Coronavirus Update: Total Covid-19 Cases In India At 5,274, Death Toll At 149

Covid-19 infections in India have crossed the 5,000-mark, while the government mulls whether or not to extend the 21-day lockdown. While it took close to two months for India to reach its first thousand cases, the next four thousand have been reported in 10 days.

The total number of cases in India rose to 5,274 on Wednesday evening, according to the latest update by the Health Ministry. That includes more than 400 people cured or discharged and 149 dead. India has added 485 cases in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday marked two weeks since a 21-day coronavirus lockdown was imposed in India. While several state governments have favoured extending the lockdown, a panel headed by the defence minister has recommended a partial lifting of the lockdown on April 15, according to Bloomberg.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has ordered that all testing for Covid-19 in India be made free.

Globally, total confirmed cases rose to over 1.42 million. Deaths exceed 82,000 as New York and U.K. saw their deadliest days so far.

Track latest news updates and developments on how the coronavirus situation is evolving in India here:

Mumbai’s biggest slum, which recorded its first case of Covid-19 last week, now has a tally of 13, including two deaths, as the highly contagious pathogen spreads rapidly across the country.

Dharavi added six more coronavirus cases on Wednesday.

Catch all details about the Covid-19 outbreak in Dharavi here.

The Delhi government will completely seal-off twenty hotspots that it has identified. No one will be allowed to enter or exit these areas, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

A similar action was taken earlier in Uttar Pradesh where 15 districts, including Modi’s constituency Varanasi, were completely sealed.

Delhi has joined Mumbai in making it compulsory to wear masks in public places to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier, the BMC issued a circular saying that those found not wearing masks when stepping outside could face arrests.

India’s Supreme Court has ordered that all tests for Covid-19—whether at a government or a private lab— should be free of cost.

The apex court has asked the government to issue directions with immediate effect.

India added 485 new cases of Covid-19 over the last 24 hours taking the total number of infections in the country to 5,274.

• Active cases: 4,714
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 411
• Deaths: 149

(As of 5 p.m.)

The government has conducted over 1.21 lakh tests for Covid-19 so far, the Indian Council of Medical Research said today.

On Tuesday, 13,345 tests were done, chief epidemiologist RR Gangakhedkar said in a press briefing. Of these, 2,267 samples were tested by private labs.

As of Wednesday, there are 139 labs active under the ICMR network and 65 private labs are operational.

The government is trying to ensure that there is adequate availability of tests across the country, joint health secretary Lav Agarwal said. The ministry has set a protocol for testing based on which sampling is done, Agarwal said.

India is working on creating field-level infrastructure to use hotels, lodges, hostels and even stadiums as Covid-19 care centres.

These centres would be used for those with Covid-19 patients that have very few or mild symptoms, joint health secretary Lav Agarwal said in the daily press briefing.

For critical cases, the government is working on building dedicated healthcare centre and hospitals, Agarwal said.

In the third case of the day, a 50 year old female tested positive for the virus, according to a BMC official.

The patient is working for KEM Hospital as MICU cleaning staff and is the resident of Muslim Nagar in Dharavi, added Dighavkar. “There are four high risks contacts who will be shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Sports complex”, he added.

This takes the total count of cases in Asia’s most crowded slum to 10, including a death last week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday told floor leaders of opposition and other parties in Parliament that the nationwide lockdown will not be lifted in one go on April 14, according to BJD's Pinaki Misra.

Modi's comments came during an interaction with these leaders to discuss the situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the government's efforts to contain the fast-spreading virus in the country.

"Prime Minister Modi made it clear that lockdown is not being lifted and also that the life pre-corona and post-corona will not be same," Biju Janata Dal leader Pinaki Misra told PTI.

Another leader, who participated in the meeting but did not wish to be named, said the Prime Minister told them that he will also consult chief ministers.

Those participated in the meet included Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, and Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar.

