Large outbreaks in some particular locations need to be tackled: Govt
As India’s confirmed cases of Covid-19 crossed 70,000 mark on Monday while the death toll topped the 2,220 mark, the Government said some relatively large outbreaks have been noticed in particular locations and it is important to focus on containment efforts to ensure that the country did not reach the community transmission stage.
With Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh high numbers, the total count reached 70,717 by 10.30 pm, a jump of 3,540 new cases during the day. This is the fifth day in a row when the country has seen new cases topping 30,000 mark.
Maharashtra continues to be the epicentre of the coronavirus spread with the State witnessing massive spike on daily basis. On Monday, the State added 1,230 cases and as many as 78 deaths. Maharashtra has now 23,409 cases and 869 deaths. Mumbai, the financial Capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the State where the number of cases has reached 14,521 and the death toll is over 500.
After reporting 669 new cases on Sunday, Tamil Nadu’s march towards south continue on Monday also as it registered record 798 new cases to touch 8,002 confirmed cases.
Rajasthan reported 174 new cases of coronavirus and five deaths, taking the total number of cases and deaths to 3,988 and 113, respectively. Uttar Pradesh too reported 109 new infections, taking the tally to 3,573.
Gujarat reported 347 fresh cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, following which its total count reached 8,542. The State also reported 20 deaths in the last 24 hours, after which its death toll mounted to 513.
Madhya Pradesh, which has seen exceptionally high death ratio, reported 171 new cases for a total of 3,785 and 228 deaths.
Kerala on Monday reported seven fresh cases of coronavirus which took its infection count to 519. Out of the total tally, 27 cases are currently active in the State. Of the new cases, four are from Kasargod and the patients had recently returned from Maharashtra. Palakkad, Malappuram, and Wayanad reported one case each on Monday.
Eighteen more tested positive in J&K on Monday to take the Union Territory’s coronavirus tally to 879 while after 14 fresh cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, Karnataka’s total count has reached 862. This includes 31 deaths 426 recoveries.
Five deaths and 124 new Covid-19 cases were reported in West Bengal, taking the total number of positive cases in the State to 2,063. Bihar reported 39 new cases to reach a total of 749 while Jharkhand continued to keep the disease under control by reporting just 4 new cases for a tally of 164.
While Punjab reported 54 new cases to reach a total of 1,877 cases and 31 deaths, Haryana reported 27 cases to reach a total of 730 cases and 11 deaths.
However, on the positive side, recovery rate surged to 31.15 per cent with 20,917 Covid-19 patients cured till now. “The recovery rate stands at 31.14 per cent, which is a significant development over last Sunday’s 26.59 per cent,” said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary with the Union Health Ministry at the press conference here.
The Health Ministry avoided mentioning the number of fatalities and remained in the denial mode whether it constitutes a community transmission or not, during the press conference.
Asked by the media whether or not the country has entered the community transmission stage, Agarwal said: “We have found a few clusters and have noticed relatively large outbreak in a few places. Even the Director, AIIMS said that if we do not contain the zones properly, the rate of transmission will become higher. Therefore it is important for us to maintain at this stage only and scale up containment efforts and ensure that we don’t go at the community transmission stage.”