COVID-19 Update News Released by PIB of 03rd September 2020

India has registered the highest recoveries in a single day. 68,584 COVID-19 patients have recovered and been discharged in the last 24 hours. This has led to a surge in the total number of recovered patients which is nearly 30 lakh (2,970,492).With this, India’s Recovery Rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has crossed 77% (77.09%). The number of recovered patients has outpaced the active cases (8,15,538) by more than 21.5 lakh.The recovered patients have increased to more than 3.6 times the active cases, as on date. The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz. the active cases, has reduced and currently comprises only 21.16% of the total positive cases.India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is maintained below the global average (3.3%). Witnessing a decline every day, it stands at 1.75% today.

Continuing the spree of conducting more than 10 lakh tests per day from the last two days, India has witnessed an unprecedented surge in daily testing today.Over 11.7 lakh (11,72,179) tests were done in the last 24 hours. With this achievement, the cumulative tests are more than 4.5 crore (4,55,09,380).This demonstrates an exponential increase in the daily COVID-19 testing in the country. From conducting merely 10 tests per day on 30th January, the daily average has crossed more than 11 lakhs today.This surge in testing has been made possible by an equally speedy expansion in the testing lab network across the country. India has today 1623 labs in the country; 1022 labs in the government sector and 601 private labs. Also, state-of-the-art high throughput machines including Cobas 6800/8800 are installed at 5 sites: ICMR-Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna; ICMR-National Institute for Cholera & Enteric Diseases, Kolkata; National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute for Cancer Prevention & Research, Noida. These can test around 1000 samples per day with minimum human intervention.

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan yesterday participated in the USISPF- 3rd Annual Leadership Summit. He talked about the unprecedented impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy and the consequent energy demand contraction. He added that with the gradual pick up of economic activity in India, energy consumption is anticipated to reach pre-Covid levels soon. Speaking about Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, Shri Pradhan said the campaign launched under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi calls for a self-reliant India, seeking to convert Covid-19 challenges into an opportunity, to merge domestic production and consumption with global supply chains, and aims to transform India into a global manufacturing hub of the 21st century.

Shri Hardeep S Puri, MoS, (I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has announced the SOP guidelines for metro operations in a media interaction yesterday. SOP guidelines, prepared by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, have been concurred by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Broad features include resumption of Metro operations to be in graded manner, Metros having more than one line should open different lines staring from 7th September, 2020 onwards in a graded manner so that all corridors become operational by 12th September 2020, daily hours of operations may be staggered initially, which needs to be increased gradually with resumption of full revenue service by 12th September, 2020,  Frequency of trains to be regulated to avoid passenger crowding at stations and in trains,Stations/ entry-exit gates in containment zones to be closed.​​In order to ensure social distancing, suitable markings at stations and inside trains will be done.​Wearing of face mask to be mandatory for all passengers and staff. Metro rail corporations may make arrangements for supply of masks on payment basis to the persons arriving without mask.Only asymptomatic persons will be allowed to travel after thermal screening at entry into the stations.

In compliance of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s Order for ensuring safe drinking water during lock down period due to CoVID-19 pandemic, Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation had issued an advisory to all States/ UTs on April 13, 2020.With the lockdown eased out and socio-economic activities resumed, especially with the commencement of post-monsoon working season, the water supply infrastructure activities have to be implemented on a bigger scale and with speed to achieve the goal of providing tap water connections to all rural households. Hence, it is imperative for WASH service providers at the forefront to follow all the necessary precautions to avoid contraction and spread of the virus.Current evidence indicates that the CoVid-19 virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets or contact, and transmission occurs when contaminated hands touch the mucosa of the mouth, nose, or eyes; the virus can also be transferred from one surface to another by contaminated hands, which facilitates indirect contact transmission. To ensure hand hygiene is practiced through hand wash at regular intervals, there is an urgent need to make tap water available inside every rural household premises. For this purpose, adequate fund has been made available under JalJeevan Mission. The mission presents an excellent opportunity to mitigate the ongoing pandemic situation not just by ensuring water supply but also by generating employment to labour who have migrated back home.

India has climbed 4 spots and has been ranked 48thby the World Intellectual Property Organization in the Global Innovation Index 2020 rankings. In midst of the Covid -19 pandemic, it comes as an uplifting news for India, and is a testament of its robust R&D Ecosystem. India was at the 52nd position in 2019 and was ranked 81st in the year 2015. The WIPO had also accepted India as one of the leading innovation achievers of 2019 in the central and southern Asian region, as it has shown a consistent improvement in its innovation ranking for the last 5 years.