Sources said, these leaders were briefed by secretaries of various ministries---health, home and rural development ---on the actions taken by the government to tackle Covid-19 and mitigate the hardships arising out of the lockdown.

Several opposition leaders raised the issue of shortage of Personal Protective Equipment for health workers in the country while few also suggested that construction of the new parliament building should be avoided, a source said.

The meet comes amidst indications that the Central government may extend the lockdown across the country beyond April 14 after several states have favoured the extension to contain the fast-spreading virus, as the positive cases in the country show no signs of any let up.

As per the Union health ministry's Wednesday morning update, there are 149 deaths and 5,194 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country even as the country entered its third week of nationwide lockdown.

Apart from Azad and Pawar, others who attended the virtual meet included, Ram Gopal Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Satish Misra (Bahujan Samaj Party), Chirag Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party), TR Baalu (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Sukhbir Singh Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal), Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Janata Dal-United), Pinaki Mishra (Biju Janata Dal) and Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena).

Giving up its initial reluctance, the Trinamool Congress also attended the interaction. TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay was among the participants.

Modi interacted with leaders of those parties whose combined strength of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adds up to five.

This is prime minister's first interaction with the floor leaders, including those from the Opposition, after the imposition of the nationwide lockdown on March 25 though he had held interactions with chief ministers of all states including those ruled by non-NDA parties.

The prime minister has also held interactions with various stakeholders, including doctors, journalists and heads of Indian missions to get a feedback on ways to check the spread of coronavirus.

He also recently spoke to various political party heads including Congress' Sonia Gandhi, TMC's Mamata Banerjee and DMK's MK Stalin and discussed the Covid-19 situation.

He had also talked to former presidents Pratibha Patil and Pranab Mukherjee, and former prime ministers HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh.

Source: PTI

The Commissioner of BMC, in the interest of public health - has issued compulsory instructions for residents of Mumbai to wear masks in public areas, according to a circular. A failure to do so could result in arrests, the statement added.

• All persons moving in public places for whatever reason, like street, hospital, office, markets must be wearing 3 ply mask or cloth mask compulsorily.
• Any person who is moving around in his personal and official vehicle must be wearing these masks compulsorily.
• Any person, traffic vehicle, working at any site/ office/workplace must wear the masks as mentioned above.
• No person/officer will attend any meeting/gathering, work place without wearing these masks as mentioned above.
• These masks may be standard mask available with the chemist or even home made washable masks and can be reused after proper washing and disinfecting them.
• Anybody violating these instructions will be punishable under section 188 of IPC and will be strictly penalised and maybe arrested by the police officers or by the officers appointed by the assistant commissioners of the wards.

Source: Circular issued by BMC Commissioner

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has directed officials concerned to completely seal the borders of Bhopal and Indore, which have emerged coronavirus hotspots in the state.

Indore reported 173 Covid-19 cases so far with 16 deaths, while eleven people were discharged from hospitals after recovery. The latest fatality was a 49-year old man who tested positive for the coronavirus on March 24 and succumbed to the infection on Tuesday evening, an official said.

Six more people tested positive for coronavirus in Bhopal, taking the number of such cases in the city to 91, officials said on Wednesday. The state capital reported one death so far, while two patients were discharged after recovery, Bhopal's Chief Medical and Health Officer Sudhir Deharia said.

So far, 327 persons have been tested positive for coronavirus in Madhya Pradesh with 14 more cases being reported on Wednesday.

The Madhya Pradesh government has invoked the Essential Services Management Act with immediate effect to tackle the coronavirus spread, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in a tweet.

Source: PTI

With 11 more people testing positive for coronavirus, the number of Covid-19 cases in Haryana rose to 141 on Wednesday.

Among the fresh cases, seven were reported from Faridabad, one from Nuh and two from Palwal while Fatehabad district reported its first case, according to state health Department's bulletin.

