Three weeks into quarantine and we all feel like we’re going to lose our minds. But then again, that is not exactly unexpected given our highly charged lifestyles.
Sheheryar Munawar recently in an Instagram post wrote, “You Corona! Take the hint, you’re not wanted. Go away already…I want my life back.”
We feel you Sheheryar.
But at the same time, Sheheryar wrote, “You’re not alone. There are a lot of us feeling the same way. What helps me is repeating a positive affirmation to myself when I feel stressed. Something like Amir Khan’s ‘All is Well’ from 3 Idiots.”
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Earlier, Sheheryar had encouraged his fans to make the best of their time in quarantine.
Ellen DeGeneres, one of America’s most popular TV personalities, sparked a furore on Wednesday after comparing her self-isolation in a multimillion-dollar mansion to being in prison.
DeGeneres, whose daily television talk show had been off the air for three weeks because of a stay-at-home order, returned on Wednesday with a show filmed by her wife, actress Portia De Rossi, from one of their California homes.
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“One thing that I’ve learned from being in quarantine is that people – this is like being in jail, is what it is,” quipped DeGeneres, who was filmed in an armchair looking out on vast, grassy lawns and mountains.
“It’s mostly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone in here is gay,” she said, laughing at her own joke.
The video was removed after the backlash.
While DeGeneres also praised health workers and other on the frontlines battling the coronavirus epidemic, the prison joke did not go down well.
“I have actual friends and loved ones who are currently incarcerated. They are locked down in horrific conditions and terrified what is going to happen to them. Your ‘joke’ about being quarantined at home being like that is unfunny and disrespectful,” tweeted social justice activist Diana #FreeThemAll4PublicHealth.
More than 280 inmates and 400 staff in New York prisons have been infected with the coronavirus and at least seven people have died, according to the New York Department of Corrections.
In Chicago, some 230 detainees in Cook County jails have tested positive for the virus, along with 92 staff members. Louisiana has also reported coronavirus-related deaths among prison inmates. Meanwhile even in Pakistan it is being reported that inmates in several jails across the country have been tested positive for coronavirus.
“Hey @TheEllenShow, prisoners across this country are trapped in 24-hour quarantine in cells that are probably about the size of one of your showers & others are sleeping 3 feet away from sick inmates. And they’re dying. You aren’t experiencing anything close to prison,” wrote another Twitter user.
The backlash was the latest example of celebrities being called out for what appeared to be tone-deaf comments and social media postings as the pandemic has put millions of Americans out of work and killed more than 14,000 in the United States.
Last month, DeGeneres was slammed for complaining of being bored in videos that she posted of herself lying on a couch at her home.
The coronavirus lockdown is affecting us all in different ways. While some of us are increasing our social media activity in a bid to remain connected, others are using this time to disconnect from the world and isolate themselves in the truest sense.
Maya Ali, who has always maintained an active social media profile, has shared with her fans that she is taking a break from social media “to detox, to find inner peace and reset my whole system.”
“Sometimes we need time to think and count our blessings,” she wrote.
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Maya added that her team will keep her fans updated about the ration bags that she and her friend Faiza Saqlain are distributing among the needy people in the society. In an interview, Maya had revealed that she had raised almost four million rupees in donations for these ration bags.
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Maya’s last appearance was in the film Parey Hut Love alongside Sheheryar Munawar. The actor has hinted that she will be seen in another film very soon.
We’ve all seen enough Bollywood and Hollywood movies where men lie to their girlfriends or wives about going on a business trip when in fact they are cheating on them with someone else. Well, something similar happened in India recently.
According to a Twitter user, Abhijit Basak, whose Twitter bio identifies him as the State IT Cell Convenor of BJYM, West Bengal (India), two men got in for trouble when police paid them a visit.
This is what the tweet read, ‘They told their wives that they were visiting Bangaluru for business and actually visited Bangkok. However, after returning home, Police visited their homes with their travel records and pasted on the gate & explaining to their wives why their husbands need to be quarantined’.
They told their wives that they were visiting Bangaluru for business and actually visited Bangkok . However, after returning home, Police visited their homes with their travel records and pasted on the gate & explaining to their wives why their husbands need to be quarantined. pic.twitter.com/NVKqishWte
— Abhijit Basak (আনভির বাবা) (Modi ka Parivar) (@Abhijit_Basak83) March 29, 2020
Things came crumbling down for two men in India when the truth about their vacation was revealed to their wives by the police.
According to a report in the Indian media, the incident allegedly took place in Ambala. After tracking down their travel history, the police pasted posters that advised everyone to stay away from the member: as they are under quarantine for 14 days. However, twice the posters were torn by the involved party. When the police pasted them for the third time, they were misbehaved with.
