India’s Covid count balloons to 42,836 with highest-single-day spike of 2,573

New Delhi, May 4, With 2,573 fresh cases and 83 deaths in the past 24 hours, India recorded highest single-day spike in total number of cases as well as in fatalities, while the Health Ministry said the pandemic’s curve was relatively flat after the country entered the third phase of the lockdown on Monday.
Addressing the presser, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said, ‘As many as 11,706 people have been cured till date, of which 1,074 recovered in past 24 hours. This is the highest number in terms of cured patients noted till date. Our recovery rate is now 27.52 per cent.’
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the situation of India was better than rest of the countries of the world as doubling rate has slowed down. Over 10 lakh samples have been tested so far and around 40,000 came positive, the Minister informed.
The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) in Kolkata urged the West Bengal government to be transparent and consistent in reporting figures and not play down the spread of virus as the state reported 61 fresh cases.
The Centre has decided to deploy 20 public health teams in as many affected districts with maximum number of Covid-19 positive cases to assist sin implementation of containment strategy to combat the infectious disease.
The 20 districts in nine states besides Delhi are Mumbai, Thane and Pune in Maharashtra; Bhopal and Indore in MP; Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara in Gujarat; south east and central districts in Delhi; Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Agra and Lucknow in UP; Hyderabad in Telangana; Chennai in TN; Kolkata in Bengal; and Kurnool, Guntur and Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.
The Union Public Service Commission said the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2020, scheduled to be held on May 31, 2020 has been postponed in view of extension of restrictions.
Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said that it is critical to remain focused on testing, diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus patients in order to taper the pandemic’s trajectory.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said Railways has subsidised 85 per cent of ticket fare for special trains being run to transport migrant workers and state government has to pay remaining 15 per cent, soon after Congress attacked the government and announced that the grand-old party will bear the cost of the travel.
In the wake of people flouting social distancing norms outside liquor shops in the national capital after they opened, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “It was unfortunate that chaos was seen at some shops in Delhi. If we come to know about violations of social distancing and other norms from any area, we will have to seal the area and revoke the relaxations there.”