(TibetanReview.net, May15’20) – The number of people infected by the Covid-19 pandemic in India had increased more than three times in less than 20 days with the country continuing to report nearly 4,000 new cases each day, reported indianexpress.com May 15. In the worst hit state of Maharashtra, Mumbai city alone has more cases than any other state.
Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone are states and Union Territories with zero active cases while fresh cases have been reported from hitherto coronavirus-free Goa and Manipur, noted tribuneindia.com May 15.
***
India reported 3,967 new Covid-19 cases and 100 new deaths during the past 24 hours as of May 15 at 8AM (GMT+5:30). They took the country’s cumulative totals to 81,970 infections and 2,649 deaths, according to the tally of India’s Ministry of Health.
India is currently the country with the 12th highest cumulative total of Covid-19 cases and 16th highest number of deaths from the pandemic.
With a total of 27,920 infected persons having recovered, 51,401 cases remain active.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by a huge margin, had a cumulative total of 27,524 cases after 1,602 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Tamil Nadu with 9,674 (+447) cases, Gujarat with 9,591 (+324) cases, Delhi with 8,470 (+472) cases, Rajasthan with 4,534 (+206) cases, Madhya Pradesh with 4,426 (+253) cases, Uttar Pradesh with 3,92 (+173) cases, West Bengal with 2,377 (+87) cases, Andhra Pradesh with 2,205 (+68) cases, Punjab with 1,935 (+11) cases, and Telangana with 1,414 (+47) cases.
Apart from the above states which each had more than 1,000 cases, those with more than 100 cases included Bihar 994 (+54), Karnataka 987 (+28), Jammu & Kashmir 983 (+12), Haryana 818 (+25), Odisha 611 (+73), Kerala 560 (+26), Jharkhand 197 (+24), Chandigarh 191 (+4), and Tripura 156 (+1).
Other states/Union Territories with more than 10 cases included Assam 87 (+7), Uttarakhand 78 (+6), Himachal Pradesh 74 (+8), Chattisgarh 60 (+1), Ladakh, 43 (+0), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 33 (+0), Goa 14 (+7), Puducherry 13 (+0), and Meghalaya 13 (+0).
Besides, Manipur (3), Mizoram (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1), and Dadar Nagar Haveli (1) had reported cases.
Maharashtra also had the most number of deaths at 1,019 (+44), followed by Gujarat 586 (+20), Madhya Pradesh 237 (+5), West Bengal 215 (+8), Rajasthan 125 (+4), Delhi 115 (+9), Uttar Pradesh 88 (+5), Tamil Nadu 66 (+2), Andhra Pradesh 48 (+1), Telangana 34 (+0), Karnataka 35 (+2), Punjab 32 (+0), Haryana 11 (+0), Jammu & Kashmir 11 (+0), Bihar 7 (+0), Kerala 4 (+0), Jharkhand 3 (+0), Odisha 3 (+0), Chandigarh 3 (+0), Himachal Pradesh 2 (+0), and Assam 2 (+0). Besides three states/ union territories, namely Meghalaya, Puducherry, and Uttarakhand had 1 death each. (Source: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/)
***
Nearly half of Delhi’s 80-odd containment zones stand a good chance of coming out of the hard lockdown over the next few days but the city will mostly remain a red zone with limited relaxations after May 17 if the Centre does not tweak its policy of listing districts and not specific localities as red zones, Hindustantimes.com May 14 cited a senior Delhi government official as saying.
“If the Centre does not change its policy, 10 (out of the 11) districts of Delhi would still come under the red zone classification,” he was quoted as saying.
The report noted that at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s marathon video conference with chief ministers on May 11, many states had made the point that the lockdown should continue only in the containment zones and people living outside these hotspots should be encouraged to get on with their lives and resume economic activity.
***
In Himachal Pradesh, of the 34 active cases, 13 are in Kangra, six in Chamba, five in Hamirpur, four in Bilaspur, two each in Una, Sirmaur and one each in Mandi and Shimla, reported tribuneindia.com May 15. The state’s cumulative cases total 76.
Meanwhile, a special train carrying 1,473 stranded Himachali passengers from Goa reached Una railway station on Apr 15 morning. Of them, 317 were headed for Kangra, reported tribuneindia.com May 15, adding all will be institutionally quarantined.
***
Across the world the total number of Covid-19 cases had reached 4,444,670 with 302,493 deaths as of May 15 at 12:02:14 PM (GMT-4), according to the Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. There were 84,063 new cases and 5,122 new deaths during the preceding 24 hours across 188 countries and regions.
The countries with the most number of reported cases thus far were US (1,417,889), Russia (252,245), UK (234,441), Spain (229,540), (Italy (223,096), Brazil (203,165), France (178,994), Germany (174,478), Turkey (144,749), Iran (114,533), China (84,029), and India (82,103).
The countries with the most number of deaths were US (85,906), UK (33,693), Italy (31,368), France (27,428), Spain (27,321), Brazil (13,999), Belgium (8,903), Germany (7,884), Iran (6,854), Netherlands (5,609), Canada (5,592), China (4,637), Mexico (4,477), Turkey 4,007), Sweden (3,529) and India (2,649).
