One in every 17 active Covid cases globally is in India

India reported 24,248 coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, taking the total to 697,413, an increase of 3.6 per cent according to the Health Ministry. Around 19,700 people have died in the country from Covid-19 so far, with 425 fatalities in a day. India went past Russia on Sunday to become the third worst-hit nation by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Worldometer. Only the US and Brazil are ahead of India in terms of total coronavirus infections.

Of the 4,492,218 active cases around the world as of Monday morning, 254,147 are in India. That means one in every 17 active coronavirus infections is in the country. With 15,350 new recoveries, its recovery rate has risen marginally to 60.9 per cent and death rate has fallen to 2.8 per cent. 

Five states with the highest test positivity rate (TPR) – the percentage of tested people turning out to be positive for Covid-19 infection (by cumulative data for tests and cases) – are Telangana (21.22 per cent), Maharashtra (18.7 per cent), Delhi (15.45 per cent), Gujarat (8.74 per cent), and Tamil Nadu (8.28 per cent). Total number of tests for detection of Covid-19 has crossed one-crore mark in India, says ICMR official

Maharashtra, the most affected state overall, has for reported a net addition of 6,555 cases. Its total tally has reached 206,619, which is 30 per cent of all cases in India.Tamil Nadu, which has reported a single-day jump of 4,150 cases, has added more than 3,000 cases on each of the past 10 days.

With 2,244 fresh infections, Delhi's tally of coronavirus cases stands at 99,444, including 63 new deaths. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said that out of the 25,000 active Covid-19 cases in Delhi, 15,000 cases are being treated at home and added that the home isolation programme is a success. We've also started the country's first corona plasma bank. Our trials have shown that plasma therapy can help moderate patients improve significantly: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal

Coronavirus is giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby. If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially distant settings. 
 

Indian women who contract Covid-19 are at a higher risk of dying than men, a recent study of cases has found — 3.3% of infected women died of the disease as against 2.9% of men. “The data until May 20, 2020, suggests that the overall risk of mortality among women is slightly higher than men,” said William Joe, assistant professor at Population Research Centre at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, and the lead author of the study.
 

Indian IT services firms are learnt to have implemented rigorous employee performance evaluation metrics as most of them are resorting to staff retrenchment to withstand the difficult business environment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to industry insiders, at least 10,000 software professionals in the country might have already lost their jobs in the April-June quarter, while more are expected to lose their jobs in the coming quarters.
 

The Drug Controller General of India's nod to conduct human trials for Indian Covid-19 vaccine candidates Covaxin and ZyCov-D marks the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic, says an article by a scientist with the Ministry of Science and Technology. The article has been published on the websites of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the Vigyan Prasar, which is a body under the ministry. The announcement of Covaxin by Bharat Biotech and ZyCov-D by Zydus Cadila is the silver line in the dark clouds, the article by T V Venkateswaran, who is a scientist with Vigyan Prasar, said.
 

China must be held fully accountable for its "secrecy, deception and cover-up" that allowed it to spread the coronavirus all over the world, US President Donald Trump has said, upping the ante on Beijing over its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak. Addressing the nation for a second time in as many days on the occasion of 244th Independence Day on Saturday, President Trump touted the country's "progress" against the Covid-19 disease despite a nationwide spike in the number of coronavirus cases.