India surpasses China tally with 85,000 confirmed cases; Bihar, Karnataka, J&K cross 1,000-mark
NEW DELHI: The nationwide tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases crossed 85,000 on Friday with more people testing positive for the deadly virus infection from Kashmir to Kerala and from Karnataka to Bihar, even as indications emerged about greater relaxations in the fourth phase of the lockdown beginning Monday to contain economic costs of the pandemic.
Going by the numbers declared by different states and Union Territories, India has now surpassed China’s official tally of 82,933 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
However, as per the numbers declared by the states, a large number of cases continued to get detected in big urban clusters. Maharashtra, the most-affected state, reported 1,576 new cases to take its tally to 29,100, while its death toll rose to 1,068. Also, Tamil Nadu crossed the 10,000mark with 434 new cases, while
Gujarat saw 341 more people testing positive to push its tally to 9,932.
Globally, more than 3 lakh people have died and nearly 45
lakh have tested positive for the deadly virus since its emergence in Wuhan last December. While China and several other countries have begun reopening their economies, fresh concerns have begun mounting about a possible re-emergence of the virus.
India is now the 11th mostaffected nation in the world, but each one of the top-10 has one
lakh or more cases. The US tops the charts with more than 14 lakh cases, followed by Russia, UK, Spain, Italy and Brazil with over 2
lakh cases each; and France, Germany, Turkey and Iran having over 1 lakh cases each.
The Union Health ministry on Friday said the death toll due to COVID-19 across India has risen to 2,649 and the number of cases has climbed to 81,970, registering an increase of 100 deaths and 3,967 cases in the last 24 hours since Thursday morning. There are more than 51,000 active cases, while nearly 28,000 have recovered, giving a recovery rate of over 34 per cent.
However, a tally of numbers reported by states and UTS, later in the evening, put the total number of confirmed cases across the country much higher at 85,538. This also showed at least 2,679 deaths and nearly 30,000 recoveries.
Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar and Karnataka breached the 1,000mark in terms of the number of people having tested positive, while testing and containment measures were ramped up in places like, Kerala, Goa and Manipur that were being seen as being mostly virus-free till a few days back. Even a quarantine centre had to be sealed in Manipur.