作者： bharat.cn

In an alarming rate of increase, India’s coronavirus tally crossed 5 lakh cases on Friday. The jump from 4 lakh cases to 5 lakh cases has come within six days.

Coronavirus cases have crossed the 5,00,000 threshold after new numbers from Maharashtra and other states came in today evening. The official number of total coronavirus cases, however, remains at 4.90 lakh as the Ministry of Health’s data dashboard is updated in the morning.

In its most recent update on Friday morning, the Union health ministry placed the total number of coronavirus cases in India at 4,90,401 and the death toll at 15,301.

Adding numbers released by the three worst-hit states — Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu, India’s coronavirus tally crosses the 5 lakh-mark.

The latest development came as Maharashtra recorded over 5,000 cases, the highest-daily jump in coronavirus cases today. Maharashtra, on Friday, reported an increase of 5,024 cases. Maharashtra breached another threshold as the total number of cases crossed the 1.5-lakh mark and stood at 1,52,765.

Similarly, Delhi reported 3,460 cases while Tamil Nadu saw 3,645 cases. The total number of coronavirus cases in both states stood at 77,240 and 70,977 respectively.

By adding just these three states, India’s total number of coronavirus cases stood at 5,02,530.

The highest single-day surge in Covid-19 cases went past 17,000 on Friday, pushing India”s tally to 4,90,401, while the death toll climbed to 15,301 with 407 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Updated at 8 am, the data showed the daily Covid-19 cases increased by the highest-ever 17,296 cases.

India registered over 14,000 cases for the seventh day in a row and witnessed a surge of 2,99,866 infections from June 1 till 26.

More than 80 people were killed today due to lightning in various places in Bihar. According to the Bihar government, 83 people were killed in various districts today due to lightning. Another 24 people were killed due to lightning in Uttar Pradesh.

On Thursday evening, the Bihar government revised the death toll in the state due to lightning to 83. The government also released a district-wise breakup of the death toll. The most number of deaths were reported from the Gopalganj district (13). Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced a Rs 4 lakh ex gratia each for the families of those killed.

Later at night, the Uttar Pradesh government reported that 24 people were killed in the state due to lightning. The most number of deaths in the state were reported from Deoria. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia each for the next of kin.

According to concerned departments, lightning strikes have left at least 32 and 12 injured in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh respectively. The strikes also caused damage to property and resulted in the deaths of over 40 animals in Bihar alone.

Reacting to the deaths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences and said that the state governments of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are prompted responding to the situation.

For the first time, diesel has become costlier than petrol in India. The current rate of diesel is Rs 79.88 per litre and petrol Rs. 79.76 per litre in New Delhi, as oil marketing companies on Wednesday, raised pump prices of diesel by 48 paise, while keeping the price of the other fuel unchanged.

For the 18th day in a row, state-run oil companies on Wednesday raised the prices of diesel. A comparison with the global scenario shows that diesel has been the most expensive of auto fuels as the product has a higher cost of production in many foreign countries.

Even in India, the base price of diesel has been higher than petrol. However, diesel has always been cheaper because it is used by farmers along with truck and bus fleets. Thus, to reduce the burden on farmers and transport fleet operators, diesel is priced lower than petrol in India.

Hemlata Dhyani, General Manager, Competent motors, Maruti Suzuki told India Today, “Following the Supreme Court order of prohibition of registration of BS-IV vehicles after May 10, registration of BS-VI vehicles has started taking place. This has had an impact on automakers as many have stopped manufacturing diesel vehicles. Very few companies are making BS-VI standard of diesel cars because it’s costlier.”

“Recent times has seen an attitude change also, people now prefer petrol, electric, CNG or other alternative fuel cars over diesel ones,” Dhyani added.

At present, diesel vehicles account only for 15 per cent of the total automobile market.

However, customers are worried as many feel that the increased prices of fuel will burn a bigger hole in their pockets.