Over 8000 people in India infected by Coronavirus, death toll touches 273
New Delhi/IBNS: Pressing the panic button, the deadly novel coronavirus has infected 8,356 people in India and claimed the lives of 273, the Union health Ministery confirmed on Sunday.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a four-hour long meeting with 13 chief ministers from various states over video conferencing on Saturday and agreed to extend the lockdown until April 30 to contain the spread of COVID-19 infection.
Had yet another fruitful interaction with all Chief Ministers, the third such one in the last few days. We continued the extensive deliberations relating to the COVID-19 situation in India. https://t.co/nrCQW4lbOR
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 11, 2020
The Health Minister confirmed that over the last 24 hours, at least 900 positive cases have been reported with 34 new deaths.
According to the John Hopkins University's Coronavirus live tracking map, India has 8,446 total Coronavirus cases with 288 deaths.
The nationwide lockdown began on March 25 to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday's meeting chaired by PM Modi with chief ministers indicated that the lockdown would be extended by two weeks, considering the requests of the state leaders, who preferred a longer containment period.
PM has taken correct decision to extend lockdown. Today, India’s position is better than many developed countries because we started lockdown early. If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is imp to extend it
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 11, 2020
Several states like Odisha, Punjab and West Bengal have already extended the lockdown period till April 30.
The nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end on Tuesday. Another national address by PM Modi is expected soon.
Globally the Coronavirus pandemic has claimed 108, 862 lives and affected 1,777,517 people across 185 nations.
The United States currently has the highest number of deaths at 20,604, leaving behind the death toll of Italy at 19,468.
A whopping number of 529,887 people are infected with the highly contagious virus in the United States.
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