Daily New Cases Down to 2.22 Lakh on Monday

NEW DELHI, May 24: The union health ministry said on Monday that steady decline in daily Covid cases was being observed in the country since last 17 days.

India’s Covid deaths crossed 3-lakh mark, with the death toll mounting to 3,03,720. The country registered 2,22,315 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours on Monday morning. Top five states which have registered maximum cases are Tamil Nadu with 35,483 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 26,672 cases, Karnataka with 25,979 cases, Kerala with 25,820 cases and Andhra Pradesh with 18,767 cases. 59.7% of the new cases are reported from these five states, with Tamil Nadu alone responsible for 15.96% of the new cases.

The country recorded 4,454 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Maximum casualties were reported in Maharashtra (1,320), followed by Karnataka with 624 daily deaths.

The Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday chaired the 27th Group of Ministers meeting on Covid-19. Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “Till now, 5,424 cases of Mucormycosis reported in 18 States/UTs. Out of 5,424 cases, 4,556 patients have history of Covid-19 infection. 55% of the patients had diabetes.”

Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech began clinical trial of booster dose or the third dose of Covaxin on Monday at the AIIMs, Delhi. 18 participants have received the booster dose. The third dose is supposed to be administered six months after the second dose of vaccine.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Panacea Biotec on Sunday announced the launch of local production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. The first batch will be produced at Panacea Biotec’s facilities at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, and will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center for quality control.

India approved emergency use authorization of Sputnik V on April 12 and started administering Sputnik V doses from May 14. RDIF and Panacea have agreed to produce 100 million doses of Sputnik V per year.

Meanwhile, even though these is no centralized lockdown currently in force in the country, almost all the state governments have imposed lockdown in their respective states, though with varied degrees of exemptions to some sectors in addition to the essential services, to bring down the spike in the number of daily new cases in the second wave.

Following is the present situation of lockdown, though with varied exemptions, in various states:

Andhra Pradesh, Lockdown till June 1,

Arunachal Pradesh: Lockdown till May 31,

Assam: Lockdown till June 1

Bihar: Lockdown till May 25,

Chhattisgarh: Lockdown till May 31,

Delhi: Lockdown till May 31,

Jharkhand: Lockdown till May 27,

Gujarat: Lockdown till May 28,

Haryana: Lockdown till May 24,

Himachal Pradesh: Lockdown till May 26,

Jammu and Kashmir: Lockdown till May 31,

Karnataka: Lockdown till June 7,

Kerala: Lockdown till May 30,

Ladakh: Lockdown till June 7,

Madhya Pradesh: Lockdown till May 31,

Maharashtra: Lockdown till June 1,

Manipur: Lockdown till May 28,

Meghalaya: Lockdown till May 31,

Mizoram: Lockdown till May 24,

Nagaland: Lockdown till May 31,

Odisha: Lockdown till June 1,

Punjab: Lockdown till May 31,

Rajasthan: Lockdown till May 24,

Sikkim: Lockdown till May 31,

Telangana: Lockdown till June 1,

Tamil Nadu: Lockdown till May 31,

Uttarakhand: Lockdown till May 25,

Uttar Pradesh: Lockdown till May 31,

West Bengal: Lockdown till May 30.

(Manas Dasgupta)