PIB Bulletin of COVID-19 of 24th September 2020

India reports steady trend of higher New Recoveries than New Cases for 6th successive day. 13 states / UTs reporting higher number of new recoveries than the new cases. Recovery Rate has crossed 81.55%. 75% of new confirmed cases found concentrated in 10 States / UTs. PM interacts with CMs of seven states to review status and response to COVID – 19: exhorts the States to assess the efficacy of local lockdowns of 1-2 day in controlling the spread of the virus. eSanjeevani OPD of Health Ministry Completes 3 lakh tele-consultations within six months of launch.

With its focussed strategies and effective people-centric measures, India is reporting exponential increase in recoveries. New recoveries in India have exceeded the new cases for the last six days. 87,374 recoveries have been registered in the last 24 hours in the country, while the number of new confirmed cases stands at 86,508. With this, the total number of recoveries are 46.7 lakh (46,74,987). The Recovery Rate has crossed 81.55%. The gap between Recovered Cases and the Active Cases is continuously widening. The recovered cases (46,74,987) exceed the active cases (9,66,382) by more than 37 lakh. This has also ensured that the active caseload accounts for merely 16.86% of the total positive cases. This has sustained on its steady declining path. Following the national lead, 13 States/UTs are also reporting higher number of new recoveries than the new cases. Nearly 74% of the New Recovered cases are found in 10 States/UTs. Maharashtra has maintained this lead with 19,476 cases (22.3%) for the sixth consecutive day.

For the sixth consecutive day, the number of new confirmed cases has been lower than the new recoveries.A total of 86,508 new cases have been reported in the last 24 hours in the country. 75% of the new confirmed cases are concentrated in 10 States/UTs.Maharashtra continues to top this list. It has alone contributed more than 21,000 followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka with more than more than 7,000 and 6,000 cases respectively.1,129 deaths have been registered in the past 24 hours.10 States/UTs account for 83% of the deaths in the last 24 hours due to COVID.Maharashtra reported 479 deaths followed by Uttar Pradesh and Punjab with 87 and 64 deaths, respectively. India has substantially ramped up its testing infrastructure across the country. As on date, there are 1810 labs including 1082 government and 728 private labs. 11,56,569 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours. The total number of tests has crossed 6.74 cr today.

Prime Minister Shri NarendraModiyesterday interacted with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh via video conferencing to review status and response to COVID-19.Prime Minister remarked that the day marks the second anniversary of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana, and noted that in these two years, more than 1.25 crore poor patients have received free treatment under the scheme. He lauded the doctors and medical staff who are continuously engaged in serving the poor.Noting that while the number of cases is increasing, the Prime Minister said that the country is also conducting more than 10 lakh tests daily, and the number of patients recovering is fast increasing. He said that there is a need to further strengthen health infrastructure to tackle COVID, improve the network of tracking and tracing, and ensure better training. He announced that the limit of using the State Disaster Response Fund for COVID specific infrastructure has been increased from 35% to 50%, noting that the decision will help States have more finances at their disposal to fight the virus.Prime Minister exhorted the States to assess the efficacy of local lockdowns of 1-2 days in controlling the spread of the virus, asking if the decision is preventing kickstart of economic activities in the States. He said that the country needs to not only keep fighting the virus, but also move ahead boldly on the economic front.

Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi launched the Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Fit India Movement, via virtual conferencing today.Shri Modi interacted with various sports persons, fitness experts and others during the Fit India Dialogue event organised on the occasion. The virtual dialogue was conducted in a casual and informal manner where the participants shared with the Prime Minister their life experiences and their fitness mantra.Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister saidstaying fit is not as difficult a task as some think. With a little discipline and a little hard work you can always be healthy. He gave the mantra ‘Fitness dose, Half an hour everyday’ for everyone’s health. He urged everyone to practice yoga, or badminton, tennis or football, karate or kabaddi for at least 30 minutes daily. He said today the Youth Ministry and Health Ministry together released Fitness protocols.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare addressed Ministers of Member Nations of WHO, Heads & Representatives of UN Agencies & Partner Organizations through virtual interaction today. He spoke on India’s role and contribution towards strengthening multisectoral action and progress towards ending TB, especially in context of the COVID-19 crisis.The Union Health Minister spoke about Covid-19 pandemic which has “brought a dramatic shift in our lives in more ways than one”. He pointed out how the public discourse on health has now taken centre stage. There is heightened public health awareness among the public today. Covid-19 and its highly contagious nature have created a huge health related risk perception across the globe, he pointed.

