ADVISORY-PTI SPECIALS

PTI is recommending to its subscribers the following exclusive and special stories on April 6, Monday as part of our continuing coverage of the COVID-19 crisis: 1. VIRUS-INDIA -- DEL82 New Delhi: An "exponential" ramping up of coronavirus testing is required to gauge the actual impact of the 21-day nation-wide lockdown, health experts said on Monday as India nears the final week of the unprecedented measure. 2. LOCKDOWN-INTERNET-INDISPENSABLE -- DEL34 New Delhi: Every move you make, every step you take, it's the internet that is possibly enabling it – at least in urban India -- powering the router tucked away in a corner as well as mobile data packages that are the pivots to keep the work and home worlds revolving in lockdown times 3. LOCKDOWN-SEX WORKERS -- DEL73 New Delhi: The streets outside are empty and desolate, the quarters above crowded and claustrophobic as women sex workers wait out the 21-day lockdown with no money, no milk for their children and no medicines for ailing elders. 4. VIRUS-SURVIVOR -- DEL94 New Delhi: Bingeing on action movies, hours-long video calls to his wife and watching "less TV news" helped a coronavirus survivor in successfully getting through the tense isolation period in hospital.

5. GAGANYAAN-VIRUS -- DEL92 New Delhi: The training of Gaganyaan's four prospective astronauts in Russia has been put on hold as the facility where the exercise is being undertaken has been temporarily shut in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, sources said on Monday. 6. VIRUS-SCHOOLS-FEE -- DEL28 New Delhi: For Shubham Bhardwaj, an architect, business is low during the lockdown and school has sent message for fee payment of his two children. Several other parents like him are waiting for the government to provide some respite to them by waiving fees, however, schools argue that they need to pay salaries to teachers.

7. VIRUS-CAPFS-MOVEMENT-SUSPEND -- DEL41 New Delhi: The Central Armed Police Forces have suspended all non-essential movement of its troops and staffers and extended their leaves by another 10 days, till April 15, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials said. 8. SMART-CITY-VIRUS-WAR ROOM -- DEL51 New Delhi: In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency of Varanasi, CCTV cameras and GIS technology accessed through a command and control centre set up under the Smart Cities Mission are being used keeping a tight vigil on people's movement during the lockdown period.

9.HR-VIRUS-JAGLAN -- DEL49 Chandigarh: A former village sarpanch of Jind district, noted for his 'selfie with daughters' initiative and many other pro-women campaigns in Haryana, is busy these days waging a multi-pronged battle against coronavirus, ranging from sanitising villages to using khap's directives to enforce social distancing. 10. BIZ-VIRUS-VENTILATORS-PORT -- DEL47 New Delhi: At a time when the world is struggling to get ventilators to treat COVID-19 patients, 200 such equipment are lying at Chennai port but they are 'second-hand' or 'used' ones and come under the 'hazardous' category.

11. VIRUS-CZA LD ANIMALS -- DEL36 New Delhi: The Central Zoo Authority on Monday asked all zoos across the country to be on high alert and collect samples fortnightly in suspected cases after a tiger at a US zoo tested positive for coronavirus. 12. TL-VIRUS-PHARMA EXPORTS -- MDS10 Hyderabad: Pharma exports from India may witness a dip in growth due to ongoing lockdown and also export restrictions imposed on certain drugs, a top official of Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council told PTI.

13. KA-VIRUS-SCIENTIST -- MDS9 Bengaluru: "The country has learnt to live without politics and religion," says eminent scientist G Madhavan Nair on the lockdown imposed across the nation to curb the spread of COVID-19. 14. WB-LOCKDOWN-COOKS -- CES 22 Kolkata: Rajesh Shah used to cook food at a hotel in Kankurgachi area of the city for years, but with lockdown in force and his employer downing shutter he is preparing meal at a community kitchen for hundreds of essential service workers and street beggars.

15. MH-LOCKDOWN-STUDENTS -- BOM3 Aurangabad :A group of agriculture students hailing from Telangana who are stranded in Maharashtra following the lockdown are learning yoga at an institute in Nanded district 16. GA-VIRUS-FISH -- BES2 Panaji: The Goa Fisheries department has decided to allow sale of fish in the state from Monday, with certain riders, including strict implementation of social distancing guidelines the curb the spread of coronavirus. 17. VIRUS-PAK-LD BAISAKHI -- FGN26 Lahore: Pakistan has cancelled the Baisakhi celebrations at Gurdwara Punja Sahib in Punjab province from April 14, in which around 2,000 Sikhs from India were to participate, due to the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

18. VIRUS-US-2NDLD TIGER -- FGN47 New York: Nadia, a 4-year-old female Malayan tiger at the popular Bronx Zoo here has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, probably infected by an asymptomatic employee, in what is believed to be the first known case of an animal infected with COVID-19 in the US, raising new questions about human-to-animal transmission of the deadly virus. PTI RT RT