Death toll due to COVID-19 touches 718; number of cases climb to 23,077
New Delhi: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 718 and the number of cases to 23,077 in the country on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The number of active COVID-19 cases is 17,610 as 4,748 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, it said.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said a total 23,502 samples have been confirmed positive for coronavirus so far. The Health Ministry said 77 foreign nationals are among the total 23,077 COVID-19 cases reported in the country.
A total of 32 deaths were reported since Thursday evening, of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the ministry said.
Of the 718 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 283 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 112, Madhya Pradesh at 83, Delhi at 50, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh at 27 each.
The death toll reached 24 each in Uttar Pradesh and Telengana, 20 in Tamil Nadu and 17 in Karnataka.
Punjab has registered 16 deaths, while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities. 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's updated data.
However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Thursday showed 722 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 ministry's data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 6,430, followed by Gujarat at 2,624, Delhi at 2,376, Rajasthan at 1,964, Madhya Pradesh at 1,699 and Tamil Nadu at 1,683.
The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,510 in Uttar Pradesh, 960 in Telangana and 895 in Andhra Pradesh.
The number of cases has risen to 514 in West Bengal, 447 in Kerala, 445 in Karnataka, 427 in Jammu and Kashmir, 277 in Punjab and 272 in Haryana.
Bihar has reported 153 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 90 cases. Fifty-three people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand, 47 in Uttarakhand and 40 in Himachal Pradesh.
Chhattisgarh and Assam have registered 36 infections each so far. Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands 22, while 18 cases 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.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. States wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.
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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.”
