Coronavirus Case and Fatality Rate in India, Coronavirus Third Wave Today August 22 Highlights: The fear of a third wave of coronavirus is looming in the country, especially with states like Kerala reporting a high number of cases. However, in some places, like Delhi, the cases seem to be declining. This has led to some contrasts in the opening up of economic activities in different states. While Delhi has decided to allow markets to remain open after 8 pm starting Monday, Tamil Nadu has extended lockdown till September 6, although it has also allowed for some relaxation.
India reported 30,948 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, taking the overall Covid-19 tally to 3,24,24,234, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Sunday. The Covid-19 death toll also climbed to 4,34,367 with 403 fresh fatalities, the health ministry said. The number of active Covid-19 cases in the country declined to 3,53,398 and now accounts for 1.09% of the total infections.
Meanwhile, the vaccination drive in the country is running at a robust pace, with more than 58 crore doses having been administered so far. This is only expected to improve over time, especially now that the sixth vaccine from Zydus Cadila has been approved. The company has said that it is hoping to begin the supply of its vaccine by September-end. Zydus Cadila also marks the first vaccine approved in India that can also be administered to children aged between 12 and 18 years, indicating that India could soon also include this age group into the vaccination drive. However, there has been no official information regarding this aspect.
Apart from this, states have also been preparing themselves for a possible third wave by arranging for sufficient oxygen, which was in critical shortage during the second wave. While Delhi is already working on getting oxygen plants set up, including the ones that the Centre has arranged for under the PM-CARES Fund, on Saturday, Madhya Pradesh also inaugurated 10 oxygen plants.
Stay tuned as Financial Express Online brings you the latest updates on coronavirus.
Assam reports 336 new COVID cases, 539 discharges, and 10 deaths today.
Active cases: 6,664
Total discharges: 5,70,847
Death toll: 5,576 (ANI)
Sikkim reports 70 new COVID-19 cases, one more fatality (PTI)
Nagaland’s COVID-19 tally rose to 29,589 on Sunday as 35 more people tested positive for the infection, while one fresh fatality pushed the coronavirus toll to 610, a health bulletin said.
The fatality was reported from Dimapur district.
Meanwhile, 52 patients recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recovered people to 27,151 in the state.
The recovery rate among coronavirus patients has improved to 91.76 per cent from 91.69 per cent on Saturday, it said.
The state now has 975 active cases, while 853 COVID-19 patients have migrated to other states.
Nagaland has thus far tested 3,01,446 samples for COVID-19, and inoculated over 6.45 lakh people till Saturday. (PTI)
West Bengal reports 561 fresh COVID cases, 686 discharges, and 8 deaths in the last 24 hours
Active cases: 9,461
Total discharges: 15,15,161
Death toll: 18,364 (ANI)
Haryana on Sunday reported one COVID-19 related death, taking the cumulative toll to 9,667 and 16 fresh infections pushed the total case count to 7,70,347.
According to the health department’s daily bulletin, the latest death was reported from Kaithal district.
Of the fresh cases, six were from Gurugram and three from Sirsa district.
The total number of active cases in the state was 676.
The total recoveries so far were 7,60,004. The recovery rate was 98.66 percent, the bulletin said. (PTI)
Uttar Pradesh reported 19 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, taking the infection tally to 17,09,119, the government said in a statement.
No death due to COVID-19 was recorded in the state in the last 24 hours, they said, adding the death toll stands at 22,792, it said.
Of the new cases, two each were reported from Allahabad, Lucknow, Barabanki and Lalitpur, the statement said.
In the last 24 hours, as many as 53 COVID-19 patients were discharged after recovering from the disease. The total number of recoveries stands at 16,85,954, it said.
There are 373 active COVID-19 cases in the state, the statement said.
More than 1.97 lakh samples were sent for testing in the last 24 hours, while over 7.05 crore samples have been tested so far, it said. (PTI)
Maharashtra reported 4,141 new coronavirus positive cases on Sunday, which took its infection count to 64,24,651, while 145 deaths pushed the toll to 1,35,962, the health department said.
A total of 4,780 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day. With this, the overall recovery count of the state grew to 62,31,999, it said in a statement.
Maharashtra’s recovery rate is 97 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.11 per cent.
