New Delhi: Ten days after recording two lakh Covid-19 cases, India surpassed the three lakh-mark on Saturday with the worst daily spike of 11,458 infections, while the death toll too climbed to 8,884 with 386 new fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said.
India took 64 days to cross the 1 lakh-mark from 100 cases, then in another fortnight it reached the grim milestone of two lakh cases. It has now become the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic with a caseload of 3,08,993, according to coronavirus statistics website Worldometer.
However, the Health Ministry said on Friday the doubling time of coronavirus cases has improved to 17.4 days from 15.4 days. And its data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed active cases at 1,45,779 and those who have recovered at 1,54,329; one patient has migrated.
“Thus, around 49.9 per cent patients have recovered so far,” a ministry official said.
The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.
Of the 386 new deaths, Delhi accounted for the highest 129 fatalities followed by Maharashtra 127. The virus is moving rapidly in Delhi, which for the first time reported over 2,000 cases on Friday, and Maharashtra, where the number of cases has crossed one lakh.
Gujarat reported 30 deaths, Uttar Pradesh 20, Tamil Nadu 18, West Bengal, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh 9 each, Karnataka and Rajasthan 7 each, Haryana and Uttarakhand 6 each, Punjab 4, Assam 2, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha 1 each.
Of the total 8,884 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,717 fatalities followed by Gujarat with 1,415, Delhi with 1,214, West Bengal with 451, Madhya Pradesh with 440, Tamil Nadu with 367, Uttar Pradesh with 365, Rajasthan with 272 and Telangana with 174 deaths.
The death toll reached 80 in Andhra Pradesh, 79 in Karnataka, 70 in Haryana and 63 in Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 53 Covid-19 fatalities, Bihar 36 and Uttarakhand 21, Kerala 19, Odisha 10 and Jharkhand and Assam 8 each.
Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have registered 6 deaths each, Chandigarh 5, Puducherry 2, while Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh 1 each, according to the health ministry.
More than 70 per cent deaths have happened due to comorbidities, the ministry said.
Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of cases at 1,01,141 followed by Tamil Nadu (40,698), Delhi (36,824), Gujarat (22,527), Uttar Pradesh (12,616), Rajasthan (12,068) and Madhya Pradesh (10,443).
The number of Covid-19 cases has gone up to 10,244 in West Bengal, 6,516 in Karnataka, 6,334 in Haryana and 6,103 in Bihar. It has risen to 5,680 in Andhra Pradesh, 4,730 in Jammu and Kashmir, 4,484 in Telangana and 3,498 in Odisha and Assam each.
Punjab has reported 2,986 cases while Kerala has 2,322 cases.
A total of 1,724 people have been infected by the virus in Uttarakhand, 1,617 in Jharkhand, 1,424 in Chhattisgarh, 961 in Tripura, 486 in Himachal Pradesh, 463 in Goa, 385 from Manipur and 334 in Chandigarh.
Ladakh has registered 239 Covid-19 cases, Puducherry 157, Nagaland 156, Mizoram 104, Arunachal Pradesh 67, Sikkim 63, Meghalaya 44 while Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 38 cases.
Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 30 cases.
The ministry said 7,984 cases are being reassigned to states and “our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR”. State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it added.
Also read: Brazil records second most virus deaths in the world, surpassing UK
The year 2020 has introduced world to unthinkable catastrophic woes. The pain has been and is continuing to be huge. The reference is to pandemic Covid-19 which has spread to every nook and corner of the world. World Health Organisation on 14 January 2020 gave news of arrival of a health worrisome concern in the shape of something they designated as Covid-19 pandemic. But the world began to realize its presence closely on the ground around mid-March 2020. Since then , the world has been put to disarray , racing to find an answer to the dreadful new disease , be it through development of an effective vaccine or a drug. Over a dozen countries are engaged day and night to develop the vaccine while only few are expecting to bring vaccine in the market by the end of the year 2020. A pragmatic view , however , is that the process of vaccine coming in the market can take larger part of 2021 if not first half of 2022. Regarding drug , there have been talks that something is being hammered out. The expectation is that something might arrive early in days to come in 2020. In the absence of vaccine or effective drug , the world has taken recourse to lockdown , social distancing , masking the portion of mouth as well as nose , washing hands several times a day and the like. These measures taken in recent past in India from 24 March midnight in 2020 onwards can be said to have contributed to containing spread of the pandemic in proportion to seriousness and sufficiency attached. But nevertheless , the world cannot remain shut for a longer period for obvious reasons. So some spread has been there chunk confined so far to some metropolitan or congested- thickly populated slums in urban cities. A question being asked in June 2020 when it is getting stronger and wider in infecting the people – when will its grip loosen or weaken substantially ?.
Readers are first taken to this Vedic astrology writer’s predictive alerts in hitherto well-known article – “ Predictions for coming year 2020 by kushal kumar” – published last year 2019 on 10 October at theindiapost.com/articles/predictions-for-coming-year-2020-by-kushal-kumar/. The article covering India was published on 10 October , 2019 when Covid-19 was undoubtedly not born. And at that stage of time , this writer was very clear while alerting about something catastrophic likely to visit near about mid-March to last until June in 2020 . The worrisome period was indicated covering three and a half months from mid-March to June 2020 about Italy at http://www.astralis.it/Kumar02.htm , while about India the related predictive text is reproduced from the aforesaid article published on 10 October , 2019 :-
“ The next three months from April to June 2020 appears to be a period of time testing ‘ patience’ and ‘perseverance’ , introducing several parts of the country to worrisome concerns…………………”. In the month of June , 2020 , readers may be interested to know the latest predictive view of this writer with reference to Covid-19 in particular. Their interest can be understood because at the stage the predictive alerts were made by this writer on 10 October , 2019 , Covid-19 pandemic was not in the scene. Readers may note that this writer’s predictive view remains intact what it was on 10 October , 2019 . However , there is scope of addressing the situation in better refreshed details here. Keeping in view the contemporary planetary postures about India , it can be said that month of June upto 20 June , 2020 , may be stressful more than what April-May 2020 have been , calling for increased patience , resolve and appropriate strategy in the absence of effective drug. After 20 June 2020 , this writer does not foresee easy and sudden or overnight change in the worrisome landscape , but some positive scenario may generate for July –October , 2020. Last ten days of June and after in 2020 , the battle may look to be bringing some ammunition to fight. It seems 11 July , 2020 and soon after may loosen the grip of Covid-19 in India , how much and to what extent it may be , this writer must not say which is not within radar. Having said that , readers may be refreshed with this writer’s predictive content about India for July-October 2020 published in the article on 10 October , 2020 , as follows :-
“ Now something encouraging. The second half of the year from July to October or November 2020 looks to be addressing the setbacks or delay of the past , particularly those of first half. Some trends of success or forward movement in economic sector , political issues are likely. Cooperation or support of global powers may be seen coming. Some historic political decision is likely. The obstructive forces may weaken to some extent. Like the previous year , acceptance by global community of India’s positive role in world affairs may be in the news. It seems the said period of second half in 2020 can boost up the ambitious side of the nation. Such knowledge or stuff related thereto as Yoga , Ayurveda , herbals and spiritual side addressing material issues like health can attract meaningful emphasis. Efforts made in space program are likely to meet with success bringing name”. Here , reference to Ayurveda , herbals may include reference to indigenously developed or manufactured vaccine or drug.