India’s total Covid tally climbs to 8,78,254

Another record single-day jump of 28,701 cases reported

NEW DELHI: As India continued to record above 26,000 fresh COVID-19 cases on fourth day in a row, the total tally climbed to 8,78,254 after the country saw yet another record single-day jump of 28,701 cases of the virus on Monday.

With 18,850 new recoveries, till date 5,53,471 patients have won the virus battle at the rate of 63.01 per cent and the death toll climbed to 23,174 with 500 people succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours at the rate of 2.63 per cent. At present, there are 3,01,609 active cases in the country.

As India has registered 3,11,414 cases from July 1 till date with an average of about 24,000 cases per day, the country will cross 9 lakh-mark of COVID-19 infections on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has tested a total of 1,18,06,256 swab samples to detect positive cases. Of the total, 2,19,103 samples were tested in the last 24 hours at its 1,200 labs, which includes 852 testing facility centres in the ICMR network and 348 labs in the private sector.

Of the 500 new deaths, 173 are from Maharashtra, 71 from Karnataka, 68 from Tamil Nadu, 37 from Delhi, 26 from West Bengal, 21 from Uttar Pradesh, 19 from Andhra Pradesh, 13 from Gujarat, 12 from Bihar, 10 from Jammu and Kashmir, nine from Madhya Pradesh, eight from Telangana, seven each from Rajasthan and Jharkhand, etc. Of the total 23,174 deaths reported so far, Maharashtra accounted for the highest 10,289 fatalities followed by Delhi with 3,371, Gujarat 2,045, Tamil Nadu 1,966, Uttar Pradesh 934.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases at 2,54,427, followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,38,470, Delhi at 1,12,494, Gujarat at 41,820, Uttar Pradesh at 36,476, Karnataka at 38,843, Telangana at 34,671, West Bengal at 30,013, etc.

In the wake of an increasing number of infections, the authorities have imposed a two-phase lockdown in Maharashtra’s Pune, Pimpri-chinchwad and some parts of rural Pune.

The first phase of lockdown, which will begin from 1 am on July 14, will continue till July 18. The second phase will be from July 18 to 23.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Sechenov University has successfully completed the world’s first clinical trials of Coronavirus vaccine on humans, media reports said on Sunday.

The director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology Vadim Tarasov confirmed the development to Sputnik news.