India records highest daily spike of 40,425 Covid cases; tally tops 11 lakh
New Delhi: India's Coronavirus tally crossed the 11-lakh mark on Monday after over 40,000 fresh cases of the infections recorded in the last 24 hours while the total number of recovered patients increased to over seven lakh and the death toll rose to 27,497 with 681 fatalities reported in one day.
Notably, the country's COVID-19 tally crossed the 11-lakh mark in just three days after it crossed the 10-lakh mark on July 17.
As per the Health ministry's data, a record single-day jump of 40,425 new COVID-19 cases had taken the total number of cases to 11,18,043, while with 22,664 recoveries in the last 24 hours, a total of 7,00,086 patients have been cured till date at the rate of 62.62 per cent.
The case fatality rate has further reduced to 2.46 per cent on Monday, which is the lowest in the world. There are 3,90,459 active cases in the country and the number of recovered COVID-19 patients exceed India's active caseload by 3,09,627 as on Monday.
"Effective clinical management of moderate and severe cases through a well-executed standard of care protocol has ensured a high rate of recovery among Covid patients. The Centre is handholding and supporting state/UT governments in collectively combating COVID-19," the Health ministry has said in its official release.
"One such initiative is the e-ICU programme of AIIMS, New Delhi. Aimed at reducing mortality, AIIMS has mentored and supported 43 big hospitals in 11 states through shared experiences and technical advice from domain experts in the clinical management of ICU patients," the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has tested a total of 1,40,47,908 samples, including 2,56,039 samples being tested in the last 24 hours. The ICMR has now 1,268 labs out of which 890 labs are in the ICMR network and 378 labs in the private sector.
Of the 681 deaths, 258 were reported from Maharashtra, 91 from Karnataka, 78 from Tamil Nadu, 56 from Andhra Pradesh, 38 from Uttar Pradesh, 36 from West Bengal, 31 from Delhi, 20 from Gujarat, 15 from Madhya Pradesh and nine from Bihar, etc.
Meanwhile, a Coronavirus vaccine the University of Oxford is developing with AstraZeneca Plc showed promising results in early human testing, a sign of progress in the high-stakes pursuit of a shot to defeat the pathogen.
The vaccine increased levels of both protective neutralising antibodies and immune T-cells that target the virus, according to the study organizers. The results were published on Monday in The Lancet medical journal.
