Health team taking samples of residents of Gandhi Colony in Panchkula. (Express photo: Jaipal Singh)

India reported 37,148 cases and 587 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of coronavirus infections to 11,55,191, including 28,084 casualties, 4,02,529 active cases and 7,24,578 people who have been treated and discharged so far, according to the data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The Health Ministry and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have suggested a set of short-term and medium-term actions for state governments to enhance the country’s Covid-19 testing capacity.

Addressing a press conference, Rajesh Bhushan, OSD, Health Ministry, said India’s Covid-19 case fatality rate had dropped to 2.43 per cent due to effective clinical management. “India’s deaths per million population stand at 20.4, while the global average is 77,” Bhushan said. The Health Ministry said 19 states and Union Territories were performing more than 140 Covid-19 tests per day per million population. Thirty states/Union Territories have positivity rate lower than the India average

Meanwhile, the Centre has written to all states and union territories warning against the use of N-95 masks with valved respirators by people, saying these do not prevent the virus from spreading out and are “detrimental” to the measures adopted for its containment.

On day 21 of unlock 2.0, here are some interesting stories from across the country.

Leh to Delhi: Daily 1000-km journey to send mother’s milk to her newborn

For nearly a month, 33-year-old Jikmet Wangdus and his brother-in-law have been going to the Delhi international airport daily to collect a box flown all the way from Leh. Except, the package is not an ordinary one.

The box has seven small containers inside, each carrying the precious breast milk of Wangdus’ wife for their newborn, who underwent a complex life-saving surgery recently at a private hospital. The boy was born through a C-section on June 16 at Sonam Nurboo Memorial Hospital in Leh and 30-year-old Dorjey Palmo found out that her baby was unable to suckle when she tried to feed him.

“I was in Mysore when my family in Leh contacted me and my Guruji’s family members, who are doctors, suggested sending the baby immediately to Delhi or Chandigarh at a bigger hospital. So, my wife’s brother, Jigmat Gyalpo, took a flight from Leh and brought my child to Delhi on June 18 morning,” Wangdus said.

Wangdus, who works as a manager in an educational institution in Mysore, took a flight too and reached early morning on the same day. Leh and Delhi are 1000-km apart by road and a direct flight takes one hour and 15 minutes.

“I only once took my child in my hands when he was two days old. I didn’t touch him much because I had travelled from Karnataka and there was so much COVID scare. My brother-in-law carried him,” he told PTI.

Upon landing at the Delhi airport, the baby was rushed by his father and uncle to the Max hospital, Shalimar Bagh, in an ambulance and was admitted to its NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), hospital authorities said. At Max hospital, Dr Harshwardhan, Principal Consultant, Paediatric Department, diagnosed the baby with tracheoesophageal fistula with esophageal atresia, which he said, is not very uncommon, but affects about “three in every thousand children”.

Aurangabad: Nurse’s quick thinking saves bleeding new mother from surgery

A nurse’s timely recall of a medical fact has given a new lease of life to a mother of twins at a government hospital in Maharashtra. Head of the department gynaecology, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Dr Srinivas Gadappa told PTI on Tuesday the suggestion made by the nurse Dnyneshwari Ghodke not only helped stop bleeding of the woman, but also ended the need for a second surgery.

The surgery would have meant removal of the uterus of the woman to stop bleeding. Ghodke has been feted by the department for her quick thinking.

“A 22-year-old woman from Jalna gave birth to twins through a cesarean section on the night of July 17 in GMCH. However, after delivery, the woman started bleeding profusely,” said Dr Gadappa.

While doctors started preparations for another surgery on the woman and were trying to stop bleeding, Ghodke suggested the woman start breast-feeding her newborns immediately. Dr Gadappa said the idea was based on a medical fact that breast-feeding releases hormone Oxytocin in the mother’s blood stream, which helps in arresting bleeding.

Woman, daughter escape from COVID-19 facility in Aurangabad

A woman and her daughter who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, escaped from a COVID-19 facility on Tuesday afternoon by telling the security guard they had been discharged, an official said.

The two were asymptomatic and were demanding home isolation, for which they had to complete some formalities, but they walked out before doing so, said hospital head Dr Sundar Kulkarni.

“They were admitted in DCH on Monday. At a time when our staff was busy, the mother and daughter left the building, and told the security guard at the gate who stopped them that they had been discharged,” he told PTI. A complaint has been filed against the two at the local police station, Dr Kulkarni said.