New Delhi, March 31: The death toll in India due to coronavirus has surged to 44 after an infected person died in Maharashtra on Tuesday evening. The latest fatality came from Palghar where the coronavirus-infected man died. He had been admitted to a private hospital on March 28 with high fever and coughing. Later he was shifted to the Palghar government hospital where he succumbed this evening. Coronavirus Cases Breach 800,000-Mark Globally, Death Toll Nears 39,000.

Maharashtra has so far seen 11 COVID-19 deaths, including eight in Mumbai, and one each in Palghar, Pune and Buldhana. In the past 24 hours, the number of cases skyrocketed in the state from 259 to 302 - an increase of 43 cases. The total positive cases stood comprised 151 in Mumbai, 48 in Pune, 36 in Thane region, 25 in Sangli, Nagpur 16, eight in Ahmednagar, four in Yavatmal, three in Buldhana, two each in Satara and Kolhapur, one each in Aurangabad, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Gondia, Jalgaon, Nashik, besides one from Gujarat.

The number of coronavirus cases in India has climbed to 1397, the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs said on Tuesday evening. According to data released by the ministry, the country saw 146 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours - a sharp fall from 227 COVID-19 cases that were reported on Monday. Out of 1397 coronavirus cases, 1238 are active. The death toll stands at 35, according to the ministry.

Earlier today, Joint Health Secretary Lav Agarwal asserted that the battle against coronavirus could only be fought if the government got support from the community. He also said that the Indian government did not wait for the world health body to take any stand on the coronavirus outbreak and started taking containment measures even before it was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

"Did we wait for the World Health Organisation to announce it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern? We had started taking containment measures 13 days in advance," said Agarwal. When asked if the Nizamuddin Markaz episode was an intelligence failure, Agarwal said: "With respect to the Nizamuddin area, we all need to understand that this is not the time for fault finding. What is important for us is to take action as per our containment process in whatever areas we find a case".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 31, 2020 11:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).