Every day tens of new cases and death are being reported in india. In the 10 days between March 10 and 20, the number of people in India who tested positive for Covid-19, reached 606 and by the end of the month (March 31) India had 1397 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
India has reported 1,637 novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, cases with 45 deaths. The country saw its single biggest jump of 386 cases in the last 24 hours, with Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin religious gathering contributing most of the cases.
Health Ministry Blames Travellers
On April 1, the health ministry on Wednesday blamed travellers who attended a gathering at Delhi’s Nizamuddin for the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, health ministry, said 134 coronavirus cases were linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic group which organised the gathering in mid-March. “There were 386 new COVID-19 cases since Tuesday-one of the main reasons for it is travel by members of the Tablighi Jamaat,” he said. 389 of the 2,000-plus cases were linked to Tablighi Jamaat. Nine deaths were reported in Telangana. Besides, 19 people connected to the Tablighi Jamaat meet have died in different states.
State-wise tally on positive cases
Uttar Pradesh has reported 103 positive cases so far, while the cases in Karnataka have risen to 101 and in Telangana to 96. Rajasthan has reported 93 cases, Andhra Pradesh 83, Gujarat 82 , Jammu and Kashmir 62 while Madhya Pradesh has 66 positive patients so far. Punjab has reported 42 cases, while 43 COVID-19 cases have been detected in Haryana. The number of cases has risen to 37 in West Bengal. Bihar has 23 while Chandigarh has 16 and Ladakh has reported 13 cases. Ten cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Chhattisgarh has nine positive patients while Uttarakhand has reported seven cases so far. Goa has reported five coronavirus cases. Odisha has four cases each while Puducherry and Himachal Pradesh have reported three cases each. Assam, Jharkhand, Puducherry, Mizoram and Manipur have reported a case each.
How Coronavirus Spread in India
Most cases in India are of people who had a travel history to coronavirus infected countries or had come in contact with a person who had recently travelled abroad, this is called local transmission. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has maintained that there is still no evidence of community transmission of coronavirus in India.
Data on COVID-19 Testing
India has only tested about 47,951 persons. Capacity utilisation across 126 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) laboratories so far stands at 38 percent. We also have narrow testing, i.e. we test only those with travel history to affected areas or those who came into contact with a COVID-19 positive case.
BCG Vaccination
The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine is now discussed as a possible reason for low COVID-19 cases in India. The vaccine is universally administered in India to protect against tuberculosis. Scientists in US, Europe and Australia have started studying whether BCG vaccine is of any help to protect people against COVID-19.
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