Single-day spike of 61,408 infections has taken India’s coronavirus caseload to 31,06,348, data from the Union Health Ministry this morning showed. The number of deaths climbed to 57,542 with 836 people dying of the disease in a span of 24 hours. Recoveries among COVID-19 patients in the country surged to 23,38,035, pushing India’s recovery rate to 75.27 per cent. Maharashtra accounts for the maximum of cases (6,82,383), followed by Tamil Nadu (3,79,385), Andhra Pradesh (3,53,111), Karnataka (2,77,814), Uttar Pradesh (1,87,781) and Delhi (1,61,466). India is the country with the third-highest coronavirus caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.
Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the country, reported 10,441 new coronavirus cases, pushing the total count in the state to 6,82,383.
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh are the five states which reported the highest number of Covid cases in the last 24 hours.
Tamil Nadu reported 5,975 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking total cases in the state to 3,79,385. Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Cuddalore and Thiruvallur districts reported the maximum number of cases on Sunday.
With 7,895 new cases in Andhra Pradesh, the total number of Covid cases in the state crossed the 3.5 lakh-mark on Sunday with 93 more patients dying of the disease.
Delhi recorded 1,450 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the city’s highest single-day spike in August, taking the tally to over 1.61 lakh while the death count rose to 4,300. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reiterated on Sunday said that the Metro rail services in Delhi should be resumed in a phased manner on an experimental basis as the coronavirus situation has improved.
In Assam, the administration is considering a ten-day lockdown in all the three districts of Barak Valley from August 26 to September 4 after a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases. A lockdown in the region, which is also entry point to the neighbouring states Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura, would affect goods and other movements to these states as well. The region has over 3,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and has recorded around 30 deaths. Assam has 90,740 COVID-19 cases, including 242 deaths.
The government has released a list of SOPs for the resumption of media production amid the pandemic. “Contact minimisation is at the core of the SOPs. Only those in front of the camera are permitted to work without a mask, everyone else involved in the shooting must wear a mask at all times and everyone must maintain social distance,” Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Sunday as he released the guidelines.
The country’s top medical body, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said that the number of total samples tested for the infection has reached over 3.59 crore. Over 6.09 lakh samples were tested yesterday.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed over 8.08 lakh people globally since it emerged in China late last year. Over 2.34 crore people have been infected with the novel coronavirus.
Authorities in the United States – the country worst hit by the pandemic – have announced an emergency approval of blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients as a treatment against the disease that has killed over 1,76,000 in the country.
