At 5.15L a day, Covid tests gather steam
India on Monday recorded the highest 5.15 lakh Covid-19 samples tested in a day, even as the ICMR propped up its 3 high-throughput labs unveiled by PM Modi to ramp up the daily tests to 10 lakh soon. The new labs will come up in Mumbai, Kolkata and Noida.
So far, India has tested 1.68 people of which 14.35 lakh samples were found to be positive. As many as 49,931 were found infected in the past 24 hours as against the highest 50,362 detected a day earlier.
The country’s recovery rate improved to 63.92%, while the fatality rate dipped to 2.28%. As many as 9.18 lakh patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals as against 4.85 lakh still convalescing across the country. On Monday morning, the recovery figure in the past 24 hours stood at 32,991.
The Covid death toll is 32,771, with 708 succumbing in the past 24 hours.
India’s record is much better than the global effect of the virus as 6,40,016 have died so far in the data available from 216 nations as against 1,57,85,641 confirmed cases. Andhra tally crosses 1 lakh The number of coronavirus cases in Andhra crossed the 1 lakh-mark on Monday after 6,051 people were found infected in the last 24 hours.
The tally is reached 1,02,349. New cases came from a sample size of 43,127 tests, which also include 16,543 rapid antigen tests. Andhra has conducted 16,86,446 tests. Kerala cabinet meets online The Kerala cabinet met online on Monday to avoid risks posed by Covid-19. It is the first time such a thing has happened. Generally, the weekly cabinet meet takes place on Wednesday and is held at the State Secretariat in the block housing the Chief Minister’s office. 72-hr lockdown in Shillong A 72-hour lockdown started in Meghalaya’s state capital Shillong from Monday amid rising corona cases in the state, officials said. Around 30 localities, mostly in the worst-hit East Khasi Hills district, have already been declared containment zones. Hunt for plasma in flood-hit Assam: In flood-ravaged Assam, officials have set out on a daunting task to save the virus-hit people—reaching out to now-cured patients for blood plasma. Plagued by limited drugs—remdesivir and tocilizumab — Assam and other states have been banking on plasma extracted from cured patients, although research on its efficacy has not been conclusive.