COVID-19 UPDATE of 17th November: India records 30K Daily New Cases for the second successive day

India has been recording around 30,000 daily new cases for the last two consecutive days. 29,163 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The country has also seen less than 50,000 daily new cases being registered continuously for the past ten days.The trend of new daily recoveries exceeding the daily new cases continues with 40,791 cases recovering in the last 24 hours against just 29,163 newly detected cases.The Government continues to maintain a high level of countrywide testing. Total tests stand at 12,65,42,907 today. This has led to bringing down the cumulative positivity to 7.01%.The Active Caseload which has now stands at 4,53,401 comprises just 5.11% of all cumulative cases.The total recovered cases stand at 82,90,370. With this, the Recovery Rate has improved to 93.42% today.72.87% of the recovered cases reported in the last 24 hours are from ten States/UTs.Kerala saw the greatest number of recoveries as 6,567 confirmed cases tested negative. West Bengal registered 4,376 daily recoveries while Delhi reported another 3,560 of them.75.14%of the new cases have been reported from ten states/UTsDelhi which saw a surge in new cases over the last few days reported only 3,797 new cases yesterday, followed by West Bengal which reported 3,012 new cases. Kerala recorded 2,710 new cases.78.40% of the 449 new deaths are concentrated in ten States/UTs.More than a fifth, 22.76% of new fatalities reported are from Delhi which reported 99 deaths. Maharashtra reported 60 fatalities, followed by West Bengal (53).

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally chaired the 147th session of WHO Executive Board, through Video Conference yesterday.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to spiritual leaders to help popularise ‘vocal for local’ for AatmNirbhar Bharat yesterday has found huge response among the prominent spiritual leaders of the country. The ‘santsamaj’ has responded to the Prime Minister’s appeal with great enthusiasm. The Spiritual personalities have come forward with public commitment to promote and popularise ‘vocal for local’ for AatmNirbhar Bharat and have pledged their support for the cause. The Prime Minister’s call came at the unveiling of the ‘Statue of Peace’ to mark the 151st Birth Anniversary celebrations of Jainacharya Shree Vijay Vallabh Surishwer Ji Maharaj, via video conferencing, yesterday.

Some news articles have mentioned that the pandemic Covid – 19 has increased disbursal delays under scholarship schemes and that the students are facing a lot of problems.In order to clarify the factual status, it is informed that Department of Social Justice & Empowerment implements various scholarship schemes for the target groups like scheduled castes/ other backward classes, de-notified tribes, economically weaker sections in association with State Governments/ Union Territory Administrations/ University Grant Commission/directly.The Department has rigorously followed with the implementing agencies so that the beneficiaries don’t face any burden especially during this crisis of COVID-19. Under the flagship scheme of Post Matric Scholarship for Scheduled Castes Students, the Department has already released 75% of central share by June, 2020 to all concerned States/UTs based on anticipated demand. Remaining release of 25% of the Central share has also been sanctioned on case to case basis.

The Chairman and Members of the 15th Finance Commission yesterday presented a copy of the Commssion’s report for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26, to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The Commission had submitted its report to the President of India on 4 November 2020.Chairman Shri N K Singh along with Members of the Commission, Shri Ajay Narayan Jha, Prof. Anoop Singh, Dr. Ashok Lahiri and Dr. Ramesh Chand along with Secretary to the Commission Shri Arvind Mehta were present at the presentation.The Commission will present its Report to the Union Finance Minister tomorrow.The Report will be placed on the Table of the House along with Explanatory Memorandum by way of ATR as prescribed under the Constitution.

Continuing with its expansion drive of new products (mainly immunity boosting products and produce in the Forest Fresh and Organics range) in the recent weeks, Tribes India has taken up a new initiative to include more new products, this time those produced by the inmates of Central Jail of Jagdalpur among others . Adapting Go Vocal for Local, a mantra in these troubled times, into Go Vocal for Local Go Tribal, TRIFED continues in its endeavour to ameliorate the condition of the distressed and affected tribal people through its programmes and initiatives. A path breaking initiative to transform tribal lives and livelihoods is the Tribes India e-marketplace .Connecting tribal enterprises to national and international markets, the site showcases the produce and handicrafts of tribal enterprises from across the country and helps them reach more and more customers. The Tribes India E-marketplace is an effort to empower lakhs of tribal enterprises. With a variety of natural and sustainable produce and products, it offers a glimpse into the age-old traditions of our tribal brethren.

