India Coronavirus Dispatch: Nearly 350,000 new cases in another grim record

Signs of Covid cases plateauing in Maharashtra, what are 'breakthrough' cases, and more-news relevant to India's fight against Covid-19

Nearly 350,000 fresh cases reported

India reported 349,691 fresh coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the cumulative caseload to 16.9 million, according to central health ministry data. The country saw 2,767 deaths due to the pandemic, taking the death toll to 192,311. The active caseload is at 2.6 million while the total recoveries have surged to 14 million. As many as 140 million shots have been administered since the nationwide inoculation programme kicked off on January 16. Of these, 2.5 million were given on Saturday. Read more here

Signs of Covid cases plateauing in Maharashtra

The Covid-19 caseload in Maharashtra is showing signs of having peaked, a report in The Indian Express said. The daily caseload has stayed in the 60,000s for the last two weeks now. This is the longest period of relative stability since the start of the second wave in the middle of February. In the last two weeks, the transmission rate has also declined in the last two weeks from a high of 1.38 in the middle of February to 1.13 now, according to an analysis by a team of scientists led by Sitabhra Sinha at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai, the report said. Read more here

36% of Mumbai population has Covid antibodies: Serosurvey

As many as 36% of Mumbai's population has Covid-19 antibodies, according to a serosurvey conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in March 2021, a report in The Indian Express said. This is the third serosurvey that has been carried out since the outbreak last year. The survey, which covered 10,197 people, found a seropositivity of 41.6 per cent in slums, and 28.5 per cent in non-slum areas. Read more here

Twitter takes down over 50 posts on govt orders; most related to Covid handling

Twitter has removed dozens of tweets that were critical of the Centre's handling of the Covid-19 crisis in India on orders from the government, a report in The Hindu said. Twitter has removed over 50 posts from its platform. A majority of them were related to the shortage of medicine, beds, mass cremations, and the gathering of crowds at Kumbh Mela amid the pandemic. The tweets are blocked for viewing only in India and will continue to remain visible outside the country. Read more here

EXPLAINED: What are 'breakthrough' cases?

Contracting Covid-19 after vaccination is known as a "breakthrough" infection, an explainer in The Hindu said. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)—the apex body in India for biomedical research—has reported that around two to four of 10,000 people given two doses of Covid vaccine have tested positive for the disease. ICMR's Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava said breakthrough cases have occurred in “a very small number” of people and this does not undermine the efficacy of vaccination.