1,785 die; Maha situation grim
India’s Covid-19 count crossed half-lakh mark on Wednesday as the country registered 3,050 fresh cases of viral infection, taking the tally to 52,559. The death toll from the virus also surged to 1,785 with Maharashtra again topping the list of the worst-affected States.
However, the total recovery number is 15,257, and active cases 35,762.
Maharashtra’s tally spiked to 16,758 after detection of 1,233 new cases — highest in a day so far while 34 deaths on Wednesday took toll to 651.
Tamil Nadu reported 771 positive cases taking the tally to 4,829 while Gujarat reported 6,680 after the day’s addition of 380 cases even as 25 more patients died. The total death count in Gujarat stands at 298. Delhi has 5,110 cases, including 65 fatalities.
Uttar Pradesh added 118 more cases to be just two short of 3,000 with a death count of 60. Madhya Pradesh reported 89 cases for a tally 3,138.
The Ministry of Home Affairs secretary Ajay Bhalla on Wednesday wrote to West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiv Sinha saying the coronavirus testing in the State was very low and the mortality rate was higher than any other State.
“Response to Covid-19 in West Bengal is characterized by very low rate of testing in proportion to population and very high rate of mortality of 13.2 per cent by far highest of any state.
“This is reflection of poor surveillance, detection and testing in the state. There is also need to increase random testing in crowded clusters,” he said.
Kerala has done well to flatten the curve, with just three cases in four days for total count of 502. Thirty-four more cases of Covid-19 were detected in J&K on Wednesday, taking the total number of patients in the Union Territory to 775.
Haryana reported 555 confirmed cases so far after 46 more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. The state has reported six deaths till now, said Haryana Health Department. Punjabwhich has seen manyfold jump min the last one week registered 75 more cases to reach a total of 1526 and death toll of 26.
Nineteen fresh cases have been detected in Karnataka on Wednesday taking the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 692. This figure includes 29 deaths, one non-COVID death and 345 discharged persons.
After sixty fresh cases were reported in Andhra Pradesh in the past 24 hours, the total confirmed cases in the state climbed to 1,777 on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said that 12,76,781 samples have been tested for Covid-19 across the country till 9.00 am on Wednesday.
In the wake of rising cases in Maharshtra and Gujarat, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health held a meeting on Wednesday with Nitinbhai Patel, Dy Chief Minister and Health Minister, Gujarat and Rajesh Tope, Health Minister of Maharashtra in presence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State of Health with the senior officials from both Centre and the States to review the situation, actions and preparedness for management of Covid in both the States.
Dr Harsh Vardhan stressed on need to ensure that non-Covid essential services are not neglected. Also, States need to ensure that screening and testing of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) / Influenza Like Illness (ILI) cases is undertaken, which shall help in identification of any emerging hotspots and timely appropriate strategy for their management.
“Aggressive behaviour change communication exercise needs to be taken for removing stigma against reporting Covid-19, which shall contribute towards timely reporting, clinical management, and reduction in fatality rates,” he stressed.
Coronavirus cases rise unabated across the globe with over 3 million people infected by the deadly contagion. More than 2.5 lakh people have died due to Covid-19 across the globe while over one million patients have recovered from the disease.