Coronavirus India Updates: India Nears 7.5 Lakh Cases; Death Toll At 20,642

A day after hitting the 7-lakh mark, total coronavirus cases in India are already close to 7.5 lakh as authorities continue to report over 20,000 cases n a daily basis.

The country added over 22,000 Covid-19 cases in just 24 hours to peg the total tally at over 7.42 lakh, according to the Health Ministry’s 8 a.m. update on July 8. Over 4.5 lakh of these cases have been declared as cured or discharged.

Key Numbers:

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 7,42,417
• Active cases: 2,64,944
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 4,56,831
• Deaths: 20,642
• New cases in a day: 22,752
• One-day recoveries: 16,883
• One-day deaths: 482

Global Update

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive as the crisis in Latin America’s largest economy escalates, while Colombia extended its national lockdown until Aug. 1. States across the U.S. recorded new highs in coronavirus cases and deaths, with total infections in the country approaching 3 million.

Globally, total cases have topped 11.7 million while deaths have exceeded 540,000.

Track latest news and updates on the pandemic in India, here:

Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Narendra Singh Tomar are set to brief the press on cabinet decisions at 3:30 p.m. today.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has sought a detailed analytical report from the Delhi government's health secretary on factors responsible for Covid-19 deaths in the city in the last fortnight, officials said.

Delhi reported 736 deaths in the last two weeks, with 397 people succumbing to the disease in the first week of July.

Officials said the objective of seeking the report is totake all possible measures to reduce coronavirus deaths in the national capital.

A total of 3,165 Covid-19 deaths have occurred in Delhi so far.

Source: PTI

As India nears the 7.5 lakh confirmed cases mark, 4.5 lakh of these cases have been cured or discharged according to the health ministry. The active cases curve, though not as steep as the recoveries curve, is also on a steady rise.

Total recoveries crossed active cases a little over a month ago and the gap between the two has been widening since. However, that is not necessarily a sign of betterment or a turning point.

The use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients has become highly politicised in the U.S. but it is used widely in India, a top White House official has said, asserting latest research which showed that the anti-malarial drug is highly effective in the early stages of Covid-19.

It's the politicisation of this medicine by the mainstream media and portions of the medical community that somehow made this a battle between President (Donald) Trump and them and created this undue fear and hysteria over a drug, a medicine that has been used for over 60 years relatively safely and is regularly prescribed to pregnant women if they are going to a malaria zone, White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro told reporters.

The idea that this is a dangerous drug is just silly, but if you ask the American people based on the media's coverage of it, that is kind of the state of play right now, he said.

Navarro said a day earlier four doctors at the Detroit Hospital System filed a request for emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine. The request was for three things.

One, for early treatment use in a hospital setting. Number two, treatment between a doctor and his patient in an outpatient setting. Three, not just as a therapeutic but also as a possible prophylaxis for preventative use, he said.

This request to the FDA comes on the heels of the publication of their study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases last week that showed an astonishing 50 percent reduction in the mortality rate for patients taking hydroxychloroquine, Navarro said.

Source: PTI