New Delh:
The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 873 in India on Saturday with the death toll rising to 19, according to the Union Health Ministry.
While, the US surpassed China in Covid-19 cases, global infections have crossed 597,267 mark. As many as 27,360 people have died so far due to the virus.
In its updated figures at 9.30 am, the ministry mentioned two fresh deaths — one each in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.This was the highest number of COVID-19 cases the country has recorded so far in a single day. Maharashtra is the worst affected state with more than 150 confirmed coronavirus cases. Mumbai witnessed four deaths related to COVID-19 infection.
Thus, deaths due to COVID-19 have so far been reported from Maharashtra (5), Gujarat (3), Karnataka (2), Madhya Pradesh (2) and one each from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
According to the data, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 775, while 78 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated.
Five members of a family, including three children, tested positive for COVID-19 in West Bengal on Friday, taking the number of such cases in the state to 15, a senior health official said.
Among the five are a nine-month-old baby, a six-year-old girl, an 11-year-old boy, and two women aged 27 and 45, he said. The 27-year-old woman had come in contact with a person from the UK who recently tested positive, the official added. The woman is from Tehatta in West Bengal's Nadia district but now lives in Uttarakhand, he said.
India has entered stage three, which is community transmission, it is the beginning of this stage.The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is rapidly expanding its footprint in India and has entered stage three, which is community transmission, the convenor of the task force for Covid-19 hospitals, Dr Girdhar Gyani,Director General, Association of Healthcare Providers .
“When cases with no travel history or direct contact to diagnosed cases start coming in large numbers, then we take it as a beginning of community spread. Though in that sense, we are not in Stage 3, but it would be better that we do our preparations as if we are in phase-3. In case of community rise, numbers start rising exponentially," said Dr Gyani,
Dr Gyani said that the upcoming ten days would be crucial to halt the pandemic spread and even the asymptomatic till now, might start showing symptoms once the situation gets out of control.
However, the Union health ministry officials had on Thursday said that India was at the second stage as there is still no "hard evidence" to say that there has been community transmission of the fast-spreading coronavirus, remarks which may provide anxious citizens with much needed assurance and hope.
"While the numbers of Covid-19 cases are increasing, there appears to be relatively a stable trend or even little bit reduction in the rate at which they are increasing," Health Ministry official Lav Aggarwal said in a briefing.