With 1,67,881 tests conducted on Sunday, the state’s overall test count climbed to 5,22,92,131, it said.
At present, there are 53,182 active COVID-19 cases in the state.
Mumbai reported 294 cases and one death on Sunday that took its total case count to 7,41,164 and fatality figure to 15,947.
Mumbai division, which comprises the metropolis and its surrounding areas, saw 683 cases and six deaths. It pushed the number of cases in the region to 16,57,144 and death toll to 34,845.
Nashik division reported 586 cases during the day, including 518 in Ahmednagar district, while Pune division logged 1,886 fresh cases, including 643 in Satara district. Kolhapur division recorded 765 cases, including 400 in Sangli district, the department said.
Aurangabad division reported 34 cases, Latur division 156 cases, Akola division 20 and Nagpur division 11.
Gondia, Bhandara, Nagpur, Yavatmal districts and Akola, Amravati and Chandrapur cities in Vidarbha region did not report even a single fresh infection case.
Maharashtra’s coronavirus figures: Positive cases 64,24,651, death toll 1,35,962, active cases 53,182, tests conducted so far 5,22,92,131. (PTI)
Mizoram reports 576 new COVID-19 cases, two more fatalities (PTI)
Telangana adds 231 new cases to COVID-19 tally, two deaths reported (PTI)
The coronavirus-induced curfew in Goa was on Sunday extended till August 30, officials said.
As per a notification issued in the evening, restrictions on the opening of auditoriums, community halls as well as ban on operation of river cruises, spas, massage parlours and casinos will continue as earlier.
The curfew was first imposed in May this year amid a spike in cases and has been extended routinely since then. (PTI)
Maharashtra reports 4,141 new Covid cases, 145 deaths (PTI)
Union minister Raosaheb Danve says Railways suffered Rs 36,000 crore loss during Covid pandemic, and terms goods trains as real revenue generators for national transporter (PTI)
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus services to Tamil Nadu will resume from tomorrow. Around 250 buses will be operated to different destinations: KSRTC
Bus services to Tamil Nadu were stopped on April 27 this year due to COVID restrictions. (ANI)
Karnataka reports 1189 new COVID-19 cases, 1456 recoveries and 22 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Active cases: 20,556
Total cases: 29,38,616
Death toll: 37,145 (ANI)
Tamil Nadu reports 1,630 fresh COVID-19 cases, 1,827 discharges, and 23 deaths today.
Active cases: 19,171
Total discharges: 25,47,005
Death toll: 34,709 (ANI)
Goa Government extends COVID-induced curfew till August 30 (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh reports 1,085 new COVID-19 cases, 1,541 recoveries and 8 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Total cases: 20,02,340
Total recoveries: 19,73,940
Death toll: 13,723
Active cases: 14,677 (ANI)
Tamil Nadu: A group of transgenders today conducted a drive to spread awareness about the importance of following road safety norms & COVID appropriate behaviour in Coimbatore. They gave saplings to the commuters who were found following road safety and COVID rules (ANI)
Kerala reports 10,402 new COVID-19 cases, 25,586 recoveries, and 66 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Total recoveries: 36,31,066
Death toll: 19,494
Active cases: 1,63,212
63,406 samples tested for COVID in the last 24 hours. Test positivity rate is 16.41% (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh reported 1,085 fresh cases of coronavirus, 1,541 recoveries and eight deaths in 24 hours ending 9 am on Sunday. Consequently, the state’s Covid-19 chart now showed a gross of 20,02,340 positives, 19,73,940 recoveries and 13,723 deaths. The latest bulletin said number of active cases dropped below the 15,000-mark to 14,677. In 24 hours, the number of fresh cases ranged from 10 to 137 in all districts of the state. (PTI)
Relaxations in movement during the festival season coupled with people not following COVID guidelines are behind Kerala’s rising TPR and the state accounting for more than half of the country’s virus caseload, medical experts said on Sunday and added that people cannot be made to follow the norms at gunpoint, rather they need to modify their behaviour on their own. As the festival season has not yet ended, the effect of the relaxations and non-COVID appropriate behaviour by people who ventured out for celebrations and shopping would be seen in the test positivity rate (TPR) which, according to the experts like Dr Amar Fettle and Dr Kannan, is expected to rise further from Saturday’s 17.73 per cent. From 14.03 per cent on August 16, the TPR has risen steadily to 17.73 on Saturday, August 21. On Saturday, the number of fresh cases in Kerala were 17,106, almost half of the national total of 34,457 which was reported by the Union Health Ministry on August 21 morning. On being asked whether such a scenario was due to the easing of restrictions, the experts said that relaxations were necessary as people were cooped indoors for more than a year, since March last year, and also because of the financial crisis being faced by those without a steady income. (PTI)
