On Friday morning, the Union health ministry reported 724 new COVID-19 positive cases and 23 deaths in the last 24 hours in India. This surge has brought the total number of cases in the country to 11,201.
Out of the total 13,387 cases, 1,748 people have been cured or discharged from hospitals and 427 people have died.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state with the highest number of cases. The state is inching towards the 4,000th mark with 3205 active cases. So far, 300 people have been cured and 194 have died.
The national capital reported a total of 1,729 coronavirus cases, out of which 1640 are active cases, 51 cured and 38 deaths. Tamil Nadu has the third-highest number of infections with 1,462 COVID-19 positive cases. The state which has the most number of 'red-zone' areas, has 1,267 active cases and 19 deaths so far. Tamil Nadu has 22 of its 37 districts in the ‘red zone’.
Red zones are government identified coronavirus hotspots, The Centre has marked 170 districts across the country as COVID-19 disease hotspots. These areas are home to about 37% of India’s population.
The novel virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, has so far infected 2,157,108 people and killed 144,047, as per the data released by the Johns Hopkins University.
India has now started trials using the antibody-rich blood of patients cured of the coronavirus disease, with doctors turning to a pool of people who have recovered from the infection to test their antibodies as a potential cure for those fighting the disease.