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India tops Global Covid-19 trajectory, will the Health Minister speak up?

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 11:19:44 +0000

Image Courtesy:outlookindia.com

There were around 76,472 cases reported in India in the last 24 hours. On Saturday the number of coronavirus infections was at 34,63,973. This is the third consecutive day when over 70,000 cases have been recorded in India, reported Indian Express. It added that with 1,021 deaths recorded in the same period, the country’s toll has reached 62,500. The number of active cases in India now stands at 7,52,424 and recoveries is at 26,48,999.

Just the day before, on Friday, India reached the unfortunate position as the country to record the highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world. In this segment of daily case count, India overtook even the United States (US), which at its peak was the nation worst-hit by the pandemic. According to official numbers, India has, on an average, reported around 69,558 new cases every day. This, as analysed by The Hindustan Times, places us “above the seven-day daily case peak recorded in the US when the number touched 69,330 for the week ending July 25.”

On Friday, India reported 76,139 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of cases in the country to 34,58,186. India remains at the third position in the total number of cases, after the US which has over six million confirmed infections, and Brazil, which is the country with the second-highest number of total cases, has around 3,50,000 more cases than India.

India’s doubling rate (time it takes for the total cases in the country to double) was 32 days on Friday, and the HT reports that it was 96 days in the US and 68 in Brazil. This too is a worrisome number, it means cases in India are rising “at an alarming rate” in comparison. India has the worst doubling rate among the world’s 10 worst-hit nations, reports the HT.

However, there is some solace that the number of deaths is low, till Friday it was 62,703 making India’s case fatality rate (CFR) 1.8%, much lower than the global average of 3.4%, but also better than the US (3.1%) and Brazil (3.2%), stated the news report.

Meanwhile, many senior politicians have continued to share that they too have tested positive for Coronavirus. The latest being Bharatiya Janata Party’s Uttarakhand chief Bansidhar Bhagat, and Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Satish Mahana announcing that they have tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. According to the Indian Express, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh quarantined himself after two Congress MLAs who met him during the assembly session on Friday tested positive for Covid-19.

As the Monsoon Session of Parliament is due to be held soon, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla has urged all Members of Parliament to get themselves tested for Covid-19 at least 72 hours before the start of the session. Unfortunately, the Congress MP from Kanyakumari, H Vasanthakumar (70) died of Covid-19 on Friday at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. He had been admitted for treatment on August 10.

Due to the rising cases, the Haryana government has said that all shops, malls, and offices will remain shut on Mondays and Tuesdays till further orders. The IE reports that this revised decision comes barely a week after the government had re-imposed weekend lockdown restrictions ordering that all shops and offices (except those dealing in essential services) shall remain shut. Jharkhand too extended lockdown restrictions in the state till September 30, as its Covid-19 tally rose to 34,676 on Friday, there are around 10,799 active coronavirus cases in the state.

The top ten states with maximum caseloads now have over one lakh infections stated IE, Assam joined the list on Friday. The IE added that every state and union territory in the country, except Lakshadweep, now has at least 1,000 people who have been infected with the disease. Lakshadweep continues to remain completely untouched by the epidemic, with no case of infection having been reported from the islands so far.

Andhra Pradesh crossed the four-lakh figure for confirmed infections, and has been reporting more than 10,000 new cases every day. Maharashtra, has been discovering more than 14,000 cases for the last few days, said news reports. Gujarat reported its highest single-day spike on Friday with 1,272 new Covid-19 cases, a total tally of 92,792, and the death crossing 3,000.

Meanwhile Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, is happy to focus on recoveries and share the rise in testing numbers as an achievement. “In its fight against COVID-19 since January 2020, India has crossed another peak. The cumulative tests have seen an unprecedented upsurge and surpassed 4 crore today,” he tweeted.

#COVID UPDATE

In its fight against COVID-19 since January 2020, India has crossed another peak. The cumulative tests have seen an unprecedented upsurge and surpassed 4 crore today.

The single day tests have also seen a steep rise. @PMOIndia @WHO #IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/41D3xDoOhl

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) August 29, 2020

According to news flashed over social media, he also chaired the 20th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on Covid-19 in New Delhi on Saturday, and “expressed satisfaction at various coordinated efforts of the Centre & those of the States/UTs.”

