Coronavirus India Live Updates: India registered 1,752 new coronavirus cases on Friday - its biggest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic - taking the total to 23,452. The number of deaths reached 723 with 37 more people dying from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
For the first time, Bengal has officially linked 57 deaths to coronavirus. The state government today revealed that according to its death audit committee, 57 COVID-19 patients had died, but asserted that 39 of these were due to co-morbidities.
Only 18 of the deaths were because of COVID-19, Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha told the media. "Balance 39 deaths were due to comorbidities and COVID-19 was incidental," Mr Sinha said.
Central teams to asses alleged coronavirus lockdown violations and other gaps in the fight to control the contagion will be sent to three more states, Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, the government said today, amid a row with Bengal.
The situation is "especially serious" in major hotspot districts or emerging hotspots like Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Thane in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the Union Home Ministry said today in tweets.
Five Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) will be sent to assess the situation in the states, issue directions to state authorities and submit their report to the centre "in the larger interest of the general public, the ministry announced.
The COVID-19 crisis has taught India to "be self-sufficient and not depend on others for anything we need in our daily lives", Prime Minister Narendra Modi told village chiefs during a video conference held amid a nationwide lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the COVID-19 virus. "Coronavirus has sent so many challenges our way, but we must always learn from the situation we are in in life. It has given us a lot to think about and taught about the way we act. It has made it absolutely clear that we have to depend only on ourselves for our survival," the Prime Minister said during his address on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day.
Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state with 6,427 cases and 283 deaths. With 522 more people testing positive, Mumbai alone has 4,025 coronavirus cases as of Thursday. The increase was the single-biggest jump for the city since the beginning of the pandemic. The number of deaths in the city rose by six to 167, officials said.
