Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: A 55-year-old woman from Chhattisgarh’s Durg district, tested positive for COVID-19 post her death at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Raipur), a health official said on Wednesday. This is the second COVID-19 death in the state, which has recorded 572 cases so far.
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The administration at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences has issued a show-cause notice to a senior resident doctor who had flagged safety concerns about the protective gears given to healthcare workers at the hospital
With 27 persons testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the case count in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district rose to 3,597 on Wednesday, a health official said. Indore is one of the worst-affected districts in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
With over 1 lakh COVID-19 patients having recovered so far, India’s recovery rate has risen to around 48.31 percent, as per data from the Union Health Ministry.
The total number of containment zones in Delhi is now 158, reports ANI, while a total of 58 zones have been de-contained to date, according to the Delhi government. With 22,132 confirmed novel coronavirus cases, Delhi remains the third most-affected region in the country.
‘People are facing economic hardship of unimaginable proportions because of the pandemic. I appeal to Centre to transfer Rs 10,000 each as one-time aid to migrant labourers including people in the unorganised sector. A portion of PM-CARES could be used for this,’ said Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal on Wednesday.
Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to hit the coast near Alibag in Maharashtra this afternoon, has forced authorities in Mumbai to shift about 150 patients from the makeshift Covid-19 hospital in Bandra Kurla Complex to the NSCI Exhibition Centre in Worli and Sion Hospital, say reports.
A total of 41,03,233 samples have been tested till now, of which 1,37,158 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, says ICMR according to ANI.
India’s total number of infections rises to 207,615, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The toll has risen to 5,815. As many as 1,00,303 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged so far, with  1,01,497 active cases.
‘Out of 115 samples tested, 9 more returnees from Chennai tested COVID-19 positive. The total number of positive cases stands at 58,’ said S Pangnyu Phom, Nagaland Health Minister on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a video address on Tuesday had told that he would be deferring the ‘Unlock 1’ reopening of the state from 3 June to 5 June in view of the Cyclone Nisarga, which is expected to make landfall in the city on Wednesday afternoon.
Even as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country climbed to 1,98,706 and the death count rose to 5,598, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the country was “very far away” from the peak of the infection and was better positioned than most other countries.
8,171 new cases, 204 deaths reported in 24 hours
In the 24 hours since 8 am on Monday, the country reported 8,171 cases, taking the number of confirmed cases to 1,98,706 while the toll climbed to 5,598 as 204 more deaths were recorded across the country, said the health ministry in its morning update.
As many as 95,526 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, and the number of active cases now stands at 97,581, according to the health ministry data.
Around 48.07 percent patients have recovered so far, a ministry official said.
Out of the 204 more deaths since Monday morning, 76 were in Maharashtra, 50 in Delhi, 25 in Gujarat and 11 in Tamil Nadu. Eight people each died of COVID-19 in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, followed by six in Telangana, and four each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
With 2,362 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of fatalities out of the total 5,598 deaths, followed by 1,063 in Gujarat, 523 in Delhi, 358 in Madhya Pradesh and 335 in West Bengal.
There have been 217 coronavirus deaths so far in Uttar Pradesh, while 198 succumbed to the infection in Rajasthan, 184 in Tamil Nadu, 88 in Telangana and 64 in Andhra Pradesh.
The highest number of confirmed cases is 70,013 from Maharashtra, followed 23,495 in by Tamil Nadu, 20,834 in Delhi, and 17,200 in Gujarat. There are 8,980 cases of the viral infection in Rajasthan, 8,283 in Madhya Pradesh and 8,075 in Uttar Pradesh. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 5,772 in West Bengal, 3,926 in Bihar and 3,783 in Andhra Pradesh.
The ministry said 6,414 COVID-19 cases were being reassigned to states, adding that the figures were being reconciled with the ICMR.
With a total of 1,98,706 cases, India is now seventh among the worst-hit nations by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia, the UK, Spain and Italy.
Country very far away from peak, says ICMR
However, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal, during a briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the country, said it is wrong to just look at the total number of cases and state that India has the seventh-highest number of cases as the population of countries also should be taken into account.
About 14 most affected countries with a cumulative population almost equal to that of India have reported 55.2 times more COVID-19 deaths and 22.5 times more cases, he said.
“Our COVID-19 fatality rate is 2.82 percent as against 6.13 percent globally. Our COVID-19 fatality rate is amongst the lowest in the world,” he said and attributed it to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management.
Presenting an age profile analysis of COVID-19 deaths, Agarwal said one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been of senior citizens who constitute 10 percent of the total population. This ten percent of India’s population accounts for 50 percent of India’s COVID-19 linked deaths, he said, while 73 percent of COVID-19 deaths in the country are of people with comorbidities.
