Rising covid tally in BSF sets off alarm bells

New Delhi: A 31-year-old Delhi police constable was among 126 persons who died due to the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, as 2,958 fresh cases were detected on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 49,391. The new cases include 85 from the Border Security Force.

To meet the domestic demand with rising infections, the government has banned the export of alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

As of now, 33,514 persons are under treatment while 14,183 have been discharged. In the past 24 hours, 1,456 persons were discharged, taking the total recovery rate to 28.72 per cent. PTI, however, said there were a total of 49,785 cases, 14,046 were discharged and 1,632 people had died.

In Delhi, 70 police personnel have been infected. The young constable who died was asymptomatic and had no symptoms till Monday evening. By late night he got high fever and difficulty in breathing. He was taken to a private hospital first, then to a government hospital where he was declared brought dead. This has alarmed many in the health fraternity and the police.

The BSF detected 85 new cases on Wednesday, taking the total cases in its ranks to 152. A majority of them (110) are from Delhi, and the rest from Tripura. The CRPF has 137 positive cases, though none were detected on Wednesday.

The Delhi government Wednesday ordered the release of 4,000 Tablighi Jamaat members after they completed the quarantine period: 900 of them are from Delhi, and the rest from Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, at a meeting with state health ministers, expressed concern over the high fatality rates in some parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat, where in many cases patients had suppressed information or reported late to hospitals over fears of being stigmatised.

The Centre has, meanwhile, noted that West Bengal had very low levels of testing, and a high mortality rate of 13.2 per cent. The home ministry said his was the highest for any state, and noted the high instances of lockdown violations in Kolkata and Howrah in specific localities, where “corona warriors” had faced attacks.

In a letter to West Bengal chief secretary Rajiva Sinha, Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla urged stricter enforcement of the lockdown, and drew attention to the overcrowding in markets, free movement of people in large numbers without masks, people playing cricket and football, plying of rickshaws and laxity in enforcing social distancing norms in containment zones.