The death toll due to Covid-19 rose to 2,752 and the number of cases climbed to 85,940 on Saturday, registering an increase of 103 deaths and 3,970 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the union health ministry.
The number of active cases stood at 53,035, while 30,152 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.
'Thus, around 35.08 per cent patients have recovered so far,' a senior health ministry official said.
The total confirmed cases include foreign nationals too.
Of the 103 deaths reported since Friday morning, 49 were in Maharashtra, 20 in Gujarat, 10 in West Bengal, eight in Delhi, seven in Uttar Pradesh, five in Tamil Nadu, two in Madhya Pradesh, one each in Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
Of the 2,752 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 1,068 deaths, Gujarat comes second with 606 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 239, West Bengal at 225, Rajasthan at 125, Delhi at 123, Uttar Pradesh at 95, Tamil Nadu at 71 and Andhra Pradesh at 48.
The death toll reached 36 in Karnataka, 34 in Telangana and 32 in Punjab, the ministry said.
Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir have reported 11 fatalities each due to the disease, while Bihar has registered seven and Kerala has reported four deaths.
Jharkhand, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities each, while Assam has reported two deaths.
Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Puducherry have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.
More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities (existence of multiple disorders), the ministry added.
Indore cases go up by 79 to 2,378; death toll 99
With 79 more people testing coronavirus positive in the last 24 hours, the number of patients in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh has grown to 2,378, a health official said on Saturday.
The virus claimed one more life in the district during this period, which took the death toll to 99, the official said.
Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) Praveen Jadia said that 79 fresh cases and one death were reported in the last 24 hours in Indore, which is one of the worst-affected districts in the country in terms of the coronavirus outbreak.
'A 57-year-old Covid -19 patient died on Friday while undergoing treatment at a private hospital here. This took the death toll in the district to 99,' he said.
As per the latest data, the district's mortality rate of Covid -19 patients as on Saturday morning was 4.16 per cent.
Another state government official said that more than 1,100 patients in the district have recovered from the infection so far.
The first Covid-19 cases in Indore were reported on March 24, when four persons tested positive for the infection.
7 more deaths push Bengal death toll to 160
Seven more Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in West Bengal, raising the death toll to 160 in the state, while 115 new cases pushed the virus count to 2,576, Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said on Saturday.
The state has so far attributed 72 other deaths to comorbid health conditions, where the novel coronavirus was incidental.
At least 115 new Covid-19 cases have been reported since Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,576, he said.
Since Friday evening, 63 people have been discharged from different hospitals after recovering from the infection, leaving 1,452 active cases in the state, the home secretary added.
Rising cases in Wayanad and Kasaragod causing concern
Rising Covid-19 cases in the hill district of Wayanad and Kasaragod are causing concern to authorities and contact tracing is proving to be a herculean task amid indications thata truck driver who had recently returned from Koyambedu, a hotspot in Chennai, is supected to have spread the infection in the hilly district.
The sprawling Koyambedu market, which has over 3000 licensed shops selling flowers, fruits, vegetables,among others, spread in around 300 acres, has been linked to a recent spurt in coronavirus cases in neighbouring Kerala.
Fifteen of the Wayanad based 52-year-old truck driver's primary and secondary contacts, including his close relatives,have tested positive for the virus.
On Friday, Wayanad reported five more cases, taking the tally to 19, the highest in the state.
In Kasaragod, another north Kerala district, days after reporting nil cases, the graph is on the rise with 13 Covid-19 cases as on Friday.
Over 5.64 lakh migrants brought to UP in 449 trains so far: official
A total of 449 trains have so far brought over 5.64 lakh migrants back to Uttar Pradesh, the highest in the country, Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi on Saturday said.
Seventy-three trains are scheduled to arrive on Saturday while permission for 286 trains has been given for Sunday. In this way, about 9.50 lakh migrant labourers and workers have either returned or arrangements for their return have been made, Awasthi said.
More than 15 lakh workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh by trains, buses and other modes of transport till now, the additional chief secretary added.
Migrant workers inside one of the auditoriums of schools in the Rosary Cathedral campus in Mangalore (Telegraph picture)
15 inmates, staffer test positive at Delhi's Rohini jail
Days after a 28-year-old inmate of Rohini jail tested positive for coronavirus, 15 others who shared a barrack with him and one head warden have also tested positive for the infection, officials said.
The Delhi Prison Department had tested for coronavirus 19 inmates from the barrack of the prisoner whose reports came back positive for the infection on Wednesday, they said.
All inmates and the staffer are asymptomatic so far.
'We had conducted Covid-19 tests for 19 inmates of Rohini jail who were sharing the barrack with one inmate Kuldeep who had tested positive earlier at DDU Hospital where he had gone for (treatment of) some other ailment,' Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel said.
