Coronavirus updates for May 15

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the third tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package. The central government has appropriated Rs 1 lakh crore to strengthen the agricultural infrastructure including cold storage chains, post harvest management, and warehouses. The Finance Minister also announced a Rs 10,000 crore fund which will focus on micro-sized food enterprises to increase production.

The Indian economy continues to struggle with layoffs. Zomato announced a 13 percent reduction of workforce, along with salary cuts for employees, as the foodtech unicorn's business is impacted by the closure of restaurants. Meanwhile, ride-hailing company Uber has withdrawn job offers to graduates from across India's top B-schools. According to Layoff Survey 2020, 68 percent employers have either started the layoff process or are planning to.

With more than 85,000 coronavirus cases, India now has more confirmed cases than China — the epicentre of the pandemic. According to Worldometer, the total number of deaths have crossed 2,700. After Telangana, now Mizoram has also extended the lockdown till the end of May. Bihar has urged the Centre to extend the nationwide lockdown as well, keeping the rail and air travel suspended.

WHO has warned that Europe could face a second wave of winter infections. This comes as the number of worldwide deaths crossed 300,000. With two consecutive quarters of declining growth, Germany has declared that the country is in recession. The US retail sales plunged by 16.4 percent, falling at the fastest rate on record.

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