With 195 deaths and 3,900 COVID-19 new cases reported since Monday, the death toll due to the coronavirus pandemic rose to 1,568 on Tuesday while the total number of infections jumped to 46, 433. This is the highest jump in the death toll and the number of cases since the outbreak of the disease in the country, according to the Health Ministry’s latest update. A total of 12,726 people have been treated and discharged so far.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi held a video chat with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee and discussed ways to deal with the economic fall out of the COVID-19 crisis. Banerjee told Rahul that direct benefit transfers should go beyond the poorest people. “To give cash to people, we really need some machinery. Migrants may not have access to that. We should give a bunch of money available to the state government for them to try out new strategies.”
If the scenes on the first day of the third phase of lockdown are any indication, the number of Coronavirus infections are likely to rise sharply in the coming days. Large crowds were seen at many places, not just in front of liquor shops, and physical distancing norms were largely ignored. In many states, the movement of migrant workers is also resulting in similar situations.
On the global front, the number of cases has now surpassed 3.5 million with 2,51, 510 deaths, although the rate of fatalities and new cases has slowed from peaks reached last month. The Donald Trump-led United States continues to be the worst-affected with 11,66,083 cases and 67,913 deaths.
