Covid tally nears 50,000 with steep spike of around 3,000 cases

New Delhi, May 6, India’s Covid-19 count inched close to the 50,000-mark on Wednesday after a significant rise of 2,958 fresh cases, while the toll reached 1,694 with 111 more deaths.
As per the Union Health Ministry data, 1,475 more patients recovered, taking the total recovery to 14,183 in numbers and 28.7 in percentage. The rate of fatalities stood at 3.4 per cent.
The latest spike shows that it took only four days for India to add over 10,000 cases, a sign of worry.
Lion’s share
Maharashtra added 984 cases to its tally, breaching 15,000-mark and reaching 15,525. As many as 34 more patients succumbed to the deadly virus, taking the toll to 617.
With 368 new cases and 49 more deaths, the total infections in Gujarat reached 6,245 while fatalities 368.
Delhi registered 206 fresh cases while no new death, taking the tally to 5,104. As many as 64 people have died in the national capital from the infection.
In the country, Maharashtra registered highest number of fresh cases while Gujarat reported maximum fatalities in past 24 hours.
Review
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a detailed review of the current status in vaccine development, drug discovery, diagnosis and testing. Over 30 Indian vaccines are in different stages of corona vaccine development, with a few going on to the trial stages.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan held a high-level meeting with Health Ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Expressing concern regarding the high fatality rate in some districts of the states, Dr Vardhan asserted, ‘States need to focus on more effective surveillance, contact tracing and early diagnosis to reduce the fatality.’
The Union Health Ministry also wrote to the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) to ensure availability of critical drugs for management of COVID-19 and other essential drugs.
Concern
The Union Government launched ‘AarogySetu Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)’ for citizens with feature phones and landline. They can now give a missed call to know their health status.
Following allegations of security issues with the government’s Aarogya Setu application by French hacker Robert Baptiste, the application’s team stated that no personal information of any user had been proven to be at risk.
Close to nine crore users have downloaded the Aarogya Setu app till now. The government has made its installation mandatory for government and private sector employees.