COVID-19 UPDATE of 19th November: India’s Active Caseload has fallen under the 5% mark today

In the last 24 hours, 45,576 persons were found to be infected with COVID in India. During the same period, India has registered 48,493 new recoveries ensuring a net reduction of 2917 cases from the Active Caseload. The new recoveries continue to overtake the daily new cases continuously since the past 47 days. India’s active caseload has fallen under the 5% mark today. This trend of more daily recoveries than the daily cases has led to a continuous contraction of India’s Active Caseload. It has ensured that India’s present active caseload of 4,43,303 consists of just 4.95% of India’s Total Positive Cases. New Recoveries outnumbering the daily New Cases every 24-hour cycle has also improved the Recovery Rate to 93.58% today. The total recovered cases stand at 83,83,602. The gap between Recovered cases and Active cases that is steadily increasing presently stands at 79,40,299. 77.27% of the new recovered cases are contributed by ten States/UTs. With 7,066 persons recovering from COVID, Kerala saw the most number of recoveries. Delhi registered another 6,901 daily recoveries while Maharashtra reported 6,608 new recoveries. Ten States/UTs have contributed 77.28% of the new cases.Delhi reported 7,486 cases in the last 24 hours. Kerala recorded 6,419 new cases while Maharashtra registered 5,011 new cases yesterday.79.49% of the 585 case fatalities that have been reported in the past 24 hours are from Ten States/UTs.22.39% of new fatalities reported are from Delhi which reported 131 deaths. Maharashtra also saw a three digit fatality count of 100 while West Bengal reported 54 new deaths.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare today announced the Government’s decision to introduce a new category called ‘Wards of COVID Warriors’ in the guidelines for selection and nomination of candidates against Central Pool MBBS seats for the academic Year 2020-21. The Union Health Minister said that this move aims to dignify and honour the noble contribution made by the COVID Warriors in treatment and management of COVID patient. “This will honour the Solemn Sacrifice of all COVID warriors who served with selfless dedication for the cause of duty and humanity”, he stated. Central Pool MBBS seats may be allocated for selection and nominations of the candidates from amongst the wards of “COVID Warriors”, who have lost life due to COVID 19; or died accidently on account of COVID 19 related duty. Reminding everyone that the definition of COVID Warrior has been laid down by Government of India while announcing the insurance package of ₹50 lakhs for them, the Minister said, “COVID Warriors are all public healthcare providers including community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact and care of COVID-19 patients and who may be at risk of being impacted by this. Private hospital staff and retired/volunteer/ local urban bodies/ contracted/ daily wage/ ad-hoc/ outsourced staff requisitioned by States/ Central hospitals/ autonomous hospitals of Central/ States/UTs, AIIMS and Institutes of National Importance (INIs)/ hospitals of Central Ministries drafted for COVID-19 related responsibilities are all included.” He added that the State/UT Government will certify the eligibility for this category.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has deputed high level Central teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur. With the surge in the daily new cases and the spike in the daily fatalities in UT of Delhi, the spillover effect is being observed in the NCR regions within the states of Haryana and Rajasthan where the number of COVID positive patients is on the rise. Dr RandeepGuleria, Director, AIIMS New Delhi is leading the three-member team bound for Harayana and Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog is heading the Rajasthan team whereas Dr S K Singh, Director (NCDC) will be leading the Gujarat team. Dr L Swasticharan, Addl DDG, DHGS is heading the Manipur team. The teams will visit the districts reporting high number of COVID cases and support the State efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control measures, and efficient clinical management of the positive cases.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the 33rdStop TB Partnership Board meet, yesterday through Video Conference. Acknowledging that COVID-19 has turned the clock back by many years, if not decades, in the fight against infectious diseases, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “The deadly virus has derailed our painstaking efforts of many decades and diverted scientific attention from many infectious killer diseases like TB. The lockdowns have raised insurmountable barriers for patients and people are still living in fear of the Coronavirus. We all know that the last ten months have seen treatment interruptions, hindered availability of drugs, shrinking supply of diagnostic tests, delays in diagnosis, interrupted supply chains, diversion of manufacturing capacity and imposition of physical barriers for patients who must travel to distant clinics to pick up the medications.”Speaking on India’s strategy of turning the crisis into opportunity, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “COVID-19 has provided us with an opportunity to boost TB Elimination activities through Health System Strengthening and Infectious Diseases Control.”

