Union minister Pralhad Joshi tested positive for Covid-19 even as the recovery rate in India jumped past 85 per cent on Wednesday with the continuous streak of high number of recovered cases being reported in the past few weeks. The minister announced his condition in Twitter, saying: “As I am asymptomatic, as per doctor’s advice, I (am) in home quarantine.”
Meanwhile, the recovered cases have exceeded the new confirmed cases again during the past 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry. “Nearly 57.50 lakh people have recovered so far, which is 6.32 times the active cases,” it said, adding the sustained high levels of recoveries have widened the gap between active and recovered cases.
The ministry said 75 per cent of the new recovered cases were reported from 10 states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Delhi.
The national capital recorded 35 fresh casualties due to Covid-19 on Wednesday and the death toll mounted to 5,616, while 2,871 new cases took the tally to over 2.98 lakh. These fresh cases were detected after 51,505 tests were conducted the previous day.
West Bengal reported its highest single-day spike of 3,370 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, pushing the state’s tally to 2,77,049. Out of the 63 deaths, 53 were due to co-morbidities where corona was incidental. The fresh cases include the highest number of 742 infections from Kolkata, North 24 Parganas (712) and Hooghly (219). West Bengal now has 27,988 active cases. In the last 24 hours, 42,382 samples have been tested for Covid-19 and 34,80,510 overall.
As many as 148 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while 297 recovered from the infection in Maharashtra’s Amravati district on Wednesday. With the addition of fresh infections, the case count in the district has reached 14,373. In the highest single day surge of Covid-19, Kerala’s fresh infections crossed the mark of 10,000 on Wednesday, taking the total infection count to 2,51,405. The toll climbed to 906 with 22 more fatalities, the state government said. Kerala Power Minister M.M. Mani tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, becoming the fourth member of the Pinarayi Viijayan cabinet to be affected by the pathogen.
The 75-year-old minister, who himself announced the development through a Facebook post, has been admitted to the government Medical College Hospital. Days after imposing hefty penalties, the Karnataka government on Wednesday reduced the fine on people not wearing masks from Rs 1,000 to Rs 250 in urban areas and from Rs 500 to Rs 100 in rural parts of the state.
The government had come under sharp criticism from various quarters not only for the exorbitant penalty amount but also policemen reportedly going on a fine collection spree at public places. Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday recorded 3,561 fresh coronavirus cases, raising the total infection count to 4,24,326, while the death toll reached 6,200 with 47 more fatalities. The recovery rate of the state is 88.36 per cent with a total of 3,74,972 Covid-19 patients being discharged from hospitals after recovery.
Twenty-one more people succumbed to Covid-19 in Haryana on Monday, taking the States death toll to 1,491 while 1,031 fresh cases took the infection tally 1,34,909. Of the latest fatalities, five were reported Ambala, four were from Jind, two from each Fatehabad, Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat and Sonipat while one each from Faridabad and Jhajjar. Among the district which reported big spike in cases are Gurgaon (206) and Faridabad (129). Currently, there are 11,822 active cases of the infection in Haryana and the recovery rate is 90.13 percent in the state.