Total cases in India cross 800, 748 active

There are at least 748 active COVID-19 cases in India at present, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday, taking the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country to 834.

Besides 748 active cases, the country has reported 19 casualties so far while 66 persons have recovered.

The disease has so far spread to 27 states and UTs. A total of 103 districts have been affected by the highly contagious virus.

On Friday, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that it has given orders to Public Sector Undertakings to provide ventilators in order to handle the surge in novel coronavirus cases in the country.

Joint Health Secretary of the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said, "The government is taking preemptive and proactive approach to tackle the situation. In order to upgrade the number of ventilators in the country," adding "We have given an order to PSU to provide 10,000 ventilators. Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), which is one of the Defence Ministry's PSUs, has also been requested to purchase 30,000 additional ventilators in 1-2 months."

Agarwal said at least 1.4 lakh companies have allowed their employees to work from home as per government's request. "Around 1.4 lakh companies allowed employees allowed work from home after our appeal of social distancing and lockdown."-IANS