Coronavirus India Updates: Death Toll Nears 1 Lakh-Mark, Total Tally Reaches Almost 64 Lakh Cases

The Kerala government has imposed section 144 of CrPC, prohibiting the assembly of more than five people to control the surge in coronavirus cases in the state. A late night order issued on Thursday by Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta said gatherings pose an impending danger of a super spread of the infection and the order shall come into force from 9 am on October 3 and will remain in effect till October 31.

The southern state, which has been witnessing a rapid spike in new cases in recent weeks, had crossed the one lakh mark on September 11, seven months after India's first case was reported from the state, when a Wuhan returned medical student tested positive.

Keen to scale up testing infrastructure for Covid-19, the Karnataka government has decided to establish RT-PCR labs in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and the tender process for it would be taken up soon, Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Friday. To support this further, tenders will be floated soon by the Health and Medical Education departments to set up labs for carrying out RT-PCR tests, Sudhakar was quoted as saying by his office in a release. The state has achieved a new milestone by conducting 50 lakhs coronavirus tests so far and the government is aiming to increase the number of daily tests from the present one lakh to to 1.5 lakhs, he added.

Reliance Life Sciences has developed an RT-PCR kit that promises diagnosis of Covid-19 infection in about two hours, according to the company sources. At present, RT-PCR test, which is a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2, takes up to 24 hours to give a diagnosis and is the gold standard for testing.

The kit is named R-Green Kit and has been technically validated by ICMR for satisfactory performance, the sources said. As per ICMR results, the kit shows 98.7% sensitivity and 98.8% specificity. Reliance also got a U.S. patent for genetically modified microalgae that is said to reduce fatality in coronavirus cases

Covid-19 cases in India continued to spread at fastest pace in the world as the country geared up to reopen its multiplexes, theme parks and schools in the fifth stage of unlocking the economy.

The country added over 81,000 new cases in 24 hours taking the total tally to nearly 64 lakh in Asia’s third-largest economy, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Oct. 2. This included 53 lakh people who've recovered and nearly 1 lakh who've succumbed to the disease.

Key Figures

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 63,94,068
• Active cases: 9,42,217
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 53,52,078
• Deaths: 99,773
• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 81,484
• One-day recoveries: 78,877
• One-day deaths: 1,095

After reaching nearly 98,000 cases on Sept. 17, daily additions remained below the 90,000 mark for eleventh straight days now. However, this is still fastest rate of infections across the world.

Despite the country seeing over 1,000 people die on 28 out of 30 days in September, the government has decided to go ahead with the fifth phase of reopening the economy. Dubbed ‘Unlock 5.0’, the latest phase will entail partial resumption of schools, multiplexes and entertainment parks.

Global Update: Trump Tests Positive

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19. The President and his wife will quarantine and begin the recovery process immediately, he said in a tweet.

Hope Hicks, one of his closest aides, tested positive for Covid-19. Hicks traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Amazon.com Inc. said close to 20,000 of its employees had tested positive for the virus during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases crossed the 34.1 million-mark globally with deaths exceeding 1 million.

Track the latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic in India, here.