Railways paying 85 per cent of migrants' train fare, passengers not being charged: Govt

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New Delhi: The central government on Monday (May 4) said the Indian Railways is bearing the 85 per cent of the cost of the train fares of migrants whereas the remaining state governments are borne by the state governments.

"Permission has been given to run special trains for the movement of stranded people, based on the request of states. The government never talked about charging train fare from workers. At least 85 per cent of the fare will be borne by Indian Railways and remaining 15 per cent by the state governments,"," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, during a press conference today.

The government stated that the process of transporting the stranded migrant labourers was being coordinated by states.

India records highest recovery in a day:

Agarwal added that in the last 24 hours, 1,074 COVID-19 patients have recovered, the highest number of recoveries in one day. "The recovery rate stands at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now," he said. He said in the last 24 hours, 2,553 novel coronavirus cases were reported, taking the number of overall cases to 42,533. The total number of active cases stands at 29,453.

The joint secretary also said that the COVID-19 curve is relatively flat as of now and it was not right to talk in terms of when the peak would come. "If we collectively work then the peak might not ever come, while if we fail in any way we might experience a spike in case," he stated. 

India's current recovery rate is 27.52:

The Health Ministry said that the recovery rate in the country is at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now.

The country today has a total of 426 testing laboratories for coronavirus, including 315 government-run and 111 private, the ministry, adding the doubling rate of the virus in the country before lockdown was 3.4 which has now improved to 12. 

It added that the doubling rate of COVID-19 has to be increased further.