COVID-19: 336 fresh cases ,12 deaths in last 24 hours
NEW DELHI : The total number of coronavirus positive cases crossed the 2500-mark in India on Friday. As per the latest update from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of cases has now reached 2547 in India, including 2322 active cases, 162 cured/discharged/migrated people and 62 deaths.
India’s current death toll from the coronavirus pandemic stands at 62, with the country reporting its highest ever spike of 478 fresh cases in in the last 24 hours said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary Health Ministry.
“In the last two days around 647 confirmed cases related to Tablighi Jamaat evacuees from Delhi`s Nizamuddin area were found in 14 states – Andaman & Nicobar, Assam, Delhi, Himachal, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh,” said Lav Aggarwal.
He also said that so far about 66,000 tests have been done with, 8,000 tests being conducted in the last 24 hours, the highest in a single day. Punya Salila Srivastava, Joint Secretary of Home Ministry, however, said, “Union Ministry of Home Affairs has written to state governments to take strict action in cases of attack on healthcare and frontline workers and ensure the security to medical fraternity.”
The Uttar Pradesh government has filed charges against some members of the Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic sect whose religious gathering in Delhi has been linked to hundreds of coronavirus cases, under the strict National Security Act (NSA).
The charges were filed after allegations of misconduct against and assault on nurses at a Ghaziabad hospital. While ordering the charges to be filed, CM Yogi Adityanath described them as “enemies of humanity”. Those charged under the NSA can be held for up to a year if the accused are seen to threaten public order.
This morning Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation via a video message in which he urged people, once again, to stay inside their homes during the lockdown.
“The only way to break the chain of coronavirus is to maintain social distancing,” he said, He further asked Indians to light a candle, Diya, torch, mobile flash for 9 minutes on April 5 at 9 pm to dispel coronavirus COVID-19 darkness.
States have been told to crack down on those violating the lockdown or obstructing officials. Such people should be sent to jail for one or two years, the government has said.
Earlier today, a 55-year-old man died in a government hospital in Vijayawada, the Andhra Pradesh government confirmed that coronavirus was the cause of the death, making it the first casualty in the state where the total number of positive cases rose to 161. The man contracted the disease from his son, who returned from New Delhi after attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation on March 17.
On Thursday a resident doctor from Delhi’s prestigious AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) tested positive for the coronavirus. His wife, who is also a doctor and is nine months pregnant, tested positive too.
Sources said neither had any recent travel history. So far seven Delhi doctors have tested positive for the highly infectious virus; two of them work at the national capital’s Safdarjung Hospital, which is directly opposite AIIMS in one of the city’s busiest localities.
The World Bank has approved $1.9 billion in aid for 25 countries. The largest chunk of this – $1 billion – will come to India and should be used for “better screening, contact tracing and laboratory diagnostics, (buying) personal protective equipment and setting up new isolation wards”, the global financial institution has said.
Other South Asian countries to receive aid include Pakistan ($200 million), Afghanistan ($100 million) and Sri Lanka ($128.6 million).
The number of coronavirus cases around the world crossed 1 million and deaths have topped 50,000, news agency AFP reported Thursday. The United States has reported the highest daily death toll of any country so far and accounts for around a quarter of all known infections.
About 6,000 have died in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University, with over 1,000 dying in the past 24 hours. Around 85 percent of Americans are under some form of stay-at-home order.
(With Agency Inputs ).
