India’s tally of coronavirus cases on Sunday afternoon was at 3373 with 3030 active cases and 77 deaths, as per the current data released by the ministry of health. 276 of these cases have been cured and discharged. The Central government data, however, doesn’t take into account the latest cases reported by the states, which if taken into consideration will put the total over the four thousand mark at 4014, including all incidents of deaths and cured cases.
Maharashtra is the only state to have reported in excess of 700 cases with a combined tally of 719, followed by 495 in Tamil Nadu, 461 in Delhi, 358 in Kerala, 257 in Uttar Pradesh and 272 in Telangana as per the state-wise data reported by PTI.
The worldometre, which provides live updates based on state-wise data, the total number of cases in India stood at 3916 including 99 deaths and 229 recoveries. The website says, 529 new cases and 13 new deaths were reported in the country on Saturday, which didn’t show any significant jump over the last four days.
Meanwhile, the latest worldwide figure has risen to over 1.2 million with close to 65,000 deaths and 246,000 recoveries. USA tops the chart with over 300,000 infections followed by Spain, Italy, Germany and France with over 126,000, 124,000, 96,000 and 85,000 cases respectively. Italy has registered 15,362 deaths, the most globally, followed by 11,947 in Spain and 8454 in the USA.
India entered day 11 of the 21-day lockdown on Sunday which, the government has indicated, could be lifted in a phased manner after April 14. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a video conference with leaders of all political parties on Wednesday to hear their suggestions on the containment strategy for Covid-19.
India has also revised its testing strategy to include rapid testing involving blood tests to detect the presence of antibodies against Covid-19 virus, however, it is only being used to test communities in hotspots so far.
Several experts and political parties have suggested scaling up testing followed by isolation in order to prevent its spread. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has said that the lockdown for coronavirus will be effective only if “we test, detect, isolate and then treat”.
