New Delhi, Aug 23: The country’s COVID-19 case tally crossed the 30 lakh-mark on Sunday, as 69,239 fresh cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, while the constantly increasing number of recoveries pushed the recovery rate to nearly 75 per cent.
As per the Union Health Ministry, the total number of cases now stands at 30,44,940, which includes 7,07,668 active ones.
The total recovery reached 22,80,566 in numbers and 74.90 in percentage.
The Ministry said that India’s total recoveries now exceed the total active cases by nearly 16 lakh (1,572,898). The average daily number of recoveries climbed upwards from 15,018 (between July 1 to 7, 2020) to 60,557, during the week of August 19-13, 2020.
The constantly increasing recoveries has also resulted in gradually falling mortality rate, which currently stands at 1.86 per cent, making the country’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR), one of the lowest globally as 912 more patients died from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 56,706.
However, Senior pharmacist Bashir Ahmad Magray lost the battle against COVID-19 pandemic in Anantnag district of south Kashmir as life remained affected for the third consecutive day in the district where the district administration has imposed a three-day lockdown from Friday in view of the surge in COVID-19 positive cases during the past few days. Srinagar is the worst affected district in J&K in terms of causalities with 194 deaths due to COVID-19 while the number of positive cases has also swelled with 7821 people testing positive for the infection so far.
The most prominent newspaper of Meghalaya ‘The Shillong Times’ had to shut its office and suspend printing of papers after three of its non journalists tested positive for Coronavirus.
‘The entire Shillong Times staff was ferried to a sample collection centre where they spent nine hours from 2-30 pm to 11-30 pm to give samples and collect reports….at about the same time the DC signed the order declaring ST building containment zone. That meant nobody was allowed to enter or go out of the building,’ proprietor of the paper Padmashree Manosh Chowdhury told UNI on phone.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Government decided to reopen Hotels, resorts, homestays and tourism related establishments in Darjeeling hills.
“Probable date to open the hotels, resorts, homestay is 7th September, 2020 in GTA areas as decided in the meeting by Darjeeling Hotel Owners Association and Himalayan Transport Coordination Committee,” an official statement said.
The Puducherry administration in a bid to manage Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) patients with minor symptoms or asymptomatic in home isolation has partnered with two non-profit organisations to develop a technology platform for running a home isolation monitoring and counselling service as 412 people were tested positive for the novel coronavirus and eight died in the union territory in the last 24 hours.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy inaugurated first Rotary Plasma Bank in Telangana.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 8,01,147 samples were tested in the past 24 hours, bringing the total tests to 3,52,92,220.
The case tally climbed to 6,71,942 in the worst-affected state of Maharashtra, while Tamil Nadu registered 3,79,385 cases and the figure stood at 3,53,111 in Andhra Pradesh.
The death toll rose to 22,312 in Maharashtra, 6,517 in Tamil Nadu and 3,282 in Andhra Pradesh.
India globally stands at the third spot in terms of infections and fourth in fatalities and registered the first case and death on January 31 and March 13, respectively.
