Update Report of COVID-19 of 17th August 2020

Update Report of COVID-19 of 17th August 2020

Corona case update report released on Press Information Bureau today. India's Recovery Rate races beyond 72%, with 57,584 patients recovering in the past 24 hours. Total Recoveries soon to cross 2 Million. Actual case load of the country reduces to 6,76,900 and currently comprises only 25.57% of the total positive cases. India sets a new landmark, exceeds 3 crore tests; Tests Per Million continue to rise, stands at 21,769 today. Dr. Harsh Vardhan says this pandemic has given us a chance to revisit and structurally re-imagine a robust public health infrastructure for our country. Shri Naqvi says that 16 Haj Houses across the country have been given to state government for quarantine and isolation facilities for Corona affected people. 

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PIB’S DAILY BULLETIN ON COVID-19

17 AUG 2020

(Contains Press releases concerning Covid-19, issued in last 24 hours, inputs from PIB Field Offices and Fact checks undertaken by PIB)

India reports highest ever single day recoveries of 57,584, Recovery Rate races beyond 72%,Total recoveries soon to cross 2 million

Today, the country registered the highest single day recoveries with as many as 57,584 COVID-19 patients getting cured and discharged in the last 24 hours.This achievement has further spurred India's Recovery Rate to cross the 72% milestone. With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), India's COVID-19 recoveries have reached nearly 2 million (19,19,842). This has ensured that the difference between the recovered and active cases continues to expand. It is 12,42,942 today.The actual case load of the country, viz. the Active Cases (6,76,900 on date) has reduced and currently comprises only 25.57% of the total positive cases. Early identification of cases has helped to ensure timely and prompt isolation of the mild and moderate cases and hospitalisation of the severe and critical cases thereby leading to timely and effective management of cases. The Case Fatality Rate has further slumped today touching 1.92%.

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India sets a new landmark, exceeds 3 crore tests; Tests Per Million continue to rise, stand at 21,769 today

India has set a new landmark of conducting 3 crore tests.With 7,31,697 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, India is on its resolved drive to increase its testing capacity to 10 lakh tests daily. Building on this achievement, the Tests Per Million (TPM) have seen a sharp increase to 21,769.While the cumulative testing rose from 1.2 crore on 14th July 2020 to 3.0 crore on 16th August 2020, the positivity rate has seen a rise from 7.5% to 8.81% in the same period. A prominent determinant of the evolving testing strategy is the steadily widening diagnostic lab network in the country. This has significantly grown from one lab at Pune in early January 2020 to 1470 today, including 969 labs in the government sector and 501 private labs.

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Dr Harsh Vardhan addresses inaugural session of CII Public Health Conference

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare presided over the inaugural session of the two-day CII Public Health Conference virtually.Thanking CII for organizing this event amidst the COVID pandemic, he reminded the audience that “this pandemic has given us a chance to revisit and structurally re-imagine a robust public health infrastructure for our country.” Citing India’s successful approach in containing and curing this novel health risk, he lauded the country’s capacity to turn government schemes into a broader social movement that saw “the complete eradication of small-pox and polio from a time when India contributed 60% of the global cases of polio.”

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Vice President urges IITs and higher education institutes to do research on societal problems

The Vice President, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu today emphasized that research at IITs and other higher education institutes must be relevant to society and focus on finding solutions to various problems faced by mankind from climate change to health issues.Inaugurating the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of Delhi IIT through a video conference, he said Indian institutions will be counted among the world's best only when they start impacting the societies around them by developing optimal and sustainable solutions to the problems faced by the nation. He said “ I am happy that the IITs across the country have taken up several projects relating to COVID-19, including development of low-cost ventilators, PPEs, testing kits, sanitization, robots and other equipment, apart from AI (Artificial Intelligence) studies on epidemic patterns and disease dynamics. While finding answers to various challenges posed by COVID-19, we should be better prepared to tackle any future pandemic. For that to happen, there should be greater collaboration and synergy between experts from different domains.”

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Launch of Tribal Health & Nutrition Portal – ‘Swasthya’ and Opening of National Overseas Portal & National Tribal Fellowship Portal

A series of initiatives were announced by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs here today, which included the Tribal Health and Nutrition Portal ‘Swasthya’ and e-newsletter on health and nutrition ALEKH; opening of National Overseas Portal and National Tribal Fellowship Portal.Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Shri ArjunMunda said on the occasion ““The availability of healthcare for all has been one of the foremost priorities of our Prime Minister. Although the public health standards have improved over time, the differences between tribal and non-tribal populations remain. We, at the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, are committed to bridge this gap.”

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Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi : “Pandemic peril has proved to be a positive period of “Care, Commitment and Confidence” for Indians, which has set an example for the entire humanity across the world

Union Minister of Minority Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that pandemic peril has proved to be a positive period of “Care, Commitment and Confidence” for Indians, which has set an example for the entire humanity across the world.While flagging off a mobile clinic today, equipped with latest health care facilities, given by the Ministry of Minority Affairs’ National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation to Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi, Shri Naqvi said that there has been a significant change in the life style of the people and work culture. The people are now more committed to service and responsibilities towards the society.Shri Naqvi said that the passionate commitment of the people and the strong will of the Government during the Corona pandemic, has resulted in India speedily becoming self-reliant in the health sector. India has not only become self-reliant in production of N-95 masks, PPE, ventilators and other equipment; the country has also helped other nations.Shri Naqvi said that more than 1500 Health Care Assistants, who have been trained under skill development programme of the Minority Affairs Ministry, are assisting in treatment of Corona patients. These Health Care Assistants include 50% girls who are assisting in treatment of Corona patients in various hospitals and health care centres across the country. 16 Haj Houses across the country have been given to state governments for quarantine and isolation facilities for Corona affected people. Various state governments are utilising the facilities at these Haj Houses as per their needs.

