India registered 55,838 coronavirus cases and 702 deaths in the last 24 hours ending. The total number of infections in the country rose to 77,06,946 while the fatalities increased to 1,16,616. Presently, India has 7,15,812 active cases after a decrease of 24,278 in the last 24 hours. As many as 68,74,518 people have been recovered with 79,415 new patients have been discharged in the last hours.
On Monday, India recorded less than 50,000 new infections of novel COVID-19 cases which is the first time in nearly three months. Tuesday and Wednesday also recorded fewer cases, around 55,000 cases. The continuous decline in the number of new cases concludes that after two and a half months, India has stopped reporting the highest number of cases in the world. There is a resurgence of cases in several countries of Europe and the United States as well which has reported more new infection cases than India.
WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan pointed out that the World Health Organisation has expected multiple vaccines for Covid-19 early next year but was alarmed to see a spike in the number of cases in several European countries. Swaminathan said that what she concluded from the pandemic was the need for countries to heavily invest in primary healthcare facilities, as countries with the strongest primary and public healthcare have done their best during the past eight months. Meanwhile, a day after the ICMR director-general said the use of convalescent plasma therapy for Covid-19 patients may be deleted from national guidelines, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said the trial therapy in the city “proved beneficial for 2,000 people”.
COVID-19 latest developments:
# According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 9,86,70,363 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the country until yesterday (October 21). Of these, 14,69,984 were tested yesterday.
# India’s 5 worst-affected states, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (includes recoveries, deaths and active cases)
- Maharashtra: 16,17,658
- Andhra Pradesh: 7,93,299
- Karnataka: 7,82,773
- Tamil Nadu: 6,97,116
- Uttar Pradesh: 4,61,475
# As per the Union Health Ministry data the death toll in India due to the novel coronavirus pandemic has risen to 1,16,616.
# Bihar's COVID-19 tally rose to 2.08 lakh on Wednesday, October 21 after 1,277 people tested positive for the infection, while eight fresh fatalities took the state's coronavirus death toll to 1,019. As many as 1,319 more people have been cured of the disease, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 1.96 lakh.
# Andhra Pradesh, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases after Maharashtra, the total cases went up to 7,93,299 as 3,746 cases were added on Wednesday.
# Karnataka reported 5,872 new covid cases and 88 deaths in the last 24 hours. The state's COVID-19 tally now stands at 7,82,773 lakh.
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# Maharashtra added 8,142 new COVID-19 cases. The total number of infection cases climbed to 16,17,658. The state also reported 180 deaths, which took the fatality count to 42,633.
# Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday said that India will play a critical role in fighting COVID-19, especially when it comes to making vaccines for the whole world.