Coronavirus live updates: At 45,000, India’s tally of fresh cases lowest in 90 days

UK to start one-hour Covid-19 tests at airports from Tuesday

Passengers will undergo a one-hour coronavirus test before flying out of the United Kingdom under plans to open up international travel, The Times reported on Tuesday. Rapid tests will be introduced from Tuesday at Heathrow Airport to allow travellers to enter countries where a negative Covid-19 test result is needed to skip quarantine, the newspaper said.Testing will begin initially for travellers going to Hong Kong and Italy, Times said.

Worldwide coronavirus cases crossed 40 million on Monday, as the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere fuelled are surgence in the spread of the disease. To date, over 1.1 million confirmed virus deaths have been reported

Daily Covid positivity rate down over 5 weeks to 6.1%

The average daily positivity rate of Covid-19 infection has declined week on week over last five weeks to 6.1% during the last week (Oct 14-19), from 9.2% during September 16-22. The cumulative positivity rate has also dropped below 8% and remained so for last four consecutive days. The health ministry said the declining trend in positivity demonstrates that the rate of spread of infection is being effectively contained and was brought about by a high level of comprehensive countrywide testing.

Kerala’s active cases over 5 times national average

The number of active Covid cases in Kerala has reached 2,874 per million population, over five times the national average of 572 cases per million population. The only plus is that Kerala’s death per million figure is 34 as against the national average of 83. Health experts said the two key parameters that indicate a decline in cases is low test positivity rate — the state’s TPR is currently 13.7% and was 18.2% on Oct 13 — and fewer new daily cases. They also advocate daily testing figures to be around 1 lakh.

Coronavirus live updates: At 45,000, India’s tally of fresh cases lowest in 90 days

Chhattisgarh has shown the sharpest fall in cases between the two periods, with a percentage point (pp) drop of 291. The state still showed a 97% growth in cases during the past month, but this was a steep drop from the 388% rise in cases during the August 18 to September 18 period. Other big states where the turnaround was the most dramatic were Punjab (drop of 132pp), Odisha (-109pp), UP (-78pp) and Haryana (-76pp). Among the four worst-hit states, Andhra had the sharpest drop in growth rate at -70pp.