Corona Updates You Must Track: India Cases At 1.51 Lakh, Infection Doubling Rate In Maharashtra Improves

India crossed the 1.5-lakh mark for total coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a grim milestone for the country. At 1,51,767 total COVID-19 cases, India has surged past China and Canada to become the 10^th worst-hit country by the infection. On the brighter side, the doubling rate of the infection in Maharashtra, the worst-hit state by COVID-19, has improved to 14 days now—earlier, it was three days.

Follow all the important developments related to coronavirus and Lockdown 4.0 here:  

India cases and toll: India added 6,387 fresh coronavirus cases to its count in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases stands at 1,51,767. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) data, India has 83,004 active cases, 64,425 recoveries and 4,337 deaths. In the last 24 hours, 170 people succumbed to the illness.

The reassigned cases: Since mid-May, the MoHFW has added a new category to its state-wise COVID-19 data, the ‘cases being reassigned to states’. The Indian Express quoted a senior official of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme as saying, “Those are the cases where we need to reassign because where they are admitted or where they are being quarantined still needs to be determined.”

The number of cases under this category has gone up due to the increase in inter-state movement of people. As of now, 4,013 cases have been earmarked under this category but without any information on recoveries and deaths.

Maharashtra, Delhi lead COVID-19 surge: Even as the mercury went through the roof in Delhi, the national capital reported 412 fresh cases of coronavirus on Tuesday. This number is relatively lower than the 600-plus cases reported by Delhi in the last few days. Delhi’s total coronavirus count stands at 14,465 cases with 7,223 recoveries and 288 deaths—12 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

In Maharashtra, the ground zero for COVID-19 in India, the number of coronavirus cases has surged to 54,758 by Wednesday morning while the toll has climbed to 1,792. But there’s good news too. The doubling rate of the infection in Maharashtra has improved to 14 days against three days earlier, said state’s chief secretary Ajoy Mehta in an online press conference on Tuesday.

ICMR on hydroxychloroquine: Days after the World Health Organization (WHO) halted the trials for anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus due to safety concerns, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the drug can continue to be used for preventive treatment for COVID-19.

“During these six weeks, we got some data in India, mainly observational studies and some case control studies. We found there were no major side effects except for nausea, vomiting, palpitation occasionally. Hence in our advisory, we’ve recommended that it should be continued for prophylaxis as there is no harm. Benefit may be there,” ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava was quoted by PTI.

Global corona update: Spain, which has been one of the worst coronavirus-hit countries in Europe, is observing a 10-day mourning period starting Wednesday to pay tribute to 27,000 lives lost due to the pandemic.

Brazil, which is now the second worst-hit country by coronavirus, recorded 807 deaths in the last 24 hours, surpassing the US’ daily COVID-19 death toll, reported Wion. The Latin American country, whose president Jair Bolsonaro is facing global criticism for downplaying the pandemic and flouting social distancing norms, has 3,94,507 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 24,593 deaths, according to worldometer, a website that tracks COVID-19 numbers real time.

Globally, the coronavirus count is now at 56,84,795 cases with 24,30,593 recoveries and 3,52,225 deaths.

Story of hope: Where there is a will, there is a way. Saisri Akondi, a 23-year-old budding entrepreneur from Pune, would vouch for that and so would the group of migrant workers she helped return home. Akondi, who works with a medical device start-up at Pune’s National Chemical Laboratory, got stuck in Manipal, Karnataka after she had come to the city to meet a friend. While her colleagues back in Pune were working on innovative methods to deal with the virus, Akondi felt helpless at not being able to do anything until she met a group of migrants who didn’t know how they could return to their home state Telangana.

After a seven-day struggle, which involved writing to government authorities and crowdfunding money for transport, Akondi finally managed to arrange two buses for the migrants so that they could go home. Read more on this heartwarming story here.