PTI is recommending to its subscribers the following exclusive and special stories on April 9, Thursday as part of our continuing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis:

PTI is recommending to its subscribers the following exclusive and special stories on April 9, Thursday as part of our continuing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis: 1. VIRUS-RAILWAYS-PROTOCOL -- DEL63 New Delhi: Mapping all its 13 lakh employees and identifying potential quarantine facilities for each of them is part of the protocol drafted by Central Railway to insulate its staffers from COVID-19. . 2. VIRUS-HOARDING-EXPERTS -- DEL44 New Delhi: Mass emergencies resulting in situations like ongoing 21-day lockdown tend to create unusually high demands for essential commodities leading to hoarding and black marketing, experts said on Thursday. .

3. ENV-VIRUS CARBON EMISSION -- DEL17 New Delhi: Weeks of lockdown in the country to fight coronavirus may have reduced greenhouse gas emissions enabling people to breathe cleaner air and feast on blue skies, but it is only a temporary phase and will not benefit the environment in the long run, experts have said. . 4. SOREN-INTERVIEW -- DEL42 New Delhi: The strength of federalism has come to the fore in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic with many chief ministers coordinating with each other to help out people stranded outside their home states, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren told PTI. .

5. VIRUS-STARS-MISINFORMATION -- DES9 New Delhi: When showbiz celebrities talk, people listen, lending a special ear to the men and women they have elevated to demi-god status, every comment from them in these pandemic days standing out in the deluge of COVID-19 information. . 6. MP-VIRUS-HOTSPOT -- BOM10 Indore: A city always bustling with commercial and socio-cultural activities, Indore has turned into the coronavirus infection hotspot in Madhya Pradesh, and is under curfew for almost a fortnight now. .

7. MH-VIRUS-MENTAL HEALTH -- BES2 Mumbai: While living in unprecedented times, people are not only battling the fear of coronavirus, but are also gripped with anxiety and worry of losing their source of income amid the economic crisis due to the lockdown. . 8. WB-VIRUS-HC-TECH -- CAL10 Kolkata: The suspension of normal work at the Calcutta High Court and its subordinate courts in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak has put many litigants and lawyers in a quandary as not all are tech-savvy to go for e-filing of cases and hearing through video-conferencing. .

9. MZ-VIRUS-GRANDMA -- CES5 Aizawl: She is 95, but has donated one month's pension to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for the fight against COVID-19 and is sewing face masks for the front- line workers. . 10. TN-LOCKDOWN-TIPPLERS -- MDS12 Chennai: The death of tipplers in Tamil Nadu in separate instances following the lockdown-triggered dry regime has turned the spotlight on withdrawal symptoms, with experts warning that some could even go into delirium and suggesting medical attention including counselling. .

11. VIRUS-CHINA-WUHAN-INDIANS -- FGN45 Beijing/Wuhan: A few daring Indians, who remained in Wuhan where the novel coronavirus first emerged and then became a global pandemic, have a word of advice for their compatriots back home: follow the strict lockdown and self-isolation measures to arrest the spread of the deadly disease. . 12. VIRUS-UK-INDIAN -- FGN43 London: An Indian-born beauty queen, who has put her pageant life on hold to return to the National Health Service frontlines as a doctor at a hospital in eastern England, is petitioning the UK government to address the housing concerns of medics fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. .

13. VIRUS-IMF-ECONOMY -- FGN66 Washington: The year 2020 could see the worst global economic fallout since the Great Depression in the 1930s with over 170 countries likely to experience negative per capita income growth due to the raging coronavirus pandemic, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday. . 14. VIRUS-INDIA-GROWTH -- FGN32 United Nations: India's GDP growth for the current fiscal is expected to slow down to 4.8 per cent, a UN report has said, warning that the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to result in significant adverse economic impacts globally. .

15. VIRUS-UK-DOCTORS-STUDY -- FES43 London: Indian-origin doctors in the UK have begun putting in place processes to conduct in-depth research into the role of ethnicity in greater susceptibility of some patients of South Asian origin to develop more severe symptoms of the novel coronavirus and die of the disease. . 16. VIRUS-DUSTBIN-WASTE -- LST2 New Delhi: Researchers have developed an interactive dustbin that can be installed in hospitals and medical centres dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic for contactless waste collection and disposal, leading to a safer environment for front-line workers. PTI RT RT.