New Covid cases in India dip below 50,000 for 1st time in nearly 3 months

New Delhi: The number of new Coronavirus infections reported daily in India dropped below 50,000 for the first time in nearly three months, taking the COVID-19 caseload to 75,97,063 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health ministry.

The country had reported 47,703 new infections in a day on July 28.

A total of 46,790 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,197 with 587 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of new fatalities reported daily across the country was recorded below 600 for the second consecutive day.

The total recoveries crossed 67 lakh while active cases of Coronavirus infection remained below 8 lakh for the fourth consecutive day.

There are 7,48,538 active cases of Coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 9.85 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

A total 67,33,328 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the national recovery rate to 88.63 per cent while the case fatality rate due COVID-19 stands at 1.52 per cent.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 9,61,16,771 samples have been tested up to October 19 with 10,32,795 samples being tested on Monday.

The 579 new fatalities include 125 from Maharashtra, 64 from Karnataka, 63 from West Bengal, 56 from Chhattisgarh, 49 from Tamil Nadu, and 31 from Delhi.

A total of 1,15,197 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 42,240 from Maharashtra followed by 10,691 from Tamil Nadu, 10,542 from Karnataka, 6,685 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,453 from Andhra Pradesh.

The Health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

The Delhi health department, meanwhile, has written to all hospitals and district authorities to be alert about co-infections of COVID-19 with other seasonal ailments and implement management guidelines on it issued by the Union Health ministry.

Cases of dengue, malaria, chikungunya, seasonal influenza and other diseases are expected to rise with the onset of winter. Some of the COVID-19 patients have been diagnosed with dengue too.

The Directorate General Health Services (EMR Division) of the Health Ministry had recently released guidelines for the management of co-infection of COVID-19 with other seasonal epidemic-prone diseases, officials said.

"The document provides clear guidelines on prevention and treatment of co-infections of COVID-19 with diseases like dengue, malaria, seasonal influenza (H1N1), leptospirosis, chikungunya, scrub typhus, bacterial co-infections etc," reads the letter sent by the department to all Delhi government hospitals and district magistrates on Monday. The Union Health Ministry had issued a guideline on October 13.

"Seasonal epidemic-prone diseases may all present as a febrile illness, with symptoms that mimic COVID-19. If there is a co-infection, then apart from febrile illness, there may be a constellation of signs and symptoms that may lead to difficulty in diagnosis," the ministry had said.

Seasonal diseases can not only present a diagnostic dilemma but may co-exist with COVID-19.