Coronavirus: India infections cross 17,000, global 2.35 million; Donald Trump warns China of ‘consequences’

Team Suno Neta Sunday 19th of April 2020 11:42 PM

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New Delhi: The number of infections from the new coronavirus, Covid-19, in India has crossed 17,000, on Sunday, with the death toll touching 550. Maharashtra, which has been leading the states in both the number of infections and deaths, reported over new 550 cases in the last 24 hours.

Although Maharashtra maintained its lead in the number of new infections and deaths , Gujarat and Tamil Nadu reported a sharp surge in the number of cases on Saturday. Gujarat reported 228 new cases while Tamil Nadu reported 105.

However, amid the worry of rising number of cases across the country, there have been some positive news from Kerala. The state seems to have flattened the coronavirus curve, as of now, with just four new cases reported by 5pm on Sunday. Kerala, which was among the first states to have reported infections from the virus, recorded a total of 400 cases by Sunday evening. Among them, 257 have recovered and three have died. Kerala’s efforts to fight and contain the spread of the disease has been noticed and lauded nationally as well as internationally.

The COVID-19 response of Kerala was spearheaded by state health minister KK Shailaja, who is fondly called as Shailaja Teacher as she was a teacher before. Talking to media, she said Kerala’s success in flattening the Covid-19 curve was because it had the experience of tackling the new type of henipavirus, Nipah or NiV, outbreak in the state in 2018.

Global cases cross 2.35 million, deaths 160,000

The total number of coronavirus cases across the world has crossed 2,350,000, on Sunday. The death toll has also gone up and now has breached the 160,000 mark. The death toll in Europe alone has crossed the 100,000 mark with Italy and Spain leading the figures. However, the death rate slowed in Spain and the Netherlands.

The United States of America, which is now leading the world in both the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths due to it, reported over 29,000 fresh cases and over new 1,850 deaths, on Saturday. The country now has over 730,000 infections and has seen over 39,000 deaths.

Interestingly, on Friday, the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus originated in late last year, has raised its official death toll from the infection by 50 percent. It added 1,290 fatalities, taking the toll to 3,869. This upped the official total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country to over 4,600.

Trump warns China of ‘consequences’

Meanwhile, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who had already cast doubts on the official Chinese figures and insinuated that Beijing was being dishonest with facts, said there should be “consequences” if China is “knowingly responsible” for the coronavirus pandemic.

During the daily news briefing at the White House on the coronavirus situation in the country, Trump, in reply to a question, said, “Well, if they knowing did it, (then) certainly; if it was a mistake … a mistake is a mistake … but if they were knowingly responsible … yeah, I mean, then sure there should be consequences.”