Iran has reported its highest single-day COVID-19 death toll of the pandemic, according to state media. The official IRNA news agency said Sunday that 684 people had died of the disease since Saturday, while more than 36,400 new cases were confirmed over the same 24-hour period. Iran’s previous daily record for COVID-19 deaths was recorded August 16. The country reported its highest number of daily cases the next day, with more than 50,000. A five-day lockdown in the country ended on Saturday. (AP)
Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Sunday received the first of dose of COVID-19 vaccine at his residence here. A team of officials and para medical staff of the Department of Health were present during the vaccination, a release from his office said. Rangasamy had undergone treatment at a private hospital in Chennai for Covid in May, a few days after he was sworn in as the Chief Minister to head AINRC-BJP coalition government here. The territorial Assembly has been convened to begin its budget session 2021-2022 on August 26. (PTI)
Indian Naval Vessel Shakti reaches Colombo, Sri Lanka with 100 tons of oxygen from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. More oxygen consignments scheduled from India: High Commission of India in Colombo, Sri Lanka (ANI)
The UK government on Sunday announced the rollout of a new nationwide antibody surveillance programme, which will make free home antibody tests available for up to 8,000 COVID-positive people a day. The UK Health Security Agency will offer these finger-prick tests to help improve the understanding of immunity against COVID-19 from vaccination and infection. Under the scheme, from Tuesday, anyone aged over 18 will be able to opt in to take part when booking a PCR COVID-19 test through NHS Test and Trace system. “Our new national antibody testing will be quick and easy to take part in, and by doing so you’ll be helping strengthen our understanding of COVID-19 as we cautiously return to a more normal life,” said UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid. (PTI)
Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Sunday he will invite opposition leaders to join the government’s special committees to address the COVID-19 crisis.In a television address a day after his inauguration, Ismail Sabri said he will also enhance the previous government’s COVID-19 strategy. (Reuters)
Russia reported 20,564 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, including 1,661 in Moscow and 1,481 in St. Petersburg, which took the national tally to 6,747,087. The Russian coronavirus task force said 762 more deaths of coronavirus patients had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 176,044.Rosstat, the government statistics agency, keeps a separate count from the pandemic task force and says it has recorded about 315,000 deaths related to COVID-19 between last April and June this year. Russia has reported about 463,000 excess deaths from April 2020 to June this year, according to Reuters calculations based on the latest Rosstat data. Some epidemiologists say excess deaths are the best way to measure the real death toll from COVID-19. (Reuters)
Pakistan has decided to allow Sikh pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur from next month amidst efforts to contain the fourth wave of the coronavirus. The decision to open Kartarpur shrine was taken by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday due to the approaching death anniversary of Sikhism founder Baba Guru Nanak Dev on September 22. Dawn newspaper reported that the NCOC meeting unanimously decided to allow Sikh pilgrims to visit Kartarpur next month under strict COVID-19 protocols. Due to the Delta variant, India had been in category C in Pakistan from May 22 till August 12, and special approval was required for people coming from the country, including Sikh pilgrims. (PTI)
Odisha’s COVID-19 caseload on Sunday rose to 10,00,937 as 853 more people, including 100 children, tested positive for the infection, a health department official said. Sixty-nine fresh fatalities raised the coronavirus death toll to 7,358, he said. At least 100 children are among the new patients, and the infection rate among people below 18 years of age remained at around 12 per cent, the official said. The new cases were detected from 67,834 sample tests conducted on Saturday, and the daily positivity ratio was at 1.26 per cent. Of the fresh cases, 496 were reported from quarantine centres and 357 detected during contact tracing. Khurda district, which comprises the state capital Bhubaneswar, recorded the highest number of new cases at 286, followed by Cuttack at 140. (PTI)
Arunachal Pradesh’s COVID-19 tally rose to 52,165 as 121 more people tested positive for the virus, a senior health department official said here on Sunday. The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state remained at 257, as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the past 24 hours, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. The Capital Complex Region recorded the highest number of fresh cases at 34, followed by West Kameng (28), Lower Subansiri (9), Upper Subansiri (7), Tawang (6). Fresh cases were also reported from Changlang, Kamle, Leparada, East Siang, Lower Dibang Valley, Shi-Yomi, Upper Siang, West Siang, Lower Siang, Papumpare, Dibang Valley, Lohit, Pakke Kessang and Namsai districts, the official said. (PTI)
