COVID-19: 206 Death, 6,760 confirmed cases ,Govt maintain, “No Community Transmission”
NEW DELHI : India now has 6,760 confirmed cases of COVID-19. According to the health ministry, the number of active confirmed cases in the country stands at 6,039 as of Friday evening. The ministry also reported that there have been 206 deaths due to the viral infection, while 515 people have been cured/discharged or migrated.
The government on Friday said that 37 deaths and 896 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, which is the sharpest ever increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
Mr Lav Aggarwal , Joint Secretary of the Union Health Ministry also clarified that no community transmission of coronavirus COVID-19 in India has taken place yet but asked the people to remain aware and alert. It also asked people to not panic. “If there is a community transmission, we will first let you know. Yesterday, only 0.2 per cent of the nationwide test of 16,002 tests was found positive,” he said.
The surge in cases comes on a day when the World Health Organisation initially claimed India had entered Stage 3, or “community transmission” of the virus, – a claim it retracted hours later. The country is near the end of a 21-day “total lockdown” imposed by PM Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of the virus.
The death toll reported by the ministry jumped by more than 30 new since Thursday evening. Of these, 25 were reported from Maharashtra, three from Delhi and one each from Gujarat and Jharkhand.
Speaking on the availability of the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, he said that India has a stock of 3.28 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets. “We have a domestic requirement of 1 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets while we have 3.28 crore hydroxychloroquine tablets available now,” said Agrawal.
According to the health ministry’s data, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 1,364, followed by Tamil Nadu at 834 and Delhi with 720 cases. Rajasthan has 463 confirmed cases, while Telangana has 442. Uttar Pradesh has 410 cases so far, followed by Kerala at 357. Andhra Pradesh has reported 348 coronavirus cases. Confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection have risen to 259 in Madhya Pradesh, 241 in Gujarat, 181 in Karnataka and 169 in Haryana. Jammu and Kashmir has 158 cases, West Bengal has 116 and Punjab has 101 patients so far.
Until now, Maharashtra has accounted almost half the deaths (97) in the country, followed by Gujarat at 17, Madhya Pradesh 16 and Delhi 12. Punjab and Tamil Nadu have reported eight fatalities each while Telengana has reported seven deaths.
Independent trackers reported a higher number of confirmed cases and deaths in India. According to Worldometer, India has 5,771 confirmed cases and 228 people have died because of COVID-19.
Across the world, there have now been 1,602,216 confirmed cases around the world as of Wednesday morning. According to the Johns Hopkins University, the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 95,735.
The US now has 466,033 confirmed cases, more than thrice that of Spain (153,222), Italy (143,626), France (118,783), Germany (118,235) and China (82,924). The infection has now been reported in 185 countries or regions.
Italy has so far reported 18,279 deaths due to COVID-19, with the US now reporting the second highest deaths (16,690). The death toll has also been high in Spain (15,447), France (12,210), the UK (7,978), Iran (4,110) and China (3,339). The reported death toll in New York City (5,150) is higher than China.
Punjab has become the second state, after Odisha, to extend the Prime Minister’s nationwide “total lockdown”. The lockdown had been scheduled to end on April 14 but will now continue, in Punjab and Odisha at least, till the end of the month. Punjab has registered 132 coronavirus cases, as of Friday despite the strict three-week lockdown. Odisha has 44 cases and one person has died due to the virus.
Prime Minister Modi is likely to address the nation again – his third address since the lockdown was ordered – to clarify whether the lockdown will end on Tuesday. Sources say the lockdown may be extended but with many changes this time around.
Meanwhile, amid fears expressed by medical experts that the country has entered Stage 3 – i.e., community transmission of the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) admitted an error in its daily report.
Earlier today the global health watchdog said India was experiencing “community transmission”, something the government has repeatedly denied. The organisation said the error had been fixed and clarified that India had only a “cluster of cases”.
(With Agency Inputs ).
