India's death toll due to COVID-19 climbs to 543

Published On: April 20, 2020 12:18 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, April 20: The death toll from novel coronavirus climbed to 543 in India on Monday, media reports said.

Coronavirus disease tally rose to 17,265 with 1553 new cases and 543 fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to the country's Union health ministry.

There are 14,175 active cases and 2547 people have been cured, discharged or migrated, the Hindustan Times Online reported quoting the government agencies.

The Indian state of Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths as of today. The state neared the 5000-mark with 4203 Covid-19 cases and 223 deaths. The ministry data showed 507 people have also been discharged from hospitals.

The western state had recorded its highest one-day jump in Covid-19 cases on Sunday with 552 more infections. Authorities in India’s most-affected state have said the spike was because of a backlog in Mumbai’s civic body and private laboratories.

The spurt comes as a blow to the state’s health authorities after four consecutive days of relatively low numbers, which were 232, 286, 118 and 328 cases between April 15 and 18.

Maharashtra crossed the 1000-case mark in 30 days on April 7 and the 2000-mark in just six days on April 13. The state went from 2000 cases to 3000 in three days and from 3000 to 4000 also in three days.

After Maharashtra, the Indian capital New Delhi is the second most affected in the country with more than 2000 Covid-19 cases—2003 active, 72 discharged and 45 deaths. The national capital had crossed the 2000-mark on Sunday.

Chief minister of New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal said the “coronavirus is spreading fast” and declared all 11 revenue districts of Delhi as hot spots and directed the administration to conduct a fresh assessment of the situation in the Capital by April 27.

“We have witnessed an increase in the number of cases. Yesterday, out of the 736 test results processed, 186 tested positive and all were asymptomatic... This is a scary situation,” the Hindustan Times quoted Kejriwal as saying.

Gujarat, the hometown of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become the third most affected in the country and now has 1911 Covid-19 cases, out of which 105 people have been discharged and 63 have died.