India’s Covid-19 cases near 40,000-mark, death toll at 1,301

The number of Covid-19 cases almost touched the 40,000-mark on Sunday with a further rise in cases in Maharashtra and West Bengal nearing the 1,000-mark.

According to Union Health Ministry figures at 8 am, the number of active cases in the country is 28,046. More than 10,000 people (10,632 to be exact) have been cured or discharged,, and 1,301 people have died due to the disease.

Maharashtra continues to lead the tally with 12,296 Covid-19 positive cases. The state has seen more than 500 deaths due to the disease.

National capital Delhi recorded 384 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, the highest single-day spike so far, taking the infection tally to 4,122.

On Saturday, India saw a record jump of 2,411 cases. However, a total of 10,632 people have recovered, resulting in a recovery rate of 26.52 per cent.

The number of samples tested for Covid-19 in India crossed a million on Saturday, up from 38,914 on April 1, which takes the number of tests to almost 783 per million of the population.

“We plan to ramp up testing further to move towards a situation where we can test everyone who needs it. The number of labs doing Covid-19 tests has gone up, with 406 labs - of which 105 are private ones - now testing for Covid-19,” said CK Mishra, secretary, environment, and co-chair of the PM’s high-level committee on preparedness for a medical emergency.

The health ministry expects testing to cross 100,000 tests a day next week, up from 5,580 a day on April 1.

India has testing kits in stock for another 11-12 days, said the ministry officials