More on Covid-19

30% of cases across India tied to Jamaat event: Govt

NEW DELHI: Around 30% of the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 in India are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event held in mid-March at Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi, the health ministry said on Saturday underlining how the event contributed significantly to the caseload of 23 states including those with high burden of the infection.Of the total 14,378 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 4,291 or 29.8% were linked to the Islamic religious congregation .These cases are spread across 23 states and Union Territories , which include most of the high burden states, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said. He added that 80% of cases in Tamil Nadu, 63% cases in Delhi, 79% cases in Telangana , 59% cases in Uttar Pradesh and 61% cases in Andhra Pradesh are related to the event.Besides, some states where the number of Covid-19 cases are low also accounted for cases linked with the event.Home ministry said over 40,000 people which includes members of the congregation and their contacts were quarantined.As of now, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 3.3%. Further government’s analysis of Covid-19 deaths so far shows 75.3% of deaths are among people more than 60 years of age, whereas 83% deaths were in people with co-morbidities.Among the deceased, 14.4% of people are in the 0-45 year age group, 10.3% in the 45 -60 year age group, 33.1% in the 60-75 year age group and 42.2% were above 75 years old, Agarwal said.“This brings to the fore the earlier highlighted facts that elderly people and people with co-morbidities are at higher risk," he said.According to the government, a total of 14,378 confirmed Covid-19 cases have been reported in the country. As many as 1,992 people, or 13.85% of total cases, have been cured and discharged.A total of 43 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 480.