Coronavirus Cases, India: More than 16,000 patients have died in India so far.
New Delhi:
A huge spike of 18,522 new coronavirus patients was recorded in the last 24 hours, taking India’s tally to 5,66,840 cases. A total of 16,893 patients have died since the beginning of the pandemic, the Union Health Ministry said this morning, adding that 418 deaths linked to the highly infectious illness were reported in the last 24 hours. The government on Monday announced the second phase of the country’s gradual emergence from restrictions in a set of elaborate guidelines for “Unlock2”. While containment zones – areas worst-hit by the pandemic – will continue to remain under strict curbs, more activities shall be opened outside these neighbourhoods.
Here are top 10 developments on coronavirus cases in India:
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COVAXIN, the first COVID-19 potential vaccine to be developed in India has been given DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) approval for Phase I and II human clinical trials that are scheduled to start across the country in July. An inactivated vaccine created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus, it has been developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
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A total of 3,34,822 patients have recovered so far in India. The average positivity rate – ratio of positive cases to the number of tests conducted – stood at 8.80 per cent this morning. India has registered a steady increase in positivity rate over the past one week.
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Maharashtra, which has the highest number of COVID-19 infections in India, has extended the lockdown till July 31. The state government asked officials to enforce measures and necessary restrictions during the extended lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.
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For the third consecutive day, Maharashtra on Monday recorded over 5,000 new coronavirus infections, taking the state’s tally to around 1.69 lakh cases. This is nearly double the number of infections recorded by China where the outbreak originated in Wuhan city in December.
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In the last one week, Delhi has tested over 15,000 samples daily. The national capital on Monday recorded 2,084 new coronavirus cases, taking the infection tally in the city to over 85,000. This is the lowest number of new cases Delhi has seen within a single day when compared to the recent trend in the spike in cases where 3,000 to nearly 4,000 cases were being detected each day.
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Across India, a total of 86,08,654 samples have been tested so far; 2,10,292 samples were tested on Monday. India has a population of around 130 crores, according to rough estimates.
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Tamil Nadu, which has logged the third-highest number of COVID-19 patients so far, has also extended the coronavirus lockdown till July 31. Chennai and Madurai will continue to be under intense lockdown till July 5 and the current relaxations and curbs shall be in force till July 31 for the rest of Tamil Nadu, the government said. On Monday, the state recorded 3949 new infections, its biggest single-day spike.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is not even close to being over, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Monday. “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up.”
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Worldwide, the coronavirus tally has surged past the 10 million-mark. Half a million deaths have been registered so far.
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Coronavirus epicentre has shifted from China to Europe to the United States after it originated in China’s Wuhan city in December. US has reported over 25 lakh cases so far. India is the fourth worst-hit affected by the pandemic after the US, Brazil and Russia.
