“Rising recovery rate, from 52% in mid-June to more than 63% in mid-July, is aiding continuous decline in COVID-19 active cases,” the Union Health Ministry said.
New Delhi, July 17:
India coronavirus cases crossed the one million or the 10 lakh-mark, recording 34,956 fresh infections and 687 deaths biggest one-day jump, figures from the Union Health Ministry said this morning. The government data put total cases recorded since the outbreak began in the country at 1,003,832 with 25,602 deaths. Over 6.35 lakh people or 63.34 per cent of the patients have recovered. With the cases surging, lockdowns are being re-imposed in several parts of the country after the easing of restrictions easing in recent weeks as officials hoped the outbreak was under control. Maharashtra continues to report the highest number of cases, followed by Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. India is the third country to record more than one million coronavirus cases, behind only the United States and Brazil.
Here are the top 10 updates on coronavirus:
8,641 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Maharashtra on Thursday, with 1,476 of the new cases being reported in Mumbai. In the Mumbai Metropolitan region, which includes surrounding areas of the city. 266 coronavirus deaths deaths were reported in Maharashtra on Thursday, with 56 of them taking place in Mumbai. Maharashtra has a death rate of 3.94 per cent, while the positivity rate is 19.65 per cent.
In Tamil Nadu, capital Chennai’s daily tally has continued to hover around 1,100 for a week. However, the spike in Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu and three districts adjoining Chennai is the new worry for the state government. Madurai, which is emerging as the new epicentre in the state, has seen a seven-fold rise in the number of cases in little over three weeks. Tamil Nadu has recorded 1,56,369 coronavirus cases so far, including 2,236 deaths.
Karnataka reported its highest single-day spike with 4,169 coronavirus cases. State capital Bengaluru has seen a massive surge in coronavirus numbers. Bengaluru, which had less than 600 cases at the start of Unlock 1.0, has crossed the 25,000-case mark. The state has reported more than 51,422 cases.
Assam has recorded 19,754 COVID-19 cases so far, including 48 deaths. With the three-week long total lockdown in Guwahati ending on July 19, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the “unlock” phase that could start from Monday is likely to be a “staggered” one.
The Goa government has announced ”Janata curfew” between 8 PM and 6 AM till August 10 and a complete lockdown for three days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said too many people were “stepping out to meet people at parties” and there was a low level of “awareness and sensitivity”.
Bihar, which has seen 21,764 cases so far, is under a 16-day lockdown till July 31 following an “alarming surge in COVID-19 positive cases in the last three weeks”.
The Union Health Ministry said there has been a continuous decline in daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases from 31.28 per cent in the beginning of April to 3.49 per cent in mid-July. “Rising recovery rate, from 52% in mid-June to more than 63% in mid-July, is aiding continuous decline in COVID-19 active cases,” the ministry said in a tweet.
Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. After nearly two months of suspension to combat the coronavirus outbreak, the government resumed scheduled domestic passenger flights on May 25. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday that India has signed bilateral agreements with France and the US that will allow airlines of each country to operate international flights starting today. He added that similar arrangements with Germany and the UK are being worked out.
The number of virus cases in the United States has topped 3.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, and there have been 138,201 deaths, both figures the highest in the world.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 5.89 lakh people globally since it emerged in China late last year. Over 1.38 crore people have been infected with the highly contagious virus.
