India tightens lockdown curbs as covid cases surge

New Delhi: India tightened restrictions during the nationwide lockdown as coronavirus cases climbed on Sunday. Even though the Centre announced a lockdown till May 3, Telangana has extended it till May 7.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 543 and the number of cases climbed to 17,265 in the country on Monday, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 14, 175 while 2,546 people have been cured and discharged, and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.

The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals.

A total of 24 deaths were reported since Sunday evening. Twelve deaths were reported from Maharashtra, five from Gujarat, three from Rajasthan and two each from Delhi and Karnataka.

Of the 543 deaths, the highest number of 223 fatalities was reported from Maharashtra, followed by Madhya Pradesh (70), Gujarat (63), Delhi (45) and Telengana (18).

The death toll reached 17 in Uttar Pradesh while Punjab and Karnataka reported 16 deaths each. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have reported 15 deaths each.Rajasthan has registered 14 fatalities.

The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.

Jharkhand and Bihar have reported two deaths each, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry's data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Sunday showed 565 COVID-19 deaths in the country.

According to the ministry's data, updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country is from Maharashtra at 4,203 cases, followed by Delhi with 2,003, Gujarat with 1,743, Rajasthan with 1,478, Tamil Nadu with 1,477 and Madhya Pradesh 1,407.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,084 in Uttar Pradesh, 844 in Telengana, 646 in Andhra Pradesh and 402 in Kerala.

In Karnataka, cases has risen to 390, in Jammu and Kashmir to 350, in West Bengal to 339, in Haryana to 233 and in Punjab to 219.

Bihar has reported 93 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 68 such cases.

Forty-four people have been infected with the virus in Uttarakhand, while Jharkhand has 42 cases and Himachal Pradesh has 39 cases.Chhattisgarh has 36 cases so far.

Assam has registered 35 cases, Chandigarh has 26, Ladakh 18, while 16 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Meghalaya has reported 11 cases, while Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 patients each.

Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website.