eSanjeevani OPD platform of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has completed 3 lakh tele-consultations. This landmark milestone has been achieved within a short period of six months since its launch.eSanjeevani OPD services have enabled patient-to-doctor telemedicine in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has helped in containing the spread of COVID by ensuring physical distancing and has simultaneously enabled provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare. The number of high tele-consultations is a testimony of its popularity among the citizens.With 1,29,801 digital interactions, Tamil Nadu has held the largest number of tele-consultations so far.eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations. The former is being implemented through Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC).

The Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Shri Prahlad Joshi in a statement on the Monsoon Session, 2020 issued today informed that the productivity of LokSabha was approx. 167% and that of RajyaSabha was approx. 100.47% during the Monsoon Session, 2020.  Shri Joshi said that the Monsoon Session, 2020 of Parliament which commenced on 14th September, 2020 was scheduled to culminate on 1st October, 2020 but due to COVID-19 pandemic risks after transaction of essential business LokSabha and RajyaSabha were adjourned sine-die on 23rd September, 2020 yielding 10 sittings spread over 10 days. He further informed that during the Session, 22 Bills (16 in LokSabha and 06 in RajyaSabha) were introduced. LokSabha and RajyaSabha individually passed 25 Bills each. 27 Bills were passed by both the Houses of Parliament which is best ever rate of passage of Bills per day i.e. 2.7 Bills.Appreciating the arrangements made for conducting the Session amid Covid-19 pandemic, the Minister said that the extra-ordinary output of this Session has become possible due to tireless efforts of all agencies and individuals involved in the transaction of -Business before two Houses of Parliament.

The 51st Edition of the International Film Festival of India scheduled to be held at Goa from 20th November to 28th November, 2020 has been postponed to 16th to 24th January, 2021. The decision has been arrived at after the Minister of Information & Broadcasting Shri PrakashJavadekar discussed the issue with Dr. PramodSawant, Chief Minister, Goa. The festival will be conducted in a Hybrid format i.e. Virtual & Physical format. All COVID related protocols will be strictly enforced as per the festivals convened recently in the International Film Festival circuit.

More than 15 lakh loan applications have been received so far under the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbharNidhi(PM SVANidhi) Scheme. Out of these, more than 5.5 lakh loans have been sanctioned and about 2 lakh loans disbursed. The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs is implementing PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbharNidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme to facilitate collateral free working capital loan to 50 lakh street vendors to restart their businesses post COVID-19 lockdowns. In order to expedite the loan sanctioning process and provide ease of operation to the lenders, it has been decided to push the applications directly to the bank branches, which have been indicated by the Vendor as ‘Preferred Lender’ OR where the Vendor holds a savings bank account in case ‘Preferred Lender’ is not indicated. This process is expected to give boost to the number of loans sanctioned and cut down the time for loan disbursal drastically.

Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate ChangeSh. Babul Supriyoyesterday said, people and governments need to share the responsibility and work together to keep the air clean. Speaking at the webinar to commemorate 46th Year of Establishment of Central Pollution Control Board, he said, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been doing a remarkable work in terms of collecting and collating the data related to pollution which is acting as a key policy input for the government and the concerned agencies to improve air quality. He said, CPCB has been providing a real time data which is commendable.Shri Supriyosaid, that the pandemic COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to press the reboot button to save the environment. The Minister further said, that there is a need to ensure that water is not polluted because it can have an adverse impact on the crops. He appreciated CBCB for handling bio-medical waste during the times of COVID-19.

Under Ayushman Bharat -Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY), as of 21.09.2020, over 1.26 Crore hospital admission have been authorised since its inception. Out of these 5.13 lakh hospital admissions have been authorized towards testing and treatment of COVID-19.The funds under AB-PMJAY are allocated on PAN India basis and are released to the State/UT based on the receipt of proposal after due compliance and furnishing of requisite information.The budget allocated for implementation of AB-PMJAY for the financial years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 has been Rs. 2400 Crore, Rs. 6400 Crore and Rs. 6400 Crore respectively.From the launch of AB-PMJAY till 21.09.2020, a total of Rs. 5474 Crore have been disbursed to States/UTs for implementation of scheme. Total amount sanctioned to the States/UTs is:Rs. 1849.5 Crores for fiscal year 2018-19, Rs. 2992.9 Crores for fiscal year 2019-20, Rs. 631.0 Crores for fiscal year 2020-21 (ongoing.)Funds are allocated to PM-JAY which are disbursed among States/UTs based on the amount incurred towards treatment of beneficiaries in the respective States/UTs. The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), ShAshwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the LokSabha yesterday.

