COVID-19 death toll rises to 775, cases climb to 24,506 in India: Health Ministry

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 775 and the number of cases climbed to 24,506 in the country on Saturday, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 18,668 while 5,062 people were cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals. A total of 52 deaths were reported since Friday evening. 18 from Maharashtra, 15 from Gujarat, nine from Madhya Pradesh, three each from Delhi and West Bengal, two from Tamil Nadu, and one each from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

Of the 775 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 301 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 127, Madhya Pradesh at 92, Delhi at 53, Andhra Pradesh at 29, Rajasthan at 27 and Telangana at 26. The death toll reached 25 in Uttar Pradesh, 22 in Tamil Nadu while Karnataka and West Bengal have reported 18 deaths each. Punjab has registered 17 fatalities so far. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each. Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Friday evening showed 778 deaths in the country. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. According to the Health Ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 6,817, followed by Gujarat at 2,815, Delhi at 2,514, Rajasthan at 2,034, Madhya Pradesh at 1,852 and Tamil Nadu at 1,755.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,621 in Uttar Pradesh, 984 in Telangana and 955 in Andhra Pradesh. The number of cases has risen to 571 in West Bengal, 474 in Karnataka, 454 in Jammu and Kashmir, 450 in Kerala,?, 298 in Punjab and 272 in Haryana. Bihar has reported 223 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 94 cases. Fifty-seven people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 48 in Uttarakhand.

Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases, Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each so far. Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have 27 COVID-19 cases, while 20?infections have been reported from Ladakh. Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 cases each. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.