Covid-19 cases zooming in Unlock 4, Centre wants worst-affected states to hit hard

The Centre exhorted the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to take aggressive measures to break the chain of transmission and ensure that the mortality was kept below one per cent as these three states account for nearly 49 per cent of the total active cases and more than 57 per cent of Covid deaths.

Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram said that India seems to be the only country that is not reaping the benefits of the lockdown strategy.

As per Union health Ministry's daily morning update, 86,432 fresh infections were reported during the past 24 hours while 1,089 people died. With the new additions, the overall tally zoomed past the 40 lakh-mark, with the figure standing at 40,23,179, while the death toll mounted to 69,561.

India reached the grim milestone of 4 million cases with a fatality rate of just 1.73 per cent. The peninsular nation is not the only country with a high number of cases and relatively low fatalities. Russia too has recorded 10,20,310 cases with 17,759 deaths, i.e 1.74 per cent fatality rate.

Even as the number of fresh cases of Coronavirus crept upwards, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare pointed to the record high recovery rate with more than 70,000 patients being discharged in a single day.

The recovery rate of 77.23 per cent, has also led to the decline in Case Fatality Rate.

Delhi has been continuously reporting sharp upticks from past few days. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the testing has been doubled and gave the mantra of "test, test and test".