Coronavirus / 500+ COVID-19 deaths reported in India in 24 hours, death toll crosses 17,000

New Delhi: India recorded more than 500 fatalities due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours, the biggest single-day spike, taking its death toll to 17,400 even as 18,653 new infections pushed the infection tally beyond 5.85 lakh, Union health ministry data showed on Wednesday.

According to the health ministry dashboard, 507 Covid-19 patients died between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, 418 people had died during the same period.

The infection tally has gone up to 585,493--up from 190,535 Covid-19 patients on June 1--as 394,958 cases were added in a just a month.

The recovery rate from the coronavirus disease in India, the fourth worst-hit country in the world, improved to 59.43% as 13,157 patients were cured in the last 24 hours. There are 347,978 people who have been discharged from hospitals across the country.

There are 220,114 active cases of the viral disease in India on a day the government’s Unlock 2, or the second of a three-phase plan aimed at lifting restrictions imposed to stop the spread of infections. comes into force.

Maharastra continued to record rising Covid-19 cases as the worst-affected state’s climbed to 174,761 and the death toll to 7,855. Tamil Nadu, which has 90,167 infections and 1,201 deaths so far, is among the states which have added to the country’s caseload.

In Delhi, where the Centre has put in place a five-pronged approach to tackle the pandemic, has reported 87,360 Covid-19 cases and 2,742 fatalities. Gujarat, the fourth worst-hit state, has 32,557 and 1,846 deaths, according to central data.

There are 10,450,628 Covid-19 cases and 510,632 people have died due to the disease across the world, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reviewed India’s preparations for vaccinating its population against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) once a vaccine becomes available.

India’s first Covid-19 vaccine candidate by Bharat Biotech Ltd has received the central drugs controller’s approval for human clinical trials.

The Prime Minister said vaccination must be affordable and universal as he directed officials to start work on a detailed plan for carrying out the exercise and review preparations in place.

Meanwhile, the Union health ministry revised the guidelines for blood transfusion to include the collection of convalescent plasma under the protocol of the clinical trial from people who have recovered from infection by the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes the coronavirus disease.