Coronavirus India Updates: Tally Tops 2 Million With Over 41,500 Dead

Covid-19 cases in India continue to rise at a hastened pace, reaching yet another grim milestone of 20 lakh cases.

Authorities reported over 62,000 fresh cases in a matter of 24 hours, taking the total tally to over 20.2 lakh in the world’s third-worst infected country, according to the Health Ministry’s update as of 8 a.m. on Aug. 7. This includes over 41,500 deaths and 13.7 lakh patients who have recovered.

India has added nearly 5 lakh cases in just nine days. At 62,538, Friday’s fresh cases are the highest the country has seen so far.

Key figures:

• Total number of confirmed coronavirus cases: 20,27,074
• Active cases: 6,07,384
• Cured/discharged/migrated: 13,78,105
• Deaths: 41,585
• Number of fresh cases in last 24 hours: 62,538
• One-day recoveries: 49,769
• One-day deaths: 886

Just this week India’s Health Ministry claimed to have lowered the country’s fatality rate to 2.10%, while simultaneously increasing testing. Recoveries are also on the rise. There are over two recovered patients for each patient who currently has the virus. This, however, does not necessarily count as a sign of relief or an indication that the country has hit its peak.

Global Update

The Philippines now has the worst outbreak in Southeast Asia, overtaking Indonesia, with cases surging to almost 120,000. Japan is facing criticism for conflicting signals from national and local officials on travel while Australia is committing more funds to its JobKeeper program to support employment amid the pandemic.

Over 19 million cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed globally with more than 713,000 dead.

Track all Covid-19 related news developments in India, here.

Overseas Citizen of India card holders from the U.S., U.K., Germany and France, with whom India has signed air bubble arrangements, will be allowed to visit the country, the Home Ministry announced on Friday.

Other foreigners from these countries have also been allowed to avail Indian visa facility for business, medical and employment purposes.

According to a home ministry notification, Indian citizens have also been allowed to travel to these countries on any type of visa.

Source: PTI

India's Covid-19 management is marked by "two significant achievements" of continuously rising recovery rate among Covid-19 patients and a case fatality rate that has remained much below the global average, according to the health ministry.

While the recovery rate among coronavirus patients has risen to a record high of 67.98%, the fatality rate has gone down to 2.05%, it said on Friday.

"These two in tandem have enabled a higher and rising difference of more than 7.7 lakh between the number of recovered patients and active cases in India," the ministry said. With 49,769 patients recuperating from the disease in 24 hours, the number of recoveries have jumped to 13,78,105 on Friday.

The recovery rate has increased from 51.08% on June 15 to 67.98% on August 7, while active cases which comprised 46.06% of the total Covid-19 caseload now account for 29.96% , it said.

Source: PTI

Get more details here.

Home to about 130 crore people, India is only behind the U.S. in adding most number of new cases daily. While the U.S. added 59,268 cases on an average over the last week, India added 54,392 fresh infections, with no sign of its virus curve flattening.

Active Cases Curve Shows Signs Of Flattening

As India’s fresh case additions increase, so is the rate of recoveries per day, leading to a visibly flatter curve of active cases.

A joint platform of scheme workers under programmes like Anganwadi, ASHA, and national health mission on Thursday gave a call for a two-day nationwide strike from Friday to press for better service conditions and benefits.

The platform affiliated to ten central trade unions will also join 'Jail Bharo Satyagraha' call, a statement said.

"The unions and federations of scheme workers (anganwadi, ASHA, Mid-Day Meal, NHM, Samagra Sikksha etc) affiliated to the central trade unions (INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC) will go on two days strike on August 7-8, 2020," the joint statement by ten central trade unions said.

Scheme workers, who are among frontline workers in the fight against Covid-19, are forced to take this step after four months of the outbreak of the pandemic and the lockdown because none of the minimum requirements for them safety, insurance and risk allowance- is provided by the government, the unions charged.

Many of the workers have died due to coronavirus during this period and even their monthly wages are not paid for months together, the unions claimed.

They asked the government to clear all pending dues of wages and allowances etc of all scheme workers immediately. The unions said that strikes and struggles are going on in different parts of the country. In Bihar, Accredited Social Health Activist workers went on strike from Thursday. In some states and areas where the Covid-19 situation is very bad, scheme workers will work wearing black badges.