Corona Updates You Must Track: India Records Over 75,000 Cases For Second Day In A Row, Tally Climbs To Nearly 34 Lakh

India cases and toll: For a second consecutive day, India recorded more than 75,000 cases of coronavirus in 24 hours. On Thursday, India added a record 77,266 new cases to its coronavirus tally which rose to 33,87,500, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The country recorded 1,057 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the COVID-19 toll to 61,529. So far, 25,83,948 people have recovered from the illness and the recovery rate for the infection stands at 76.28 per cent. There are 7,42,023 active cases of coronavirus across the country, with Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka accounting for the biggest share.

Although in absolute numbers, India is the third worst-hit country by the virus after the US and Brazil, in terms of active cases, it is second only to the US which has over 25 lakh currently infected patients. Meanwhile, India conducted 9,01,338 tests for COVID-19 on Thursday.

Tracking COVID vaccine progress: India could have an “approved” vaccine for COVID-19 within the first quarter of 2021, an IANS report said quoting a report from Bernstein Research, a Wall Street research and brokerage firm. According to the report, Pune-based Serum Institute of India is “best positioned” to manufacture “one or both of the partnered vaccine candidates” based on their approvals.

COVID-19 tracker for 28 August. Source: Twitter/@COVIDNewsByMIB

Rise in cases in Delhi, hospital bed occupancy up too: The national capital has been witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases since the last few days. A day after recording 1,693 cases, Delhi reported 1,840 fresh cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The active cases in Delhi have gone up to 13,208 while 1,50,027 people have recovered from the illness. Twenty-two people succumbed to the disease on Thursday, taking the national capital’s COVID-19 toll to 4,369.

According to The Indian Express report, against 22 per cent hospital bed occupancy for COVID-19 on 1 August, 27 per cent beds were occupied on 27 August. At the beginning of the month, 53 per cent of the active cases in Delhi were under home-isolation which has now declined to 50 per cent, the report said.

Global corona update: The global coronavirus count climbed to 2,46,28,605 with 66,98,334 active cases, 1,70,94,634 recoveries and 8,35,637 fatalities, as per Worldometer. Of the currently infected patients, 61,407 are in serious or critical condition. The US is leading the tally with 60,46,634 cases of coronavirus, including 1,84,796 deaths.

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said that the pandemic has affected the mental health of millions of people across the globe. Mental health is already a “neglected health issue”, he said, and a majority of patients with mental illness in low- and middle-income countries have no access to quality medical services.