Many smaller states like Punjab, Himachal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are seeing a spike in Covid cases
India's coronavirus tally crossed the 91 lakh mark in the last 24 hours with 44,059 fresh COVID-19 infections, government data shows. The daily case count was 2.5 per cent lower than Saturday's 45,209. Up to 511 people died of Covid in this period taking the overall disease-related death count to 1,33,738. There are 4.4 lakh total active cases as 41,024 people fought of the virus in the last 24 hours. More than 85.6 lakh people have recovered since the January outbreak in India. India's 24-hour positivity rate rose to 5.1 per cent against 8.5 lakh samples tested in a day. The cumulative positivity rate is 6.89 per cent.
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Though Delhi, Kerala and Maharashtra continued to report the largest number of day-on-day COVID-19 cases in India, their number seems to be plateauing. The national capital saw 6,746 fresh infections, followed by Maharashtra and Kerala with about 5,200 to 5,700 cases respectively. West Bengal logged almost 3,600 cases followed by Rajasthan, which logged its highest numbers yet in the last 24 hours at 3,260.
Many smaller states, including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar, Pradesh Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur, have seen a spike in the number of daily cases with the Centre rushing expert teams to tackle the spread of the disease in winter.
Some of these states have also imposed night curfews, rescheduled reopening schools and increased fine for not wearing masks and social distancing. Rajasthan has an 8-6 curfew in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar and Bhilwara. Madhya Pradesh has a 10-6 curfew in Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Vidisha and Ratlam. Gujarat has a 9-6 curfew in Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Ahmedabad.
In Delhi - India's worst-hit state - two night markets that were shut till November 30 on Sunday have been reopened. The markets, where over 200 vendors set up shops in the two evening markets, were closed after it was found that wearing masks and social distancing were not being followed.
Delhi's neighbouring Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana, and Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, have started random testing of people coming in from the national capital.
In the last 24 hours, highest number of deaths in the country was also recorded in Delhi - 121, followed by Maharashtra (50), West Bengal (49), Uttar Pradesh (35) and Kerala (27). Together, these states account for 55 per cent of all Covid-related fatalities in the past day.
With the pandemic showing signs of brining on another wave of infections amid the winter months, the world has hinged its bets on a vaccine, with US saying it could start inoculating its population in December.
As richer nations plan their vaccination programmes, experts warn that developing countries face hurdles that could deny billions the first proven protection against the virus. Calls are mounting for the G20 nations to help plug a $4.5-billion funding gap in the World Health Organisation led ACT-Accelerator to ensure access to tests, treatments and vaccines for all.
In India, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said a locally-developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate - COVAXIN - could complete its final trials in a month or two, raising hopes for a rapid roll-out in the country with the world's second-highest number of infections. Mr Harsh Vardhan said the government's plan was to immunise 200 million to 250 million Indians by July.
The other experimental vaccines on trial in India are the one being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University that is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India; Russia's Sputnik-V; Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D and lastly one that Biological E Ltd is developing with Baylor College of Medicine and Dynavax Technologies Corp.
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