ICMRÂ scientist Nivedita Gupta said that the country was far from approaching the peak of the infection.
“We are very far away from the peak. Our preventive measures to curtail the disease are very effective and we are better positioned in comparison with other countries. You will get to see the data in a week.”
The medical research body is conducting a sero-survey to assess the extent of spread of COVID-19 and almost 34,000 people are being tested as a part of it, she said, adding that its results will be out in the public domain by the end of this week or early next week.
When asked about the prevalence of community transmission in the country, Gupta said that instead of focusing on the term “community transmission”, it was important to understand the extent of spread of the contagion and where India stood in comparison with other countries.
Responding to a question on whether there is some amount of under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths with several states not testing bodies for the infection, Gupta said there was no under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths in India and states were doing causality assessment and attributing cause of death accordingly.
“None of us thinks that there is gross under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths. If you look at the figures, India has been very good with reduction in mortality, as compared with other nations,” she said. “A patient who comes to hospital and dies can be COVID-19 positive or negative and there are lot of factors which are responsible for a death. It is not fair to attribute every death to COVID-19,” Gupta said at a press conference.
In terms of the number of deaths getting reported in the country and also even in different mortuaries, Agarwal said “there was no abnormal increase in numbers rather they have gone down”.
“Let us feel reassured that the country is in safe hands and continued efforts are being done in the direction in terms of management of COVID-19,” he said at the briefing.
The health ministry also stressed on the importance of taking adequate precautions even as the country has begun to open up offices, shops and commercial activity under the ‘Unlock’ plan announced by the Centre.
“As we are in ‘Unlock-1’ situation, the challenge before us is how to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour, be it in terms of travel or office functioning. We have to think in terms of a new normal on how to live with the virus by taking adequate precautions so as to protect ourselves from it,” he said.
Many states have eased restrictions since Monday to revive the economy and achieve a semblance of normalcy, after a two-month-long coronavirus-induced lockdown. Domestic flights and trains have also begun to operate to a limited extent.
State-wise cases
Meanwhile, the number of cases and deaths has continued to rise in many states, especially among those coming from other states and abroad. A PTI tally based on the numbers reported by states and Union Territories till 10.05 pm put the total number of infections found in the country at 2,00,321 and deaths at 5,739. It also showed a higher count of recoveries at 99,613, leaving nearly 95,000 active cases across the country.
Gujarat on Tuesday reported 415 new COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths, taking the overall case count to 17,632 and fatalities to 1,092, the state Health department said. In Ahmedabad itself, 279 new cases and 24 deaths were recorded taking the total to 12,773 and toll to 888.
In neighbouring Maharashtra, the case count surged to 72,300 with  2,287 and 103 deaths recorded. With this, the death count in the state rose to 2,465. The number of active cases in the state stands at 38,493, said the state health department.
Karnataka recorded the biggest single-day spike of 388 COVID-19 cases, with returnees from neighbouring Maharashtra continuing to add to the state’s case count, taking the total number of infections to 3,796, according to the state health department. With 367 out of 388 new cases being returnees from other states, mostly from neighboring Maharashtra (357), the Karnataka government said it was mulling over increasing institutional quarantine for those returning from the western state.
Kerala also recorded a spurt in cases, with 86 testing positive in a single day and pushing the state’s total to 1,412. A 77-year-old Christian priest died at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital on Tuesday, taking the toll in the state to 11.
Tamil Nadu reported more than 1,000 cases for the third straight day, pushing the infection count past the 24,000 mark. The toll has risen to 197 with 13 more deaths while the number of confirmed cases surged to 24,586.
In Telangana, twelve post-graduate students of a state-run medical college tested positive for COVID-19 while the fresh cases in Himachal Pradesh included a Delhi Police personnel, a SpiceJet passenger and a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) employee. The confirmed cases in the hilly state climbed to 346.
In Delhi, five police personnel from Anand Parbat area, taking the total number of those infected among the Delhi Police to over 500, reported ANI. Thirteen employees of Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal’s office and six other government officials have also tested positive for COVID-19, sources told PTI. They said junior assistants, drivers, peons are among the 13 people working at the Lt Governor Secretariat who have tested positive for the virus, leading to fear among other employees.
Deeply concerned about health of officials of my secretariat who tested positive for COVID-19 Health of all officials is stable & is being closely monitored
All of these officials were working tirelessly in these difficult times shoulder to shoulder with other frontline workers
— LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) June 2, 2020
Meanwhile, the global toll due to the viral infection climbed to 3,76,320 and the number of cases reached 61,94,533, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO’s) coronavirus tracker.
With inputs from agencies
Updated Date: Jun 03, 2020 15:59:30 IST
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