 

• Kerala:  As the state is bracing itself to address the spike in Covid-19 cases in coming days, Social Security Mission Director Dr.MuhammedAsheel has said that the case load in the state will witness a surge in the next 14 days. Talking to AIR, he said people should exercise utmost restraint while utilizing the relaxations in Unlock 4. Meanwhile as part of Covid containment activities, Kozhikode district Collector has declared 40 areas in the district as containment zones and five regions as Critical containment zones. As many as 1,547 people were tested Covid positive in the state yesterday. There were 2,129 recoveries too. Currently, 21,923 patients are undergoing treatment and 1.93 lakh people under observation in various districts. State’s death toll so far is 305. 
• Tamil Nadu: The number of active Covid-19 cases in Puducherry has risen to 5042 with 431 new cases and seven deaths in the last 24 hours. This has taken the total tally to 15,581 and deaths to 260 with 10,279 patients discharged till now in the UT. Former Puducherry MLA and state president of the MakkalNeethiMaiam (MNM) Dr MAS Subramanian (77 years) died of Covid-19 on Thursday morning. JEE Main 2020 conducted with Covid-19 safety protocol in Tamil Nadu. Social media reports have pointed out that many candidates were absent despite registering themselves for the exams.
• Karnataka: State cabinet today approved new Karnataka Information Technology Working Policy 2020-25, which aims to create 60 lakh jobs in it and related services. To encourage work from home practice govt decided to invest more to create 5G infrastructure. State is planning to open LKG and UKG in government schools from next academic year, said law minister J C Madhuswamy. BBMP has constituted a team to undertake an audit of all fatalities due to Covid in various hospitals in the city. Metro Rail operations will start only on purple line on Sept 7 and green line will resume services two days later. High Court to monitor the progress of Rs 1800 crore high tech ambulance service procurement plan of State govt.
• Andhra Pradesh:With five more employees testing positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, the number of cases that surfaced in the State Assembly and the Secretariat has gone up to 119. With thousands of cases being reported every day, the total number of cases across the state has crossed the 4.5 lakh mark.  At the national level, Maharashtra (19.19 per cent) tops the list in terms of positivity, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 11.85 per cent.
• Telangana: 2817 new cases, 2611 recoveries & 10 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 2817 cases, 452 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 1,33,406; Active cases: 32,537; Deaths: 856; Discharges: 1,00,013. CSIR-CCMB Director R.K. Mishra has clarified that there is absolutely no truth in some reports that a sub-strain of coronavirus is sweeping and spreading faster across Telangana. “The coronavirus ‘A2a’ clade or strain is predominant and is all over the world. It is nothing “stronger or faster” when compared to A3i, which was a weaker clade. It is just that the A2a clade is doing ‘better’ being the only major clade at present and there is ‘nothing new’,” Mr Mishra said.
• Arunachal Pradesh: 148 new COVID-19 positive cases detected  during last 24 hours and 96 patients recovered and discharged from hospitals in Arunachal Pradesh. Currently, there are 1,278 active cases in the state.
• Assam: In Assam, 3,555 COVID-19 cases detected yesterday out of 47,744 tests done; positivity rate is 7.44% while 1,834 patients discharged. Total discharged patients 88,726 & active patients 26,227, Assam Health Minister tweeted.
• Manipur: 125 more persons test COVID-19 positive in Manipur. There were 157 recoveries with 70% recovery rate. There are 1,871 active cases.
• Meghalaya:In Meghalaya, 83 individuals have recovered from Coronavirus today.Total active cases 1,186, total BSF and Armed Forces 298, total others 888 & total recovered 1,318
• Mizoram: 20 fresh cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Mizoram yesterday. Total cases 1,040, active cases 389 and recovered patients 651.
• Nagaland: Nagaland reports 10th highest COVID-19 recovery rate at 80 percent. Out of 4,017 confirmed cases, 3,212 persons have now recovered. Govt. has regulated opening of Dimapur’s New Market and Honkong Market from Sept 4th. Shops in the two markets to open alternately under odd-even system.
• Sikkim: Sikkim recorded 34 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. There are now 431 active cases while the number of cases recorded so far in the state has reached 1,704. Meanwhile, 32 persons were discharged from isolation facilities.