Death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 1,008 and the number of cases climbed to 31,787 in the country on Wednesday, registering a record jump of 71 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. There has been a spike of 1,813 cases since Tuesday evening.
The number of active Covid-19 cases stand at 22,982, while 7,796 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
“Thus, around 24.52 per cent of the patients have recovered so far,” a Health Ministry official said.
The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals.
As many as 71 deaths were reported since early on Tuesday, of which 31 fatalities were from Maharashtra, 19 from Gujarat, six from Madhya Pradesh, five each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, two from West Bengal, and one each from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, the death of a 55-year-old Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel due to Covid-19 and about 50 others of his battalion in Delhi being infected with the disease have rung alarm bells in the establishment after it was found that “dichotomous” orders were issued in the country's largest paramilitary force to check the spread of the pandemic.
Separately, a CRPF jawan was also are among 12 people tested positive for coronavirus in Nashik district of Maharashtra, health officials said.
A dozen fresh cases of coronavirus have been reported from the district, 11 of them from Malegaon town alone.
Of the 11 coronavirus positive patients found in Malegaon, seven are police persons and a CRPF man, the officials said. With the new infections, the number of positive cases in the north Maharashtra district has gone up to 205, they said.