India's COVID-19 cases near 82,000; soon will cross China's tally

THE death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,649 in India and the number of cases climbed to 81,970 on Friday (15), the health ministry said. 

The country has reported 100 new deaths and 3,967 new cases due to coronavirus in the last 24 hours. India, second largest populous country after China, is all set to cross China's tally in total infections soon.

The number of active cases stood at 51,401 while 27,919 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said. Currently, the recovery rate in India is around 34.06 per cent.

The total confirmed cases include foreign nationals too. Of the 100 deaths reported since Thursday (14) morning, 44 were in Maharashtra, 20 in Gujarat, 9 in Delhi, 8 in West Bengal, five each in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, four in Rajasthan, two each in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and one in Andhra Pradesh.

Of the 2,649 fatalities, Maharashtra tops tally with 1,019 deaths, Gujarat comes second with 586 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 237, West Bengal at 215, Rajasthan at 125, Delhi at 115, Uttar Pradesh at 88,Tamil Nadu at 66 and Andhra Pradesh at 48.

The death toll reached 35 in Karnataka, 34 Telangana and 32 in Punjab.  Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir have reported 11 fatalities each due to the disease while Bihar has registered seven and Kerala has reported four deaths.  Jharkhand, Chandigarh and Odisha have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each while Himachal Pradesh and Assam have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Puducherry have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

According to the ministry, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 27,524, followed by Tamil Nadu at 9,674, Gujarat at 9,591, Delhi at 8,470 Rajasthan at 4,534, Madhya Pradesh at 4,426 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,902. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 2,377 in West Bengal, 2,205 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,935 in Punjab.

It has risen to 1,414 in Telangana, 994 in Bihar, 987 in Karnataka, 983 in Jammu and Kashmir and 818 in Haryana. Odisha has reported 611 coronavirus infection cases so far while Kerala has 560 cases. A total of 197 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 191 in Chandigarh.  Tripura has reported 156 cases, Assam has 87 cases, Uttarakhand has 78, Himachal Pradesh has 74 cases, Chhattisgarh has 60 and Ladakh has registered 43 cases so far.

Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.    Goa reported 14 COVID-19 cases while Meghalaya and Puducherry registered 13 cases each.  Manipur has three cases. Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli reported a case each till how.