New Delhi:
With 478 cases reported in the last 24 hours, the highest spike so far, India's tally of positive coronavirus cases on Friday rose to 2,547 including 162 cured/discharged and 62 deaths, as per the latest data of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As many as 647 positive coronavirus cases have been reported so far from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin, the Centre said on Friday.
"A total of 647 cases of positive coronavirus cases have been reported from across 14 States whose linkage can be traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster at Nizamuddin," Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.
"The cases can be traced in Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, Delhi, Himachal, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh," added Aggarwal.
The Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 after several positive cases from across India were linked to the gathering including deaths in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana.
An FIR was earlier registered against Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and others under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897, in the national capital.
Meanwhile,Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked citizens to show their "collective resolve” in fighting the disease that has prompted his government to impose a three-week lockdown. "In that brightness, we should resolve that we are not alone. Nobody is alone," Modi said.
In a video message, Modi asked people to keep in their minds the poor, a large number of whom have been hit hard by the lockdown, and help them "walk from darkness spread by coronavirus to light and hope"
Close to a million people have now been detected as covid-19 patients globally even as severe parts of the world, including India, have taken severe lockdown measures in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes covid-19.
So far, covid-19 has claimed 53,030 deaths globally, of which Italy has accounted for the most deaths (13,915), followed by Spain (10,348). These countries have overtaken China — where the virus originated — in the number of deaths. China, which has seen 3,332 covid-19 deaths so far, has been able to slow the spread of the disease over the past month.
If Europe followed China in becoming the epicentre of the pandemic, the US has followed Europe now. At 245,070 confirmed cases and 5,949 deaths so far, the US has surpassed China on both counts.
US officials have however disputed China’s figures on deaths and cases, and suggested that the actual toll in China might have been several times higher.