Highest day rise in deaths
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tracker Live Updates: The number of cases in Maharashtra crossed 2,000 mark on Monday. With 352 new cases, state's tally now stood at 2,334, of which 1,549 cases were reported from Mumbai alone. With nine new deaths, the toll in Mumbai hit 100.
In its daily briefing, the Union Health Ministry said no new cases of the novel coronavirus were detected in 25 districts from 15 states of the country in the last 14 days. Health Secretary Luv Aggarwal said 905 new positive cases and 51 deaths due to the coronavirus were recorded in the last 24 hours in the country. The overall cases in country rose to 9,352 cases with 324 deaths. The ministry also said that over two lakh tests for COVID-19 have been conducted so far and they have enough stock to conduct tests for six weeks.
Amid requests from states to extend the nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 10 am tomorrow, the last day of 21-day lockdown. At least six states — Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka and Telangana — have already announced an extension. As the country gears up to extend the lockdown after the 21-day period ends tomorrow, the spread of COVID-19 cases to almost half the total districts in the country is likely to weigh on the mind of the Central government in crafting a graded approach.
Amid the pandemic, OPEC and allies led by Russia agreed to curb global oil supply by 20% for fuel and driven down oil prices, straining budgets of oil producers. China, the epicenter of the virus, reported the highest number of new daily coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks, driven by a rise in infected travellers arriving from overseas and underscoring challenges Beijing faces in preventing a second wave of COVID-19. The United States, with the world's third-largest population, has recorded more fatalities from COVID-19 than any other country, nearly 22,000 as of Sunday evening. Globally, nearly 1.85 million people are infected, while the death toll is over 1.14 lakh.
(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)