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare too is sharing news only on the increased testing, calling it an “unprecedented upsurge in testing,” as the number crossed the 4 crore milestone with 4,04,06,609 people getting tested. India’s Tests Per Million (TPM) are now at 29,280. According to MOHW with “the positivity rate will eventually fall with higher levels of testing.” The national positivity rate is at 8.57% and the ministry states that the “active cases are only 22%” of the total Covid-19 cases, as recoveries are now at 26 lakh, exceeding active cases by more than 18 lakh.

However, as Dr Thekkekara Jacob John, a former head of clinical virology at Christian Medical College, Tamil Nadu, told the New York Times, “India was heading toward a peak in September.” He stated that the government “had not followed a careful exit strategy from its strict lockdown,” adding that people were tired of staying indoors and were ignoring the rules about social distancing. “Now they think it is better to get the virus than to stay hungry inside,” Dr. John told NY Times. He added that some parts of India had entered the widespread transmission stage” and also that the disease had begun to spread to the rural areas of the countries now, including tribal zones such as Andaman and Nicobar Islands. “When a tribal group gets affected,” Dr. John said, “that means the virus is everywhere.”

A massive warning sign that the Union Health Minister must no longer ignore. Perhaps, he can begin with reassuring citizens and share the GOI plan of action in an address to the nation?

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Delhi takes number two position nationwide as coronavirus cases cross 62,000

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 14:25:41 +0000

Image Courtesy: outlookindia.com

The Covid-19 crisis continues to see an upsurge of cases in India. The total number of cases have reached 441,936 and the current active cases stand at 179,228. While 248,629 patients have recovered, 14,028 people have passed away due to the infection. On June 22, the country saw a total of 2369 active cases and a total of 13,560 cases.

The country is currently in the Unlock 1 phase with certain restrictions in place. However, the disease is seeing a sharp increase in some states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh where cases have been growing over the last 10 days, reported the Hindustan Times.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra saw 3,721 cases on June 22, and the total confirmed cases went up to 135,796. Mumbai currently has 67,586 confirmed cases of the virus with 29,720 active cases. The recovery rate of Maharashtra is 49.86 percent and the mortality rate is currently 4.63 percent.

Delhi

Delhi currently has 62,655 confirmed cases of the virus and is poised to take over Mumbai in the coming days. It currently has 23,820 cases. It recorded 2,909 fresh cases of the infection on June 22 and as many as 58 fatalities had been recorded in the past 24 hours. The national capital has consistently been reporting 3,000 cases or more for the past three days and overtook Tamil Nadu to take the second position in the nationwide tally.

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu stands third in the nationwide tally of coronavirus cases with 62,087 confirmed cases and 27,181 active cases. The number of active cases are close to those in Mumbai and higher than those in Delhi. The state recorded 2,710 cases on June 22nd. The recovery rate is 54.94% and the mortality rate is 1.28%. In Tamil Nadu, Chennai with 42,752 has the highest number of cases. The resurgence in districts of the state was seen after a lull in May, soon after district borders were unlocked in the first week of June when people started coming in from Maharashtra and Telangana. Intra-state numbers spiked after people in Chennai began returning to Salem, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Nilgiris, reported The Times of India. The Tamil Nadu government has also imposed a complete lockdown in Madurai corporation limits, Paravai Town Panchayat and all village Panchayats of Madurai East and Madurai West and Thirupparankundram blocks of Madurai district for seven days starting from June 24 early morning to June 30 in a bid to curb the rise of COVID-19 cases, reported The Indian Express.

