Peak in June, July, predicts AIIMS Director
The deadly coronavirus causing Covid-19 continue to spread its tentacles across the country infecting over 56,325 persons while claiming over 1,846 lives till Thursday night. The country added 3,318 new cases and 61 more deaths during the day.
However, the worst is yet to come with AIIMS-Delhi Director Dr Randeep Guleria on Thursday ringing alarm bell as he said that as per the modeling data and the way India’s Covid-19 cases are increasing, it is likely that peak can come in June and July.
“According to modeling data and the way our cases are increasing, it is likely that peak can come in June and July. But there are many variables. With time only we will know how much they are effective and the effect of extending the lockdown,” said Dr Guleria.
Maharashtra has the highest number of cases — 17,914 — followed by Gujarat which added 388 cases to reach a total of 6,625 cases. Delhi reported 448 case for a total of 5,980 cases. Rajasthan reported 110 new Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday taking the total number of positive cases to 3,427 while 6 deaths took the death toll to 99.
Telangana reported 15 new cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 1,122 including 400 active cases and 29 deaths while in Madhya Pradesh, 114 more persons tested positive for the infection taking the total number of cases in the State to 3,252. Death toll stands at 193.
Gujarat registered 388 new Covid-19 positive cases in last 24 hours with total touching 7,013 including 1,709 cured/discharged and 425 deaths.
Tamil Nadu’s encounter with coronavirus has reached a crucial stage as the number of persons testing positive for the pandemic reached 5,369 on Thursday evening. Medical bulletin issued by the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare said 540 persons tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.
Out of the 540 new cases, Chennai accounted for 316 persons making it the district with the highest number of Covid-19 patients. There are 2,644 patients in the metropolis. The day also saw two persons succumbing to the pandemic making the number of fatalities to 37.
Since last week, the number of persons testing positive for coronavirus increased by leaps and bounds in Tamil Nadu. On April 30, the State recorded 130 persons while the next day it registered 203 patients. On May 2, there were 231 new cases while the next day saw 266 persons testing positive for the pandemic. On May 4, Tamil Nadu was bewildered when the Government announced that 527 persons tested positive on a single day. Since then the numbers increased steeply with 508, 771 and 580 respectively.
Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan said in comparison to other countries, India is in a better condition as the fatality rate is 3.3 per cent and recovery rate is 28.83 per cent.
He also said there are 4.8 per cent patients in ICU, 1.1 per cent on ventilators and 3.3 per cent on oxygen support of the active cases.
Vardhan said, “The testing capacity has increased in the country and it is 95,000 tests per day with 327 Government laboratories and 118 private laboratories. Cumulatively, 13,57,442 tests have been done so far for Covid-19.”
He said as on date there are 180 districts with no new cases in less than 7 days, 180 districts with no new cases in 7-13 days, 164 districts which have not had any new case in 14-20 days and 136 districts with no new cases since the last 21-28 days.
There are 13 States/UTs viz. A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir UT, Kerala, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Odisha which have not reported any case in the last 24 hours.
While Daman & Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported a single case till date, Vardhan said.
He also stated that there are 130 hotspot districts, 284 non-hotspot districts and 319 non-affected districts in the country.
He further added that as of now 821 dedicated Covid hospitals with 1,50,059 beds (Isolation beds- 1, 32,219 and ICU beds- 17,840) and 1,898 dedicated Covid Health Centres with 1,19,109 beds (Isolation beds- 1, 09,286 and ICU beds- 9,823) along with 7,569 quarantine centres are now available to combat the disease.
He also said so far 29.06 lakh Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) and 62.77 lakh N-95 masks have been distributed among the States/UTs/Central Institutions.