COVID-19 death toll rises to 775, cases climb to 24,506: Health Ministry
New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 775 and the number of cases climbed to 24,506 in the country on Saturday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 18,668 while 5,062 people were cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals.
A total of 52 deaths were reported since Friday evening -- 18 from Maharashtra, 15 from Gujarat, nine from Madhya Pradesh, three each from Delhi and West Bengal, two from Tamil Nadu, and one each from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Of the 775 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 301 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 127, Madhya Pradesh at 92, Delhi at 53, Andhra Pradesh at 29, Rajasthan at 27 and Telangana at 26.
The death toll reached 25 in Uttar Pradesh, 22 in Tamil Nadu while Karnataka and West Bengal have reported 18 deaths each.
Punjab has registered 17 fatalities so far. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.
Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.
However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Friday evening showed 778 deaths in the country.
There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.
According to the Health Ministry data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 6,817, followed by Gujarat at 2,815, Delhi at 2,514, Rajasthan at 2,034, Madhya Pradesh at 1,852 and Tamil Nadu at 1,755. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,621 in Uttar Pradesh, 984 in Telangana and 955 in Andhra Pradesh.
The number of cases has risen to 571 in West Bengal, 474 in Karnataka, 454 in Jammu and Kashmir, 450 in Kerala, , 298 in Punjab and 272 in Haryana.
Bihar has reported 223 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 94 cases. Fifty-seven people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 48 in Uttarakhand.
Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases, Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each so far. Chandigarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands have 27 COVID-19 cases, while 20 infections have been reported from Ladakh.
Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 cases each. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
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Trump says he called off dispatching envoys to Iran talks
Dubai (PTI): US President Donald Trump said he told his top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner not to travel to Pakistan to negotiate with Iran, stating on Fox News that "they can call us any time they want”.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won't negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports. Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the US “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade,” to allow a new round of negotiations, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi left Pakistan on Saturday evening, two Pakistani officials told The Associated Press. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Araghchi is expected back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday.
Trump said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House. The meeting was the second high-level negotiation between the two countries this month. The initial 10-day ceasefire had been due to expire Monday.
The Trump administration is placing economic sanctions on a major China-based oil refinery and roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil.
The move announced Friday is part of the administration's threat to impose secondary sanctions on entities doing business with Iran in an effort to cut off Iran's oil exports, which are a key source of its revenue.
Airlines worldwide have begun cancelling flights as the war in the Middle East strains jet fuel supplies and pushes up prices. Experts have offered information to travelers about what to do if a flight is cancelled.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country won't negotiate while the United States imposes a blockade on its ports, according to Iranian media.
Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during a phone call Saturday night that the US “should first remove operational obstacles, including the blockade”, to allow a new round of negotiations, the ISNA and Tasnim news agencies reported.
The Pakistani premier described the call as a “warm and constructive discussion”.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi concluded a one-day trip to Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Saturday after meeting with Pakistani military and government officials.
The trip did not produce a breakthrough in efforts to relaunch negotiations after US President Donald Trump canceled a planned trip by his envoys to Islamabad.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will return to Pakistan after his current visit to Oman on his way to visiting Russia.
The report said he was expected to be back in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Sunday and would join other members of his delegation who had gone to Tehran for consultations and “instructions on the topics related to the end of the war.”
