Coronavirus: Mumbai reports 2,120 cases, 121 dead so far

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Apr 17, 2020: India’s coronavirus cases climbed to 13,387 including 437 fatalities due to the disease, according to the health ministry figures released on Friday morning. In another development, India received the much-awaited Rapid Testing Kits from China which use antibody-based blood tests for Covid-19. The consignment of 500,000 antibody testing kits and 100,000 RNA extraction kits arrived on Thursday. They will likely be used to test for coronavirus disease in areas with no or few cases, according to the ICMR, Hidustan Times reported.

 

Elsewhere in the world, President Trump recommended a gradual reopening of the US economy from the shutdown ordered to stop the spread of the virus.

"Based on the latest data, our team of experts now agrees that we can begin the next front in our war," he told a news conference. "We’re opening up our country.

Trump’s announcement came as the United States reported 31,590 Covid-19 fatalities, the most deaths of any country, according to an AFP tally. New York, the state most affected by coronavirus, extended shutdown till May 15 while Britain extended the lockdown, in place since March 23, for at least another three weeks.

More than 4.4 billion people, or nearly 57 percent of the world’s population, have been asked or ordered to follow confinement measures in nearly 110 countries or territories, according to an AFP database Thursday.