Without lockdown, India would have 2 lakh COVID-19 cases by now: Govt

New Delhi, Apr 11: The health ministry on Saturday said lockdown and containment measures are important to fight COVID-19, the death toll from which has risen to 239, with the number of cases approaching the 7,500-mark in the country.

"If we had not taken any measures, then we might have had two lakh cases at this time," said Lav Agrawal, Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus rose to 239 and the number of cases to 7,447 in the country on Saturday, according to the Union health ministry.

While the number of active Covid-19 cases is 6,565, as many as 642 people were cured and discharged and one had migrated, it said.

As many as 33 new deaths have been reported since Friday evening, the ministry said.

Seventeen deaths were reported from Madhya Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, two from Gujarat and one from Assam, it said.

Maharashtra has reported the most coronavirus deaths at 110, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 33, Gujarat at 19 and Delhi at 13.

Punjab registered 11 deaths while Tamil Nadu has reported eight fatalities and Telengana seven.

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have reported six deaths each while West Bengal has registered five deaths each.

Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh have reported four deaths each while Haryana and Rajasthan have recorded three deaths each.

Two deaths have been reported from Kerala. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam reported one fatality each, according to the health ministry data.

The 7,447 figure includes 71 foreign nationals. The death toll on Friday evening was 206.