Centre extends work from home norms for IT sector till December as COVID cases surge

As the number of COVID cases in on the rise, the Central government on Tuesday extended connectivity norms for work from home for IT and BPO companies till December 31. The time period for work from home was expiring on July 31.

"DoT has further extended the relaxations in the terms and conditions for other service providers up to 31st December 2020 to facilitate work from home in view of the ongoing concern due to COVID-19," the Department of Telecommunications said in a late-night tweet.

Currently, around 85 percent of the IT workforce is working from home and only those performing critical functions are going to offices. In March, the DoT relaxed certain norms for OSPs till April 30 to facilitate work from home (WFH) amid the coronavirus pandemic which was further extended till July 31.

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India's COVID tally

India recorded 37,148 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing its tally to 11,55,191, while the total number of recoveries increased to 7,24,577, according to Union health ministry data issued on 8 am Tuesday. The death toll due to the disease rose to 28,084 with 587 fatalities reported in a day, the data showed. There are 4,02,529 active cases of the coronavirus infection currently in the country, while 7,24,577 people have recovered till now. Thus, 62.72 per cent people have recovered so far, the ministry said. 

The COVID-19 fatality rate has dropped significantly to 2.43 percent from 3.36 percent on June 17 due to effective clinical management of coronavirus cases, the Centre said on Tuesday, asserting the country has handled the pandemic "relatively well". Thirty states and Union Territories have COVID-19 positivity rate lower than that of the national average which stands at 8.07 percent, told Rajesh Bhushan, an officer on special duty in the Union health ministry in a press conference on Tuesday. 

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