Coronavirus updates: Cases climb to 1,51,767, death toll now 4,337

MP Raj Bhavan declared containment zone as 6 test positive; Mizoram churches offer halls as quarantine facilities

 The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 4,337 and the total number of cases climbed to 1,51,767 in the country, registering an increase of 170 deaths and 6,387 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday.

The number of active coronavirus cases stands at 83,004, while 64,425 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 42.45 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases also includes foreigners.

Of the 170 deaths reported since Tuesday morning, 97 were in Maharashtra, 27 in Gujarat, 12 in Delhi, nine in Tamil Nadu, five each in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, three in Rajasthan and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Telangana and Uttarakhand.

Of the total 4,337 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,792 deaths followed by Gujarat with 915 deaths, Madhya Pradesh with 305, Delhi with 288, West Bengal with 283, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh with 170 each, Tamil Nadu with 127 and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with 57 deaths each.

The death toll reached 44 in Karnataka and 40 in Punjab.

Jammu and Kashmir has reported 24 fatalities due to the disease, Haryana 17 deaths while Bihar has registered 13 and Odisha has seven deaths.

Kerala has reported six deaths, Himachal Pradesh five while Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh and Assam have recorded four deaths each so far.

Meghalaya has reported one Covid-19 fatality so far, the ministry data said.

According to the ministry's website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.

According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 54,758 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,728.

• Gujarat: 14,821
• Delhi: 14,465
• Rajasthan: 7,536
• Madhya Pradesh: 7,024
• Uttar Pradesh: 6,548
• West Bengal: 4,009
• Andhra Pradesh: 3,171
• Bihar: 2,983
• Karnataka: 2,283
• Punjab: 2,106
• Telangana: 1,991
• Jammu and Kashmir: 1,759
• Odisha: 1,517
• Haryana: 1,305
• Kerala: 963
• Assam: 616
• Jharkhand: 426
• Uttarakhand: 401
• Chhattisgarh: 361
• Chandigarh: 266
• Himachal Pradesh: 247
• Tripura: 207
• Goa: 67
• Ladakh: 53
• Puducherry: 46
• Manipur: 39
• Andaman and Nicobar Islands: 33
• Meghalaya: 15
• Nagaland; 4
• Dadar and Nagar Haveli: 2
• Arunachal Pradesh: 2
• Mizoram: 1
• Sikkim: 1

"A total of 4,013 cases are being reassigned to states," the ministry said on its website, adding its "figures are being reconciled with the ICMR".

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

MP Raj Bhavan declared containment zone as 6 test positive

The district administration of Bhopal on Wednesday declared Madhya Pradesh Raj Bhavan, the residence of the state governor, as a Covid-19 containment zone after six persons living in the campus tested positive for the infection.

District Collector Tarun Pithode issued an order to this effect on Wednesday.

Raj Bhavan sources said that after the first case of Covid-19 was found at the Raj Bhavan a couple of days back, the sample of Governor Lalji Tadon was also collected for testing.

The collector's order said that six Covid-19 cases were found in the employees' quarters inside the Raj Bhavan, which is located under Jahangirabad police station area. "It has been declared as a containment area considering these houses as epicentre," the order said.

After this area was declared as a containment zone, all the people living in the area should be home-quarantined, besides the stoppage of movement, the order said.

Meanwhile, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said that the son of an employee of the Governor's House had tested Covid-19 positive a couple of days back.

Passenger tests positive

Air India on Wednesday said a passenger who was onboard an Alliance Air flight from the national capital to Ludhiana has tested positive for coronavirus and a total of 41 people, including five crew members, have been quarantined.

The flight was operated on May 25, when domestic flight services resumed after remaining grounded for two months due to the nationwide lockdown to prevent spreading of coronavirus infections.

Alliance Air, which operates regional flights, is part of Air India.

Municipal building in Thane shut 

The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation's administrative building in Thane district was closed on Wednesday, after a 40-year-old doctor from the health department tested positive for Covid-19, an official said.

In a release issued on Wednesday, the KDMC's public relations officer Madhuri Phophale said the building would be sanitised as a doctor working with the health department in the premises had contracted the deadly infection.

The civic authority has already started tracing all high-risk contacts of the infected doctor, she said.

Tablighi Jamaat event: 15 new chargesheets against 294 foreigners

Delhi Police will file 15 fresh chargesheets against 294 foreigners for attending a religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in the national capital in violation of visa conditions and indulging in missionary activities amidst the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, officials said on Wednesday.

The chargesheets will be filed in Saket court against the 294 foreigners belonging to 14 countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and several African nations, police said.

Earlier on Tuesday, police had filed 20 charge sheets against 82 foreigners.

A large congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital in March had emerged as a major hotspot of coronavirus in the country.

 Rescued pangolin to undergo Covid test

A pangolin rescued by the forest department from a quarantine centre in Odisha's Cuttack district will undergo Covid-19 test, an official said.

The swab samples of the pangolin has been collected for the coronavirus test, the official said on Tuesday.

The pangolin was rescued by the personnel of Athagarh forest division in Cuttack from a quarantine centre at a school at Mahulia following a tip-off from a village head.

Athagarh divisional forest officer Sasmita Lenka said the female pangolin which is aged around five years was rescued from a quarantine centre and it has been decided to send its swab sample for Covid-19 testing before releasing it into the wild, Lenka said.

Churches in Mizoram offer halls as quarantine facilities

With Mizoram facing shortage of quarantine facilities, many churches in the Christian majority state have offered their halls to the state government to be used for quarantine purpose.

Chairperson of the task group of quarantine facilities Esther Lal Ruatkimi said Mizoram is facing shortage of quarantine facilities as a large number of people are returning to the state from various parts of the country.

She said that the government and churches have so far set up more than 500 quarantine facilities to accommodate 14,358 people but the state government require quarantine facility for at least 20,000 people.

The task group chairperson said that at least 168 churches from various denominations like Presbyterian Church, Baptist Church of Mizoram (BCM), Salvation Army (SA), Lairam Isua Krista Baptist Kohhran (LIKBK), Evangelical Church of Maraland (ECM), United Pentecostal Church (NEI) and United Pentecostal Church (Mizoram) have offered their halls to be used as quarantine facilities.