Coronavirus: The country has a 95 percent recovery rate, which is “one of the highest in the world.”
New Delhi:
India added 26,624 coronavirus infections in 24 hours, bringing its count to 1,00,31,223, data from the Health Ministry showed this morning. The number of recent infections is 5.8 percent higher than Saturday, when the country recorded 25,152 cases to bring total infections to more than one crore. In the 24-hour period, India reported 341 virus-related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 1.45,447. Active cases in the country amount to more than three lakhs, while 95 lakhs of people have recovered from the disease, the government said.
Here are the top 10 updates on the coronavirus:
-
Thirty-three states and union territories have fewer than 20,000 active cases, according to the government. “Kerala and Maharashtra together account for 40 percent of total active COVID-19 cases,” the Health Ministry tweeted. Other states with high numbers of active coronavirus cases are West Bengal (19,065), Uttar Pradesh (17,955) and Chhattisgarh (17,488).
-
India is ranked number one in terms of the number of coronavirus cases recovered, followed by Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has been collecting global COVID-19 data. “The number of active cases in India has been steadily declining, we are among the best in terms of recovery rate, death rate and various other parameters related to COVID-19,” said the Union Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan, in a tweet.
-
Delhi registered 1,139 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the lowest level in nearly four months, as the positivity rate dropped further to 1.3 percent, authorities said. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the “third wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic in the national capital is now under control. “There was a time in November when daily cases went up to almost 8,600. But even then it was not a panic situation in Delhi, and there were 7,000 beds available. We all fought together,” he said in an online briefing.
-
Across India, more than 16 crore of coronavirus tests have been carried out so far, government data shows. The death rate stood at 1.50% this morning, while the positivity rate stood at 2.14%.
-
This has resulted in a “very high” recovery rate of more than 95%, one of the highest in the world. At least 34 states and union territories have reported a recovery rate of greater than 90%. The Health Ministry said that the central government’s calibrated strategies through a “whole of government” approach have clearly focused on a high recovery rate and a low mortality rate on a sustained basis.
-
India became the second country after the United States to register a million cases of the infectious virus on Saturday, much later than expected just a month ago as the pace of infections slows, despite many in the country renounces masks and social distancing. After reaching a peak of nearly 98,000 daily cases in mid-September, daily infections averaged around 30,000 this month in India, helping the country widen its gap with the United States.
-
India reported its first COVID-19 case on January 30 in Kerala, while the first death was reported on March 10 in Karnataka. The country’s COVID-19 case count had passed the 20 lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23, and 40 lakh on September 5. It went from 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, and exceeded 90 lakh on November 20.
-
Six vaccines, including those developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Pune-based Serum Institute of India, are undergoing clinical trials in India.
-
Several nations around the world have begun vaccinating their citizens against the virus. This month, Britain became the first Western country to start immunizing with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNtech, followed by the United States, which has now also approved a Moderna vaccine.
-
Global coronavirus infections have passed the 75 million mark, according to the Reuters news agency. In Europe, a million new cases were recorded in just five days, and Russia and France have reported more than 2 million cases since the coronavirus outbreak began.
With contributions from agencies
.
