Coronavirus Update: Death Toll in India Rises to 118, Total Cases Cross 4,000

New Delhi, April 6, 2020:

As the nation completes 10 days of being "locked down" to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the pandemic continues to sweep across the States and cases continue to rise at an unprecedented rate. Now, the number of COVID-19 positive cases so far in the country has been reported at 4,298. Of those, 118 people have died, with several in the recovery/treatment phase. (source: worldometers.info)

Notably, 700 new coronavirus infections were reported in past 24 hours, according to the latest data from Health Ministry. This is a sharp spike from the 472 cases that the Government had reported on Sunday. Maharashtra remains the State with the highest number of COVID-19 cases.

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Meanwhile, the Indian Health Ministry continues to blame the Tablighi Jamaat gathering for the exponential rise in the number of cases. Lav Agrawal, joint secretary, has claimed that due to the Jamaat gathering, the doubling rate of the virus in India has increased significantly.

The doubling rate at present is 4.1 days, but if the additional cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event had not taken place, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days, Agrawal has claimed. The government further said that at least 1,023 confirmed cases of infection are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in the national capital last month. 22,000 of the contacts of the Jamaat attendees have been quarantined so far by the Indian Government.

In the Northeast, there has been no rise in the number of the cases in the past 24 hours. The last of the COVID-19 positive cases was reported from the state of Assam.

Apart from the 26 cases in Assam, there have been a few others in the NE states. While Manipur has reported two cases of the virus (including the first positive case in the region on March 24), Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have one each. Additionally, two from Tripura were tested positive in the state of Rajasthan, thousands of kilometres away from from their homeland.

ALSO READ: Mizoram Shows How to Stay Fit During Lockdown with “FitMizoram” Campaign

Meanwhile, in another development, it has been reported that singer Kanika Kapoor, who tested positive for the coronavirus after going on a trip to the UK, has now been discharged from the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences after her 6th test returned a negative result. Kapoor was lambasted for hiding her travel history and hobnobbing with several people after returning to India.

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