COVID-19 death toll rises to 2,293, no. of cases climbs to 70,756 in India: Union health ministry
New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,293 and the number of cases climbed to 70,756 in the country on Tuesday, registering an increase of 87 fatalities and 3,604 cases in the last 24 hours since Monday 8 am, according to the Union health ministry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 46,008, while 22,454 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
"Thus, around 31.73 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.
A total of 87 deaths were reported since Monday morning -- 36 in Maharashtra, 20 in Gujarat, six each in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, five in West Bengal and one each in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
Of the 2,293 deaths, Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of fatalities at 868, followed by Gujarat (513), Madhya Pradesh (221), West Bengal (190), Rajasthan (113), Uttar Pradesh (80), Delhi (73), Tamil Nadu (53) and Andhra Pradesh (45).
The death toll climbed to 31 in Karnataka as well as in Punjab. Telangana has reported 30 fatalities due to the respiratory disease, Haryana 11, Jammu and Kashmir 10, Bihar six and Kerala four.
Jharkhand and Odisha have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each, while Himachal Pradesh, Assam and Chandigarh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya and Uttarakhand have reported a fatality each, according to the ministry data.
According to the health ministry's website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities. The total figure of 70,756 includes foreign nationals.
According to the health ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of 23,401 confirmed cases is from Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat (8,541), Tamil Nadu (8,002), Delhi (7,233), Rajasthan (3,988), Madhya Pradesh (3,785) and Uttar Pradesh (3,573).
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 2,063 in West Bengal, 2,018 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,877 in Punjab. It has risen to 1,275 in Telangana, 879 in Jammu and Kashmir, 862 in Karnataka, 747 in Bihar and 730 in Haryana.
Kerala has reported 519 coronavirus cases so far, while Odisha has 414 cases. A total of 174 people have been infected with the virus in Chandigarh and 160 in Jharkhand.
Tripura has reported 152 cases, Uttarakhand 68, Assam 65, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have 55 cases each and Ladakh has registered 42 coronavirus cases so far. Thirty-three COVID-19 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Meghalaya has registered 13 cases, Puducherry 12 and Goa seven. Manipur has two cases, while Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have reported a case each.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
