New Delhi:
The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,568 and the number of cases climbed to 46,433 in the country on Tuesday, the Union Health Ministry said.
The number of active cases stood at 32,138, while 12,726 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.The total number of cases also includes 111 foreign nationals
A total 179 deaths deaths have been reported since Monday evening, of which 98 were from West Bengal, 35 from Maharashtra, 29 from Gujarat, six from Rajasthan, five from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab and one each from Chandigarh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Of the 1,568 fatalities recorded so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 583 deaths, followed by Gujarat at 319, Madhya Pradesh at 165, West Bengal at 133, Rajasthan at 77, Delhi at 64, Uttar Pradesh at 50 and Andhra Pradesh at 36.
The death toll reached 31 in Tamil Nadu and 29 in Telangana, while Karnataka has reported 27 fatalities due to the respiratory disease. Punjab has registered 23 deaths, Jammu and Kashmir eight, Haryana six and Kerala and Bihar have reported four deaths each. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities so far.
Nearly three-fourths of all Covid-19 cases and deaths reported in India have been in the country’s 35 largest urban agglomerations (UA), with two-thirds of cases and deaths being in just 13 of them, an analysis of the data by a media group shows.
As many as 1,074 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, the highest number of recoveries recorded in one day, the health ministry said on Monday.
Addressing a press briefing, Joint Secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said the recovery rate stands at 27.52 per cent with 11,706 COVID-19 patients cured till now.
He further said the outcome ratio of COVID-19 — the ratio of recoveries and deaths of closed cases — was recorded at 90:20.
"The outcome ratio on April 17 was 80:20 which is now 90:20 which can be seen as an improvement," Agarwal said.
West Bengal has the highest mortality rate in the country at 12.8 per cent, Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) leader Apoorva Chandra wrote in his final observations to state Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha.
"This extremely high mortality rate is a clear indication of low testing, weak surveillance and tracking," Mr Chandra said in the letter.
A discrepancy has been brought to the fore in the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the state in its medical bulletins and its communication with the Union government, Mr Chandra noted in the letter.
Amitabh Kant, Chairman Empowered Group dealing with civil society, NGOs, industries and international partners, said in 112 aspirational districts, "we worked with the collectors and in these 112 districts only 610 cases have been reported which is 2 per cent of the national level infection".
In these 112 districts, 22 per cent of India's population resides, he said.
In a few districts like Baramulla, Nuh Rachi, YSR, Kupwara and Jaisalmer more than 30 cases have been reported, while in the rest of the places very few cases are there, Kant, who is also the CEO of NITI Aayog, said.
Kant said the telemedicine service is now available on the Aarogya Setu application.
He said 90 million people have installed the Aarogya Setu app till now. "Arogya Setu Mitra which has telemedicine features is also there," he said.
The mobile application helps users identify whether they are at risk of the COVID-19 infection. It also provides people with important information, including ways to avoid coronavirus infection and its symptoms.
"The application enables people to assess the risk of exposure to COVID-19 infection based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge bluetooth technology, and artificial Intelligence enabled algorithms," he said.
Kant said the Empowered Group 6 has mobilised over 92,000 NGOs and CSOs and appealed them to assist state governments and district administrations in identifying hotspots and delivering essential services to the vulnerable including the homeless, daily wagers and and migrant workers.
Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data
More then 70 per cent of the deaths are due to co-morbidity, the ministry said on its website
According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra (14,541), followed by Gujarat (5,804), Delhi (4,898), Tamil Nadu (3,550), Rajasthan (3,061), Madhya Pradesh (2,942) and Uttar Pradesh (2,766)
The number of confirmed cases has gone up to 1,650 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,259 in West Bengal
It has risen to 1,233 in Punjab, 1,085 in Telengana, 726 in Jammu and Kashmir, 651 in Karnataka, 528 in Bihar and 517 in Haryana.Kerala has reported 500 coronavirus cases so far, while Odisha has 169. A total of 115 people have been infected by the virus in Jharkhand and 102 in Chandigarh.Uttarakhand has reported 60 cases so far, Chhattisgarh 58, Assam 43 and Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh have registered 41 cases each so far.Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Tripura has registered 29 cases, Meghalaya has reported 12, Puducherry eight and Goa has recorded seven cases so farManipur has two cases. Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.