New Delhi: India's COVID-19 tally hurtled past the 30-lakh mark on Saturday night, just 15 days after it crossed 20 lakh, while the total number of recoveries too surged to 22.71 lakh, according to data from states and union territories.
Union health ministry data updated on Saturday 8 am showed a record single-day spike of 69,874 infections, taking the country's COVID-19 caseload to 29,75,701, while the death count due to the disease climbed to 55,794 with 945 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.
However, by night, India's COVID-19 cases rose to 30,05,281, up by 29,580 since the last update 24 hours ago.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Friday it hopes the planet will be rid of the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years -- faster than it took for the Spanish flu. "We hope to finish this pandemic before less than two years," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters from the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, insisting that it should be possible to tame the novel coronavirus faster than the deadly 1918 pandemic.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus Pandemic:
Aug 23, 2020 00:09 (IST)
UP COVID-19 patients referred to private hospitals to be charged Ayushman Bharat rates
In Uttar Pradesh, treatment of COVID-19 patients referred by the district authorities to private hospitals will be done as per the rates charged under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's Office, in a tweet in Hindi, said, "For patients referred by the district administration and Chief Medical Officer in private COVID hospitals, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has provided for their treatment in 50 per cent of beds in these private hospitals, to be done under the rates charged in Ayushman Bharat."
"For this, the Chief Minister has made an approval under the Epidemics Act, 1897 and Uttar Pradesh Epidemics Ordinance, 2020," the chief minister's office said.
Aug 22, 2020 23:52 (IST)
COVID-19: Meghalaya reports 93 new cases, one fresh fatality
Meghalaya's COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,811 with the detection of 93 fresh infections, while one more fatality pushed its coronavirus death count to seven, Health Minister A L Hek said on Saturday.
A 58-year-old man succumbed to the infection at a COVID-19 hospital on Friday night, he said.
The fresh infections have pushed the number of active cases in the northeastern state to 1,035, the minister said.
Twenty more people have been cured of the disease, taking total the number of recoveries to 769, Mr Hek said. Twenty-five security personnel are among the new patients, Health Services Director Aman War said.
Aug 22, 2020 22:55 (IST)
COVID-19: Haryana sees one-day jump of 1,161 cases, 12 more die
Haryana on Saturday registered another big spike of 1,161 novel coronavirus cases, a day after recording its highest single-day jump in infections so far, while the death count from the disease mounted to 597 with 12 more fatalities.
The state has witnessed a spike in COVID-19 cases in the past few days. The fresh cases pushed the infection count to 53,290 in Haryana, according to the state health department's daily bulletin.
Three of the new fatalities were from Yamunanagar, which also reported 157 cases, two were from Kurukshetra while one death each was reported from Jind, Sirsa, Jhajjar, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak and Sonipat, the bulletin said.
Besides Yamunanagar, among the districts which reported fresh cases include Gurugram (102), Faridabad (97), Karnal (91), Ambala (90), Panipat (78), Panchkula (66), Rewari (62), Kurukshetra (51) and Kaithal (65), it said.
The state's active case count stands at 8,680 while 44,013 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection, according to the bulletin.
Aug 22, 2020 22:43 (IST)
Coronavirus: Record 1,226 new cases in Madhya Pradesh, 21 deaths
Madhya Pradesh on Saturday saw its highest single-day spike of 1,226 coronavirus cases, taking the total count in the state to 51,866, health officials said.
The coronavirus death count rose to 1,206 after 21 patients succumbed to the viral infection since Friday evening, they said.
Four patients died in Bhopal, three each in Gwalior and Indore, two in Betul and one each in Alirajpur, Barwani, Damoh, Jabalpur, Khargone, Sagar, Sehore, Shivpuri and Vidisha districts, officials said.
The highest 181 new infections were reported from Indore, followed by 159 in Gwalior, 135 in Bhopal and 111 in Jabalpur.
On the other hand, 872 persons were discharged from hospitals after recovery in the state on Saturday.
Aug 22, 2020 22:05 (IST)
COVID-19: Punjab's death count crosses 1,000 mark with 45 more fatalities
Forty-five COVID-19 fatalities in Punjab pushed the death count to 1,036 while 1,320 fresh cases took the state's infection tally to 40,643 on Saturday, according to an official bulletin.
The coronavirus fatalities include 15 deaths reported from Ludhiana, eight from Jalandhar, five from Sangrur, three from Mohali, two each from Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur and Amritsar and one each from Bathinda, Rupnagar, Moga, Faridkot, Mansa, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and SBS Nagar, according to the bulletin.
Meanwhile, five security personnel posted at the residence of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Muktsar district tested positive for coronavirus, a senior health official said.
Aug 22, 2020 21:56 (IST)
COVID-19: Gujarat adds record 1,212 cases in day; 14 die
Gujarat on Saturday recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,212 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total infection count to 85,678, state health department said.
With 14 deaths, the cumulative toll rose to 2,883, it said.
As against 1,212 new cases, 980 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recoveries to 68,257, the department said, adding that the recovery rate has reached 80 per cent.
At 75,258, the highest number of samples were tested in the last 24 hours, which comes at 1,157.82 tests per day per million population, it said.
Aug 22, 2020 21:42 (IST)
Highest one-day spike of 3,232 new infections takes COVID-19 tally in West Bengal to 1,35,596; death count rises to 2,737 with 48 more fatalities: Health Department.
Aug 22, 2020 21:28 (IST)
COVID-19: Single-day recoveries outnumber new cases in Nagaland for eighth consecutive day
Single-day recoveries outnumbered new COVID-19 cases in Nagaland for the eighth consecutive day as 92 people were cured of the disease and 16 tested positive for the infection on Saturday, a health official said.
One more patient has succumbed to the infection, taking the state's coronavirus death count to nine, he said.
The recovery rate among the COVID-19 patients in the northeastern state has increased to 59.58 per cent from 36 per cent last week, the official said.
The state has been registering more recoveries than new cases since August 15, with the highest single-day recovery of 215 people reported on Thursday.