India recorded the biggest single-day spike in cases with 97,570 new patients in the last 24 hours, the government data showed this morning. More than 36 lakh patients have recovered so far; about 9.58 lakh cases – 20.56 per cent of the total cases – are active. India reported a record 81,533 recoveries in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry. 1,201 Covid-linked death have been registered since yesterday, taking the number of total fatalities to 77,472. The country has logged the second highest number of cases in the world after the United States, where the tally has surged to nearly 64 lakh cases. India’s recovery rate stood at 77.77 per cent this morning, while the fatality rate was recorded at 1.6 per cent.
The country’s drug controller DCGI has told the Serum Institute of India to pause new recruitment for Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials of the Oxford University’s Covishield vaccine. Adar Poonawalla’s SII is manufacturing the vaccine with AstraZeneca, the pharma major that has stopped vaccine trials across four nations as a precautionary measure. The pause in trials has been linked to a UK volunteer showing potentially adverse symptoms.
In a tweet this morning, the Health Ministry said the gap between the percentage of recovered cases and the percentage of active cases is progressively growing wide. “The gap between %Recovered Cases and %Active Cases progressively growing wide. More than 3/4 of total cases (more than 36L) recovered & discharged. Active Cases (less than 10.5L) only a small proportion (less than 1/4) of total cases. (sic),” the tweet read.
Maharashtra, the worst-affected state in the country, crossed 10 lakh cases on Friday with a record spike of 24,886 new cases. The state has logged 28,724 deaths so far, 393 deaths were reported on Friday.
This is the third consecutive day that India has reported a record number of cases. Yesterday, the government said 96,551 new cases were recorded in the previous 24 hours. A surge of 95,735 fresh infections was reported on Thursday. The highest number of deaths in a single day- 1,209 – was recorded on Friday.
A total of 10,91,251 samples were tested on Friday, taking the total number of samples tested to 5,51,89,226. India has a population of over 130 crore and a patient can be tested more than once until recovery. The postivity rate stood at 8.94 per cent this morning, as compared to yesterday’s 8.2 per cent.
In the last 24 hours, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh (9,999), Karnataka (9,464), Uttar Pradesh (7,016) and Tamil Nadu (5,519) reported the highest number of new patients. These five states are also the worst-affected by the outbreak.
With 200 out of 785 members of parliament above 65, and at least seven union ministers and two dozen lawmakers recovering from COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic has cast a shadow over the much-awaited monsoon session, which begins next week.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice in its report submitted on Friday recommended continuation of virtual courts for identified categories of cases even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. This is the first report to be presented by any Parliamentary Panel on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, news agency PTI reported.
More than 70 per cent of the total active cases of COVID-19 are in nine most affected states, while 69 per cent of the total deaths reported so far are concentrated in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh, the governement said on Thursday.
Worldwide, over 2.8 crore people have been affected by the pandemic; 9.14 lakh have died.
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