Over 22k Coronavirus cases in India in biggest one-day spike; WHO gives ‘wake-up call’ to nations

(Photo: AFP)


India on Saturday recorded the highest single-day spike of 22,771 Coronavirus cases, pushing the total tally to 6,48,315, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

The death toll has risen to 18,655 with 442 people succumbing to the deadly infection in the last 24 hours.

Of the total cases, 2,35,433 are active while 3,94,227 people have been cured of Coronavirus.

The recovery rate among COVID-19 patients has been rising steadily and now stands at 60.80 per cent.

The recoveries and deaths ratio is now 95.48% : 4.52%, the government informed.

With a spike of 6,364 cases, Maharashtra remains the worst pandemic hit state in the country. The state has a total of 1,92,990 cases, including 8,376 deaths.

Tamil Nadu is on the second spot with 1,02,721 confirmed cases, of which, 1,385 people have died, 58,378 recovered and 42,958 are active.

Delhi with a total of 94,695 cases, including 2,923 deaths and 65,624 recoveries is on the third spot.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that over 11,000 ‘Make In India’ ventilators have been produced and dispatched of which 6,154 have been delivered to hospitals across the country.

“The Ministry of Health is also supplying 1.02 lakh oxygen cylinders across India; 72,293 of the oxygen cylinders have been delivered,” he said.

The overall number of global COVID-19 cases has surpassed the 11 million mark, while the deaths have soared to more than 524,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

On Saturday morning, the total number of cases stood at 11,047,217, while the fatalities rose to 524,614, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounts for the world’s highest number of Coronavirus cases and fatalities with 2,793,425 and 129,432, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil comes in the second place with 1,539,081 infections and 61,884 deaths.

In terms of cases, Russia ranks third with 666,941 infections, and is followed by India with 625,544 cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has, meanwhile, urged countries hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic to “wake up” to the situation on the ground and to “take control” of the spread of the virus.

“People need to wake up. The data is not lying. The situation on the ground is not lying,” Michael Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told reporters here on Friday.

Noting that “too many countries are ignoring what the data is telling them”, the WHO official said “it is never too late in an epidemic to take control”.

“There are good economic reasons that the countries need to bring their economies back online,” he said.

“It is understandable, but you can’t ignore the problem either. The problem will not magically go away.”