Delhi, earlier this month, overtook Mumbai to be the worst-hit city in India (File)
India's total of coronavirus cases crossed the five lakh mark on Friday after the country reported its highest single-day spike of over 17,000 cases. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, with over 5,000 new cases, reached an aggregate of 1,52,765, while West Bengal and Tamil Nadu also reported their biggest one-day COVID-19 numbers. The overall death count climbed to 15,301 with 407 new fatalities. It was the seventh day in a row that India registered over 14,000 cases.
Here are 10 points on India's coronavirus situation:
Maharashtra on Friday reported 5,024 COVID-19 cases and 175 deaths because of the infection. The state has a positivity rate of 17.52 per cent and death rate of 4.65 per cent. There are 65,829 active cases in the state. Mumbai's total of coronavirus cases reached 72,175 on Friday.
Delhi, which is grappling with shortage of COVID-19 beds, reported 3,460 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours. The national capital's coronavirus total reached 77,240 on Friday. 2,326 people were cured of the disease in the last 24 hours, which took the total of recoveries to 47,091. With an addition of 63, the death count stood at 2,492.
Tamil Nadu, which is ranked third on India's coronavirus list, has reported 3,509 new cases, its highest single day spike, pushing the infection count to 70,977. With 45 new deaths, the total number of deaths in the state has reached 911.
West Bengal registered its highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases on Friday, recording 542 fresh infections, to push the tally to 16,190. A total of 10,535 patients have recovered from the respiratory ailment, a bulletin issued by the health department said.
The total of COVID-19 cases in Haryana reached 12,884 on Friday with 421 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. With 13 deaths, the death count stood at 211, official government data said.
Delhi, Chennai, Thane, Mumbai, Palghar, Pune, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Ahmedabad and Faridabad are 10 cities and districts that have contributed to 54.47 per cent of the total cases in the country. Delhi, earlier this month, overtook Mumbai to be the worst-hit city in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said Uttar Pradesh, with a population size the same as four European countries badly hit by the coronavirus, had only a fraction of their death count because of efforts to fight COVID-19. "England, France, Italy and Spain - these countries at one time had conquered the world and were the biggest powers of the world, but if you add up the populations of all these countries it comes to 24 crore, but in India, UP alone has 24 crore. How effective UP has been can be seen from the fact that the four European nations together had 1,30,000 deaths due to COVID-19. But in UP, the number of deaths is 600," he said.
Amid a spurt in total coronavirus cases, Assam on Friday announced a "total lockdown" in Guwahati from Monday for the next two weeks. Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma advised the people of the state to stock up essentials as no establishment other than hospitals and medical stores will be allowed to open. "A total lockdown will be observed in Kamrup (Metro) district for two weeks from Sunday midnight. For the first seven days, only pharmacies and hospitals will be open. Everything else will be shut," he said.
The worst-hit coronavirus states - Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra - will received the first batch of the generic version of the experimental COVID-19 drug Remdesivir, which is being manufactured in India by Hyderabad-based drugmaker Hetero.
India has the fourth-highest number of coronavirus cases among 10 nations worst-hit by coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 4.89 lakh people globally since it was first detected in China in December last year. Over 96.04 lakh people have been infected with the highly contagious virus globally.
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