Corona Updates You Must Track: A Drug For Asthma Can Reduce Risk of Death, Big Jump In COVID-19 Death Toll

While India’s recovery rate is improving, the country also added a significant number to its death toll after some states reconciled their figures. Delhi and Maharashtra accounted for a big chunk, with the countrywide toll climbing to 11,903 on Wednesday. Against 1.55 lakh active cases, nearly 1.87 lakh people have recovered from the illness.

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India cases and toll: India’s coronavirus tally rose to 3.54 lakh cases on Wednesday with nearly 1.55 lakh active cases, 1.87 recoveries and 11,903 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 10,974 fresh cases were reported across the country. More than 2,000 deaths were added to the toll after many states updated their figures—bulk of the numbers was added by Delhi and Maharashtra.

How are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai faring: At 26,351 active cases, Delhi has the second-highest number of active cases after Maharashtra. The capital has reported 16,500 recoveries and 1,837 deaths, a jump of more than 400 deaths in a day after the records were updated.

Maharashtra’s death toll too saw a significant jump as a result of data reconciliation. From 4,128 deaths on Monday, the state’s toll rose to 5,537; of these, 81 deaths were reported on Tuesday. Mumbai’s death toll rose to 3,167 with 862 deaths since March added to the tally. Maharashtra now has 50,057 active cases and 57851 while the total count has reached 1.13 lakh cases.

Tamil Nadu, which has announced a 12-day lockdown in four districts including Chennai starting 19 June, has reported 20,709 active cases, 26,782 recoveries and 528 deaths so far. At 48,019, the state’s total case count is inching towards the 50,000-mark. 

Source: Twitter/@COVIDNewsByMIB

A drug to check coronavirus deaths? Oxford University researchers, reported The Times of India, have found that the low-cost and widely available steroid drug used for treating asthma, dexamethasone, can reduce the risk of death from COVID-19 among patients with severe respiratory problems. The drug is widely used in India to treat sepsis and severe infections.

Global corona update: Just a few days after New Zealand declared itself COVID-free, two women who arrived from Britain have tested positive for coronavirus. In China, Beijing has reported fresh COVID-19 cases for a sixth consecutive day. A Reuters report said this is the “worst resurgence of the disease in the city since early February”.

Globally, the coronavirus count has reached 82.64 lakh cases with 43.21 lakh recoveries and 4.46 lakh deaths, according to worldometer, a website that tracks COVID-19 cases. While the US has reported 22.08 lakh confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, with 1.19 lakh deaths, Brazil’s tally has gone up to 9.28 lakh confirmed cases with 45,456 deaths.