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INPUTS FROM FIELD OFFICES

• Haryana: The Haryana Chief Minister said that the state government has started ‘MeriFasalMeraByora Portal’ to make agriculture in Haryana risk-free and simplify the sale of produce. He said that during COVID-19 pandemic, each and every grain of Rabi crop of farmers have been purchased through this portal. To ensure transparency, payment to the farmer of their crops has been made directly into their bank accounts. He further said that effective steps have been taken to further improve the health services in the state. Arrangement of adequate number of COVID hospitals, testing labs, isolation wards, plasma banks and medical equipment has been made to effectively deal with COVID-19 Pandemic. As a result of this, more than 83 per cent of COVID patients have been cured in the state.
• Arunachal Pradesh: 43 new COVID-19 cases have been detected in Arunachal Pradesh in the last 24 hours, 37 persons have recovered.  There are presently 888 active cases in the state.
• Assam: Government of Assam issued guidelines for implementation of 'Orunodoi', an initiative on poverty eradication. Over 19 lakh poor households shall get DBT of Rs 830 each, per month - 15,000 families from each Assembly Constituency.
• Manipur: 179 new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Manipur; out of these, 111 are of Central Security force personnel. There are 1,921 active cases in Manipur with a recovery rate of 57%.
• Mizoram: Twelve more COVID-19 cases confirmed in Mizoram yesterday. Total cases 789, active cases 418.
• Nagaland: Nagaland Health Minister PangnyuPhom says total of 261 quarantine centers having capacity of 15,843 persons set up in state. Of these, 206 are govt quarantines and 55 paid ones. Shops reopen under strict SOPs in Dimapur.
• Sikkim: In Sikkim, 19 new cases were reported  taking the number of active cases in Sikkim to 493. The state’s overall tally of confirmed cases now stands at 1,167, of which 673 patients have made full recoveries and  discharged from hospital.
• Kerala:Nine Covid-19 deaths have been reported in the state till noon, taking the death toll to 165. The local spread of the virus in the Central jail in the capital continues unabated with 110 more prisoners and four officials tested positive today. This brings the tally in the prison to 477.  Covid cases are also on the rise in the outskirts of the capital. Around 25 people including policemen have been tested positive in various clusters. State Election Commissioner has said that local body polls will not be postponed in view of Covid pandemic.Devotees have been permitted entry abiding Covid protocols, in temples under Devaswom Board from today, the Malayalam New Year. As many as 1,530 positive cases were reported in the state yesterday. The number of patients under treatment has crossed the 15,000 mark. 1,62,217 people are under observation in various districts.              
• Tamil Nadu:More Covid-19 patients in home isolation than in hospitals as cases cross 8000 in Puducherry. While 1596 Covid-19 patients are admitted in hospitals, 1692 are in home isolation. CB-CID office in Coimbatore shut for fumigation as two contracts Covid-19. E-passes for travel within TN to be auto-generated, public urged to apply for genuine reasons. 5950 new cases, 6019 recoveries & 125 deaths yesterday in TN. Total cases: 3,38,055; Active cases: 54,109; Deaths: 5766;  Discharges: 2,78,270; Active cases in Chennai: 11,498.
• Karnataka:Data from the State Covid-19 war room shows that the positivity rate among the symptomatic is 34.8%, while it is 13.4% among asymptomatic carriers of the virus. As many as 124 new deaths by Covid-19 were reported in Karnataka on Sunday, taking the total number of deaths to 3,947. In addition, 7,040 new cases were reported, taking the total number of cases to 2,26,966. Of the 7,040 cases reported on Sunday, as many as 2,131 positive cases were from Bengaluru Urban.
• Andhra Pradesh: Pending approval of the state for the SOPs to be adopted, tourism sites remain closed to the public due to the spike in coronavirus cases according to Managing Director, AP Tourism Development Corporation.  Earlier in July, the Minister for Tourism had said that the tourism destinations would be open in the first week of August. The Covid19 cases in Kadapa district are increasing rapidly with the number of deaths racing to 187 so far of which 72 people have succumbed to the virus in the last two weeks. The number of coronavirus positive cases has crossed 16 thousand in the district. Total number of recoveries cross 2,01,234 in the state. 8012 new cases and 88 deaths were reported yesterday in the State. Total cases: 2,89,829; Active cases: 85,945; Deaths: 2650.
• Telangana:With a lot of innovation around ventilators happening in Hyderabad, the city might soon be exporting ventilators as against scrambling to import ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic, said JayeshRanjan, Principal Secretary, IT and Industries Department. 894 new cases, 2006 recoveries & 10 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 894 cases, 147 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 92,255; Active cases: 21,420; Deaths: 703; Discharges:70,132.
• Maharashtra: As the interior districts of Maharashtra are reporting increased Covid cases, the State Government has decided to establish a 1,000-bedded jumbo hospital at Mankapur for treating patients. The facility would cater to patients from entire Vidarbha as current beds in Government hospital are falling short.  Out of 5.95 lakh total reported cases, 4.17 lakh people have recovered and the state has an active case load of 1.58 lakh patients.
• Rajasthan: The Rajasthan High Court has suspended all work for three days till Wednesday.  The suspension comes in the wake of Chief Justice IndrajitMahanty's first COVID-19 test returning positive. Rajasthan has 14,451 active Covid cases.
• Madhya Pradesh: While the state registered 1,022 new cases on Sunday, a total of 685 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery.  The number of active cases in Madhya Pradesh is 10,312.
• Chhattisgarh: Chhattisgarh reported 576 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday taking the total number of cases in the state to 15,621. As many as eight patients succumbed to the infection on Sunday taking the death toll to 142.  

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Source: PIB