The COVID-19 crisis appeared escalating on Monday with at least 11 new deaths. Six deaths were reported from the national capital of people who had attended a religious congregation in the Nizamuddin area earlier this month. The government reported nationwide tally of confirmed cases of infection rose on Monday by 227, the highest for a day. Total confirmed cases stood at 1,251 on Monday.
25 fresh cases were reported from Delhi alone, taking the national capital’s tally to 97, as per the Delhi Health Department. Fresh coronavirus cases were reported from Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh, including in Noida in the national capital region.
The Union Health Ministry has maintained that the deadly virus was still in the local transmission stage in India and yet to move to the community transmission phase. The government also said there was no immediate plan to extend the 21-day lockdown period, which entered its sixth day on Monday.
Nizamuddin area has emerged as a hotspot after a religious meeting was held at Markaz by the Tableeghi Jamaat earlier this month. Officials said over 2,000 delegates, including from Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin West from March 1-15. They had violated the lockdown conditions and several COVID-19 positive cases have been found among those who attended the gathering. People who attended the religious prayer meeting were sent to Lok Nayak Hospital for coronavirus test on Monday night. Six people from the state who attended the congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin have died due to coronavirus.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s COVID-19 count has reached 170 on Monday with 47 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said. 9 infected are from Mumbai the rest are from other parts of MMR. An 80-year-old man succumbed to COVID-19 taking the death toll to 8 in MMR.
The number of deaths worldwide has crossed 35,900, with more than 26,000 people dying in Europe. Globally, more than 7,40,000 people have been detected positive so far, out of which nearly 1,42,300 have recovered.
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