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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Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
