New Delhi, Oct 6 (UNI) The COVID-19 spread in India seems to have slowed down as over 13,000 less cases were recorded on Tuesday despite nearly one lakh more tests conducted in comparison to previous day, official data shows.
As per the Union Health Ministry, 61,267 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on Tuesday against 74,442 noted a day before. According to Indian Council of Medical Research 99,543 tests were conducted on Monday in comparison to Sunday.
The last time the country registered less than 70k new cases was on September 1.In terms of fatalities, as many as 884 more patients died, taking the death toll to 1,03,569, third highest in the world. The total number of cases have now reached 66.85 lakh, highest outside the United States.
A steadily declining active case also shows a ray of hope against the fatality by the virus, as only 13.75 per cent or 9,19,023 of the total cases are under treatment.
The total recovered cases stand at 56,62,490. The gap between recovered and active cases has crossed 47 lakh -- 47,43,467 -- and is constantly widening, an official release here said.
The higher number of recoveries has aided the national recovery rate to leap to 84.70 per cent. The fresh recoveries stand at 75,787. The new recoveries have exceeded the fresh cases in 25 states/UTs.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued new guidelines or Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be put in place ahead of the festive season which underlines that large-scale crowds could increase the risk of spread of COVID-19.
The Ministry has made it clear that no event can take place in any of the containment zones. It has also advised people over the age of 65, those with serious illnesses, pregnant women and children under the age of 10 to stay at home.
Meanwhile, Senior Congress leader from Rajasthan and Sahada MLA Kailash Trivedi died of Coronavirus. He was 65.
Veteran Odisha Congress leader and former MP Kartikeswar Patra passed away while being shifted to a hospital here for the treatment of COVID-19. He was 81.
Punjab Health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu who recently shared the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tested positive for the virus. In Haryana, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala was found infected too.
Down south, Congress LS MP from Karnataka, D K Suresh, was found positive just a day after CBI officials had raided his house along with the residences of his brother and the KPCC president D K Shivakumar.
Acclaimed octogenarian Bengali film actor Soumitra Chatterjee, who was suffering from respiratory problems, tested positive for the lethal virus. The celebrated actor earned encomiums for his astounding role as "Feluda" in Oscar-winning Director Satyajit Ray's movies.
Globally, the caseload crossed 3.5 crore mark while the death toll stands at 10.42 lakhs. The US is having the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 7,455,184 and 210,155, respectively. The other countries with the cases are Brazil (4,915,289), Russia (1,219,796), Colombia (862,158) and Peru (828,169) the CSSE figures showed.
UNI Team JAL PS1956