(TibetanReview.net, May18’20) – India reported its fourth highest number of daily Covid-19 infections since May 4 on May 17, the eve of the beginning of its fourth nationwide lockdown meant to curtail the spread of the global pandemic that broke out from the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs on May 17 issued new nine-page set of guidelines for the fourth phase of the lockdown which will end on May 31. Prohibition on all public gatherings, closure of schools, malls and restaurants, and suspension of flight and Metro services will remain in force.
Inter-state movement of passenger vehicles, buses have been allowed with mutual consent of states.
All markets and all shops are to open, barring those in malls in all zones. States have, for the first time, been given freedom to decide which parts of their state should be red, green and orange zones, including possibly the power to limit red zones to containment areas within a district. District authorities have been directed to demarcate ‘containment’ and ‘buffer’ areas within Red and Orange zones as per Union Health Ministry guidelines.
***
Reaching a daily increase of more than 5,000 for the first time, India reported 5,242 new Covid-129 infections on May 17, along with 157 deaths, taking the country’s cumulative totals to 96,169 infections and 3,029 deaths as of May 18 at 8AM (GMT+5:30), according to the tally of the country’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The number of active Covid-19 cases is 56,316, after the deaths and the recovery of 36,824 patients.
India is currently the country with the 11th highest cumulative total of Covid-19 cases and 16th highest number of deaths from the pandemic.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by a huge margin, had a cumulative total of 33,053 cases after 2,347 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Gujarat with 11,379 (+391) cases, Tamil Nadu with 11,224 (+639) cases, Delhi with 10,054 (+721) cases, Rajasthan with 5,202 (+242) cases, Madhya Pradesh with 4,977 (+188) cases, Uttar Pradesh with 4,259 (+1) cases, West Bengal with 2,677 (+101) cases, Andhra Pradesh with 2,407 (+52) cases, Punjab with 1,964 (+18) cases, Telangana with 1,551 (+42) cases, Bihar 1,262 (+83), and Jammu & Kashmir 1,183 (+628), and Karnataka 1,147 (+55).
Apart from the above states which each had more than 1,000 cases, those with more than 100 cases included Haryana 910 (+23), Odisha 828 (+91), Kerala 601 (+14), Jharkhand 223 (+6), Chandigarh 191 (+0), Tripura 167 (+0), and Assam 101 (+9).
Other states/Union Territories with more than 10 cases included Uttarakhand 92 (+4), Chattisgarh 86 (+19), Himachal Pradesh 80 (+2), Ladakh, 43 (+0), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 33 (+0), Goa 29 (+12), Puducherry 13 (+0), and Meghalaya 13 (+0).
Besides, Manipur (7), Mizoram (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1), and Dadar Nagar Haveli (1) had reported cases.
Maharashtra also had the most number of deaths at 1,198 (+63), followed by Gujarat 659 (+34), Madhya Pradesh 248 (+5), West Bengal 238 (+6), Delhi 160 (+31), Rajasthan 131 (+5), Uttar Pradesh 104 (+0), Tamil Nadu 78 (+4), Andhra Pradesh 50 (+1), Karnataka 37 (+1), Punjab 35 (+3), Telangana 34 (+0), Haryana 14 (+1), Jammu & Kashmir 13 (+1), Bihar 8 (+1), Kerala 4 (+0), Odisha 4 (+1), Jharkhand 3 (+0), Chandigarh 3 (+0), Himachal Pradesh 3 (+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/)
***
Across the world the total number of Covid-19 cases had crossed the 4.7 million mark to reach 4,718,215 with 315,283 deaths as of May 18 at 1:02:16 PM (GMT-4), according to the Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
There were 69,430 new cases and 3,254 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 (1,486,742), Russia (281,752), UK (244,995), Brazil (241,080), Spain (230,698), Italy (225,435), France (179,693), Germany (176,369), Turkey (149,435), Iran (120,198), India (96,169), Peru (92,273), and China (84,054).
The countries with the most number of deaths were US (89,564), UK (34,716), Italy (31,908), France (28,111), Spain (27,563), Brazil (16,122), Belgium (9,052), Germany (7,975), Iran (6,988), Canada (5,903), Netherlands (5,699), Mexico (5,177), China (4,638), Turkey (4,140), Sweden (3,679) and India (3,029).
