India on Sunday morning reported 8,356 people have contracted the coronavirus disease and 273 have died across the country, with more than 900 cases and 34 deaths in the last 24 hours.
According to the Union health ministry’s data at 8am, there are 7367 active cases, 716 people have been cured, discharged or migrated.
The new numbers come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated the 21-day lockdown across the country may be extended beyond April 14.
The Prime Minister stressed on Saturday that the new challenge was not only to save lives but livelihoods as well as he spoke with several chief ministers to discuss the lockdown ordered last month to stop the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus disease and other issues.
PM Modi said that the government earlier motto was ‘jaan hai to jahaan hai’ [when you have life, you have the world]. “Now it is ‘jaan bhi jahaan bhi’ [save life, and livelihood],” he said, signalling a shift in the Centre’s approach.
He is yet to take a decision on the extension of the three-week national lockdown but several states have independently announced an extension of the restrictions till the end of April.
The government has also emphasised the importance of strict restrictions put in place on March 25.
A health ministry official said on Saturday the number of Covid-19 cases in India could have even reached a figure of 820,000 by April 15 without the containment measures and nationwide lockdown.
The government has said that the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been pre-emptive and proactive to the extent of being over-prepared, which has helped in preventing ballooning of the number of positive cases.
According to Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 tracker, there are 1,776,157 cases and 108,804 fatalities worldwide as of Sunday.
The United States surpassed Italy on Saturday as the country with the highest reported coronavirus death toll, recording more than 20,000 fatalities since the outbreak began.