 

• Assam: In Assam, 186 more people tested positive for COVID-19 and 405 patients discharged yesterday. Total cases rise to 210454, total discharged patients 206041, active 3446 and 964 death.
• Kerala: CM Pinarayi Vijayan has directed the pilgrims arriving at Sabarimala to exercise maximum caution while trekking to the hill shrine. He said pilgrims arriving at Sabarimala should present Covid-19 negative certificate. This is the first annual pilgrimage season at the hill temple after the coronavirus outbreak and authorities have decided to restrict the number of devotees to 1,000 per day and to 2,000 on weekends. CM also warned that if the positive signs lead to complacency and callousness among people, fresh waves of transmission will happen, causing effects beyond imagination. The test positivity rate is also declining and doubling time of the infection increasing. Meanwhile, Governor Arif Muhammed Khan who had been tested negative for Covid19 was discharged today from Medical College hospital.
• Tamil Nadu: Covid-19 on the decline in Puducherry with just 13 new cases, fatality rate at 1.67 percent. Tamil Nadu preparing database of healthcare workers who will get Covid-19 vaccine on priority; presently, phase two trials of Covishield, Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine, are ongoing in the state. TN Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan writes to all the district administrations across the State saying the enforcement of mask is extremely poor in the State and the district administrations must not give in to ‘Covid fatigue’ due to the low number of daily positive cases.
• Karnataka: Colleges reopen for final year students in Karnataka but attendance poor; the notice about a mandatory COVID-19 test report was a cause for confusion. Several students who did not possess Covid-19 negative certificates flocked to the nearby primary health care centres. Social Welfare Department run hostels also opened after sanitisation. No Covid-related mortality in Gadag for last 28 days, administration to press on awareness; the administration has said that it’s due to early detection and timely treatment by the team of doctors and officials on Covid19 duty the mortality rate has come down.
• Andhra Pradesh: For the first time in four months, the single-day spike in the state’s Covid-19 caseload was less than 1,000 on Monday. With 11 of the 13 districts each reporting less than 100 new infections, the tally in the State grew by 753 only. Even as the State’s overall Covid-19 count is over 8.54 lakh, 8.30 lakh people have recovered, including over 1,500 more patients in the 24 hours. On the other hand, 13 more patients succumbed to the virus, taking the overall deaths to 6,881.  Meanwhile, Kavali MLA from Nellore district R Pratap Reddy tested positive for the virus and was admitted in Chennai’s Apollo Hospital.  Two students of ZP high school from Nellore also tested positive.
• Telangana: 952 new cases, 1602 recoveries & 3 deaths reported in the last 24 hours in Telangana; out of 952 cases, 150 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 2,58,828; Active cases: 13,732; Deaths: 1410; Discharges: 2,43,686 with a recovery rate of 94.14 per cent, while the countrywide recovery rate is 93.4 per cent. Telangana government permits social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural, religious and political events in closed spaces with a ceiling of 200 people, a maximum of 50% of hall capacity. Earlier, the limit was of only 100 people.
• Maharashtra: Maharashtra reported 2,535 fresh cases on Monday, the lowest daily count in more than five months.  The state continues to report a steady decline in the number of new COVID-19 positive cases. Recovery rate in the state is 92.49 per cent, while the fatality rate is 2.63 per cent. Mumbai city, however reported the highest single-day cases in the state with a tally of 409.
• Gujarat: Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel reviewed the situation in a meeting held at Ahmedabad civil hospital yesterday. He announced the setting up of a separate ward with 100 ventilators in a 1200 bed civil hospital. He also announced an increase in daily testing capacity in view of recent festivals. At present, total active cases in the state are 12,456 out of which 62 patients are on ventilator. 5 patients died yesterday taking the total deaths due to Covid19 up to 3808.
• Rajasthan: While the state’s daily Covid-19 cases saw a slight dip on Monday, capital Jaipur reported its biggest single-day spike of 538 new infections, accounting for 25% of cases reported from across the state.  In the past two days, the city had reported 1,036 virus cases. Jaipur accounted for 20% of cases reported in the first 16 days of November in the state, with 6,194 new infections. In comparison, cumulative cases for the state in November (till 16th) stood at 30,993.
• Madhya Pradesh: The number of daily infected patients has come down to around five hundred in Madhya Pradesh after several days. Similarly, the positivity rate has also come down to 4.6 percent. No new patients were reported in four districts yesterday, whereas in 35 districts, the number of active patients remains in less than ten, while in the remaining districts, the number of patients is less than 50. Maximum 141 people have been infected in Bhopal, while 89 new infections have been reported in Indore yesterday.
• Chhattisgarh: In Chhattisgarh, the number of Covid-19 tests has been increased to identify corona infected patients. As many as 2,225 centers have been established for corona tests across the state. Of these, 1019 centers have the facility for Rapid antigen test, while RT-PCR testing can be done at 640 centers. Apart from this, samples of suspected patients are being taken for the test through True NAT method at 546 centers. The health department has set a daily target to conduct more than 8,400 RT-PCR tests. It has been decided that daily 28 RT-PCR tests per one lakh population will be conducted. All the districts of the state have been given daily targets for the RT-PCR testing. In rural and urban areas of the state, health workers are going door-to-door to identify people with symptoms under the Health Protection Campaign.
• Goa: New Covid-19 infections have been showing a consistent drop since last month in Goa and, on Monday, the state’s active case tally fell below the 1,500 mark. The state reported 285 recoveries, which is more than twice the new cases detected during the day. Recovery rate has touched 95% in the last two days. Goa’s positivity rate stood at 10% with 1,220 samples tested during the day. With the decline in new infections, there has also been a marked drop in mortalities. The Covid-19 death count stands at 664 with the highest number of deaths reported in September.