House to house survey being conducted by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation to detect patients with coronavirus symptoms. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Coronavirus India Updates: India on Saturday reported an increase of 57,118 Covid-19 cases, taking its total caseload to 16,95,988, data from the Union Health Ministry showed. The death toll due to the virus rose to 36,511, with 764 deaths in the last 24 hours. The number of recoveries touched 10,94,374. The country now has nearly 5,65,103 active cases.

Health Ministry data stated the recovery rate to be 64.53 per cent, while the fatality rate dropped to 2.15 per cent.

Today is the third consecutive day when coronavirus cases in the country have increased by over 50,000.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 1,93,58,659 samples have been tested so far, with 5,25,689 being tested on July 31.

Of the 764 deaths reported on Friday, 265 are from Maharashtra, 97 from Tamil Nadu, 84 from Karnataka, 68 from Andhra Pradesh, 45 from West Bengal, 43 from Uttar Pradesh, 27 from Delhi, 23 from Gujarat, 16 from Punjab, 14 each from Bihar and Telangana, 12 from Jammu and Kashmir and 11 from Rajasthan.

Here are the latest developments from across the country:

Second round of sero survey begins in Delhi

The second round of sero-prevalence survey began in Delhi on Saturday, with the five-day exercise set to cover various demographic segments and all districts, news agency PTI reported. The exercise is being done as a part of a comprehensive assessment of the coronavirus situation in the national capital.

A senior government official told PTI 15,000 samples would be collected from August 1 to 5 as part of the exercise, spanning different areas and age groups. Representative samples will be taken from all 11 districts.

A sero-prevalence survey involves testing the blood serum to check for the prevalence of antibodies.

The last sero-prevalence survey was conducted by the Delhi government from June 27 to July 10. It found that around 23 per cent of the people surveyed had been exposed to the novel coronavirus. The survey had tested 21,387 samples.

The Delhi government had decided to conduct more monthly sero surveys to find out the percentage of people who were infected by the virus and had recovered in order to formulate better policies for tacking the disease, Health Minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said.

Emulate ‘Delhi model’, Union Minister Kishan Reddy tells states

Union Minister of State from Home G Kishan Reddy Saturday said asked states to emulate the “Delhi model” for controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Reddy visited Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (TIMS), a building at a sports complex in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, which was transformed into a hospital.

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation staff along with students from Terna Medical College don PPE’s and travel in a special bus to reach a survey location in Juinagar, Navi Mumbai. (Express Photo by Amit Chakravarty)

Lockdown in Thane’s containment zones extended till Aug 31

A senior official Saturday said the coronavirus-induced lockdown in the containment zones of Maharashtra’s Thane district has been extended till August 31.

District Collector Rajesh Narvekar said in a video address that concessions granted to non-containment zones and the state government’s guidelines will be applicable to Thane rural, municipal council and Nagar Panchayat limits.

As many as 132 cases of coronavirus were detected from Majiwada-Manpada locality of Thane on Friday, deputy commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation Sandeep Malawi said.

Thane district has at least 85,956 Covid-19 cases, with 2,365 deaths.

A hair salon functioning with social distancing and other security measures in Pune. (Express photograph by Arul Horizon)

Pune Mayor alleges 400 unaccounted suspected Covid-19 deaths

Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol has alleged that at least 400 suspected Covid-19 deaths have gone unaccounted for in the city in July. Mohol said there were at least 400 to 500 deaths of suspected coronavirus patients are going unaccounted for in Sassoon General Hospital and private hospitals in the city.

“There are at least 12 deaths of suspected coronavirus patients that are going unaccounted for in Sassoon hospital daily. Similar cases are taking place in private hospitals also,” he was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Mayor said he raised the issue with CM Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday, when he took stock of the Covid-19 situation.

At Jama Masjid at Field Gunj in Ludhiana. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

Patnaik’s home district Ganjam first in Odisha to record 10,000 cases

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s home district Ganjam became the first in the state to record over 10,000 cases of Covid-19, besides reporting 94 deaths, an official said on Friday. Following the detection of 368 new cases, the districts’ tally increased to 10,364. Further, four patients died during the day, he said.

Though Odisha’s first Covid-19 case was detected on March 15, Ganjam remained a green zone till the arrival of migrant workers, mostly from Surat in Gujarat. The district reported its first Covid-19 case on May 2 with two people who returned from Surat testing positive. About 3 lakh migrant workers have returned to the district, officials said.

Arunachal Pradesh records over 100 cases

Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday recorded 107 cases of coronavirus, its highest single-day spike in cases, taking the state’s total tally to 1,591. At least 22 of the fresh cases were reported from the Capital Complex region, 38 from Changlang district, 14 from East Siang, 12 from East Kameng, 11 from Namsai, four from Longding and one each from Lower Dibang Valley, Lower Siang, Tirap, Papum Pare and West Kameng, State Surveillance Officer Dr L Jampa said.

The state now has 670 active cases, while 918 people have recovered from the disease, and three have died.

As many as 81,865 tests have been conducted in the state so far, the surveillance officer said.

Puducherry Covid-19 cases cross 3,500

Two elderly people succumbed to Covid-19 in Puducherry, while 139 new cases were reported on Saturday. The Union Territory now has 3,593 cases of coronavirus, Director of Health and Family Welfare S Mohan Kumar said in a press release.

There are 1,357 active cases in the union territory now, while 2,185 have recovered from the infection. Nearly 39,707 samples have been tested so far.

(With inputs from PTI)