COVID UPDATE : Active Caseload below 9 lakh on 09th October 2020

India continues to report a trend of steadily dipping active cases. After a month, for the first time, active cases fall below the 9 lakh mark. India registered 8.93 lakh active cases today after registering 8.97 lakh on 9th September. Presently the active cases stand at 8,93,592 and comprise merely 12.94% of the total positive cases of the country demonstrating a steady falling percentage of the total cases. The declining trend of the percentage active cases is commensurately supported by rising percentage of recovered cases. The total recovered cases stand at 59,06,069. The gap between Recovered cases and Active cases has crossed 50 lakh (50,12,477). With increasing number of recoveries, this gap is continuously widening. Higher number of recoveries has aided the national Recovery Rate to further improve to 85.52%. 78,365 have recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours whereas the new confirmed cases stand at 70,496.75% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs viz. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Delhi, and Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra alone has contributed the maximum with more than 15,000 single day recovery. 78% of the new cases are from reported 10 States and UTs. Maharashtra continues to be the State reporting a very high number of new cases with more than 13,000 cases followed by Karnataka with more than 10,000 cases. 964 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours. Of these, nearly 82% are concentrated in ten States/UT. More than 37% of new fatalities reported are from Maharashtra (358 deaths).

The Prime Minister, Shri NarendraModi has greeted the Indian Foreign Service officers on IFS Day. In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, “On IFS day, greetings to all Indian Foreign Service officers. Their work towards Serving the Nation, furthering national interests globally are commendable. Their efforts during Vande Bharat Mission and other COVID related help to our citizens and other nations is noteworthy.”

In a historic move set to transform rural India and empower millions of Indians, Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi will launch the physical distribution of Property Cards under the SVAMITVA Scheme on 11th October, via video conferencing. The launch will enable around one lakh property holders to download their Property Cards through the SMS link delivered on their mobile phones. This would be followed by physical distribution of the Property Cards by the respective State governments.­­­­These beneficiaries are from 763 villages across six States including 346 from Uttar Pradesh, 221 from Haryana, 100 from Maharashtra, 44 from Madhya Pradesh, 50 from Uttarakhand and 2 from Karnataka. Beneficiaries from all these states except Maharashtra will receive the physical copies of the Property Cards within one day – Maharashtra has a system of recovering the nominal cost of Property Card, so it will take a month’s time. The move will pave the way for using property as a financial asset by villagers for taking loans and other financial benefits. Also, this is the first time ever that such a large-scale exercise involving the most modern means of technology is being carried out to benefit millions of rural property owners. Prime Minister will also be interacting with some of the beneficiaries during the event. Union Minister for Panchayati Raj will be present on the occasion. The programme will commence from 11 AM.

Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi delivered the keynote address at Invest India Conference in Canada through video conference yesterday.The Prime Minister said India is undisputedly the only country shining in all their investment parameters like having political stability, investment and business friendly policies, transparency in governance, skilled talent pool and a large market. He said there is an opportunity for everyone including Institutional Investors, manufacturers, supporters of innovation ecosystems and infrastructure companies.The Prime Minister said in the post-Covid world, India showed resilience and emerged as a land of solutions to overcome various kinds of problems related to manufacturing, supply chains, etc. He added, despite disrupted logistics, money was directly delivered into bank accounts of over 400 million farmers, women, poor and needy people within a matter of days. He listed various initiatives taken by the Government to overcome the disruption owing to the pandemic and stressed that this shows the strength of governance structures and systems that have been built over the last few years.The Prime Minister said while the entire country was in a stringent lockdown, India was providing medicine to around 150 countries and played the role of the pharmacy to the world. He added during March-June of this year, agricultural exports rose by 23%. He said before the pandemic, India hardly manufactured PPE kits but today not only does India manufacture millions of PPE kits every month, it exports them too. He committed to ramping up production and helping the entire world in vaccine production for Covid-19.

Election Commission of India has given a relaxation and has reduced the notice period from 30 days to 7 days for the parties who have published their public notice on or before 07.10.2020. For all parties, including those which have already published their Public Notice in less than 7 days prior to 07.10.2020, objection, if any, can be submitted latest by 5.30 PM on 10th October, 2020 or by the end of the originally provided 30 days period, whichever is earlier.Since ECI announced General Elections for the Legislative Assembly of Bihar, 2020 on 25th September, 2020, it has been brought to the notice of the Commission that in view of prevailing restrictions on account of Covid -19, there was dislocation and delay in moving applications for registration, which in turn led to delay in registration as a Political Party. Therefore, after considering all aspects of the matter, Commission relaxed the Public Notice Time period. This relaxation will remain in force till 20th October, 2020, the last date of nomination for Phase 3 of the General Election to the Legislative Assembly of State of Bihar.

Sporting facilities have been opened across the country, with special emphasis on India’s Olympic hopefuls after being shut due to the lockdown imposed by the coronavirus. India’s men’s and women’s recurve archers have been training at Pune’s Army Sports Institute. The camp for the Archery team commenced on August 25 and the archers are very happy to be back training again.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has successfully completed construction of road length of 3951 km during the first six months of this fiscal year (April-Sept period). It has achieved a construction pace of 21.60 km per day despite COVID-19 difficulties. The Ministry has set an ambitious target of constructing 11,000 km road length during this fiscal year.

Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment addressed the first meeting of the Expert Group on Labour Bureau surveys yesterday. The expert group consisting of eminent economists, statisticians and Government functionaries, has been constituted for a period of three years for providing technical guidance to Labour Bureau with respect to surveys on migration, professional bodies, domestic workers and other surveys.While expressing deep concern over the difficulties faced by migrant workers in these pandemic times, he called upon the need for having reliable data on these workers and the issues being faced by them especially in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. The database will enable the Government to devise pragmatic solutions to improve their conditions and plan employment opportunities for them.

• Kerala:  The sudden drop of Covid-19 positivity rate from 14% to 8% has led to debates in the state health sector. Health experts are of the view that a conclusion can be reached only after a week’s observation of the Covid positive figures. The state government is also of the opinion the sudden dip in the positivity rate after being high for a prolonged period need not be taken seriously as it may be a single day phenomenon. It has given directions to all districts to keep the positivity rate below 10%. Meanwhile, three more fatalities were reported today in the state taking the death toll to 933. A day after reporting over 10,000 new Covid cases, the state saw a small dip in the daily-COVID tally yesterday with 5445 cases and 7003 recoveries, the highest single day figure so far. At present, there are 90,579 patients undergoing treatment and 2.71 lakh people under observation across the state.
• Tamil Nadu:Out of around two lakh migrant workers, who left for their natives in different parts of the country after the outbreak of the pandemic and the subsequent closure of industries, 47,000 have returned to the Coimbatore district in the past one month. People in the Belur village of Salem announced that they have imposed self-lockdown in their locality here on Thursday due to the increasing spread of Covid-19 infection. The Tamil Nadu e-governance agency (TNeGA) on Friday expressed its keenness to develop the first voice user interface (VUI) by the government in Tamil to help residents fill up forms to avail government services.
• Karnataka: Bangalore urban sees highest single day surge with 5121 cases being reported yesterday. Active cases dip in 12 districts and continue to rise in most other districts. Opposition leader Siddaramiah wrote a letter to Education Minister S Suresh Kumar and urged not to open schools till the Covid situation comes to control. Meanwhile Karnataka State Commission For Protection of Child Rights has written letter to department of primary education recommending that no examination should be conducted this academic year due to Covid.
• Andhra Pradesh: Spreading the three key messages of wearing mask, following physical distancing and maintaining hand hygiene several offices of government and PSUs undertake pledge to adhere with the norms to prevent virus spread. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu in a statement emphasized on taking preventive measures and the need to make more serious efforts by the state in order to save the lives of people as there is a threat of second Covid wave. YSR Congress party MLA BhumanaKarunakar Reddy from Tirupathi has been re-infected with coronavirus for a second time in the last one-and-a-half months.
• Telangana: 1891 new cases,  1878 recoveries &  7 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 1891cases, 285 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 2,08,535; Active cases: 26,374; Deaths: 1208; Discharges :1,80, 953.  In a significant step, organ transplantations will be done free of cost in government hospitals. These critical procedures will now be brought under the Aarogyasri health scheme.
• Maharashtra: In a unique association, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation and Google have collaborated to mark Containment Zones in the city on the Google Maps. The availability of this information on Google Maps will further make access easy for the Mumbaikars while on the move with just one click. With the awareness campaign on Covid-19 taking the shape of a Jan Andolan, the drivers of the iconic black and yellow taxis too have become part of this movement.  Informative pamphlets have been pasted in the taxis to make people aware about the do’s and don’ts to prevent Covid-19 infection.
• Gujarat: In Gujarat, the State Government has decided to permit private laboratories to conduct Rapid Antibody Tests. According to notification issued, the Chief Health Officers in districts or Municipal Corporations will grant permission to private laboratories, which fulfills certain conditions.  Gujarat government has also decided to permit private laboratories to conduct ELISA and CLIA antibody tests.  Gujarat has 16,487 active Covid cases.
• Madhya Pradesh: In Madhya Pradesh, as per the fresh set of COVID-19 guidelines, issued by the Union Home Ministry, the State Government has also relaxed the restriction on gathering of more than 100 people at political rallies.  However, it will be mandatory for the organizers to enforce appropriate physical distancing.
• Chhattisgarh: The Chhattisgarh Government has abolished the obligation of Quarantine for persons coming to Chhattisgarh from other states. The state government has also decided not to open schools at present, in the wake of the prevailing situation due to spread of coronavirus in the state. The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet held on Thursday. The cabinet has also decided that the major event to be held to mark the foundation day of Chhattisgarh on November 1 every year will not be held this year.
• Assam: In Assam, 1188 more people tested positive for COVID-19 and 2198 patient discharged yesterday. Total cases rise to 191397, active 30767 and death 794.
• Meghalaya: In Meghalaya, total active case 2369 and recovered 4832.
• Nagaland: In Nagaland, 21 more people tested positive for COVID-19

Source: PIB