Covid 19

India Reports Over 1,500 Cases In 24 Hours Taking Total To 17,265

Count of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India rose to 17,265 with 1,553 cases reported in the last 24 hours and fatalities rose to 543.

New Delhi| As the COVID-19 death toll in India reached the 500-mark and confirmed cases crossed 17,000, the Centre is set to ease the lockdown in some parts that are not hotspots.

1,553 cases were reported in the last 24 hours which takes the tally to 17,265, including 543 deaths and 36 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, union Health Ministry said today.

Maharashtra remains the worst-hit state in the country, which reported not just the highest number of new cases for the state, but also for Mumbai. The state capital added 456 cases and 6 fatalities to its COVID-19 count even at a case fatality rate of 4.8%. Maharashtra’s total cases jumped to 4,200 and the death toll to 223.

The entire nation is under lockdown since March 25 to check the spread of the highly infectious novel coronavirus pandemic.

However, the centre is set to relax restraints today in non-containment zones to boost economic activity in line with announcements made by PM Modi last week.

Also Read: “COVID-19 Does Not See Race, Religion, Caste Before Striking”: PM Modi

A total of 4,01,586 samples from about 3,83,985 individuals have been tested as of 9 p.m. on April 19, Indian Council of Medical Research said in a statement. About 27,824 samples were tested for COVID 19 on Sunday, and 1,135 were positive.

India has seen an improvement in the recovery rate that indicates the number of people who have successfully fought off the illness, according to the Union Health Ministry. The rate stood at 14.75 per cent this morning, an improvement of over 14.19 per cent on Sunday

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Covid 19

“It’s Impossible”: Wuhan Lab Director On Doubts Of Covid-19 Source

News Desk

A conspiracy theory has surfaced that the virus spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically a lab which is equipped to handle dangerous viruses.

Wuhan| Calling it “impossible,” the director of a maximum-security lab in China’s central city of Wuhan has rubbished claims that it could be the origin of the pandemic.

Beijing has come under the scanner and extreme pressure over transparency in its handling of the outbreak, with the United States investigating whether the disease actually started in a virology institute with a high-security biosafety lab.

Scientists in China have said the virus likely crossed from an animal to humans in a wet market that sold wildlife meat.

But the presence of the facility has fuelled conspiracy theories that the virus spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, specifically its P4 laboratory which is capable of handling dangerous viruses.

Yuan Zhiming, director of the laboratory, in an interview with state media published Saturday said that “there’s no way this virus came from us”.

Director told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN that none of his staff had been infected, adding the “whole institute is carrying out research in different areas related to the coronavirus”.

Earlier in February, the institute had even then dismissed the theory, stating it had shared data about the pathogen with the WHO in early January.

However, this week the US has provoked the rumours into the mainstream, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying United States officials are doing a “full investigation” into how the disease “got out into the world”.

Also Read: India Revises FDI Rules To Curb Opportunistic Takeovers Of Indian companies

Yuan said: “I know it’s impossible,” when asked if the study suggested the virus could have come from the lab.

Yuan Zhiming said, “As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples.”

Director said that as the P4 lab is in Wuhan “people can’t help but make associations”, however, some media outlets are “deliberately trying to mislead people”.

The global death toll from the coronavirus has now crossed over 1,60,000 people, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

At least 160,717 people have died from novel coronavirus and more than 2.3 million cases have been confirmed worldwide.

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