India surpassed Mexico to register the third highest number of Covid deaths globallyafter the United States and Brazil. It has the second highest number of Covid 19 infection cases after the US. India reported 2,22,408 deaths since the coronavirus outbreak occurred, while US and Brazil registered deaths at 5,77,565 and 4,08,622, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours to 8:00 am, India reported 3,449 deaths, and this is the seventh straight day when it recorded more than 3,000 daily fatalities. Since the last 13 days the country has been reporting more than 3 lakh Covid 19 cases with 3,57,229 reported in a single day till 8:00 am. Cumulatively, the coronavirus infection cases stood at 2,02,82,833, of which, active cases were 34, 47,133, recovered cases were 1,6613,292, and the death toll 2,22,408 .
World Health Organisation chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that “more cases of Covid-19 have been reported globally in the past two weeks than during the first six months of the pandemic”. And India and Brazil accounted for more than half of last week’s cases.
The government also recently widened the scope of vaccination drive under its phase 3 strategy so that all the adults could get themselves immunised against the deadly virus. So far, the government has vaccinated 4.06 lakh beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group.
“4,06,339 beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years received their first dose of Covid vaccine across 12 States/UT. These are: Chhattisgarh (1025), Delhi (40,028), Gujarat (1,08,191), Haryana (55,565), Jammu and Kashmir (5,587), Karnataka (2,353), Maharashtra (73,714), Odisha (6,802), Punjab (635), Rajasthan (76,151), Tamil Nadu (2,744) and Uttar Pradesh (33,544),” the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
In the meantime, total Covid tests conducted in the previous day stand at 16.63 lakh. Interestingly, the highest number of tests were done on May 1 since April 22 and from there a sloping trend could be seen till Sunday.
It is to be noted that according to the Health Ministry, infections are showing a decreasing trend in some States, including, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Punjab, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, in terms of daily coronavirus cases. However, at the same time it also cautioned against making any analysis at this point in time as these are very early signs.
The national recovery rate is 81.91 per cent with 3,20,289 recoveries being reported in the last 24 hours. Ten States account for 73.14 per cent of the new recoveries, as per the government data.
To meet the growing demand, the government has increased the production of Remdesivir drugs three times in just a few days, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has said in a tweet.
The production of Remdesivir has gone up from 37 lakh on April 12 to 1.05 crore on May 4. The number of plants producing Remdesivir has also gone up from 20 as on April 12 to 57 on May 4, 2021, he further said..
According to the government data, 2000 pieces of Remdesivir were received on May 1 from Uzbekistan and Indian Community Association in Uzbekistan. India received 9,000 vials of the drug from Belgium and 1,25000 vials from the USA on May 2.