Coronavirus cases in India inches towards 47,000 mark — Tamil Nadu and UP’s vegetable markets among new hotspots

• The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,568, and the number of cases climbed to 46,433 in India on Tuesday. Of the total cases, the number of active patients stood at 32,138, while 12,726 people have recovered.
• Koyambedu market for vegetables, fruits and flowers, one of the largest in the country that used to see crowds of thousands of people every day, has emerged as the latest hotspot for COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu.
• Twenty-four in Meerut, 28 in Agra and four in Lucknow — the vegetable vendors are now emerging as the ‘soft target’ for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh.
• The global number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus has surpassed the 250,000 mark, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 1,568, and the number of cases climbed to 46,433 in India on Tuesday (May 5), the Union Health Ministry said. The number of active cases stood at 32,138, while 12,726 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

The total number of cases also includes 111 foreign nationals.


Of the 1,568 fatalities recorded so far, Maharashtra tops the tally with 583 deaths, followed by Gujarat at 319, Madhya Pradesh at 165, West Bengal at 133, Rajasthan at 77, Delhi at 64, Uttar Pradesh at 50 and Andhra Pradesh at 36.

Since May 4 alone, a total 179 deaths have been reported, of which 98 were from West Bengal, 35 from Maharashtra, 29 from Gujarat, six from Rajasthan, five from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab and one each from Chandigarh, Haryana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

More than 70% of the COVID deaths were due to comorbidity. Most of the deceased were suffering from other diseases than coronavirus, the ministry said on its website.

According to the health ministry data, as of May 5 the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are 14,541 from Maharashtra, followed by Gujarat at 5,804, Delhi at 4,898, Tamil Nadu at 3,550, and Rajasthan with 3,061. The number of confirmed cases in Andhra Pradesh stands at 1,650 and in West Bengal it is 1,259.

Here are the major updates from across the country on May 5


Woman attendant tests positive for COVID-19 at AIIMS Rishikesh

A woman attending to a patient at AIIMS, Rishikesh has tested positive for COVID-19, taking the number of confirmed cases in Uttarakhand to 61, officials said on Wednesday.

Her swab sample was found positive for the infection late Monday night, Additional SDM Apoorva Pandey said.

She was attending to a patient at the urology ward of the premier hospital, where she may have come in contact with an infected person, Pandey said.

She has been admitted to the isolation ward of the hospital and people who may have come in contact with her are being traced, the official said.

COVID-19 cases in BSF increase to 67 — max in Delhi, Tripura

COVID-19 cases in border guarding force BSF have climbed to 67, with the maximum reported in a Delhi battalion, deployed in the Jamia area for law and order duties, and from the frontier state of Tripura, officials said on Tuesday.

Thirteen fresh COVID-positive cases have been reported from a force camp in Tripura. These include ten personnel, and three family members (wife and two children) of an infected trooper, a Border Security Force (BSF) spokesperson said. The number of cases from the border state of Tripura stands at 24 now, he said.

Forty-one cases have been reported from units based in the national capital and one from Kolkata (driver of a vehicle that was escorting the inter-ministerial central team of the Union government touring West Bengal).

Five more die of COVID-19 in Rajasthan — toll rises to 82

Rajasthan recorded five more coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, taking the state’s toll to 82.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rohit Kumar Singh said all the five deaths took place in Jaipur, taking the city’s death toll to 49.

The state also reported 38 fresh coronavirus cases, he said. Of the fresh 38 coronavirus cases, 14 were from Jaipur, nine from Chittorgarh, eight from Kota, four from Jodhpur, two from Tonk and one from Bharatpur, the Health Department official said.

COVID-19: Koyambedu market emerges as TN’s new hotspot

Koyambedu market for vegetables, fruits and flowers, one of the largest in the country that attracts crowds of thousands of people every day, has emerged as the latest hotspot for COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu.

The market is spread over 295 acres with over 3,000 outlets of which only about 200 of them are currently functional.

The development has prompted authorities to shift the market to suburban Thirumazhisai from Thursday.

Of the 527 positive cases on Monday (May 4), a “large number are linked to the Koyambedu market,” a bulletin said. Rough estimates provided by officials pegged at least 450 cases in the state to have a link to the marketplace. Chennai reported 266 new cases on May 4, out of which 215 were linked to the Koyambedu market.

Districts, including Cuddalore, which witnessed the return of workers to their native villages from the marketplace, have seen a similar surge.

COVID-19 cases in Indore rise to 1,654; death toll reaches 79

The number of coronavirus cases in Madhya Pradesh’s worst-hit Indore district climbed to 1,654 after 43 more people tested positive for the disease in the last 24 hours, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

Besides, the death toll in the district rose to 79 as two more persons succumbed to the disease, Indore’s Chief Medical and Health Officer Praveen Jadia said.

The two victims included a 45-year-old woman and a 64 -year-old man, who died at a private hospital here. The woman was also suffering from diabetes and hypertension, while the man had chronic kidney disease, he said.

So far, 468 patients have been discharged after recovery in Indore, which is a COVID-19 red zone, the official said.

UP vegetable vendors now susceptible to corona

Twenty-four in Meerut, 28 in Agra and four in Lucknow — the vegetable vendors are now emerging as the ‘soft target’ for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh.

In the past 24 hours, the Naveen wholesale vegetable market has emerged as a hotspot with 24 vegetable vendors testing positive for the deadly virus. The market, which has been sealed for the past two days, supplies vegetables to the retailers and small shop owners in Meerut.

According to a report, doctors have expressed serious concern and have suggested decentralisation of the wholesale vegetable market to check the further spread. Health officials are having a tough time tracing the contacts of the corona positive patients.

Doctor Vishwas Chaudhary, Meerut district surveillance officer, said, “The market caters to almost the entire district, and we are carrying out sampling on a large scale in the area.”

Global COVID-19 deaths surpass 250,000: Johns Hopkins University

The global number of deaths due to the novel coronavirus has surpassed the 250,000 mark, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As of Tuesday morning, the global death toll stood at 251,510, the university’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update. The global number of COVID-19 cases on Tuesday morning stood at 3,582,469.

The US currently accounts for the world’s highest deaths at 68,922.

The other countries with more than 20,000 deaths are Italy (29,079), the UK (28,809), Spain (25,428), and France (25,204), the CSSE data showed.

Here are the latest number of cases across states as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare website.


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