New Delhi, April 12 (KMS): The Indian Health Ministry has said that the number of coronavirus cases in the country could have increased to 8.2 lakh by April 15 had India not implemented a lockdown and other containment measures
Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal addressing a daily briefing on the coronavirus situation of the country, said the country has taken early preemptive action to identify COVID-19 hotspots, along with implementing other containment measures.
Stressing on the importance of social distancing, lockdown and other efforts in the battle against coronavirus, the officer said, “Since we started promoting social distancing and implemented lockdown from March 25 along with other containment measures, there has been a decrease in cases and we have 7,447 coronavirus cases till date.”
In its update, Indian Health Ministry put the number of confirmed cases so far across the country at 7,529 with 242 deaths.
These results are from nearly 1.7 lakh tests conducted so far across the country. According to the Ministry, 1,035 new cases and 40 deaths were reported in 24 hours till Saturday afternoon.
However, a PTI tally of numbers reported by various states showed at least 8,059 positive coronavirus cases and 264 deaths. More than 800 people have been cured and discharged so far.
Fresh cases were reported from various places, including Maharashtra, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
While Maharashtra saw its tally of confirmed cases rising to at least 1,666, Mumbai alone has more than 1,100 cases now. Tamil Nadu and Delhi have also seen their respective numbers cross the 1,000-mark, while Rajasthan has over 600 cases. The states with over 400 cases included Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
The death toll in Maharashtra alone has reached 110.