3,561 COVID-19 Cases In India In 24 Hours, Over 52,900 Total Cases, 1,783 Deaths

New Delhi: India reported 3,561 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, taking the total to 52,952, government data shows. The highly infectious virus has claimed 89 lives during the same period, the Health Ministry said. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in India is 1,783. The rise in cases has come from Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. So far 15,267 people recovered. Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state with 16,758 cases. It is followed by Gujarat with 6,625 cases and Delhi 5,532 cases.

West Bengal has the highest rate of COVID-19 fatalities, low testing and worrying instances of attacks on frontline workers fighting the coronavirus crisis, the Home Ministry said on Wednesday in a sharply-worded letter to the Mamata Banerjee-led state government.

Delhi saw then biggest single day spike in coronavirus cases on Wednesday - 428 - as the figure across the country crossed 52,000. The national capital, which passed the 5,000 mark on Tuesday, stood at 5,532 on Wednesday.

Surat, the Gujarat city known for its diamond processing and textile industry, has seen repeated protests by migrant labourers over the past weeks. Demanding that they be sent back to their home states, the labourers have often clashed with the police.

Hundreds of migrant labourers are illegally returning to Madhya Pradesh from Gujarat on trucks, giving a go-by to all the rules meant to check the spread of coronavirus. The matter was detected on Monday as one of these trucks was intercepted near Sohawal Chowkie in Satna by the police.

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday held a series of meetings to fine tune arrangements for evacuation of thousands of stranded Indians from abroad under a mega exercise beginning today. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla held a video-conference with chief secretaries of a number of states as part of efforts to ensure proper coordination in the operation christened "Vande Bharat Mission".

"#VandeBharatMission, Evacuation of stranded Indians abroad begins today; here is the plan for today; in total over 14,800 stranded Indians will be brought back from 12 countries this week #IndiaFightsCoronavirus," the government's Press Information Bureau tweeted today.

The Civil Aviation Ministry's website crashed on Wednesday as panicked citizens abroad rushed to register for repatriation on planes and naval ships. Media reports quoted Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri as saying that two lakh Indians abroad had registered for repatriation and that the final number could be twice that.

A huge number of Indians who work abroad do menial work and have been left jobless by the pandemic shutdown. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that many could "ill afford" to bear the costs.

The Maharashtra government has asked 25,000 private doctors in Mumbai to report to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients immediately. The doctors will be provided protective gear and will be paid for working in an emergency, the state government's Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) said in a notice.

A clash broke out inside a train carrying migrant workers to Bihar allegedly over distribution of food. The train had set off from Kalyan in Maharashtra with around 1,200 migrants on Tuesday.

(Inputs and image from ndtv.com)