Government is implementing Umbrella Scheme of RashtriyaArogyaNidhi (RAN) to provide financial assistance for treatment of poor patients suffering from life threatening disease undergoing treatment in Government hospitals. Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per annum for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families identified as per Socio-Economic Caste Census Database. There is no proposal to extend the coverage of these schemes to out-patient services.Sufficient funds have been allocated under AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN for providing the hospitalization and treatment services to entitled beneficiaries. The allocation under Budget Estimates (BE) 2020-21 for AB-PMJAY and Umbrella scheme of RAN are Rs. 6400 crore and Rs. 177.32 crore respectively. BE 2020-21 for Umbrella scheme of RAN includes Rs. 77.32 crore for the rare diseases component.Government has formulated draft of the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2020 and placed it on the website of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare inviting comments from all stakeholders. The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), ShAshwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the LokSabhayesterday.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India has provisioned additional incentive of Rs. 1000 per month under the “India COVID 19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package” to ASHAs for undertaking COVID 19 related activities for the period of their engagement in this work. Further the benefit under “Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Package : Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID 19”, has been launched to provide an insurance cover of Rs. 50 lakh to public health providers including ASHAs, who may be at risk of being impacted by COVID 19.The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), ShAshwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the LokSabhayesterday.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in its guidelines on rational use of personal protective equipment (PPE) has issued specifications and standards to be followed for Personal Protective Equipment including medical mask for use by healthcare workers and other front-line workers. These specifications are available in public domain through the website of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.Government of India has also issued advisory & manual on use of homemade protective cover for face & mouth for use by general public.From no indigenous manufacturer to begin with, 1100 indigenous manufacturers of PPE kits have been developed by the Government till date, most of them being from MSME sector. As per the current assessment, the production capacity of PPE coveralls is nearly 5 lakh per day with potential for additional capacity creation to meet demand.The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), ShAshwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the LokSabhayesterday.

Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has informed that it has granted test license permission for manufacture of COVID-19 Vaccine for preclinical test, examination and analysis to the following manufacturers in India: M/s Serum Institute of India Pvt., Ltd., Pune, Ms. Cadila Healthcare Ltd., Ahmadabad, M/s Bharat Biotech International Ltd., Hyderabad, Biological E Ltd., Hyderabad, M/s Reliance Life Sciences Pvt Ltd., Mumbai, M/s AurbindoPharma Limited, Hyderabad and M/s Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited, Pune. A National Expert Group on COVID 19 vaccine has been constituted to guide the Government on:-Prioritization of population groups for vaccination, Selection of COVID 19 vaccine candidates, Inventory management and delivery mechanism of the vaccine including making of vaccination process,Selection of delivery platforms and Cold chain and associated infrastructure for roll-out of COVID 19 vaccination etc.phase II clinical trials are ongoing. The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), ShAshwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the LokSabhayesterday.

Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, has granted permission to raise additional financial resources of Rs. 9,913 crore to 5 (five) States through Open Market Borrowings (OMBs). These States are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa, Karnataka and Tripura. This permission has been accorded after these States successfully met the reform condition of implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System.In view of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic the Central Government had in May, 2020 allowed additional borrowing limit of up to 2 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) to the States for the year 2020-21.

