India's Covid-19 caseload crossed 6 million on Monday with 82,170 new cases, while the number of recoveries surged to 5.02 million after 74,893 more people recuperated in the last 24 hours, the Union health ministry said. The toll due to Covid-19 rose to 95,542 with 1,039 more deaths on Monday. Of the total number of cases (60,74,702), 9,62,640 are active cases which comprises 15.85 per cent of the caseload, according to the ministry data. With a total of 50,16,520 recoveries, the recovery rate rose to 82.58 per cent. The case fatality rate declined to 1.57 per cent, the ministry added.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 72 million samples have been tested so far, with 709,000 tests being conducted on Sunday. India's Covid-19 tally had crossed the 2 million mark on 7 August, 3 million on 23 August, 4 million on 5 September and 5 million on 15 September.
It took 110 days for the Covid-19 cases in the country to reach 100,000 mark, while it had taken 59 days more to go past the 1 million post. The cases jumped from 1 million to 2 million in 21 days, then it took 16 more days to race past 3 million, 13 days more to cross the 4 million mark, 11 days to go past 5 million and 12 days to cross 6 million. Providing information about the trajectory of recoveries in the country, the ministry said that the rise in the number of total recovered cases from 100,000 in June 2020 "has been steep" and the last 1 million recoveries were added in just 11 days.
"India's total recoveries have crossed the landmark milestone of 5 million on Monday (50,16,520). With a very high number of Covid patients recovering every single day, India's steady trend of posting high level of daily recoveries continues," the ministry said. "The total recovered cases have outpaced active cases by more than 5 times. With the exponential increase in the recoveries, there is close to 100 per cent increase in recovered cases in one month," it said.
Noting that 15 states/Union Territories are showing recovery rate more than the national average, the ministry said 78 per cent of the total recovered cases are recorded in 10 States/UTs with Maharashtra contributing maximum to the total recovered cases followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Kerala govt to crackdown on violators
With Kerala witnessing a spike in Covid cases over the past few weeks, the Left government has decided to impose strict restrictions on gatherings besides taking action against shop owners who fail to implement the health protocol, including social distancing. After reporting over 7,000 fresh cases for two consecutive days, Kerala on Monday reported 4,538 new positive cases taking the case count in the state to 1,78,922. Currently, there are 57,879 patients under treatment in the state.
The Kerala government on Monday also announced steps to conduct the annual pilgrimage to the Sabarimala temple, and said that the two-month long season from 16 November will be held strictly adhering to Covid-19 protocols.
The government said steps will be taken to ensure that those infected with the virus will not participate in the pilgrimage. According to officials, those below 10 years and above 60 will not be allowed to take part in the pilgrimage.
Centre launches web portal for vaccine updates
The Union health ministry launched a web portal that will provide all important information on Covid-19, the stages of vaccine development, ongoing clinical trials and progress made in this area locally and globally.
The ''vaccine web portal'' and the ''National Clinical Registry for Covid-19'' have been developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and was launched by Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, according to a health ministry statement. Vardhan earlier had said that a vaccine is likely to be available by the first quarter of 2021.
The National Clinical Registry for Covid-19 will collect systematic data on clinical signs and symptoms, laboratory investigations, management protocols, the clinical course of Covid-19, disease spectrum and outcomes of patients.
"The data will serve as an invaluable tool for formulating appropriate patient management strategies, predicting disease severity, patient outcomes etc," the ICMR said in a statement.
State-wise deaths
Of the 1,039 new deaths on Monday, 380 were in Maharashtra, 80 in Tamil Nadu, 79 in Karnataka, 77 in Uttar Pradesh, 60 in West Bengal and 50 in Punjab. Forty-five more people succumbed to the disease in Andhra Pradesh, followed by 42 in Delhi, 31 in Chhattisgarh, 26 in Madhya Pradesh and 21 in Kerala. There were 17 more fatalities in Assam, 16 in Haryana, 15 in Rajasthan, 14 in Odisha and 13 in Puducherry.
Eleven people died from the pathogen in Himachal Pradesh, followed by 10 each in Gujarat and Goa, nine in Jharkhand, eight in Uttarakhand and seven each in Jammu and Kashmir, and Telangana.
Tripura registered three more fatalities, while two more persons each died in Sikkim, Chandigarh and Bihar, and one each in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Ladakh. Of the total 95,542 deaths, Maharashtra reported the maximum of 35,571 fatalities, followed by 9,313 in Tamil Nadu, 8,582 in Karnataka, 5,708 in Andhra Pradesh, 5,594 in Uttar Pradesh, 5,235 in Delhi and 4,781 in West Bengal.
As many as 3,416 people died from the virus in Gujarat, followed by 3,238 in Punjab, 2,207 in Madhya Pradesh, 1,441 in Rajasthan, 1,307 in Haryana and 1,132 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Telangana recorded 1,107 deaths so far, while 888 people died in Bihar, 848 in Chhattisgarh, 797 in Odisha, 679 in Jharkhand, 677 in Kerala, 655 in Assam and 574 in Uttarakhand.
