Church donates money to help fishermen community in Kerala's Alappuzha

A local church has decided to donate money collected for the renovation of the church to the fishermen community who have been hit hard due to national lockdown.

"There are 530 families here and with the money collected for church renovation I will be able to support each family with Rs 500. I thought at this time supporting them is more important than renovating the church," said Father Thomas, priest of the Church.

"After the lockdown was imposed, we are solely surviving on the free ration given by the government. So for us even a single rupee counts at this time," said Solomon, a fisherman.

Youseph another fisherman said that without work the families are suffering. "Since last month we have no work and the lockdown has made the situation difficult for us. At this time getting Rs 500 is like getting Rs 5 lakh," he added.

India's tally of COVID-19 cases crossed 5,000 mark with 5,194 cases, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

Out of the 5194 cases, 4,643 cases are reported to be active cases while 401 people have recovered/discharged and one migrated.

The ministry has reported 10 new deaths in the last 24 hours increasing the toll to 149.