Govt promotes blood donation amid Covid-19 lockdown, issues guidelines

All the blood donors will be given passes for smooth movement during the lockdown.

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.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a communication to the chief secretaries, administrators, Cmmissioner of Police of all the states to facilitate the movement of blood mobile/ transportation vans and blood donors.

In a letter to all the state health ministers, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan termed that availability of blood in blood banks as 'essential'.

"We are cognizant of the situation that due to restrictions, it may not be possible to organize blood donation camps. However, at the same time, it is necessary to ensure sufficient availability of blood, especially for people needing regular blood transfusion on account of blood disorders such as Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anemia and Hemophilia etc," he wrote.

To facilitate the donation process, he asked the Chief Ministers to appeal for blood donation through media and adviced to maintain records of donors and information on the status of current stocks of each blood group.

Investors brace for more pain as India goes under lockdown to curb Covid-19

Analysts say the market bloodbath is worse than in 2008. Last week, investor sentiment was crushed with the Sensex dropping as much as 17%.

Investors may have to brace for more pain as selling pressure could extend with India entering a virtual shutdown phase to contain the spread of COVID-19. 

Already, foreign portfolio investors’ selloff in March hit a record of $6.24 billion (Rs 46,200 crore).

This is far in excess of $4.4 billion outflows seen in January 2008 due to the global financial crisis.

Analysts say the market bloodbath is worse than in 2008.

Last week, investor sentiment was crushed with the Sensex dropping as much as 17% before recovering sharply on Friday to end the week with a 12% deficit.

On a month-to-date basis, the markets are down 22%, while the India VIX has more than doubled, signalling extreme anxiety.

“Many nations may have to eventually adopt harsh steps to contain the pandemic.

 However, such extreme measures, though desired, will result in extreme short-term pain for several parts of the economy,” Sanjeev Prasad, co-head, Kotak Institutional Equities, said.