COVID-19 CASES SOAR TO 36.21 LAKHS IN INDIA AS DEATH TOLL MOUNTS TO 64,469

Telangana

From Our Bureau  

31st AUGUST 2020

India witnessed a big surge with 78,512 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported on Monday, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 36,21,245. The death toll rose to 64,469, with 971 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. India has moved to third place in total number of fatalities as also positive cases among countries across the world. It ranks after the United States and Brazil, which occupy the top two slots. 

India has registered recovery of 60,868 patients in the last 24 hours, taking the total recovered cases to 27,74,801, that is, 76.63 percent of total positive cases. Active cases, numbering 7,81,975 today, accounted for 21.59 percent of the positive cases. Fatalities constituted just 1.78 percent of all the positive cases.

Seven States have contributed to 70 percent of the 78,512 new cases in the last 24 hours. Of these, Maharashtra has contributed the maximum case load amounting to almost 21 percent, followed by Andhra Pradesh (13.5 percent), Karnataka (11.27 percent) and Tamil Nadu which stands at 8.27 percent. Uttar Pradesh with 8.27 percent, West Bengal with 3.85 percent, and Odisha with 3.84 percent are the remaining States contributing to the increased caseload.

Of the total cumulative number of cases, 43 percent are recorded in just three States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, while Tamil Nadu has contributed 11.66 percent of the total cases.

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka also account for about 50 percent of the deaths added in the last 24 hours due to COVID-19, with Maharashtra leading with 30.48 percent.

The Central Government is regularly engaging with States/Union Territories that are reporting a spurt in cases and those with higher fatality rate. They have been advised to undertake aggressive measures to ensure higher testing, effective clinical management to lower fatality and save lives along with efficient monitoring at various levels.

India has exhibited determined resolve to expand the testing which has led to an exponential hike of COVID-19 testing. Starting from a single test in one lab in Pune in January 2020, the daily testing capacity has been scaled up to more than 10 lakh in August 2020. The cumulative tests have crossed 4.23 crore today. As many as 8,46,278 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.

Health Ministry to rush Central teams to UP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to deploy high level Central teams to four States of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. These States are seeing a sudden surge in the number of COVID cases and some of them are also reporting high mortality.  

The teams will support the State efforts towards strengthening containment, surveillance, testing and efficient clinical management of the positive cases. They shall also guide the States in effectively managing the challenges related to timely diagnosis and follow up.

Each of the multi-sectoral teams will comprise of an epidemiologist and a public health expert.

Of these four States, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of active cases pegged at 54,666, followed by Odisha (27,219), Chhattisgarh (13,520) and Jharkhand which has 11,577 active cases. In terms of total/cumulative cases till date, Uttar Pradesh has 2,25,632, Odisha (1,00,934), Jharkhand (38,435) and Chhattisgarh has 30,092 cases. The most number of deaths are reported in Uttar Pradesh (3,423) while Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have reported 482, 410 and 269 deaths cumulatively.

As an ongoing effort, the Central Government has been deputing Central teams from time to time to visit various States to interact with the authorities and get a first hand understanding of the challenges and issues being faced by them so as to strengthen their ongoing activities and remove bottlenecks, if any. (eom)  

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