“Posters were placed two or three times outside the house. But they tore. When the team reached for the third time, then misbehaved. Police was given a written complaint, now the police will take action,” the report quoted Dr. Kuldeep Kumar, CMO, Ambala as saying.
Well, we can certainly say that these men didn’t think they would get busted and how!
On Twitter, however, people are concerned about the well being of the two and not because of coronavirus.
The Karnataka health department in India is using a mobile app to curb violations by people in home quarantine through a system that requires them to upload hourly selfies, which is then corroborated with the global positioning system (GPS) location of their homes.
The technological intervention was necessitated because of a large number of violations by those placed under a mandatory 14-day home quarantine.
“All persons under order of home quarantine shall send their selfie to (the) government every one hour from home,” the state government said in a circular on Monday. The selfie will be cross-checked with the GPS data to see if the person is at the address of home quarantine.
Thousands of people are currently in home quarantine in India due to the coronavirus outbreak.
People who have come from an international destination have to quarantine themselves for two weeks even if they are asymptomatic. Others who have come in touch with anyone in the former category will also have to quarantine themselves in a similar fashion.
The state government has warned that those who fail to send selfies every one hour (except sleeping time from 10pm to 7am) will be sent to mass quarantine centres.
A selfie an hour, will keep the police away! As many #HomeQuarantined are stepping out, the Quarantine Watch Mobile App requires these citizens to send a selfie every waking hour. If the GPS coordinates change, they will be sent to a Govt-run mass quarantine centre.#StayHomepic.twitter.com/Ofo9t80P9G
“Nobody can dodge the long arm of the law. Ten persons who were under home quarantine in #Bengaluru and escaped to their native place, were arrested and a case has been registered against them at Gurmitkal police station,” said B.H. Anil Kumar, commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, the city civic body) posted on Twitter.
The coronavirus outbreak has confined us to the four walls of our house, something that our fast-paced, jet setting lifestyles are not used to. We all now have all this free time on our hands and no idea what to do with it.
Our favourite celebrities are also in the same situation and they decided to help their fans and followers by sharing some positive advice about what they can do. Here’s what Maya Ali and Saba Qamar suggest:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-W3Eu4n31S/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B99J_tCB_s1/
Earlier, Maya also encouraged those in a position of privilege to do charity and help those in need.
Seven migrant workers, who came back home to West Bengal’s Purulia district from Chennai amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, perched on a banyan tree to remain in quarantine in the absence of separate room for self-isolation in their small huts, Gulf News reported.
After several days in their ‘temporary home’, the workers were on Saturday ordered to come down by the local administration.
The workers, all residents of Bangidiha village of Purulia district, said as they live in one-room mud huts with their families, there is no way they can keep themselves in isolation.
However, none of them have displayed symptoms linked to COVID-19, nor have they undergone any test for the disease.
“At present we don’t have any health issues. But in case we are detected positive for the disease at a later date, then at least none of the villagers will be infected because of us,” said one of the workers Bijay Singh Laya.
The workers reached Kharagpur junction station on Sunday last from Chennai where they underwent thermal screening and tests but the doctors did not find any symptom of the disease. “However, they asked us to stay in quarantine for 14 days as a safety measure”.
“But we don’t have any separate personal room in our home. So, we decided to live on the branches of the banyan tree just outside our village,” he said.
The seven labourers tied their beds to the branches of the tree, and used a mosquito net to prevent themselves from getting bitten.
Their family members brought them a daily ration of rice, pulses, and vegetables, along with other cooking implements and left after keeping those under the tree, while strictly maintaining the norms of social distancing.
“We get down from the tree, cook, and then go up again,” said one of the workers.
Villagers on their part kept night vigil by turn to ensure the tree-dwellers are not devoured by wild animals from the nearby forest or bitten by venomous snakes.
However, when the matter came to the attention of the local administration they asked the workers to return to their village.
After reports that Karachi King’s player Alex Hales was being tested for coronavirus, the English player has issued a statement clarifying that he has not been tested yet for the virus but is expected to be tested soon. He says that he left Pakistan healthy but woke up with a fever and a cough and has been in self isolation since then.
The statement comes after rumours that Alex Hales had tested positive for coronavirus, which he addressed on Twitter. After journalist Ajmal Jami tweeted a Gulf News story that Hales had tested positive for coronavirus, Hales replied to Jami’s tweet, which Jami later deleted.
See, it wasn’t my story, the news was filed by @gulf_news. I shared that link here on my TL and soon after @AlexHales1‘ tweet, deleted it. Apologies for sharing a ‘fake’ Gulf News link. Now ask @iramizraja for more. Prayers for the safety of all. thanks https://t.co/iPZhOrTgKl