At present, there are 122 active cases in the state, 17 patients have been discharged while the state has recorded two Covid-related deaths. Reports of 558 samples were awaited. Among the total positive cases reported ten are foreign nationals including six from Sri Lanka, and one each from Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa while 51 are from other states of India, as per the bulletin.

The worst affected districts are Nuh (38 cases), Palwal (28), Faridabad (28) and Gurugram (20).

State Home and Health Minister Anil Vij had on Tuesday said the sharp spike in the number of coronavirus cases was due to sizeable numbers of Tablighi Jamaat members testing positive.

He said 1,526 of the Jamaat members including 107 foreigners have so far being tracked down in the state.

A majority of those who entered the state before the lockdown had been traced to Nuh district.

Jamaat members,who may still be hiding in the state, have been given time till 5 pm on April 8 to report to the district administration concerned failing which strict action will be initiated against them as per law, Vij had said.

Source: PTI

There will be no relaxation in the curfew in Una in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday as nine more people have confirmed positive for the coronavirus in the district, an official said.

Nine members of the Tablighi Jamaat tested positive for the deadly virus Tuesday night, Deputy Commissioner, Una, Sandeep Kumar said.

They had come in contact with other three members of the organisation, who had tested positive, at a mosque in Nakroh village in Amb Tehsil, he said.

Later they were shifted to a nearby mosque in Kuthera Kherla village from where their samples were taken, he added.

Kumar said one among the new cases is a 75-year-old cleric of the mosque in Kuthera Kherla, while five are from Sirmaur district, one is from Solan's Arki area and two are from Uttar Pradesh.

The curfew was imposed across Himachal Pradesh on March 24 to contain the spread of Covid-19. Authorities have been briefly relaxing the restrictions, including in Una, during the day for people to buy essential commodities.

Source: PTI

Sixty new coronavirus cases were reported in Maharashtra on Wednesday, taking the toll number of such cases in the state to 1,078, a health official said.

Among the new cases, 44 have been found in Mumbai, nine in Pune, four in Nagpur, and one each in Ahmednagar, Akola and Buldhana, he said.

We received reports of 60 people testing positive for coronavirus today. The Maharashtra tally is now 1,078, said the official.

The state has so far reported 64 deaths due to the viral disease.

Source: PTI

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi had said Modi will interact with floor leaders of all those parties who have more than five MPs in both houses of Parliament on April 8 at 11 a.m.

This will be the prime minister's first interaction with opposition leaders after the lockdown. He did have an interaction with chief ministers of all states including those ruled by non-NDA parties.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will hold a meeting with all Delhi MPs at noon, on the issue of coronavirus via video conference.

The chief minister will discuss the measures with the Members of Parliament to deal with Covid-19 in the national capital, an official said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the national capital on Tuesday rose to 576, with 51 fresh cases and two deaths being reported in a day, according to the Delhi Health Department.

Source: PTI

Two fresh cases of the Covid-19 infection have been reported today, taking the total number of cases in Asia’s most crowded slum to 9. This includes one death.

A 56-year-old man died last week—the first death linked to the coronavirus pandemic in Dharavi.

Source: BMC Official

Two more people died of coronavirus infection in Pune, taking the toll in the Maharashtra district to 10, officials said on Wednesday.

A 44-year-old man, who was on ventilator support and suffering from uncontrolled diabetes, died at the civic-run Naidu Hospital early Wednesday morning, Pune Municipal Commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad said.

He was admitted to the hospital on April 4. On Tuesday night, he became breathless and was put on ventilator support.

He died on Wednesday after renal failure, Gaikwad said.

Another patient succumbed to the viral disease at the state-run Sassoon Hospital, Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar said.

Till Tuesday, eight deaths were reported from Pune. Now, the toll has gone up to 10.

Source: PTI

The total number of Covid-19 infections in India rose to 5,194 on Wednesday morning, according to the latest update by the Health Ministry. That includes more than 400 people cured or discharged and 149 dead.

• 773 fresh cases added in the last 24 hours.
• 35 people have lost their lives in the last 24 hours.