COVID-19 cases near 7,000 in India as death toll crosses 200 mark

The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases touched 6,761 on Friday (April 10) with at least 206 deaths, the Union Health Ministry informed as several places including Delhi and Mumbai reported further spread of the deadly virus.

Deaths and cases
Maharashtra has reported the maximum 1,385 cases, including close to 1,000 in Mumbai itself, while at least 97 people have died in the state. Tamil Nadu with over 900 cases is the second worst virus-hit state, followed by Delhi which has 700 cases and Rajasthan has over 500. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have reported more than 400 positive cases each.

Extending lockdown
Following Odisha, Punjab became the second state to extend the lockdown till April 30, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets chief ministers to take stock of the situation. The Union Home Ministry also sought views of state governments on the 21-day lockdown including whether more categories of people and services need to be exempted amidst indications of a possible two-week extension.

WHO error
Concurring with the health ministry that no community transmission is taking place as yet in India, the World Health Organisation, which initially put the country in Stage 3, admitted its error in the situation report and said, “India has a cluster of cases — a notch below the community transmission stage.”

Testing
While several states including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh reported a rising number of cases, the Union Health Ministry said the rate of people testing positive was only 0.2 per cent on Thursday when more than 16,000 samples were tested. Cumulatively close to 1.5 lakh samples have been tested so far across India.

Lower death rate
Suggesting that a relatively young Indian population may be one of the reasons for the low mortality rate due to the pandemic, experts have attributed the high number of fatalities in countries like Italy and Spain to their elderly population which are more susceptible to developing complications after contracting the infection.

CRPF mask unit
Two Central Armed Police Forces — the CRPF and the ITBP — said they have started making PPEs (personal protective equipment) and face masks for COVID-19 frontline warriors of the country, while deploying specialised machines and manpower at their bases in and around Delhi for the purpose.

Depleting essentials
Reports of depleting levels of essential goods from various parts of the country have come up to tackle which some states such as Kerala suggested phased opening of the lockdown, while others suggested allowing liquor sale to shore up the revenues and to allow private vehicles on an odd-even basis.

Mandatory masks
More states including Odisha and Telangana made it mandatory for people to wear masks at public places, while enforcement was beefed up for action against those violating the lockdown conditions.

Global numbers
Globally, more than 16 lakh people have tested positive ever since it was first noticed in China last December, while the worldwide death toll has crossed 96,000. While more than 15,000 have died in the US alone, France has also reported over 12,000 deaths.

(With inputs from agencies)