The IMA, a national voluntary organisation of doctors of the modern scientific system of medicine, has about 350,000 out of the approximately million doctors in the country as part of the organisation.

We have to emphasise time and again that social distancing, in the present circumstances remain the potent social vaccine for us right now, he said during a global webinar organised by the Bennett University on the theme Covid-19, Health and Economy: Fallout and Future.

Mumbai's famous Breach Candy hospital shut its doors for new admissions after a nurse and a technician tested positive. Bhatia hospital was also asked by the BMC to stop admission of new patients on Wednesday after three patients tested positive for new coronavirus.

In the wake of the ongoing pandemic, medical experts say that India would require several thousand ventilators and its absence may impair the country's healthcare system to respond to rising epidemic cases.

While most brick-and-mortar pharmacies continue to function amid the countrywide lockdown to contain the pandemic, many consumers have switched to buying medicines online for fear of getting infected by the novel coronavirus, industry insiders said.

Two private laboratories in Bengaluru which received approvals from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to test for Covid-19 infections two weeks ago have cumulatively tested only 231 samples so far, possibly due to stringent government guidelines.

The company with over Rs 13,000-crore revenue is helping the government to build a stockpile of 10 crore dosages of the drug, Zydus group chairman Pankaj Patel said. He added that there are enough stocks in the country and, if need be, it can be scaled up to even 50mt (25 crore tablets).

National chemists and druggists association and industry lobby groups have urged the government to put all ancillary goods required for medicine production in the essential services category as they fear major supply disruptions in the days to come.

The coronavirus outbreak has only deepened Indias vulnerability. Trade in goods has slowed the world over. Movement of people has halted. Even the dollar, the lingua franca of global commerce, is finding it hard to go where its needed.

The government has tightened the export ban norms on anti-malarial drug hydroxycloroquine by including special economic zones (SEZs) under its prohibition ambit to ensure there is no shortfall during Covid-19 crisis.

Thirty-year-old Suhani Mohan's phone hasn't stopped ringing since Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, tweeted about Mohan's ambitious project to craft masks by converting her sanitary pad machine.

Though there have been no large-scale clinical trials of the drug's efficacy in treating coronavirus, chemists all over say they are facing a shortage of the medicine, not so long ago known mainly to those who had malaria or were prescribed it for arthritis pain. While the demand for hydrochloroqine has seen a rapid uptick, the safety and effectiveness of the drug in treating COVID-19 still remains a concern.

With nearly 900,000 cases and 45,000 deaths, the world is struggling to control Covid-19.

With the country's entire healthcare set-up working towards fighting Covid-19, patients of diseases like HIV, cancer and renal disease who need to access hospitals regularly to continue their treatment, and are immuno-compromised, are facing quite a bit of hardship with most OPDs and operation theatres closed.

Coal India subsidiary, Mahanadi Coalfields will finance a 500 bedded state-of-the-art COVID hospital in Odisha's Bhubaneshwar that is scheduled to become operational in a fortnight.

RIL said it has deployed the combined strengths of Reliance Foundation, Reliance Retail, Jio, Reliance Life Sciences, Reliance Industries, and all the 6,00,000 people that work for the group on this action plan against COVID-19.

While there has been a mad rush across the country for buying masks, the advisory says that everyone need not wear a mask and one should wear mask only in three conditions.