Their test results have come and 15 out of these 19 inmates have tested positive. Five staff members were also tested. Among them, one head warden has tested positive for Covid-19, he said.
Rajasthan reports 177 new cases, tally nears 5,000
Rajasthan on Saturday reported 177 Covid-19 cases, 116 of them from the Jaipur district jail, as the infection tally jumped to 4,924 in the state, officials said.
Among the fresh cases, the highest number of 122 were reported from Jaipur, the officials said. They said the district jail accounts for 116 of the fresh coronavirus cases from Jaipur.
Besides, 21 cases were reported from Dungarpur, nine from Udaipur, six from Jodhpur, four from Ajmer, two from Sirohi and one each from Ajmer, Barmer, Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Pali and Kota, an official said.
The total of number of Covid-19 cases in the desert state as of 2 pm on Saturday is 4,924, the officials said.
The state has so far recorded 125 novel coronavirus deaths.
One more case pushes tally to 8 in Puducherry
A 24-year-old woman from Karaikal tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, pushing the tally of active cases to eight in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
Director of Health and Family Services S Mohan Kumar told reporters here that the woman had returned from Dubai a few weeks ago and had first tested negative for the infection.
But, a second test on Friday confirmed she was positive. She is now in the Government General hospital in Karaikal where already one patient is under treatment.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the Union Territory has now risen to eight - six in Puducherry and two in Karaikal.
A man receives change from a shop, handed over in a basket in observance of social distancing norms, during lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Kohima, Nagaland, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. AP
23 new cases in Karnataka, tally touches 1,079
As many as 23 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Karnataka on Saturday, taking the number of affected in the state to 1,079, the health department said.
The total cases include 494 discharges, 548 active cases, 36 coronavirus deaths and that of a coronavirus patient due to non-Covid cause, the department said in its daily bulletin.
Of the fresh cases, 14 were from Bengaluru urban district alone, followed by three in Hassan and one each in Mandya, Udupi, Dharwad, Davangere, Ballari and Davangere.
The 23 cases include two women and a one-year-old baby girl from Udupi.
The biggest contributor of Saturday's tally was Bengaluru, where 14 people tested positive for the disease.
They were secondary contacts of a house keeper in a hotel in the capital city, the health department sources said.
One dies in AP, 48 new cases reported
Forty eight fresh cases were confirmed in Andhra Pradesh, where the total number of infections climbed to 2,355 while one death due to the virus was reported, taking the toll in the state to 49, health department said on Saturday.
Out of the total cases reported, 31 were linked to the Koyambedu market in Chennai, a health bulletin said.
Of the fresh cases in the past 24 hours ending 9 AM on Saturday, Nellore, Guntur and Kurnool districts reported nine each, Chitoor eight, Krishna seven, Visakhapatnam four and Kadapa and West Godavari one each.
The lone death was reported in Kurnool, it said.
MP govt declares nine districts Covid-19 free
The Madhya Pradesh government has declared that nine districts in the state, which had earlier reported Covid-19 cases, were now coronavirus-free.
Additional chief secretary (Health) Mohammed Suleman said that the nine districts- Barwani, Agar-Malwa, Shajapur, Sheopur, Alirajpur, Harda, Shahdol, Tikamgarh and Betul- were now free from the infection.
It was declared during a review meeting held on Friday.
Apart from this, no COVID-19 case has been detected in eight districts of the state so far, Suleman said.
Testing has been increased in the state, he said, adding that at least 5,822 swab samples were collected on Friday alone, while 93,849 samples have been tested so far.
Of the 4,595 coronavirus positive cases reported in the state till Friday, 45 per cent were active ones, he added.
According to the health department's latest data, Covid-19 cases were reported in 32 districts till May 1 and as of May 15, its footprints extended to 44 out of 52 districts in the state.
In some districts, fresh cases were reported following the arrival of migrant workers, an official said.
Damoh district recorded its first case on Friday, when a migrant worker, who arrived from Mumbai, tested positive for the infection, he said.
Till Friday evening, 239 patients have succumbed to the pandemic.
Three more test positive in Goa; tally rises to 11
Three out of seven Vasco residents, who returned from Kolkata, have tested positive for Covid -19, taking the case count in Goa to 11, a state minister said on Saturday.
At least three out of seven men, who had travelled to Gangapur in Kolkata to deliver barges and arrived in Goa on Friday, have contracted the infection, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said.
'Swab samples of the three patients have been sent for a confirmatory test at Goa Medical College and Hospital, while the remaining four are under institutional quarantine,' he said.
With the detection of fresh cases, Goa's Covid-19 count has risen to 11, he added.
A group of seven locals from Vasco city in South Goa had travelled to Kolkata on April 21 to deliver barges at Gangapur, which is a green zone, Rane said.
Goa, which was earlier declared a green zone, has reported 11 positive cases since May 13.
