Coronavirus: India crosses 90 lakh cases; second to only the US

New Delhi: India’s fresh coronavirus infections rose by 45,882 in the past 24 hours taking the total to 90,04,365, government data shows. Recoveries surged to 84.28 lakh, pushing the national recovery rate to 93.6 per cent. Up to 584 people died of the disease since Thursday, the overall number till now being 1,32,162. Up to 4,43,794 active cases remain in the country.

India’s Covid-19 caseload has touched 9 million, second to only the US. However the country added the last million case in 22 days, indicating a slowdown in the pandemic spread in recent week.

Maharashtra remained the top affected state in the country with 17,63,055 total cases, up 5,535 since Thursday. The state recorded 154 deaths in the past 24 hours. Other states in the top-5 list include Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.

Meanwhile, The WHO has said the anti-viral drug remdesivir should not be used to treat COVID-19 patients no matter how severe their illness as it has “no important effect” on survival chances. This scratches one of the few treatments that had shown some initial promise in severe patients.

According to the ICMR, A total of 12,95,91,786 samples tested for Covid-19, up to 19th November. Of these, 10,83,397 samples were tested yesterday

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 56.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.35 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 56,817,667 and 1,358,489, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 11,710,084 and 252,484, respectively, according to the CSSE.