New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,694 and the number of cases climbed to 49,391 on Wednesday registering an increase of 126 deaths and 2,958 cases in the last 24 hours since Tuesday morning, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The 49,391 cases include 33,514 active cases, 1694 deaths and 14,182 cured/discharged and 1 migrated.
The death rate of COVID-19 patients in India is around 3.2 per cent while over 28 per cent of the total patients have recovered so far in the country, a senior health ministry official said. These can be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country along with the cluster management and containment strategy, the officials said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told PTI that India has been able to stave off community transmission of COVID-19 and hoped that "behavioural changes" brought about by the infection could become the "new normal" for a healthy society after the pandemic abates.
Tamil Nadu reported more than 500 new cases on Tuesday, which took its tall past 4,000, while Gujarat also tested 441 more people positive for the virus, taking its total to more than 6,200. Several other states also reported rising numbers. Ahmedabad alone reported 349 new cases and 39 more deaths.
Maharashtra reported 841 new cases and 34 more deaths during the day and its overall tally crossed 1,5500 with over 600 deaths. Delhi reported more than 200 new cases to take its tally to over 5,100, but it did not report any death for the third consecutive day.
Experts, however, said the peak of this deadly virus outbreak was yet to come and may be witnessed in India over the next 4-6 weeks, while another spurt might be seen later during the winter season.
The numbers suggested that more than one-third of the confirmed cases across the country has been detected in the past one week, with only a few urban centres in a handful of states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi accounting for a bulk of it.
Fears also emerged that India's tally may increase further with the government announcing plans to bring back a large number of Indians from various countries, beginning Wednesday, in what is being called the world's biggest ever evacuation programme. Sources said over 3 lakh people have registered for the evacuation from the Gulf region itself.
While the absolute number of cases and the death toll in India is lower than many others, with more than 2.5 lakh people having lost their lives and over 35 lakh having been infected worldwide ever since the emergence of this virus in China last December, the lockdown restrictions have been lifted in several countries and many of them are now reporting few or zero cases.
China and South Korea together reported only four cases on Tuesday, while Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand were among the countries having reported no cases for two consecutive days. Also, focus seems to have shifted globally towards developing a vaccine with several world leaders committing more than USD 8 billion since Monday for this purpose.
The government officials, however, maintained that India has managed to stave off a community transmission risk and the country remains in a "comfortable" position in terms of managing the COVID-19 crisis, though they cautioned against any laxity at the field level.
The country's top medical institute AIIMS' Director Randeep Guleria also said the COVID-19 curve has remained relatively flat so far, but he cautioned that the continued rise in the number of cases at a steady rate is a cause of concern.
Several state and central government officials also said that the numbers have been going up in recent days due to increased number of tests being conducted.
Separately, Health Minister Vardhan also underlined the importance of the nationwide lockdown, imposed since March 24 and scheduled to remain in place till May 17, and said health should be on the radar just as much as the economy.
