COVID-19: Huge spike in cases in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu
Several states reported a huge spike in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday even as the country is attempting to limp back to normalcy with lockdown curbs being relaxed in an area-wise manner. An unexpected increase in COVID-19 cases was reported from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat on Tuesday.
Several states reported a huge spike in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday (May 5) even as the country is attempting to limp back to normalcy with lockdown curbs being relaxed in an area-wise manner.
An unexpected increase in COVID-19 cases was reported from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat on Tuesday, which resulted in a spike in nationwide figures. The tally for India now stands at 46,711 cases and 1,583 deaths, according to the Union health ministry.
Maharashtra reported a whopping 841 fresh cases and 34 deaths, taking its tally to 15,525 cases and 617 deaths. Of the new figures, Mumbai accounted for 635 cases and 26 deaths. So far, Mumbai has reported a total of 9,758 cases and 387 deaths, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, Gujarat crossed the 6,000-mark on Tuesday with 441 fresh cases. It also reported 49 new deaths in the last 24 hours, thus taking its total tally to 368 deaths and 6,245 cases. This was the highest single-day spike ever in the state.
Gujarat capital Ahmedabad too reported its highest single-day spike on Tuesday. It accounted for 349 new cases of the total 441 cases reported statewide. Deaths too reached a new high of 39, the Gujarat heath department said. This takes the total number of COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad to 4,425, and death toll to 273, it said.
Down south, Tamil Nadu reported 508 fresh cases of COVID-19 and two deaths due to the infection, thus taking its total tally to 4,058 cases, including 33 deaths. State capital Chennai accounted 279 of the new cases, while Cuddalore reported 68 fresh ones, besides other districts.
Kerala, which maintained zero cases for the last two days, reported three new ones on Tuesday; all from the southern state’s Wayanad district. Currently, the state has 37 active cases, according to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The national capital crossed the 5,000-mark with 206 fresh cases being reported on Tuesday. On the positive side, no fresh death was reported for the third successive day in Delhi. The total number of cases in Delhi now stands at 5,104, said authorities.
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Meanwhile, the number game took a new turn in West Bengal as the state government on Monday revised its COVID-19 “reporting structure” in sync with the Union health ministry’s format. Tuesday’s bulletin showed 85 new cases were reported across the state, thus taking its total tally to 1,344 cases, including 140 deaths.
However, the bulletin separated the death section into two categories – deaths due to COVID-19 and comorbidity. But the latest Union health ministry figures suggests it is only counting the cumulative total, and not differentiating between deaths occurring due to COVID-19 and comorbidity.
Earlier, the Bengal government, in its daily bulletin, used to highlight only the active positive cases, and did not take into account co-morbidity cases in the death toll tally, which had led to confusion and data mismatch. From Monday, the health department made the format more transparent and elaborate.