Coronavirus roundup: Developments in India and rest of world

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Aug 17, 2020, 20:03 IST

NEW DELHI: The total number of tests for detection of Covid-19 has crossed the 3 crore-mark in India, with the Union health ministry asserting on Monday that the "new landmark" has been achieved due to expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country.
A total of 3,00,41,400 samples have been tested until August 16 with 7,31,697 samples being tested on Sunday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.

Here are the top developments:

1

India

In a testament to the focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts of the Centre, and the State and UT governments, India has set a new landmark of conducting three crore tests, the Union health ministry said in a statement.
Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a substantial boost to the testing capacity, the ministry said.
While the cumulative testing rose from 1.2 crore on July 14 to three crore on August 16, the positivity rate has seen a rise from 7.5 per cent to 8.81 per cent in the same period, the statement said.
The number of people who have recuperated from Covid-19 in India went past 19 lakh on Monday with a record 57,584 patients recovering within a span of 24 hours, pushing the recovery rate to over 72 per cent, according to the Union health ministry data.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 26,47,663 on Monday with a single-day spike of 57,981 infections, while the death toll crossed the 50,000 mark with 941 fresh fatalities, according to the Union health ministry data.
The recoveries surged to 19,19,842, pushing the recovery rate to 72.51 per cent, the data showed.
The Covid-19 pandemic has given a chance to revisit and structurally re-imagine a robust public health infrastructure for the country, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said on Monday.
Citing India's successful approach in containing and curing this novel health risk, he lauded the country's capacity to turn government schemes into a broader social movement that saw “the complete eradication of small-pox and polio from a time when India contributed 60 per cent of the global cases of polio".

2

States

Bihar: The Bihar government on Monday extended the lockdown till September 6 in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state, as per a notification. Restrictions will remain in place in the district headquarters, sub-divisional headquarters, block headquarters and all municipal areas in the state.
Punjab: The coronavirus infection tally and death toll have nearly doubled in Punjab in the last 16 days with four districts -- Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala -- accounting for around 55 per cent of the state's total cases and 65 per cent of its Covid-19 fatalities.
HP: Himachal Pradesh recorded 13 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 4,170, officials said. There are 1,313 active cases in the state while 2,797 coronavirus patients have recovered.
Ladakh: Five more patients died of coronavirus in Ladakh, taking the death toll due to the disease in the Union territory to 14, officials said. Kargil district recorded four new deaths, while one Covid-19 patient breathed his last in Leh.
Karnataka: Manipal Hospitals launched a plasma bank in the city for advanced treatment of Covid-19 patients and urged those who had recovered from coronavirus to come forward as donors.
Tamil Nadu: Tamil Nadu recorded 5,890 fresh Covid-19 cases, pushing the tally to 3,43,945, while 120 deaths propelled the death toll to 5,886. As many as 5,667 patients were discharged from various hospitals and in total 2,83,937 people have recovered and there are 54,122 active cases.
West Bengal: Trinamool Congress MLA Samaresh Das, who had tested positive for Covid-19 recently, died at a hospital in Kolkata, party sources said. He was 76.
J&K: Jammu and Kashmir recorded 422 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infected persons to 28,892, even as six Covid-19 patients died during the last 24 hours in the Union territory. With the fresh deaths, the death toll of coronavirus infected persons in the UT has risen to 548.
Odisha: Rural development and labour minister Susanta Singh said he has tested positive for Covid-19. The MLA from Bhatli assembly constituency is the first minister in Odisha to have been infected with the virus.
Tripura: Tripura reported 143 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking the state's tally to 7,222, while the death toll reached 59 as four more patients succumbed to the disease. The state now has 1,859 active cases while 5,286 people have recovered from the disease.
UP: Call Data Records, used in crime investigation by police, are being analysed across Uttar Pradesh to trace contacts of Covid-19 patients, officials say. Some patients, the officials say, deliberately try to hide their information or share wrong or incomplete information with health officials during treatment, making it difficult to trace their contacts and prevent the chain of virus transmission.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands: The number of Covid-19 cases in Andaman and Nicobar Island rose to 2,399, with 93 more people testing positive for coronavirus, an official said. All the new cases were detected during contact tracing.
Puducherry: Four more people including a 80-year old man succumbed to Covid-19 as the death toll in Puducherry rose to 114, health minister Malladi Krishna Rao said. Also, 302 fresh coronavirus cases were reported, taking the overall tally in the Union territory to 8,029.
Rajasthan: Rajasthan reported 10 Covid-19 deaths and 693 fresh cases of the virus, according to an official report. The deaths were reported from Banswara (2), Bikaner (3), Jaipur (3) and Kota (2).
Arunachal Pradesh: Forty-three more people, including 14 security personnel, have tested positive for Covid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, raising the state's total caseload to 2,701.
Kerala: Kerala reported the highest single day surge of 1,725 Covid-19 cases, taking the infection tally to 46,140 while 13 deaths took the toll to 169. Health minister K K Shailaja said Thiruvananthapuram reported the highest number of 461, followed by Malappuram with 306.
Telangana: Telangana recorded 894 new Covid-19 cases and 10 deaths, taking the state count of coronavirus cases to 92,255. The total number of cases include 21,420 active cases, 70,132 recoveries, and 703 deaths so far.

3

World

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 770,429 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December. At least 21,719,870 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 170,052 deaths from 5,404,115 cases. At least 1,833,067 people have been declared recovered.
China has diagnosed 22 new Covid-19 cases and 37 asymptomatic carriers within the last 24 hours, the National Health Commission said. On Sunday, the number of new cases was 19, while the number of new asymptomatic carriers was 16.
The UK government issued an appeal for more people from an ethnic minority background, including those of Indian-origin, to sign up for ongoing clinical trials for a potential vaccine to combat Covid-19. A targeted recruitment programme broadcast in Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Urdu is among the measures being deployed to reach out to different communities.
Nepal's Covid-19 tally crossed 27,000-mark after 581 new coronavirus cases were reported across the country, a senior heath official has said. 581 people were found infected with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the national tally to 27,241.
Three Indians were among six imported coronavirus cases reported in Singapore, which has so far registered 55,838 Covid-19 infections, officials said on Monday. The ministry of health said that three of the six imported cases reported on Sunday were arrivals from India on July 31.
Australia recorded its highest count in daily Covid-19 deaths with 25 fatalities, taking the country-wide coronavirus death toll to 421. Apart from the 25 deaths, 282 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. Now, the country's total number of Covid-19 cases stands at 23,576, including 14,080 cases of recovery.
Nightclubs closed their doors on Monday in four more regions of Spain as new measures to curb a rise in Covid-19 infections came into effect, a day after a noisy Madrid protest against virus restrictions. Spain's most populous region, Andalusia, along with Galicia and Cantabria in the north and Castilla and Leon in the centre were the latest Spanish regions to begin enforcing 11 measures the government unveiled Friday to curb one of the fastest virus growth rates in Europe.