Telangana

Telangana witnessed a shocking single-day spike of 872 cases cases on June 22. The state currently has 8,674 confirmed cases and 4,452 cases and only an abysmal amount of 57,054 people have been tested 60,243 cases throughout the lockdown. The largest number of cases, 713 came from the Greater Hyderabad area. The Deccan Chronicle reported Eatala Rajender, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Telangana as saying that the Centre wasn’t helping the states in their fight against Covid-19 and restricted itself to lighting lamps. He also said that the Centre had also diverted the Cobos 8800 to West Bengal which could have helped the state to test 3,500 – 4,000 samples every day.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh currently has 18,322 confirmed cases of the infection with 6,152 active cases and the highest numbers coming from Gautam Buddha Nagar (1,516), Agra (1,144), Kanpur Nagar (972), Ghaziabad (942) and Lucknow (842). It reported 509 cases on June 22 and had seen the highest single-day spike on June 19 with 809 cases.

The state has begun converting rail coaches into isolation units and has announced that it will start using Rapid Antibody Test in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Kanpur to be extended to other districts in Western UP later.

Haryana

The state currently has 11,199 confirmed cases of the virus with 5,080 cases of the virus. The highest number of cases have come from Gurugram (4,606) and Faridabad (2,413). The state has a recovery rate of 53.13 percent and a mortality rate of 1.51 percent. To battle the surge in cases, the government has now deployed 1,106 final year MBBS students with the health department to be appointed in various medical facilities, reported Medical Dialogues.

West Bengal

With 410,854 cases having been conducted until June 22nd, the state has 14,358 confirmed cases and 5,102 active cases of the virus. The recovery rate of the virus is 60.5 percent and the mortality rate is 3.96 percent.

The highest cases have come from Kolkata (4,734), Howrah (2,145) and North 24 Parganas (2,046). The state recorded 413 cases on June 22nd. The state government is soon going to hold an all-party meeting to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the state.

Gujarat

The state has 27,880 confirmed cases of the infection with 6,278 active cases. As many as 19,917 people have recovered and 1,685 people have lost their lives due to the infection. The top districts seeing a surge of cases is Ahmedabad (19,151), Surat (3,365) and Vadodara (1,898). The mortality rate of the state is the highest in the country – 6.04 percent, though the recovery rate has climbed up to 71.44 percent. The state recorded 563 new cases on June 22nd and 329,343 tests have been carried out in the state so far.

Bihar

Currently with 7,974 confirmed cases, the state has 1,893 cases with most cases coming in from Patna (451), Madhubani (383) and Bhagalpur (371). The state’s recovery rate is 75.58 percent and mortality rate is 0.68 percent. Till date, the state has conducted 169,401 tests and on June 22nd it recorded 166 new cases. The state has seen an upsurge in cases since migrant workers returned home.

Assam

The state has 5,853 confirmed cases and 2,275 active cases of the virus. The recovery rate of the state is 60.93 percent and the mortality rate is 0.15 percent. On June 22nd, the state recorded 267 new cases of the virus and has conducted over 3 lakh tests. The Indian Express reported that nearly 150 Guwahati residents without any travel history recently tested positive for Covid-19, sparking fears of community-level transmission and leading authorities to consider locking down the city part-wise as well as turning quarantine camps into makeshift Covid-care hospitals. For this, the CM, Sarbananda Sonowal has said that the state is going to employ rigorous measures like implementing lockdowns in containment zones and ramping up testing.

Jharkhand

While there are only 660 active cases of the infection in the state, with the highest coming in from East Singhbum (325), Simdega (324) and Ranchi (201), the state recorded 42 new cases of the virus on June 22nd. However, The Telegraph reported that the returning migrant workers top the list of Covid-19 patients in Jharkhand according to official figures. The migrant workers who returned to their homes in Jharkhand accounted for around 84 per cent of the positive cases. There were 1,699 migrant workers among the 2,089 who tested positive for Covid-19.

The five states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh account for almost 70 percent of India’s total cases – they account for over 3 lakh of the country’s 4.4 lakh cases, reported Hindustan Times. At the start of June, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Assam which had a large number of migrant workers returning saw a spike in cases. While these states were contributing 10.5% of total cases in the country on May 1, this number has since increased to almost 12% by June 8. In fact, only 8% of new cases reported across the country in the week between May 1 and May 7 came from these six states. This number has since doubled to 16% in the week between June 2 and June 8.

However, these rates were coming down as state governments were keeping returning workers in quarantine for a period of 7 to 21 days. The number had also declined due to the fall in the number of migrants returning in the second week of June.

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