India’s cases hit 3,000; 500 in a day
93 new cases take Capital total count to 386, of which 259 were evacuated from Markaz
NEW DELHI: Delhi reported two more deaths from coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and 93 fresh cases on Friday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 386, even as the national case count crossed 3,000, with the emergence of new clusters in metropolises despite the country observing its 10th day of the three-week lockdown to break the chain of infections.
The jump in infections – from 2,520 on Thursday to 3,066 on Friday – is largely driven by the diagnosis of hundreds of patients who attended the congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group, in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin last month in a violation of several restrictions.
According to the Union health ministry, at least 647 people among the thousands who gathered at the Jamaat’s headquarters, Nizamuddin Markaz, have tested positive in 14 states in the last two days. “If we see the rise in cases in the last few days, it has primarily been due to an increase at a particular level,” joint secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said, referring to the congregation.
He said because of the “lockdown and our efforts to promote social distancing, cases were being reported but there was no sharp rise”.
The Delhi government said 93 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the national capital on Friday, taking the total count in the city-state to 386 – out of which 259, or 67%, were evacuated from Markaz. Around 1,800 others from the south Delhi area have been quarantined at hospitals across the city, in what has become the country’s largest virus hot spot for the highly contagious infection.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said there was no need to panic as the situation was under control and that community transmission of the virus was not taking place in the national capital.
The total number of deaths in the Capital stood at six on Friday.
Experts have pointed out that the impact of the lockdown – scientists say it is among the most effective means to break the chain of the contagion – could be undermined if the positive cases originating out of such clusters are not contained in time. It could be particularly challenging for a country of over 1.3 billion people, where the health care infrastructure would not be able to handle a larger outbreak despite the government’s recent efforts to prepare for such a situation.
Since authorities traced a number of infections to the Tablighi gathering, state governments have scrambled to locate and identify those who attended the congregation, with at least 9,000 Jamaat workers and their contacts counted and quarantined till Thursday evening.
Ramping up their efforts to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, authorities on Friday announced exclusive isolation wards and initiated rapid tests in areas identified as hot spots of the infection, with more than 8,000 samples being tested in 24 hours, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).