Two Grim Milestones For India - COVID-19 Cases Have Crossed 30,000 And 1,000 Deaths

On Wednesday morning, India woke up to two not so desirable milestones. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country had breached the 30,000 mark and the death toll had crossed the 1000 mark.

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The total number of novel coronavirus cases climbed to 31,332 on Wednesday out of which 22,629 are active COVID-19 cases while 7,695 patients have been cured. The total number of cases includes 111 foreign nationals.

With a spike of 73 deaths in the past 24 hours, the death toll has reached 1007 in India so far.

The 73 deaths in 24 hours is the highest one-day toll in the country so far.

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As far as states are concerned Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of cases so far at 9,318 and 400 deaths from it. Gujarat has the second highest number of cases at 3,774 and 181 deaths followed by Delhi with 3,314 cases and 54 deaths. However, the national capital has not recorded any COVID-19 deaths for the third consecutive day.

Across the country, 7,696 patients have recovered so far.

The COVID-19 recovery rate in India stood at 24.56 per cent.

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Meanwhile, Tripura has become the fifth state in the northeast to become COVID-19 free. The state had two cases - both have been cured and discharged. Earlier, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal and Meghalaya too had declared themselves COIVD-19 free. Out of the five states, only Meghalaya had recorded a COVID-19 death after a doctor succumbed to the infection.

The only other state with no active cases of COVID-19 is Goa.

While 30,000 is a big number the situation could have been much worse if not for the nationwide lockdown which has been in place for over a month now.

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Unlike most countries including the US, UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany, India went into lockdown way before the number of cases spilled out of control. This is believed to have helped the country prevent community transmission of COVID-19 so far.

But with the lockdown restrictions being eased gradually there is a fear that the number of cases will go up further in the coming days. India is planning a gradual lifting of the lockdown restrictions, starting with green zones, where there are no active cases. The lockdown measures will continue in place in red zones or hotspots.

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On Monday the Union Health Ministry had issued guidelines allowing coronavirus patients who have only either very mild symptoms of the infection or are "pre-symptomatic" can be under home isolation.