think they are long-term players," he noted.
His comments come as the Civil Aviation Ministry recently approved three new carriers -- Shankh Air, Al Hind Air, and FlyExpress -- to start their operations in 2026.
Patel, who served as Civil Aviation Minister from 2004-11 under the Congress-led UPA government,
said many newly licensed airlines may lack the endurance required to survive the sector's high cash-flow drain.
"We need strong players like Tatas, who came with Air India. We need similar big names also to come into the aviation sector,” the NCP leader opined.
Asked about IndiGo’s widespread flight cancellations last month, Patel said, “IndiGo is financially a very strong airline, a very big airline. There was an issue of pilots and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules. I wish they had handled it better.”
“Having said that, on the whole, it is still a very important player in the Indian aviation market and will remain important for many, many years to come,” the former Aviation Minister said.
The key sector needs strong players, the veteran politician emphasised.
"I think it is important that aviation needs strong players. The monopoly or duopoly is not there because somebody made it like that. In the past, you saw Jet Airways, Kingfisher and GoAir collapse financially and a series of other airlines also had these kinds of problems,” Patel said.
“That’s why, if there are strong players in aviation, it will be good for the country,” he added.
