COVID-19 sees no religion or community, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday, denying that any religion-based mapping of patients was done and termed any news in this regard as “baseless, incorrect and irresponsible”.
The statement comes on a day when the country registered its highest spike in 24 hours, with an addition of 4,213 positive cases, taking the number of cases overall to 67,152. An additional 97 deaths were reported, taking the nationwide toll to 2,206.
The country currently has 44, 029 active cases; 20,916 persons have recovered.
“In the last 24 hours, there were 1,559 recoveries which takes the recovery rate to 31.15%,” Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said.
According to State Health Department data, the nationwide death toll was 2,295, with 45,930 active cases. The total number of cases stood at 70,766.
Responding to allegations about the government mulling community/religion-based mapping of the COVID-19 spread, Mr. Agarwal said, “This is a very irresponsible piece of news. The virus does not see people’s caste, creed or religion.”
Fighting stigma
“The Supreme Court has already said no fake news should be published, and news should be published after checking facts. News should not spread fear, we should stay united to fight this virus. Nobody should encourage non-factual news,” he added.
“Awareness and adhering to guidelines issued by the governmen