COVID-19: India Count Touches 135 +Cases, Pvt Labs Roped In

An army Jawan belonging to the Ladakh Scouts unit has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 even as new cases continue to get reported from various states. The Jawan, who is said to be on leave, was acting as a caregiver for his father who had tested positive for novel coronavirus and was kept in quarantine facility. Family members of the Jawan have also been kept in isolation.

The coronavirus outbreak has over the last few days, witnessed a surge with new cases being reported from Odisha, West Bengal Ladakh Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, among other states. The total number of COVID-19 cases now stands at 135 including three deaths. Most of the new cases have been reported over the last two weeks. 14 of these patients have been discharged.

The Director-General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr. Balram Bhargava, at a press conference on Tuesday, told the media that India was in stage two of the phase of local transmission. It had not yet reached stage three or community transmission level, he stated.

Dr. Bhargava added that it was difficult to predict when we would enter the community transmission phase which is a very critical stage. He revealed that so far, the 500 samples of the 1000 collected randomly for testing, have proved to be negative. The results of the other 500 samples are expected on Wednesday.

India has now added 49 new testing laboratories to its existing 72, Dr. Bhargava told the media on Wednesday. Additionally, the government has roped in private hospitals and labs to meet the challenge stemming out of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In India Maharashtra has seen the highest number of COVID-19 cases of so far with 42 cases being reported so far. Kerala has also witnessed several instances of the COVID-19 pandemic with 26 cases reported thus far while 15 cases each have been reported from UP and Haryana.

The COVID-19 graph has been climbing steadily since early March with fresh cases being reported from states and Union Territories such as Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared COVID-19, which has claimed more than 7500 lives worldwide, as a global pandemic.