Coronavirus Outbreak: COVID-19 tally in India crosses 59,000-mark; death toll nears 2,000

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 59,000-mark on Saturday, while the death toll is nearing the 2,000-mark as well. At 9 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 59,662 cases, which includes 39,84 are active cases; 17,847 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 1,981 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 3,320 new COVID-19 cases and 95 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, the COVID-19 tally in India had crossed the 56,000-mark, while the death toll had already topped the 1,800-mark.

In India, the state of Maharashtra has emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus spread where the number of cases witnessed a massive spike recently. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with around 19,063 positive cases of infection and 731 deaths.

Notably, Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, has become the hotbed of the coronavirus spread in the state where the number of cases has crossed the 12,000-mark and the death toll is over 460. One of the real challenges in Mumbai is controlling the disease contamination in Asia's biggest slum -- Dharavi, which is an extremely densely-populated region.

Maharashtra is followed by Gujarat with 7,403 cases and Delhi with 6,318 cases.

While Tamil Nadu's COVID-19 figure stands at 6,009 with 1,605 patients recovered and 40 fatalities, Rajasthan has reported 3,636 cases of which 2,011 has recovered and 103 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 3,341 positive cases so far of which 1,349 patients have recovered and 200 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 3,214 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 1,387 recovered and 66 people succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 504 people have been detected positive for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday said that India's recovery rate from the COVID-19 disease is around 29.36%, insisting that "one out of every three hospitalised patients" have recovered from COVID-19 in the country till date.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, informed that as many as 216 districts have not reported any case of COVID-19 to date, adding further details regarding the preparatory measures in the nation's fight against the virus.

On the efficiency of plasma treatment of COVID-19 patients, the Joint Secretary stated that Project PLACID - Phase-II Open-Label Randomised Controlled Trial of ICMR has received the approval of COVID-19 National Ethics Committee.

On the preparations of a further rise in cases, Agarwal said the Indian Railways has converted 5,231 coaches into COVID Care Centres, which will be placed at 215 identified railway stations. 

Railways have run 222 Shramik Special Trains for movement of stranded persons, more than 2.5 lakh people have made use of this facility so far.

India has launched its biggest repatriation mission - the 'Vande Bharat Mission' to bring back Indians stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown. The process of bringing back stranded Indians to the country, through non-scheduled commercial flights and Indian Navy ships, had also started on Thursday.

In the first two flights of the Vande Bharat Mission, 363 Indians, who were stranded in UAE, were brought back on Air India flights that landed in Kerala.