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated Tech Summit in Bengaluru today via video conference. The summit is organised by the Government of Karnataka along with Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Karnataka government’s Vision Group on Information Technology, Biotechnology &StartUp, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications. The theme of this year’s summit is “Next is Now”. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Electronics & IT, Communications and Law & Justice and Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri BS Yeddyrupa were present on the occasion. The Prime Minister expressed happiness that today Digital India is no longer being seen as any regular Government initiative rather it has become a way of life particularly, for the poor, marginalised and for those in Government.

Union Ministry of MSME has taken a number of Technology based Initiatives & Interventions to tackle COVID-19 challenge. These have resulted in effective response to Prime Minister’s call of Atmanirbhar Bharat & Make in India. With help of these initiatives and interventions, country is now not only manufacturing enough Hand Sanitizer Bottle Dispensers (Pump/Flip) for meeting almost all its sharply increased demand but also poised to export the same. They have also helped India in achieving Self-sufficiency in Hand-sanitizing materials(liquid/gel) and have contributed immensely in developing/producing auxiliary items like masks, face-shields, PPE Kits, sanitizer box, testing facilities etc.

Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today said that ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is about transforming India from being just a passive market to an active manufacturing hub at the heart of global value chains. Addressing the 119th Annual General Meeting of Merchant’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry today, he said that an Aatmanirbhar Bharat is a strong Bharat with robust manufacturing sector, self-reliant yet globally integrated economy. A Self-reliant India will be a Force Multiplier for the global economy, he added. When India speaks of becoming self-reliant, it doesn’t advocate a self-centred system. Shri Pradhan said that under Mission Purvodaya, we are building an Integrated Steel Hub in eastern India which would add to the competitiveness of the steel sector and facilitate regional development with job creation. The Minister said that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused demand destruction and supply chain shocks to the global economy, leading to downturn everywhere.He said that even though the pandemic continues to inhibit the conduct of normal activity, there are indications of improvements and a gradual increase in activity across regionsand segments of the domestic economy. Progressive improvements are expected as the easing of lockdown restrictions become widespread that would put the country back on the growth trajectory, he mentioned. Shri Pradhan said that the Aatmanirbhar Bharat package and Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana have provided relief to all sections of the society and provided necessary support to all sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic. These will enable India to bounce back quickly and start scripting the next chapter of Indian growth story.

The Ministry of AYUSH has rolled out a set of initiatives to improve Financial Management and accelerate Governance Reforms. These initiatives have two thrust areas, namely the Government Schemes (both Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored) and the Autonomous Bodies of the Ministry. The road-map to this set of initiatives were laid down by Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary (AYUSH) and Shri Dharmendra Singh Gangwar, Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in a high level meeting in the Ministry held in September, 2020. These were taken up for implementation on priority by the different units of the Ministry. Drawing up the list of financial and governance reforms, and designing programme/schemes to ensure that fund flow is reached to Project Implementation Agency in a seamless and direct manner are among the ground work activities identified. These will be supplemented with timely release of funds to State Governments with matching shares and pre-defined triggers so that there is no parking of funds at any level. These steps, thus serve to nullify some of the frequently observed bottlenecks that delay government projects.

 

