COVID-19 Cases: In Mumbai, the worst affected city in India, the coronavirus count has crossed the 5,000-mark.
New Delhi, April 26:
India recorded 1,990 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours – its biggest single-day spike so far – taking the total to 26, 496, including 824 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. Forty-nine deaths linked to the highly contagious illness were reported from different parts of the country in the last 24 hours. Nearly 68 percent of the COVID-19 cases have been reported from 27 districts, the government data shows, indicating that the virus is spreading in clusters. These “high load districts” are spread across the states and union territories worst hit by the outbreak – Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, among others. In Maharashtra, which has reported India’s 13.8 per cent of COVID-19 cases, 47.6 per cent cases are from Mumbai. In Gujarat, the state with the second highest number of cases in India, nearly 62 per cent of cases have been reported from Ahmadabad.
Here are top 10 developments on coronavirus cases in India:
The country has recorded a huge jump in COVID-19 cases in a week’s time. From nearly 16,000 cases reported last Sunday, the COVID-19 count has crossed the 26,000-mark today. The government, however, has said that the recovery rate, indicating the number of people who have successfully fought off the illness, has improved over the last 10 days.
More than 5,800 coronavirus patients have recovered so far. This morning, the recovery rate stood at 21.09 per cent as compared to 14.19 per cent last week; 741 patients recovered in the last 24 hours.
An intense lockdown begins today in five cities – including Chennai – of Tamil Nadu, the state that has reported nearly 1,800 COVID-19 cases so far. People are not allowed to step outside their homes during this period of intense shutdown, which ends on Wednesday in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore. In Tirupur and Salem, the stringent restrictions are in place till Tuesday.
In Mumbai, the worst affected city in India, the coronavirus count has crossed the 5,000-mark. On Saturday, Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of COVID-19 patients, reported 811 new coronavirus cases, taking the total to 7,628. Of these, nearly 240 cases have been recorded from Mumbai’s Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum.
In a huge relief to shopkeepers and buyers, the central government in a late-night order on Friday allowed all shops in residential areas – except those in malls – to open amid a nationwide shutdown to check the spread of virus. Barber shops, salons, liquor stores continue to remain shut.
In Delhi, which has recorded 11 per cent of country’s total coronavirus cases, the largest hospital in the northern part of the city – Hindu Rao Hospital – has been sealed after a nurse was found COVID-19 positive.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that no public gatherings will be allowed in the state, one of India’s most populous, till June 30. “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathji has given strict instructions to the officers that no crowd of any kind can be gathered by June 30. This decision has been taken with the intention of keeping the corona under control,” Mrityunjay Kumar, the media advisor to the Chief Minister, tweeted.
Plasma therapy trials – which involve the transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient – have produced encouraging results in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday. Karnataka and Maharashtra too are set to use the plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients.
Worldwide, over 2 lakh people have died due to the novel coronavirus, which originated in China’s Wuhan city in December. More than 28 lakh have got infected so far. Hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan out of mosques and avoiding large family meals to break the fast because of sequestration and social distancing policies.
The World Health Organization warned on Saturday that people who test positive and survive infection cannot be certain they will not be hit again by the coronavirus. The warning came as some governments study measures such as “immunity passports” for those who have recovered as one way to get people back to work after weeks of economic shutdown. “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” the UN health body said in a statement.
