Coronavirus update: India death toll crosses 600

In India, 603 people have died in the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic by April 21, 2020 evening, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• The country’s active case count (positive to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) was at 15,122, up from 14,759 in the morning. 
• The country’s death toll reached 590.
• So far, 3,259 patients were cured / discharged.
• India’s total case tally reached 18,985.

• Rajasthan health minister Raghu Sharma alleged that rapid testing kits imported China returned an accuracy of a mere 5.4 per cent. 
• Delhi Chief Minister Arvinf Kejriwal said more than 80 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in the city state were due to co-morbidities.
• SVP Hospital, Ahmedabad claimed it executed a plasa transfusion in a COVID-19 case, according to the Indianexpress.com. 
• Cadila Healthcare shares shot up after the company said one of its biological therapy could help in COVID-19 treatment. 

• The Narendra Modi government has sent monitoring teams to West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to monitor districts, alleging rules were being flouted.
• West Bengal opposed the move. The state has earlier complained about the quality of testing kits being provided, which was accepted by a central agency.
• Kerala took back some relaxations to the lockdown it offered after opposition from the Centre. 
• The United Nations General Assembly’s 193 members adopted a resolution by consensus, seeking “equitable, efficient and timely” access to any vaccine developed for SARS-CoV-2. 
• Nurses in New York plan to sue the city over unsafe working conditions amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, the Newsweek reported.
• The One World, Together At Home music event over the past weekend raised more than $127 million, including $55 million for the Wolrd Health Organization’s (WHO) Solidarity Response Fund, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said April 20, 2020.
• Ghebreyesus also pegged the proportion of the global population with antibodies at 2-3 per cent. 
• The total number of cases positive to SARS-CoV-2 worldover increased to 2.48 million.  

• The global death toll from COVID-19 was at 170,436, according to aggregator Wolrdometers.info.
• The number of active cases were 1.66 million.
• The proportion of serious / critical cases remained at 3 per cent.
• The United States continued to widely lead the table with 42,514 deaths amid 792,759 positive cases.
• Italy’s toll was at 24,114 from 181,228 cases.
• Mumbai has added 1,000 new cases in only four days, taking its total over 3,000, the Times of India daily reported.
• The Union government claimed that in 80 per cent cases detected there were mild or no symptoms at all.

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