Coronavirus Cases, India: About 6.1 lakh patients in the country have recovered so far.
India's coronavirus tally surged to 9.68 lakh cases this morning after 32,695 new patients were registered in the last 24 hours in the country's biggest single-day jump in fresh infections, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. In the last 24 hours, 606 deaths linked to the highly contagious illness were reported, taking the COVID-19 death count to 24,915. About 6.1 lakh patients in the country have recovered so far and the recovery rate stood at 63.25 per cent this morning. India is the third worst-hit country by the pandemic after the United States and Brazil.
Here are the top 10 developments on coronavirus cases in India:
This is the second consecutive day that a record number of cases have been reported in a single day and the first time that the country has registered over 30,000 patients in 24 hours. Yesterday, the government said that over 29,000 new infections were registered in a single day.
With 2.75 lakh cases, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state in the country followed by Tamil Nadu (1.51 lakh) and Delhi (1.16 lakh cases). The five states that recorded the highest number of new patients in the last 24 hours are: Maharashtra (7,975), Tamil Nadu (4,496), Karnataka: (3,176), Andhra Pradesh (2,432) and Uttar Pradesh (1,659).
Across the country, the five states that reported the highest number of deaths in the last 24 hours are: Maharashtra (233), Karnataka (86), Tamil Nadu (68), Andhra Pradesh (44) and Delhi where 41 people died of covid.
In a country of about 130 crore people, around 1.27 crore samples have been tested since the beginning of the pandemic; a patient may be tested more than once till the individual recovers. The highest number of samples - 3,26,826 - were tested on Wednesday, the government said.
The positivity rate - percentage of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus - has surged to 10 per cent as compared to yesterday's 9.19 per cent.
A red alert has been issued by the top medical body - the Indian Medical Association - as it noted that 99 doctors have died of covid across India and more than 1,300 have been affected so far. "IMA declares RED ALERT to doctors and medical administrators to raise their guard. If COVID-19 mortality has to be lessened, it has to start with doctors and hospitals," the doctors' body said in a statement.
On Wednesday, a low-cost test kit developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was launched in Delhi. The Corosure Kit is claimed to the world's most affordable diagnostic kit for coronavirus.
Indian pharmaceutical giant Zydus Cadila has initiated the phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of coronavirus vaccine candidate after the pharma company got approval from Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) earlier this month.
As global cases surged past 13.2 million with more than 576,000 deaths, countries around the world have re-imposed lockdowns and curbs to contain new outbreaks.
The United States - epicentre of the pandemic - posted a new daily record of 67,632 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours. The global leader in infections has seen a surge in the virus since late June. For the past 10 days, the number of new cases being reported has been between 55,000 and 65,000 every 24 hours, news ageny AFP reported.
