Pakistan to begin lifting nationwide lockdown
Pakistan is to begin lifting its nationwide lockdown imposed to curb cases of coronavirus in phases from Saturday. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced all construction-related industries and shopping centres would be allowed to open from early morning to 5pm for five days a week, while outpatient departments in hospitals would also be allowed to function.
The move by Imran Khan to go in for lifting of the lockdown comes even as Pakistan recorded its highest daily increase in number of COVID-19 cases on Friday. As many as 1,807 cases of COVID-19 were reported from just three provinces—Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—on Friday as the nationwide tally approached 27,000 cases.
Delhi High Court to consider extension of interim bail for undertrials
The Delhi High Court is expected to consider on Saturday recommendations of a committee to extend interim bail granted to 2,177 undertrial prisoners on account of the COVID-19 situation.
The recommendation of the high-power committee will be placed before the bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh. ANI reported, "The high power committee, constituted to consider granting interim bail, parole and furloughs to inmates in order to decongest the jails during the COVID-19 crisis, had recently recommended extending the interim bails."
Experts to visit Gujarat hospitals
With Gujarat reporting a large number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities, medical experts from AIIMS, including its director Dr Randeep Guleria, have rushed to Ahmedabad to provide expert guidance to doctors there on COVID-19 management.
Dr Guleria, who is a pulmonologist, and Dr Manish Soneja from the AIIMS department of medicine left for Ahmedabad on a special Indian Air Force flight on Friday evening. "They will visit the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and SVP Hospital on Saturday to provide expert guidance and advice to the doctors on treatment for coronavirus-infected patients there," a source said.
Zoom security update
Teleconferencing platform Zoom will receive an update on Saturday to enhance its security features.
Livemint reported, "Under this new update, passwords will be required for all meetings, including new meetings, previously scheduled meetings and those using personal meeting IDs (PMI). Waiting rooms for PMIs will also be turned on by default. Also, the screen-sharing privileges will lie with the host by default."
Zoom had seen a surge in popularity owing to coronavirus lockdowns across the world and has been used for both work and personal purposes. However, the app has been criticised for inadequate security measures.
ICICI Bank to post 4Q results
ICICI Bank is expected to release its fourth quarter results on Saturday. According to reports, experts have warned of grim results, given the COVID-19-related disruption. The share price of ICICI Bank had fallen around 37 per cent since the start of this year.