COVID-19 death toll rises to 1,223, cases climbs to 37,776 in India: Health Ministry

PTI, May 2, 2020, 8:41 PM IST

New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,223 and the number of cases climbed to 37,776 in the country on Saturday, registering an increase of 71 deaths and a record jump of 2,411 cases in 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 26,565, while 10,017 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.

“Thus, around 26.52 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said. The total number of cases includes 111 foreign nationals.

A total of 71 deaths were reported since Friday evening – 26 from Maharashtra, 22 from Gujarat, eight from Madhya Pradesh, four from Rajasthan, three from Karnataka, two each from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and one each from Bihar, Haryana, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Of the 1,223 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the maximum with 485 fatalities, followed by Gujarat (236), Madhya Pradesh (145), Rajasthan (62), Delhi (61), Uttar Pradesh (43) and West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh at 33 each.

The death toll reached 28 in Tamil Nadu, 26 in Telangana, while Karantaka has reported 25 fatalities due to the disease. Punjab has registered 20 COVID-19 deaths, Jammu and Kashmir eight, Kerala and Haryana have reported four deaths each, and Jharkhand and Bihar have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.

Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported a fatality each, according to the ministry data. However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Saturday evening showed 37,707 COVID-19 cases and 1,232 deaths due to the disease in the country.

There has been a lag in the Union health ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. According to the health ministry data updated in the evening, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country is from Maharashtra at 11,506, followed by Gujarat (4,721), Delhi (3,738), Madhya Pradesh (2,719), Rajasthan (2,666), Tamil Nadu (2,526) and Uttar Pradesh (2,455).

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,525 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,057 in Telangana. It has risen to 795 in West Bengal, 772 in Punjab, 639 in Jammu and Kashmir, 598 in Karnataka, 498 in Kerala and 471 in Bihar.

Haryana has reported 360 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 154 cases. A total of 111 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 88 in Chandigarh. Uttarakhand has reported 58 cases, Assam and Chhattisgarh have 43 cases each, while Himachal Pradesh has registered 40 cases so far.

Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while Ladakh has recorded 22 cases of the infection. Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, Puducherry eight while Goa has seven COVID-19 cases.

Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each. “Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR,” the ministry said on its website, adding, “179 cases are being assigned to states for contact tracing.” Statewise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.