New Delhi, April 10: Due to the coronavirus outbreak, blood donations are not taking place and this may soon lead to a shortage at blood banks. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that looking at the current scenario it has been, therefore, decided that in order to increase blood donations, blood will be collected from the homes of the donors.

India is currently in the middle of a 21-days nationwide lockdown, which is expected to be lifted on April 14. However, speculations are there that the lockdown will be further extended to curb the spread of the deadly disease. However, there has been no official confirmation from the government on this. So far, only Odisha has extended the lockdown to April 30.

Harsh Vardhan held a video conference meeting with State Health Ministers to review the actions and preparedness of states to manage COVID-19. Some of the other people present in the meeting were Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey and senior officials of the Ministry. Coronavirus Cases in India Rise to 6412 After a Spike of 547 Cases in Past 12 Hours, Death Toll Jumps to 199.

Here what Dr Harsh Vardhan said:

At an International Conference on COVID-19: Fallout and Future, Harsh Vardhan stressed on the importance of social distancing and lockdown and said that they are the strongest vaccines against COVID-19 at the moment. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to 6,412 as on Friday morning. Of these, 5709 are active COVID-19 cases while 504 individuals have been cured and discharged from the hospitals. The death toll in India due to the deadly disease has mounted to 199.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 10, 2020 03:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).