India’s Covid-19 Cases Soar Past 14,000-Mark, Maharashtra Remains Worst-Hit

There have been 991 fresh cases and 43 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry of health & Family Welfare.

New Delhi, April 18: As the nation entered the 25th day of the lockdown on Saturday, the total number of Covid-19 cases in India crossed the 14,000-mark and the number of deaths were reported at 480 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The three most affected states remain Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and Delhi. However, this week Maharasthra, MP and Gujarat have seen the highest spurt in Covid-19 cases. These three states account for the highest number of new active cases during this period. There have been 991 fresh cases and 43 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry of health & Family Welfare, tweeted ANI. At 3,323, Maharashtra leads in terms of the number of active cases of Covid-19, according to the latest health ministry update. Active cases exclude deaths and recoveries from the list of confirmed cases. Delhi has the second most number of active cases (1,707), closely followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,310). At 1,323 active cases, Tamil Nadu has the fourth-highest number of active cases, followed by Rajasthan (1,270). Indian Navy personnel based out of the Indian Naval Ship, INS Angre, in Mumbai have tested positive for the coronavirus.  "This number includes 20 sailors of Indian Naval Ship Angre, a shore establishment at Mumbai," a Defence Ministry source said in an IANS report. Around 176 new positive cases have been reported in Gujarat (143 in Ahmedabad, 13 in Surat, 13 in Vadodara, two in Rajkot, two in Bhavnagar, one each in Anand, Bharuch and Panchmahal); taking the total number of positive cases rise to 1272 including 88 cured and 48 deaths, according to the Gujarat Health Department. There have been 41 new cases and two deaths reported in Jaipur on Saturday. The total number of positive cases in Rajasthan touches 1,270 with 19 deaths so far. Of the two deaths on Saturday, one patient had chronic kidney disease and the other had acute diabetes: according to the State Health Department. Even though the cases are on the rise but Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Lav Aggarwal said on Friday that India has witnessed an improvement in doubling rate this past week. This is the number of days it takes for the confirmed cases of infection to double. "We have been witnessing average growth factor at 1.2 since April 1 which stood at 2.1 (average) between March 15- March 31. Hence, there is a 40 per cent decline in average growth factor even as we increased testings for Coronavirus." The doubling rate (national average) earlier was three days, Lav Aggarwal said while adding that a decline in the death rate is also visible. "At present, India's death rate is stable at 3.3 per cent," Aggarwal said. In comparison, the death rate is lower than most European countries such as Spain (9.73 per cent), Italy (12.72 per cent), and UK (over 12 per cent). He also said that 13.6 percent of the people have defeated Coronavirus in India. Although it is too early to predict whether the curve has tapered or not, it is still a wait and watch, as the testing mechanism remains different for every part of the country.