India sees single-day spike of 52,050 coronavirus cases, 803 deaths

Single-day spike of 52,050 cases pushed India’s COVID-19 caseload to 18,55,745 on Tuesday. The death toll also soared to 38,938 with 803 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the latest data by the health ministry.

Of the total, the active cases stand at 5,86,298, while 12,30,509 people have recovered. The number of testing has crossed the two-crore mark, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Two days after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa tested positive for coronavirus, former Karnataka CM and Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah Tuesday tweeted that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has been admitted to the hospital.

Meanwhile, India’s top drug regulator has approved the application of Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct late-stage human trials in the country for the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

On the other hand, about 20% of those who expressed an interest in enrolling at AIIMS for clinical trials of India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, had already developed antibodies against coronavirus, making them unfit for the trials.

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 18 million (18,282,208) as the pandemic is now adding a million infections every four days, prompting more lockdowns. Globally, 692,679 people have died and 10,865,548 have recovered so far, according to the data by John Hopkins.

Earlier on Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that the state is facing a threat from coronavirus spread because of its highest population density, and hence, needs to remain alert. “There is definitely a threat to Bihar (from coronavirus) as our population density is highest in the country. It is three-fold of the national average and hence we need to remain alert and cautious,” Kumar said in the state assembly.

Meanwhile, West Bengal government revised the dates for the statewide lockdown, which will now be observed on August 5, 8, 20, 21, 27, 28, and 31. The state BJP took a swipe at the Bengal government for “deliberately selecting” August 5 for the lockdown, when the ‘bhoomi pujan’ (groundbreaking rituals) for the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya is scheduled. It demanded that the TMC shift the date, as it did for the Eid festival, news agency PTI reported.

Source: The Indian Express