Despite a significant drop for the second time in the number of registered coronavirus cases in the country, Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte prepared countrymen for a longer lockdown on Tuesday.

Italy is approaching a fateful decision on whether to lift stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses for the first time in nearly two months on May 4.

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday withdrew its lockdown relaxation norms for Mumbai and Pune regions, both coronavirus hotspots, and revised its last week’s guidelines prohibiting door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines in the state.

The curb on doorstep delivery of newspapers and magazines will be in force only in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune city in view of the spread of coronavirus in these regions, the government said. Lockdown relaxation norms for the regions were withdrawn in view of a large number of people found commuting on April 20, it said.

Netflix Inc on Tuesday reported a surge in new sign-ups as audiences stayed in their homes to help fight the novel coronavirus and binged on series such as Tiger King, but the company predicted a weaker second half of the year if quarantine orders are lifted.

The world's largest streaming service gained 15.8 million paying customers in the first three months of the year, bringing its global total to 182.9 million at the end of March.

US tech giant Facebook announced that it would invest Rs 43,547 crore ($5.7 billion) in RIL's wholly-owned subsidiary Jio Platforms to expand its presence in India. Facebook's investment translates into 9.9 per cent stake in Jio. This would be Facebook's biggest minority shareholding ever. This is also the largest foreign direct investment for minority investment in India.

The global coronavirus cases on Monday crossed the 25 lakh mark with the death toll nearing 1.75 lakh. The United States has registered the highest number of cases as well as the death toll.

At around 11:45 pm (IST) April 21, 2020, there are 2,531,804 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections, out of which 804,194 have been recorded in the US alone, according to the John Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday asked Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to contact recovered COVID-19 patients to come forward for blood donation, from which convalescent plasma could be used for transfusion to the corona-affected persons for their early recovery.

Speaking to representatives of Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) via video conference, Dr Harsh Vardhan asked them to keep sufficient blood stock for transfusion by promoting voluntary blood donation and providing facilities of pick up and drop to donors.

Uddhav Thackeray, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, on Tuesday appealed to the Centre to arrange for special trains to send the migrant labourers back home to their native states as staying away from their families amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated lockdown is taking a toll on them.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister presented his demands while speaking over video conference to the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) dispatched to Mumbai on Tuesday for an assessment of the state government's efforts in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which is spreading like wildfire across India.

Delhi Police has booked two Jamia Millia Islamia students and former Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

Two Jamia students - Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar - were arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to incite the communal riots in February and are in judicial custody.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday advised states not to use rapid COVID-19 test kits for the next two days, after it received complaints about faulty kits.

Rajasthan government on Tuesday said it has stopped using the China-made rapid testing kits after they delivered inaccurate results. The state's health minister Raghu Sharma said the kits were of no benefit as they gave only 5.4% accurate results against the expectation of 90% accuracy.

After partial relief in lockdown at select places, the government is now looking at promoting blood donation, especially for Thalassemic and Hemophilic patients.

In a letter to state blood transfusion councils (SBTC), the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) promoted voluntary blood donation programmes across the country. In the letter, it noted that due to the national lockdown from March 25, there was limited movement of Blood Mobile and Transportation vans, and blood donations.

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