Coronavirus: India reports over 1.12 lakh cases; recovery rate improves to 40.23 per cent

India's coronavirus cases rose to 1,12,358 on Thursday with 5,609 new cases and the recovery rate improved to 40.23 per cent from 39.62 per cent a day earlier. The Health Ministry said that a total of 3,002 COVID-19 patients have been reported cured in the last 24 hours and India's total count of cured COVID-19 patients stands at 45,299.

The country has 63,624 active cases and 3,435 people have died. Of the active cases, only about 2.94 per cent are in ICU.

The ministry said that the case mortality rate in India is 3.06 per cent, which is much lesser in comparison to the global case mortality rate of 6.65 per cent.

A Health Ministry release citing an analysis said that 64 per cent of those who have died are males and 36 per cent are females.

In terms of age distribution, 0.5 per cent deaths are reported in less than 15 years age group, 2.5 per cent in 15-30 years age group, 11.4 per cent in people aged 30 to 45 years, 35.1 per cent in those between 45 to 60 years and 50.5 per cent in people above 60 years.

The release said that 73 per cent of death cases had underlying co-morbidities. Elderly people (above 60 years of age) and people having co-morbidities are identified as high-risk groups for COVID-19.

As of today, a total of 26,15,920 samples have been tested and 103532 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours through 555 testing labs (391 in the government sector and 164 private labs).

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has written a letter to all chief secretaries asking them to ensure compliance of lockdown guidelines, saying it has been brought to the Home Ministry's notice that there are violations in implementing the prescribed measures at various places.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said that Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti has successfully completed the exercise of shifting of over 3000 students who were staying in 173 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in various parts of the country during the lockdown period.

He also said that the students enrolled in universities and affiliated colleges may undertake SWAYAM courses and avail credits by completing these courses as per University Grants Commission (UGC)'s present regulations on credit framework for online learning courses.

He said that UGC has shared a list of 82 undergraduate ad 42 postgraduate non-engineering MOOCs courses with University Vice-Chancellors and college principals, which will be offered in July Semester 2020 on SWAYAM Platform(www.swayam.gov.in).

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) will explore the possibility of exporting the Khadi cotton and silk face masks to foreign countries after the Ministry of Commerce and Industries lifted the ban on the export of non-medical/ non-surgical masks of all types.

Here are the top COVID-19 related updates of the day:

1. With the highest ever spike of 571 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours in Delhi, the total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi stands at 11,659. The total cases are inclusive of 5,567 recovered/discharged/migrated and 194 deaths.

2. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Managing Director Mangu Singh on Thursday inspected the Khyber Pass and Shastri Park Depot to review the preparedness for the resumption of Delhi Metro services. DMRC has taken up necessary cleaning mechanisms inside the trains and indoor areas of stations such as entrance lobbies, corridors, staircases, escalators and elevators.

3. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that booking of train tickets will resume at around 1.7 lakh common service centres from Friday across the country. Bookings will also resume at counters of different stations in the next two to three days. These special services shall be in addition to the existing Shramik special trains being run since May 1 and Special AC trains (30 trains) being run since May 12. Other regular passenger services including all mail/express, passenger and suburban services shall remain cancelled until further advice.

4. CSIR Director-General (DG) Dr Shekhar C Mande has said that three drug trials to combat COVID-19 have started and seven are in the process. "We have started three drug trials, namely, ACQH, Favipiravir and MW. The MW trial has started very well at three different sites. We bring about seven more into our basket of drug trials, some of which will also be combination therapies. These therapies will also come on to the trial combination of two kinds of drugs, possibly one targeting the virus and the other targeting the host," Dr Mande told ANI.

5. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed the concerned officials in the state to increase the number of beds in COVID-19 hospitals to one lakh by the end of this month.

6. With nine new cases reported in the Central Reserve Police Force, the number of positive coronavirus cases in the force is now 335.

7. Uttarakhand minister S Uniyal has said that the state does not have enough infrastructure to quarantine lakhs of people as coronavirus cases are increasing in several districts due to the influx of people from outside.

8. Amid COVID-19 lockdown, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the defence sector is "more aggravated" than other sectors as the only buyer of Defence products is the government. The Minister was addressing, via video conference, MSMEs E-conclave, jointly organised by SIDM, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Department of Defence Production.

He appreciated the role played by Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and other Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the fight against coronavirus.

9. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that a minimum and maximum fare for three months has been set for the domestic flight services, which will resume from May 25 amid coronavirus-induced lockdown. The guidelines have been issued for the passengers and airports, which are to be followed during flight operations.

10. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday released its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the resumption of training of athletes.

(ANI)

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