India 9th worst-hit country in terms of COVID-19 deaths; recoveries surpass active cases

New Delhi: With 9,195 fatalities till Sunday, India is the ninth worst-hit nation in terms of COVID-19 deaths while the highest spike of 11,929 cases took the tally to over 3.20 lakh of which over half have recovered from the disease.

According to the Union health ministry data, the country recorded 311 new deaths in the 24-hour period till Sunday morning while the recovery rate rose to above 50 per cent with 1,62,378 patients cured so far, leaving 1,49,348 cases active.

The Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, put India in the ninth position in terms of death toll and fourth in terms of total caseload.

This was the third day in a row that more than 10,000 cases of infection has been reported in the country. A total of 8,049 COVID-19 patients have been cured till Sunday 8 am taking the recovery rate to 50.60 per cent, the health ministry said. One patient has migrated out of the country.

The Indian Council of Medical Research’s testing capacity for detecting COVID-19 cases was being ramped up continuously.

In total, 893 laboratories — 646 government and 247 private — tested 56,58,614 swab samples till 9 am with 1,51,432 of them in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.

Of the total deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,830 fatalities, followed 1,448 in Gujarat and 1,271 in Delhi. The toll due to the disease rose to 463 in West Bengal, 447 in Madhya Pradesh, 397 in Tamil Nadu and 385 in Uttar Pradesh.

There have been 282 COVID-19 deaths in Rajasthan and 182 in Telangana. The number of fatalities reached 82 in Andhra Pradesh, 81 in Karnataka, 78 in Haryana and 65 in Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 55 COVID-19 deaths, followed by 39 in Bihar, 23 in Uttarakhand and 19 in Kerala.

Odisha has registered 10 deaths so far, followed by eight each in Jharkhand and Assam, and six each in Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh. Five people have succumbed to the viral infection in Chandigarh, followed by two in Puducherry, and one each in Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh, the heath ministry said.

More than 70 per cent of the deaths have happened due to comorbidities, it added.

The maximum number of cases are from Maharashtra at 1,04,568, followed by Tamil Nadu 42,687, Delhi 38,958 and Gujarat 23,038. In Uttar Pradesh, the tally rose to 13,118 Rajasthan 12,401 and West Bengal 10,698.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 10,641 in Madhya Pradesh, 6,824 in Karnataka, 6,749 in Haryana and 6,290 in Bihar. In Andhra Pradesh, 5,965 people have contracted the deadly disease so far, followed by Jammu and Kashmir 4,878, Telangana 4,737, Odisha 3,723 and Assam 3,718.

There are 3,063 cases in Punjab and 2,407 in Kerala, while 1,785 people have been infected in Uttarakhand and 1,711 in Jharkhand. A total of 1,512 people are afflicted with the disease in Chhattisgarh, followed by 1,046 in Tripura, 523 in Goa and 502 in Himachal Pradesh.

The number of coronavirus cases rose to 449 in Manipur, 437 in Ladakh and 345 in Chandigarh. Puducherry has registered 176 COVID-19 cases so far, followed by Nagaland 163, Mizoram 107 and Arunachal Pradesh 87.

Sikkim has 63 COVID-19 cases, while there are 44 instances of the infections in Meghalaya and 38 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have registered 35 COVID-19 cases so far.

The figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research, the ministry said, adding that 7,436 cases were being reassigned to states. Statewise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added