Covid spike in India falls below 50K; total number of cases now at 75 L

The total number of coronavirus cases in India has reached 7,48,538, including 67,33,329 cured/discharged/migrated people and 1,15,197 deaths. In the last 24 hours, about 46,791 new COVID-19 cases and 587 deaths have been reported in India.

India reported 46,791 new COVID-19 cases and 587 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 75,97,064, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). As per the MoHFW, the number of active cases stand at 7,48,538 while the number of cured/discharged/migrated people stands at 67,33,329. The death toll has reached 1,15,197.

With 1,83,456 total active cases, Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected state by COVID-19 in the country. While 13,69,810 patients have recovered from the disease in the state, 42,115 have died so far. Among other severely affected states, Karnataka has 1,09,283 active cases, while 6,45,825 people have recovered, 10,478 have succumbed to the coronavirus.

Delhi has 23,292 active cases, 3,01,716 recovered and 6,009 deaths reported so far. Meanwhile, the trend of daily cases in the five most affected states-Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu – reveals stages of the decline of active cases. It mirrors a steady decrease in active cases in India with caseload being sustained below 8 lakhs for 3 days in a row, said the Health Ministry.

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Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday refuted the claim made by China that there was a simultaneous outbreak of coronavirus across the world, citing lack of “clinching” evidence to support the argument.

Answering a question during his “Sunday Samvaad” programme, he said, “China has claimed that there was a simultaneous outbreak of coronavirus across the world. However, to validate that there were multiple focal points around the world, it requires uniform and timely reporting of the confirmed and diagnosed cases from various countries for the very same time.”
He said that there is no substantial evidence yet to validate China’s claim.

“I would like to make it clear that no such clinching evidence is yet available regarding this. Therefore, the reported outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan in China has been recognised as the first report worldwide,” he said as he answered many inquisitive social media interactors on the sixth episode of Sunday Samvaad.

Responding to another question on the market being flooded with oximeters made in China, Dr Harsh Vardhan observed that “consumers should look for FDA/CE approved products with ISO/ IEC specifications while purchasing a pulse oximeter from the market or from the online retailers.” However, he made it clear that a dip in oxygen saturation level is not a COVID-19 symptom, as it may happen due to other underlying medical conditions as well.

On December 31 last year, WHO’s country office in China had picked up a media statement by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission from their website on cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan. On January 9, WHO reported that Chinese authorities have determined that the outbreak is caused by a novel coronavirus. Later on February 11, the organisation said that the disease caused by the novel coronavirus would be named COVID-19.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are 39,681,253 cases of infection in the world and 1,109,992 lives have been lost.

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