India reported 122 deaths and 3,525 cases in the last 24 hours, taking coronavirus pandemic casualties to 2,415 on Wednesday while the total number of infections crossed the 74,000-mark to reach 74,281 including the 24,385 people who have been treated and discharged so far.
Of the total cases in the country, Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected with the highest number of cases at 24,427, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Tuesday was the seventh straight day of reporting over 1,000 new cases. Mumbai accounts for nearly 17 per cent of the nation’s COVID-19 cases. The city reported nearly 30 deaths on Tuesday, making it the city with 60 per cent of deaths in Maharashtra. Another worrying factor is that the cases seem to be emerging from fresh areas of Mumbai too.
Country’s enormous railway network tentatively ground back to life on May 12 as a gradual lifting of the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown gathered pace even as new cases surged. PM Modi in his fifth address to the nation on Tuesday said the fourth phase of a nationwide lockdown will be in a new form with new rules.
50 days since the initial lockdown was announced on March 24, lockdown 4.0 is expected to have more relaxations as state governments urge centre to open up factories to boost the plunging economy. “The novel coronavirus is going to be with us for long time, but we can’t let our lives revolve around it,” he said. The details of a further lockdown will be announced before May 18.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University data says at least 4,261,955 people around the world are known to have contracted the virus, and at least 291,964 have died since the pandemic began.