New Delhi, April 21: A total of 61 districts from 23 states and union territories have not reported any fresh coronavirus cases in the past 14 days, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday. The worst-hit state Maharashtra has four districts in the list. These districts are – Latur, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Washim. However, Haryana’s Bhiwani district which was earlier in the list was removed as some cases were reported here. Coronavirus Cases Doubling Rate Improves To 7.5 Days As Compared To 3.4 Before COVID-19 Lockdown, Says Health Ministry.

Rajasthan’s Pratapgarh has been added to the list of districts where no fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 28 days. Apart from Pratapgarh, the other three districts are - Mahe in Puducherry, Kodagu in Karnataka and Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. Catch Live Update of Coronavirus Here:

Health Ministry's Press Conference:

While addressing a press conferencing, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said that the government has issued guidelines to all states for also providing essential medical facilities in case of diseases like HIV and cancer. Agarwal said, “We have issued detailed guidelines to all states that while we focus on COVID19, all other services need to be provided, be it for dialysis, HIV/cancer treatments etc. At the same time required, infection management prevention should be in place.”

Meanwhile, five coronavirus vaccines have gone into human trial phase. R Gangakhedkar, head scientist and director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), stated, “It is a new disease, in the last 3 and half months science has progressed & developed PCR tests, five vaccines have gone into human trial phase out of 70 vaccine candidates. It has never happened before in case of any other disease.

The number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 18,601 in India on Tuesday. The death toll also mounted to 590 in the country. More than 3,200 people have also recovered so far. Currently, there are 14,759 active cases in India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 21, 2020 05:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).