Covid tally climbs to 1,431 in Rajasthan

The death toll in Rajasthan stands at 22 and the number infected at 1,431 as of Sunday.

A 62-year-old man died and 80 more cases of Covid-19 were reported in Rajasthan, but the state administration claimed the pace at which Covid-19 is spreading in the desert state had slowed. The death toll in Rajasthan stands at 22 and the number infected at 1,431 as of Sunday.

Doctors wearing protective suits going to check people during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Ajmer on Saturday. (ANI photo)

State health department said that in the last past five days the daily increase in the number of cases had slowed, indicating a flattening of the Covid-19 curve..

Health minister Raghu Sharma said credited the decrease to the efforts made by the state government to stanch the number of new cases and the fatality rate which, he claimed, was lower than the national average. Sharma also claimed that those who had died of the virus also suffered from co-morbid conditions and their deaths could not be attributed to Covid-19 alone.

On Saturday, Rajasthan’s additional chief secretary (health) Rohit Kumar Singh said that had the virus spread at the same pace as it did in the first phase of the lockdown (March 25 to April 14) ,the number of people infected would have been 1,679 but because of stringent measures adopted by the state, the number had been limited to 1,361 (as of Saturday evening).

Health department data also showed that people in the 20-40 year age group were most susceptible to the virus in Rajasthan.

Singh said the man who died on Sunday was a 62-year-old resident of Jaipur’s Raja Park and was admitted to a private hospital on April 16 with complaints of fever and breathlessness. His sample was taken and he tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday, April 18, and he died the same day, said Singh. It was the 22nd Covid-19 death in Rajasthan.