India records 9,985 new COVID-19 cases, 279 fatalities; death toll rises to 7,745
New Delhi: The COVID-19 death toll rose to 7,745 and the number of cases climbed to 2,76,583 in the country after it registered 279 fatalities and 9,985 new infections within a period of 24 hours till Wednesday 8 am, according to the Union Health Ministry.
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK, according to data issued by the Johns Hopkins University.
The number of active cases in the country stands at 1,33,632, while 1,35,205 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
"Thus, 48.99 per cent of the patients have recovered so far," it said. The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.
Of the 279 new deaths reported, 120 were in Maharashtra, 33 in Gujarat, 31 in Delhi, 21 in Tamil Nadu, 18 in Uttar Pradesh, 11 in Telangana, 10 in West Bengal, nine in Rajasthan, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, three in Jammu and Kashmir, two in Punjab, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, and one each in Bihar, Jharkhand and Tripura.
Out of the total 7,745 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,289 deaths, followed by Gujarat with 1,313, Delhi with 905, Madhya Pradesh with 420, West Bengal with 415, Tamil Nadu with 307, Uttar Pradesh with 301, Rajasthan with 255 and Telangana with 148 deaths.
The death toll reached 77 in Andhra Pradesh, 66 in Karnataka and 55 in Punjab.
Jammu and Kashmir has reported 48 fatalities due to the disease, while 45 deaths have been reported from Haryana, 32 from Bihar, 16 from Kerala, 13 from Uttarakhand, nine from Odisha, eight from Jharkhand and six from Chhattisgarh.
Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh have registered five COVID-19 fatalities each and Assam has recorded four deaths so far. Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each, according to the ministry data.
More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, the ministry's website stated.
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
