Covid-19 Updates: The number of coronavirus cases in India has crossed the 18,000 mark.
India recorded the biggest jump in the number of deaths in a day linked to the highly infectious coronavirus with 47 patients dying in the last 24 hours. The number of coronavirus cases in the country has climbed to 18,601, which includes 590 deaths, Union Health Ministry said today, adding that 1,336 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. An improvement has been recorded over the last week in the recovery rate which indicates the number of people who have successfully fought off the illness, the government data shows. The recovery rate stood at 17.48 per cent this morning, the highest so far with 705 patients recovering in a day. On Monday, the recovery rate stood at 14.75 per cent, an improvement over 14.19 per cent on Sunday, 13.85 per cent on Saturday, 13.06 per cent on Friday, Thursday's 12.02 per cent, Wednesday's 11.41 per cent and Tuesday's 9.99 per cent. More than 3,200 patients have been cured so far across the country.
Around 100 people working at the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex have been quarantined after a sanitation worker tested positive for coronavirus, sources have said.
The doubling rate of coronavirus cases - considered a marker of how fast the infection is spreading - has slowed down, the government said on Monday. Based on the last seven days, India's doubling rate has improved to 7.5 days from 3.4 days before the lockdown, senior health ministry official Lav Agarwal told the media. On that basis, the government earlier said the three-week nationwide lockdown proved effective and extended it till May 3.
Delhi reported the country's first plasma therapy success story on Monday. A 49-year-old man who got treatment at a private hospital in the city has recovered. The patient is now off ventilator support, the Saket branch of Max Hospital said.
Maharashtra, the state with the highest number of coronavirus patients, will allow the use of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in parts of the state, including Dharavi - Asia's largest slum- as a precautionary measure against the disease, the state government has said.
Across India, restrictions were eased on Monday in the non-containment zones to boost economic activity in line with announcements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week. The central government, however, has told states and union territories that the guidelines on the countrywide shutdown cannot be diluted.
India's top medical body - the Indian Council of Medical Research - has said it would replace all the defective COVID-19 testing kits in West Bengal after the state raised the issue. The state government had said that faulty kits supplied by ICMR were throwing up inconclusive results and delaying the pace of testing.
Telangana is the first state to extend the lockdown till May 7. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said the lockdown will be enforced in a stringent manner, and the food delivery mobile applications will not be allowed. "The cabinet will take stock of the situation on May 5," he said.
After Uttar Pradesh, five more states will make arrangements to bring back their students stranded in coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan because of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday. Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Assam are ready to take their students back from Kota, Mr Gehlot said.
Worldwide, more than 24 lakh people have coronavirus, nearly 170,000 have died. US has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 230,000 cases, more than 42,000 deaths have been reported from the country.
The 193 members of the UN General Assembly on Monday adopted by consensus a resolution that calls for "equitable, efficient and timely" access to any future vaccines developed to fight coronavirus. The resolution also highlights the "crucial leading role" played by the World Health Organization, which has faced criticism from Washington and others about its handling of the pandemic.
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