Death toll due to COVID-19 touches 640; cases rise to 19,984
New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 640 and the number of cases to 19,984 in the country on Wednesday, according to the Union health ministry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases is 15,474, while 3,869 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases includes 77 foreign nationals.
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Tuesday evening -- 19 from Maharashtra, 13 from Gujarat, three from West Bengal and one each from Tamil Nadu and Jhakhand.
Of the 640 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 251 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 90, Madhya Pradesh at 76, Delhi at 47, Rajasthan at 25, Telengana at 23 and Andhra Pradesh at 22.
The death toll has reached 20 in Uttar Pradesh while Tamil Nadu has reported 18 deaths and Karantaka has registered 17 fatalities due to COVID-19.
Punjab has registered 16 deaths while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities so far. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jhakhand 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 Tuesday evening showed at least 646 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's data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 5,218, followed by Gujarat at 2,178, Delhi at 2,156, Rajasthan at 1,659, Tamil Nadu at 1,596 and Madhya Pradesh at 1,552.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,294 in Uttar Pradesh, 928 in Telangana and 757 in Andhra Pradesh. The number of cases has risen to 427 in Kerala, 423 in West Bengal, 418 in Karnataka, 380 in Jammu and Kashmir, 254 in Haryana and 245 in Punjab.
Bihar has reported 126 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 79 such cases. Forty-six people have been infected with the virus in Uttarakhand followed by Jharkhand with 45 cases. Himachal Pradesh has 39 cases and Chhattisgarh has 36 while Assam has registered 35 infections so far. Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, Ladakh 18, while 16 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, while Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 patients each. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. It also mentioned that one case of Jharkhand has been reassigned to Bihar after reconciliation.
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Trump rushed out of dinner event after shots fired; one arrested
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump and other top White House officials were evacuated unharmed from the annual dinner of White House correspondents after a man armed with multiple weapons fired shots outside the ballroom of the hotel.
The incident took place at around 8:34 PM local time when dinner was served. At that time, Trump was seen having a conversation with Weijia Jiang, the President of the White House Correspondents' Association, and mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was scheduled to present a show at the marquee event at the Washington Hilton here.
Secret Service officials and other security personnel covered the President, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President J D Vance, and the Second Lady Usha Vance, who were seated at the head table, and escorted them out of the ballroom.
Several guests at the dinner, including leaders across the political spectrum, journalists and other invitees, ducked under the table, apparently as a reflex reaction.
Putting up a brave face, President Trump later announced on Truth Social that the dinner would be rescheduled within 30 days.
“Boom, boom, boom, boom is all that I heard, and many guests ducked under the table,” a C-SPAN reporter at the dinner said.
Hours later, Trump addressed a press conference at the White House and announced that the security personnel had captured one person who hails from California.
“I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray going down. I've heard that many times. It was a pretty loud noise, and it was from quite far away. He (the attacker) hadn't reached the area at all. They really got him,” Trump told reporters, recalling the incident.
Trump said one security officer was shot at but saved as he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Several protestors had lined up on the road outside the hotel, raising slogans against the Trump administration and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A CNN reporter who was outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton said he saw a gunman opening fire just a few feet away. He was among the dozens of attendees who took cover as law enforcement swarmed the venue.
The suspect has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen from California.
Asked how Saturday’s incident impacts him as the US president, Trump told reporters he is in a dangerous job but that he is no “basket case.”
“I like not to think about it. I lead a pretty normal life, considering, you know, it’s a dangerous life. I think I handle it as well as it can be handled,” Trump said.
Trump has survived two assassination attempts over the past two years – first at a presidential election campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, and later in Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15, 2024.
“I will say you had Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, liberals, and progressives...everybody in that room, big crowd, record-setting crowd,” he said.
“We had some great work done by law enforcement, but in light of this evening's events, I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully,” Trump said.
