Highlights- Donate blood plasma for treatment: Tablighi Jamaat chief's appeal

Tablighi Jamaat Chief Mohammad Saad appeals to Jamaat's workers and all Muslims who have been cured of Covid-19 to donate blood plasma for those still infected and under treatment, according to news agency ANI.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would press President Donald Trump on testing capacity for COVID-19 when the pair meet at the White House later Tuesday.

Widespread testing is viewed as key to states being able to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen their shuttered economies.

"Testing," Cuomo replied when asked by a journalist what the focus would be of his first face-to-face meeting with Trump since the crisis began.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has tested negative for the coronavirus, an official said Tuesday, days after news leaked out of an outbreak among his staff.

"The President is healthy and is leading government efforts on all fronts. All precautions are in place to make sure his work environment is safe and healthy," Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter.

Ghani and his wife were both tested and "both results are negative," he added.

Iran on Tuesday announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak.

According to health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, the latest fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the total to 5,297, in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks.

The Indian Army is readying separate teams to be deployed in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan to help those countries boost capabilities to deal with rising cases of coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday.

A 14-member Indian Army team was sent to Maldives last month to help the island nation set up coronavirus testing laboratories and train local medical professionals to fight the pandemic.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Tuesday handed over one lakh surgical masks to AIIMS for the use of its staffers, officials said.

The three-layered masks have been prepared at a CRPF facility in the national capital by the family welfare association of the paramilitary.

Over 140 cases were registered and 3,375 people detained in Delhi on Tuesday for violating lockdown orders, police said.

According to the data shared by the police, 145 cases were registered under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code till 5 pm.

The sacred portals of Kedarnath will be reopened for devotees as per the original schedule on April 29, a temple committee official said on Tuesday.

After the date for opening of Badrinath was deferred to May 15 on Monday because of the novel coronavirus pandemic it was being speculated that the opening of Kedarnath may also be rescheduled.

One of the central teams that have been sent to West Bengal to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state visited certain areas of the city on Tuesday, hours after it complained of non-cooperation from the TMC government.

It was escorted by Border Security Force (BSF) and state police personnel.

The arrival of the two teams from Delhi without prior information on Monday had triggered a tussle between the Centre and the state government.

Delhi govt to give 2,000 food coupons each to every MLA, MP for distribution among the needy, said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal

An NGO has approached police demanding that vendors from Dharavi, a coronavirus hotspot in Mumbai, not be allowed to enter Mahim limits in order to stop the spread of infection.

Dharavi is among the densest urban clusters in the world and has 168 COVID-19 cases as on Monday and 11 people have died of the infection. Mahim is just a couple of kilometres away.

4,49,810 samples have been tested so far. 35,852 samples were tested yesterday, of which 29,776 samples were tested in 201 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) network labs and remaining 6,076 samples were tested in 86 private labs: R Gangakhedkar, ICMR

With 18 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours ending on Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district has gone up to 915, while the death toll stood at 52 so far, officials said.

As per a government analysis, the death rate of COVID-19 patients in Indore district, as on Tuesday morning, was 5.68 per cent.

With Kannur district emerging as the latest hotspot for coronavirus in Kerala, the state government has turned its attention on enforcing the lockdown norms strictly and warned of stern action, including arrest, against those stepping out of their homes unnecessarily.

The northern district with 52 COVID-19 cases had been classified as red zone and is under complete lockdown with three Superintendents of Police have been vested with the responsibility of implementing the restrictions, officials said.