India has tested around 13,285 people while WHO has urged countries to test every suspect case, not just people with relevant travel or contact history.
New Delhi| The coronavirus outbreak claimed its first death in Rajasthan on Friday as a 69-year-old Italian citizen died during treatment at the Fortis Hospital in Jaipur. This is the first death of a foreign national in India due to COVID-19.
Three days ago, the state government had claimed that Italian patient, Andri Carly, had recovered from the infection. He was shifted from the isolation ward inside SMS hospital to Fortis hospital where he passed away on Friday morning.
India’s government is facing criticism for the relatively low number of tests it’s administered to detect cases of the new coronavirus, raising fears that tens of thousands of patients may be going undetected. India has tested only about 12,000 people so far, despite a capacity to test about ten times that many.
Only people who have travelled from the worst affected countries or come in contact with a confirmed case and shown symptoms after two weeks of quarantine are being tested — criteria that experts call “very narrow.”
The World Health Organization has urged countries to test every suspect case, not just people with relevant travel or contact history.
The number of coronavirus positive cases in India rose to 223 on Friday.
Twenty states and Union territories are now affected in India by Covid-19, the Union health ministry said. Maharashtra and Kerala are the worst affected states with 52 and 28 cases reported so far.
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“The numbers are not that high as of now and there is no evidence of community transmission found yet. But we are prepared and reviewing our strategy each day as it is an evolving situation,” a senior health ministry official said.
Five people have succumbed to the fast-spreading respiratory illness across the country, according to Union health ministry data.
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