Coron-Covid-19: 686 deaths and 21,700 cases in India
NEW DELHI : India’s total coronavirus cases jumped to 21,700, as per the latest Union Health Ministry update on Thursday. Of the total cases at least 16,689 are active cases, 4,257 people have recovered and 686 people have lost their lives. The rise in infections comes even as India is in phase 2 of the lockdown which is expected to end on May 3.
Maharashtra reported 5,652 cases and 269 fatalities so far, followed by Gujarat with 2,407 cases and 103 deaths and Delhi with 2,248 cases and 48 deaths. Other states which have more than 1500 cases are Rajasthan (1890), Tamil Nadu (1629) and Madhya Pradesh (1592).
Union Ministry of Health Joint Secretary Luv Agarwal said twelve districts have reported no new cases in 28 days. “As of today, we have 12 districts that did not have a fresh case in the last 28 days or more. There are now 78 districts (23 states/Union Territories) that have not reported any fresh cases during the last 14 days,” he said.
The government said on Thursday that it has been able to “cut coronavirus transmission”, minimise its spread and increase the doubling time of COVID-19 cases in the country during the 30-day period of the nationwide lockdown. While asserting that the growth of coronavirus cases in the country has been more or less linear and not exponential, it also said testing has been ramped up consistently.
The government said recovery rates had risen to 19.89 per cent, with 4,257 people being discharged after receiving treatment. The rate, which is the number of people to have recovered as a percentage of the total number of cases, was 9.99 per cent last week.
Post imposition of lockdown, while the number of new positive cases has increased by 16 times, testing has increased by 24 times,” CK Mishra, Chairman of one of the 11 empowered groups set up by PM Modi to deal with the health crisis, said.
“Testing capacity has increased 33 times in 30 days of lockdown but it is also not enough… still we are trying to increase testing facility in the country.
Government data released earlier showed the doubling rate of the infection – or the days it takes for the number of cases to increase by 2 – is increasing. On Monday the Health Ministry said this was 7.5 days, up from 3.4 days before the nationwide lockdown.
In terms of the spread of the virus, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi have around 48 per cent of all cases in India, with each reporting over 2,000 cases; Maharashtra alone has over 5,500 cases.
