India's COVID-19 cases near 60,000 in 100 days

AS India enters the last week of its official lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19, the country reported nearly 60,000 cases as on Saturday (9). India reported its first case of infection in the Southern state of Kerala on January 30.

The death toll due to the deadly virus rose to 1,981 and the number of cases climbed to 59,662 in the country, registering an increase of 95 deaths and 3,320 new cases in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry.

The number of active cases stood at 39,834, while 17,846 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 29.91 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.   The total number of cases also include 111 foreign nationals.

A total 95 deaths deaths were reported since Friday (8) morning, of which 37 in Maharashtra, 24 in Gujarat, nine in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, three from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and two from Delhi and one each from Punjab and Haryana.

Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities. Odisha and Himachal Pradesh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Assam and Uttarakhand have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry.

India says 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.

The highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 19,063, followed by Gujarat (7,402), Delhi (6,318), Tamil Nadu (6,009), Rajasthan (3,579), Madhya Pradesh (3,341) and Uttar Pradesh (3,214).

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,887 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,731 in Punjab.  It has risen to 1,678 in West Bengal, 1,133 in Telengana, 823 in Jammu and Kashmir, 753 in Karnataka, 647 in Haryana and 571 in Bihar.

Kerala has reported 503 coronavirus cases so far, while Odisha has 271 cases. A total of 150 people have been infected with the deadly virus in Chandigarh and 132 in Jharkhand.  Tripura has reported 118 cases, Uttarakhand has 63 cases, Chhattisgarh and Assam have 59 cases each, Himachal Pradesh has 50 and Ladakh has registered 42 cases so far.

Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Meghalaya has registered 12 cases, Puducherry has nine, while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases.     Manipur has two cases. Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli have reported a case each.