• Kerala:State Health Department has reported that five districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kozhikode and Kasaragod, are witnessing extreme spread of Covid-19. It has directed to identify people with Covid-19 symptoms and quarantine them immediately. The latest report of the Health Department also revealed that the daily number of cases will go up in these districts. In Kozhikode district, test positivity rate has risen to 9.1 percent. The Palayam market in Kozhikode will be shut down for a week. 143 more positive cases have been reported in the district till noon today. Breaching the 5000-mark, 5,376 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Kerala yesterday. 42,786 patients are now undergoing treatment. A total of 2,12,629 persons under observation across the state.
• Tamil Nadu: Puducherry reported its highest single-day spike of 668 Covid-19 cases and six deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total cases to 24,895, active cases to 5097, and deaths at 487; so far 19,311 Covid infected persons have recovered in the UT. Founder President of DMDK A. Vijayakant tested positive for Covid-19. TN breached yet another grim milestone on Wednesday with the number of Covid deaths crossing 9,000. The total number of people discharged after treatment crossed the five lakh mark with 5,363 more people getting discharged. The State reported 5,325 fresh cases, taking the tally to 5,57,999 yesterday.
• Karnataka: Karnataka’s Covid fatality rate dipping, CM Yediyurappa tells PM Modi. In the video conference, Yediyurappa informed the PM that the state has set up 136 testing laboratories and testing has been increased to about 70,000 samples per day. Indian Medical Association data shows 43 doctors on the frontlines of the pandemic in Karnataka died of Covid-19 since March, with the highest casualties of seven each in Bengaluru and Mysuru regions. 1.5 lakh kids switch from private to govt schools in Karnataka. The migration is mostly happening in rural areas where parents have moved back from towns to villages due to financial issues during the pandemic.
• Andhra Pradesh: The rapid spread of Covid-19, which was witnessed in urban areas such as Vijayawada, Kurnool and Guntur, has now shifted to rural areas. The State health department said this was expected, and containing the spread of the disease is not difficult. State Health Commissioner observed that each district experienced the peak phase of about 40 days. As per state’s assessment, all 13 districts have crossed the infection peak, while positivity rate and daily deaths per million have reduced. Meanwhile the State continues to record more recoveries than new Covid cases as 8,291 patients got discharged across the State.
• Telangana: 2176 new cases, 2004 recoveries & 8 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 2176 cases, 308 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases:1,79,246; Active cases:30,037; Deaths:1070; Discharges:1,48,139. In a respite to commuters who depend on bus services for their travel needs, TSRTC has resumed mofussil services on the Hyderabad city outskirts.
• Arunachal Pradesh:Arunachal Pradesh recorded 289 new Covid19 positive cases with Itanagar Capital Region accounting for 173 cases.
• Assam: In Assam during the last 24 hours 1762 COVID-19 patients discharged after recovery. Total active cases in the state reached to 30182. While 132709 patients have been discharged so far.
• Manipur: In Manipur 96 new Covid19 positive cases detected taking the covid tally to 9376. With 75 percent recovery rate, there are 2206 active cases in the state.In Manipur 2 patients expired due to Covid19 complications taking the death toll in the state to 62.
• Sikkim: In Sikkim till today 1974 COVID-19 patients discharged after recovery. There are 607 active cases in the state.
• Maharashtra: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has expressed confidence that his government’s just launched ‘My family – My Responsibility’ direct contact campaign would strengthen the fight against Covid-19 in the state which has recorded more than 2.73 lakh active cases as on date. 59 thousand health teams have been formed to reach out to 2.25 crore households across the state.Besides creating public awareness about Covid-19, the campaign envisages conducting health checks to identify symptoms followed by proper treatment of patients.  CM Thackerey briefed Prime Minister NarendraModi about the state’s initiative during the Covid review meeting held on Wednesday evening.
• Gujarat: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has directed the state Health Department to conduct a state-wide investigation on private laboratories, after a report in a Gujarati daily stated that several of them were offering “bogus negative certificates” without collecting samples or providing details of tests.  These certificates were allegedly issued to returning migrant workers to help them dodge 14 days quarantine 
• Rajasthan:  In Rajasthan, the recovery rate of the Corona patients has reached 83.12 per cent in the state. At the same time, the number of people who have won the battle of life by defeating Corona has also crossed one lakh. Barmer tops the recovery rate, where more than 95 per cent patients have been recovered. Bundi and Sirohi districts also have high recovery rate. Hanumangarh, Bundi, Jhunjhunu, Pratapgarh and Dausa are the districts where the death toll due to Corona is in the single digit.
• Madhya Pradesh: In 23 days of September, Covid-19 cases have more than doubled in 21 districts of Madhya Pradesh. The tally has more than tripled in at least three districts, and in Narsinghpur, it has increased by nearly 400%. The major Covid-19 hotbeds of the state — Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior — are not among these 21 districts.  This clearly indicates the spread of Covid-19 in smaller districts of the state.