Coronavirus India Updates: India’s Covid-19 Tally Near 14-Lakh Mark; Adds Almost 50,000 New Cases For Third Day

Coronavirus infections in India continued to mount as the country's total case tally inched closer to the 14-lakh-mark.

India added 48,661 fresh cases in 24 hours, taking the total tally to 13.85 lakh, according to the Health Ministry’s 8 a.m. update on July 26. Of these, more than 8.8 lakh have recovered.

Key Figures

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 13,85,522
• Active cases: 4,67,882
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 8,85,577
• Deaths: 32,063

• Number of fresh cases in 24 hours: 48,661
• One-day recoveries: 36,145
• One-day deaths: 705

Even as transmission of Covid-19 remained high in India, the pace of recovery rose to a record. The country reported over 36,000 recoveries on Sunday, the most number of patients discharged in a single day.

Meanwhile, the Serum Institute of India is seeking permission from the Drug Controller General of India to conduct human clinical trials for a covid vaccine being co-developed by Oxford University of the U.K. and Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc. The said vaccine has shown promising results in early human trials.

On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that he had tested positive for coronavirus. Seperately, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery said that he was not in favour of lifting the lockdown completely to address the economic concerns as this is a public health crisis. He said that there needs to be a balance and the reopening of the state will continue to be done in phases to ensure risk is minimised.

Global Update:

Globally, cases crossed 15.8 million leaving over 6,41,000 dead.

U.S. recorded its second-highest daily infection tally with a spike in Florida and Arizona. The number of coronavirus infections in Africa surpassed 800,000, the Ethiopia-based Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said. More than half of these cases are in South Africa.

Track news and developments around the Covid-19 outbreak in India here.

Three separate high-output Covid-19 testing facilities will be launched in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata tomorrow to ramp up the testing capacity of the country and improve early detection of the disease.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch these facilities through a virtual event, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The three high throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR institutions -- National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research in Noida, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health in Mumbai and National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata.

These will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day. These labs will also reduce turnaround time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials.

The labs are enabled to test diseases other than Covid-19 as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, mycobacterium tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus, chlamydia, neisseria and dengue, the statement said.

Source: PTI

There have now been more than 1.6 crore recorded cases of the novel coronavirus across the globe, according to the John Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the count with over 41 lakh, followed by over 23 lakh in Brazil and over 13 lakh in India.

The U.S. also has the highest number of deaths with 1,46,460, followed by 86,449 in Brazil and 45,823 in the U.K.

Maharashtra added the most new cases of all Indian states at over 9,000 with Andhra Pradesh coming in next with almost 8,000 new infections. Tamil Nadu followed adding almost 7,000 new cases taking the state’s tally above 2 lakh.

Deserted roads, empty offices and shut shops on Saturday accentuated the second day of the bi-weekly complete lockdown in West Bengal, where surging Covid-19 cases have prompted the government to enforce stricter norms to break the chain of infection.

All modes of transport were off the streets, public and private offices, banks, commercial establishments and markets remained closed, officials said. Only medicine shops and other healthcare facilities were open during the lockdown across the state, they said. Flight operations at the Kolkata airport were also suspended following a request by the state government to the Civil Aviation Ministry

At least 1,082 people were arrested from different parts of the city for violating lockdown norms and spitting in the open, a senior officer of the Kolkata Police said. A total of 14 vehicles were also impounded for flouting protocols, he said.

Source: PTI

Kerala government, on Saturday, fixed rates for Covid-19 treatment at private hospitals.

As per an official order, the general ward rates would be Rs 2,300 per day while the high dependency unit would cost Rs 3,300.

The ICU rates would be Rs 6,500. If the patient is on ventilator, then it wil Rs 11,500 per day.

The RTPCRtest would cost Rs 2,750, antigen test Rs 625, expert NAT Rs 3,000, Truenat step-one and step-two tests Rs 1,500 each.

Source: PTI