A day after recording the lowest number of daily Covid-19 infections, India on Wednesday reported 23,950 new cases, taking the total tally to 10,099066. On Tuesday, the 24-hour tally reached the lowest with only 19,556 cases recorded on Monday. This was the lowest after 173 days.
The number of active cases has dropped below 2 lakh and is now at 1,89,240
The health ministry on Tuesday issued a new SOP in the context of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 detected in the United Kingdom, making it mandatory for all states to test passengers travelling from or transiting through airports in the UK. Passengers testing positive shall be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit coordinated by the respective State Health Authorities. Those who are found negative on testing with RT-PCR at the airport would be advised quarantine at home and followed up.
A total of 26,895 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours while 333 people died of Covid in the same time period. India’s recovery rate is at 95.65 per cent and the mortality rate s 1.45 per cent. The number of active cases forms only 2.90 per cent of the total case.
According to Union health ministry’s data, Kerala, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh have reported the maximum number of cases.
“India continues to be among nations with the lowest Covid cases per million population and lowest deaths per million population. New Covid cases cases as well as new Covid cases deaths per million population reported in the last 7 days are also among the lowest. Average daily new cases have shown a continuous decline from 46,301 during the first week of November to 24,135 this week. Average daily deaths has also come down from 556 during the first week of November to 343 this week. Total active Covid -19 cases is less than 3% and India’s recovery rate is more than 95%,” health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday.
On the new strain of the virus, he said there is no need to panic and this will have no impact on the potential if emerging vaccines. “There is no need to panic. We are yet to spot such a virus in our country for which there are intensive efforts in the offing. This virus increases infectiousness but does not increase propensity for death or hospitalization or severity of the disease. Mutation is a very common behaviour in viruses. The current mutation says that 17 mutations have happened all at once. Its tendency to enter our cell has become higher. Transmissibility has increased with this mutation,” he said.
