India Covid-19 cases zoom past 40,000, 83 deaths recorded in a day

Maharashtra has the highest number of deaths with total toll reaching 521

Covid cases in India continued on an upward trajectory zooming past 40,000 and recording 83 deaths in a day, taking the final toll to 1,306 on Sunday even as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) headquarters were sealed after two positive cases were found on the campus. 

Cases in Maharashtra reached 12,296, adding 790 cases in a single day making up nearly 31 per cent of the total count of confirmed patients in the country. The state has the highest number of deaths with the toll at 521. 

Gujarat had the second highest number of cases at 5,054 and Delhi was a close third with 4,122 cases. The total number of cases stood at 40,263 in the country, including 111 foreign nationals.

The number of active Covid-19 cases stood at 28,046, while 10,632 people recovered and one patient migrated, according to the health ministry.

A personal staff of a senior CRPF officer and a bus driver of the paramilitary tested positive for coronavirus, officials said. The force has been witnessing multiple cases of the virus, with at least 135 personnel of its 31st battalion based in Delhi being infected and a 55-year-old sub-inspector of the unit succumbing to the disease last week.

“The headquarters are closed for sanitisation till the task is completed,” a CRPF spokesperson said. Contact tracing exercise has begun to quarantine all the personnel who came in contact with the two infected staffers.

At least three other personnel from different units have been found to be coronavirus positive and a number of their colleagues have been quarantined. 

With about 325,000 personnel in its ranks, the CRPF is the country's largest paramilitary force and is designated as the lead internal security force of the country.

As on May 3, a total of 10,46,450 samples have been tested according to Indian Council of Medical Research. Government plans to increase testing capacity to 100,000 tests per day soon. ICMR has estimated a requirement of over 3.5 million last RT-PCR test kits which are considered the gold standard for Covid-19 testing over the next two months. It has placed the order for over 2.1 million test kits.