Puducherry logged 60 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 1,22,892, while the toll remained at 1,808 with no fresh fatalities being reported. Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases, with 121 people being discharged, taking the total number of those cured to 1,20,237. The new cases were identified after the examination of 3,566 samples, the Director of the Health Department G Sriramulu said. Puducherry region accounted for the most number of cases (34), followed by Karaikal (18), Mahe (7) and Yanam (1). Active cases stood at 847. (PTI)
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Ladakh climbed to 20,491 as eight more people tested positive for the disease, officials said on Sunday. As many as 12 more patients recovered from COVID-19, they said, adding the number of active cases dropped to 68. So far, Ladakh has recorded 207 coronavirus-related deaths — 149 in Leh and 58 in Kargil. The officials said over 3,282 people were tested for COVID-19 in Leh and Kargil on Saturday. Of these, seven tested positive in Leh and one in Kargil. (PTI)
The Kentucky governor’s efforts to aggressively combat COVID-19 suffered a legal defeat Saturday as the state’s high court cleared the way for new laws to rein in his emergency powers. In a landmark separation-of-powers case, the Kentucky Supreme Court said the legislature wields policy-making authority to limit the emergency powers granted to the governor by state law. The ruling ordered a lower court to dissolve an injunction that for months had blocked the Republican-backed laws from curbing Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive authority. The order could dramatically alter the state’s response to the pandemic at a time when virus cases and hospitalisations have surged because of the highly contagious delta variant. The Supreme Court order will dissolve Kentucky’s pandemic-related state of emergency, Beshear spokesperson Crystal Staley said Saturday. The next step is to determine whether lawmakers are willing to extend the state of emergency in a potential special session, she said. (AP)
The United Kingdom will begin offering COVID-19 antibody testing to the general public in the coming week for the first time, British media reported on Sunday. The government’s new programme is intended to produce data on antibody protections for people following infection by different coronavirus variants, according to details of the programme published by multiple media outlets, including Sky News and BBC. From Tuesday, anyone aged 18 or over in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, will be able to opt in to the programme when receiving a PCR test, Sky News reported. Participants, on testing positive for COVID-19, will be sent two finger-prick tests to complete at home to inform the UK Health Security Agency of the antibody response to different coronavirus variants, BBC reported. (Reuters)
New Zealand recorded 21 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, as the current community outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant continues to grow, bringing infections associated with the outbreak to 72, health officials said.Of the 21 new cases, 20 are in Auckland, the largest city, and one is in the capital Wellington. Five people were in hospital, but no one was an intensive care unit. The Pacific nation of 5.1 million is under a strict lockdown until midnight on Tuesday as the outbreak has widened beyond the two key cities. (Reuters)
Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended on Sunday Australia’s lockdown strategy for tackling the coronavirus, saying it would stay until at least 70% of population is fully vaccinated, as daily infections break records. Sunday’s 914 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant surpassed the previous high of 894 a day earlier. “You can’t live with lockdowns forever and at some point, you need to make that gear change and that is done at 70%,” Morrison said in a television interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Lockdowns are a key element of the federal government’s strategy to rein in outbreaks until the 70% percent level is reached, with borders being re-opened gradually when the figure climbs to 80%..But they are taxing the patience of many. Police arrested hundreds of people on Saturday during anti-lockdown demonstrations in Sydney and Melbourne, the capitals of the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, which are under a strict lockdown..Victoria, in its sixth lockdown since the start of the pandemic, recorded 65 locally acquired cases on Sunday, taking the tally in its current outbreak to 440 active cases. “We are throwing everything at this,” said Martin Foley, the health minister of the southeastern state. (Reuters)