Coronavirus roundup: Developments in India and rest of world

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Aug 22, 2020, 20:10 IST

NEW DELHI: India has crossed a significant milestone of testing more than 10 lakh samples for Covid-19 in a day, taking the cumulative tests to more than 3.4 crore, while the caseload neared the 30 lakh-mark.
As has been reported from states and Union Territories, which have pushed ahead with aggressive testing, there is a commensurate decline in the positivity rate, the Union health ministry said in a statement.

Here are the top developments:

1

India

While India has the lowest fatality rate due to COVID-19, it probably has the best recovery rate in the world, said Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday. Vardhan said that contrary to what the experts had claimed about the number of cases reaching 300 million in the country, including five-six million deaths, by July-August, India had less than three million cases, out of which 2.2 million have already recovered.
A record 63,631 patients have recuperated from COVID-19 in a day pushing the recovery rate to 74.69 per cent, while the case fatality rate has dropped to 1.87 per cent, the Union health ministry said on Saturday.
While the country's COVID-19 tally neared the 30-lakh mark, the total number of recoveries has surged to 22,22,577 and exceed active cases by over 15 lakh as on date.
With a record single-day spike of 69,874 infections, India's COVID-19 tally increased to 29,75,701, while the death toll climbed to 55,794 with 945 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the health ministry data showed.
Aarogya Setu has rolled out a new feature that will enable organisations to get the health status of their employees or any other user without violating their data privacy, an official release said. The new feature called 'Open API Service' will help people, businesses and the economy to return to normalcy, and aims to address the fear/risk of COVID-19 infection.
For the first time in the country, anti-fibrotic drugs have been used to treat patients suffering from COVID-19-related lung fibrosis and breathlessness which has helped in the recovery of four such patients in Maharashtra's Pune, the Army has said. It said these are early results and more research is being undertaken in this field to identify the patients who are likely to benefit from the therapy.

2

States

Delhi: The number of COVID-19 containment zones in Delhi has risen from 539 on August 1 to 591 on August 21, with officials attributing the rise to smaller areas being contained now. According to data, the number of containment zones had decreased to 496 in the national capital on August 2 and had witnessed a marginal increase to 499 on August 4.
Kerala: Kerala recorded 2,171 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the infection count to 56,353 while 15 deaths took the toll to 218, health minister K K Shailaja said. Fifty four health workers, including 14from Palakkad and 11 from Malappuram, were among those who tested positive.
J&K: The tally of COVID-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir rose to 31,981 with 610 more people getting infected, while 15 new fatalities took the toll to 608, officials said. Among the new cases, 118 were from the Jammu region, while 492 were from Kashmir.
Sikkim: Sikkim recorded 45 COVID-19 positive cases in the past 24 hours, taking its coronavirus caseload to 1,381. Sikkim now has 507 active cases while 871 patients have been cured of the disease and three persons have died.
Andhra: After a 13-day gap, Andhra Pradesh once again reported over 10,000 new coronavirus cases in a day, pushing the tally to 3,45,216. With four districts reporting cases in excess of one thousand each, the state registered 10,276 fresh Covid-19 infections.
Odisha: In a departure from the past, Ganesh Chaturthi festival was celebrated without the usual pomp and fanfare across Odisha because of the COVID-19 pandemic. People observed the Ganesh puja only at home as the administration denied permission for holding community puja in pandals in public places to contain the spread of the disease.
UP: Seventy more people died from coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh as the state reported its highest daily count of 5,375 cases, pushing the number of infections to 1,82,456. So far, the infection has claimed 2,867 lives.
Puducherry: The Union health ministry has constituted a three-member team to assist the health department of Puducherry in reviewing measures and management of COVID-19 in the Union territory. The team would review the public health measures, infection prevention and control practice, clinical management protocol being implemented for COVID-19.
Rajasthan: Five more people died in Rajasthan due to coronavirus, taking the death toll to 938, while 612 fresh cases pushed the tally in the state to 68,566. The state has 14,907 active cases and a total of 52,059 have been discharged after the treatment.
Tripura: At least 280 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Tripura, pushing the caseload in the northeastern state to 8,389. One more person succumbed to the infection, raising the death toll to 70.
Ladakh: One more person died of COVID-19 in Ladakh, taking the death toll due to the infection in the Union territory to 19. Of the total deaths, 12 were reported from Kargil and seven from Leh district.
Telangana: The total coronavirus caseload in Telangana crossed the one lakh mark with 2,474 fresh cases being added, health officials said. With seven more people succumbing to the virus, the toll in the state mounted to 744.
Jharkhand: Jharkhand's COVID-19 tally shot up to 28,231 as 990 more people tested positive for the infection, while six fresh fatalities pushed its coronavirus death toll to 297. The fresh infections have pushed the number of active cases in the state to 9,562.
MP: The state reported 1,226 new COVID-19 cases while 21 people died of the virus, taking the total number of coronavirus cases to 51,866.
Assam: The weekend lockdown to combat COVID-19 was observed in Assam following the guidelines issued by the state government on August 14. Guwahati also wore a deserted look today with people staying indoors in the fight against coronavirus.
HP: Himachal Pradesh's coronavirus tally stands at 4,780, according to the state health department. The total figure includes 1,438 active cases and 3,268 recovered cases.

3

World

The number of deaths from the new coronavirus has surpassed 800,000 around the world. In total, 800,004 fatalities have been recorded globally, out of 23,003,079 declared infections.
Health officials in China said in their Saturday report on the coronavirus that the country had no locally transmitted infections in the latest 24-hour period, though 22 cases were confirmed in Chinese arriving from abroad.
South Korea is banning large gatherings, closing beaches, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in strict new measures announced Saturday as it battles the spread of the coronavirus. Health minister Park Neung-hoo announced the steps shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases — the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases.
Singapore reported 50 new COVID-19 cases, including five imported infections, taking the national tally to 56,266. The five imported cases have been placed under stay-home notices upon their arrival in Singapore.
Pakistan's tally of coronavirus cases reached 292,174 after 586 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. The ministry of national health services reported that 10 patients died during the period, taking the total number of COVID-19 fatalities to 6,231.
The Nepal government has decided to resume regular international flights from September 1 to bring back its stranded nationals from countries where the RT-PCR tests are easily available, a senior official said.
More than 34.1 million tests for COVID-19 have been performed in Russia, with over 220,000 people being monitored, the country's consumer rights and human welfare watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said. Russia has confirmed a total of 946,976 cases of the coronavirus, and the death toll from the disease has reached 16,189.
Iraq registered nearly 4,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases recorded by the country to over 200,000.
The number of new coronavirus infections in Germany topped 2,000 in the past 24 hours, a high not seen since the end of April, health authorities said. The RKI disease control institute said it registered 2,034 new cases and seven more deaths, taking the total fatalities to 9,267 and confirmed cases to 232,082.