• Arunachal Pradesh: In Arunachal the total active COVID cases reached to 1182. Whiletotal recovered cases stand at 14715.
• Assam: In Assam during the last 24 hours 169 new cases detected out of 23484 tests conducted with positivity rate of 0.72%.
• Meghalaya: In Meghalaya the total active COVID-19 cases reached to 753 and total recovered cases stands at 10014.
• Sikkim: In the state of Sikkim active COVID-19 cases reached to 296. While 4124 cases have been discharged so far.
• Maharashtra: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has begun week-long targeted Covid-19 testing of hawkers, shop owners, helpers and transporters in crowded markets, BEST and State Road Transport Corporation drivers to tap possible super-spreaders. With Diwali festivities over, the civic body expects a swell in cases fuelled by crowded shopping areas and public transport systems. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani informed that the city civic body had set up 10 free testing centres in each of the city’s 24 civic wards. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 tally rose to 17,57,520 with the state reporting 5,011 new cases of infection on Wednesday. Notably, the daily spike in the cases had hovered around 3,000 in the last few days.
• Gujarat: Gujarat reported 1,281 fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the state’s tally to nearly 1.92 lakh. Several districts, including Ahmedabad, recorded a spike in cases following Diwali. The state’s daily tally had last crossed 1,200 over a month ago. Meanwhile, testing dropped to fewer than 50,000 samples a day. Officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) met to review the availability of beds in the designated hospitals in the city following the surge. The state government said it is increasing daily testing for the virus in order to detect new cases and contain its spread after noticing a spike in the last few days.
• Rajasthan: In Rajasthan, the number of active cases of COVID-19 has once again crossed the 19,000 mark after 26 days. 2,178 new cases have been reported in the state on Wednesday. Jaipur and Jodhpur districts are the most affected. A large number of new infections are being reported from Bikaner, Alwar, Ajmer and Kota. More than 40 lakh samples have been tested in the state so far. The state government has decided to provide pulse oximeters to ASHA Sahyoginis in view of the increasing numbers of the infections in rural areas. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has said that people in rural areas should not take this disease lightly. They should wear masks and fully comply with other health protocols.
• Madhya Pradesh: At present there are 9,338 active cases in the state. The state government has denied rumours about lockdown in the state  and  said that the situation is completely under control. State Home Minister Narottam Mishra has clarified that there is no such situation in Madhya Pradesh to impose lockdown, no proposal in this regard is under consideration.
• Chhattisgarh: In Chhattisgarh, the state government has issued special guidelines regarding Chhath Puja in view of the pandemic situation. The state government has issued fresh  guidelines and granted conditional permission for Chhath Pooja at the ghats of river and ponds. According to the guidelines, only worshippers will be allowed at the Ghats during Chhath Pooja. It will be mandatory to maintain social distancing and to wear masks. It will be the responsibility of the organizing committees to prevent unnecessary gathering of people at places of worship.Also, no procession, rally or cultural program will be allowed to be organized during the festival. Apart from this, according to the guidelines issued by the National Green Tribunal, firecrackers can be used only from 6 am to 8 am on Chhath Puja.
• Goa: The Goa government is drawing up a new standard operating procedure (SOP) for hotels amid the ongoing tourist season, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Mr Rane said that the coastal state will not seal its borders to keep out tourists. He added, “We are in the process of issuing guidelines for hotels, which will make it mandatory for them to reserve one room as an isolation room on their property”.
• Kerala: The Kerala High Court has directed the state government to strictly follow the guidelines issued for performing the last rites of Covid-19 patients. All cinema theatres in the state which was closed following Covid-19 will remain shut and will not open soon; this was decided at a meet of film organisations convened today by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.  6,419 new Covid-19 cases & 7,066 recoveries were reported in the state yesterday. The current test positivity rate is 9.53% and Covid death toll is 1,943.
• Tamil Nadu: As sales have decreased due to the Covid pandemic the Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association has urged the state government to include them under the list of frontline workers and provide necessary benefits. Russian scholar Alexander Dubiansky, who taught Tamil for nearly 50 years, passed away in a hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.
• Karnataka:  As many as 94,000 frontline workers have been identified to be the first beneficiaries of the Covid-19 vaccination in Bengaluru. It had been reported that the vaccine will be ready for administration in early 2021. At the peak of Covid-19 lockdown, it was technology that ensured India’s poor received quick and proper assistance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the Bangalore Tech summit 2020. Karnataka on Wednesday reported 1,791 new Covid-19 cases and 21 more deaths, taking the total infections to 8,65,931 and toll to 11,578.
• Andhra Pradesh: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy cautions officials against second wave of coronavirus in Andhra Pradesh; during a review meeting he directed the officials to take effective steps in containing the spread of Covid-19 in the wake of second wave in Delhi and other countries. Andhra Pradesh is left with 16,516 active cases as on Wednesday with 91,54,263 Covid tests conducted so far and 8.54 lakh turned out positive with a positivity rate of 9.33 per cent. On average, 1,71,428 tests were done in every one million population, taking to 75,000 tests every day.
• Telangana:   The State government slashed the rates for RT-PCR testing for Covid-19 in private labs from Rs 2,200 to Rs 850; For samples collected at home, the charges have been reduced from Rs 2,800 to Rs 1,200. A total of 1,607 patients recovered from Covid-19 while 948 fresh cases were detected in Telangana in the 24 hours. The State’s tally stands at 2,59,776, recoveries at 2,45,293 and active cases stand at 13,068.