Corona Updates You Must Track: India COVID-19 Tally Inches Close To 15-Lakh Mark, Daily Testing Ramped Up

India cases and toll: India recorded 47,704 fresh cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, a marginal dip from the 49,931 cases reported the previous day. India’s COVID-19 tally now stands at 14,83,157 with 4,96,988 active cases and 9,52,743 recoveries. The death toll has climbed to 33,425 with 654 people succumbing to the disease across the country on Monday. India has further ramped up its testing—5,28,082 COVID-19 tests were conducted on Monday.

5 sites selected for final trials of Oxford vaccine in India: The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has selected five sites across the country for the final phase of the human trials of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca. This comes days after Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which will manufacture the vaccine if the trial results are successful, sought permission from the Drug Controller General of India to conduct the final phase of the clinical trials for the vaccine in India. “DBT is closely working with every manufacturer and Phase 3 trial of Serum (institute) is important because if the vaccine has to be successful and it has to be given to the Indian population we need to have the data within the country,” Renu Swarup, secretary, DBT, told PTI.

Delhi gives hope: In a sign that the capital has managed to contain the spread of the infectious COVID-19 disease, Delhi recorded 613 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest single-day tally in weeks. The capital’s COVID-19 tally is now at 1,31,219 with 10,994 active cases against 1,16,372 recoveries. With 26 deaths reported on Monday, the death toll has climbed to 3,853.

The Delhi High Court on Monday, however, asked the Delhi government why it was not ramping up the RT-PCR tests, which are believed to be the gold standard of testing. The rapid antigen testing (RAT) has a higher rate of false negative results compared to RT-PCR. 

Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh breach 1-lakh mark: Both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh crossed the 1-lakh mark for total coronavirus cases reported in the two states, so far. With 6,051 fresh cases in 24 hours, Andhra Pradesh’s COVID-19 count stands at 1,02,349. Karnataka has reported 5,324 fresh cases on Monday, taking the state's tally to 1,01,465. Andhra Pradesh currently has 51,701 active cases while 49,558 people have recovered from the illness and 1,090 have succumbed to it. In neighbouring Karnataka, the active cases have swelled to 61,827 while recoveries stand at 37,685. The state has lost 1,953 lives to coronavirus.

Global corona update: Globally, the coronavirus tally has climbed to 1,66,51,506 with 1,02,37,472 recoveries and 6,56,672 deaths, according to Worldometer, a website that provides real-time data on COVID-19 numbers. In the US, the coronavirus case count stands at 44,33,410, including 1,50,444 deaths. Brazil follows next with 24,46,397 total cases and 87,737 deaths.

Mexico’s COVID-19 tally has surged to 3,95,489, including 44,022 deaths. At this rate, Mexico could soon overtake the UK's COVID-19 death toll of 45,759. France, which was badly hit by the virus in April-May, has made testing for COVID-19 free. France has recorded 1,83,079 cases of coronavirus, including 30,209 deaths.