India crosses 500 coronavirus positive cases, 10 deaths & 37 recovered

March 24: India, which has 504 confirmed cases now, has seen its infections more than double in the past four days. Just on March 19, it had reported 169 cases. The figure includes at least 41 foreign nationals and 10 deaths reported so far.

The figures in the sub-continent including India is increasingly in an alarming way. Here is the state wise break up of the COVID-19 infected persons in India:

• Maharashtra: 107
• Kerala: 95
• Delhi: 31
• Uttar Pradesh: 33
• Telengana: 32
• Haryana: 26
• Rajasthan: 33
• Karnataka: 37
• Ladakh: 13
• Jammu & Kashmir (state): 13
• Gujarat: 29
• Uttarakhand: 03
• Andhra Pradesh: 07
• Madhya Pradesh: 07
• Tamil Nadu: 12
• Himachal Pradesh: 03
• Punjab: 21
• West Bengal: 07
• Odisha: 02
• Bihar: 02
• Chandigarh: 06
• Chhatisgarh: 01
• Puducherry: 01
• Manipur: 01

In the global context, the total number of coronavirus affected persons is 3,84,429, out of which 2,65,302 are active cases whereas, 1,02,536 of them have recovered till now. On Saturday evening, the total number of corona related death stands at 16,591.

The source of the data is COVID-19 Tracker updated at 4 PM on Tuesday. As cases of the viral infection surged in the past few days, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.

A Hindustan Times’ report, citing a statistical analysis of current trends stated that, “confirmed coronavirus cases in India might rise from 97,000 to 1.3 million by the middle of the May, given the country’s demographics – which raises the possibility of the country being unable to avoid widespread deaths if its weak healthcare system is overwhelmed by the outbreak.” The assessment is based on daily case data from the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Visual Dashboard operated by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discusses working together on the coronavirus pandemic with China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “We agreed to build further on our bilateral efforts in this domain and exchanged views on the forthcoming G20 summit,” he said. “Global challenges require global cooperation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pune based Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd has developed India’s first indigenous #COVID19 testing kit that has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). A single kit costs Rs 80,000 & can test 100 patients.