The number of daily cases of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 hit a new record in India. On the 16th of April, the Nation reported 2,17,353 new cases.
In addition to the new cases, India reported 1,185 deaths and 1,18,302 recoveries.
The data was confirmed by the Union Health Department and is available on the official website of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW.)
According to the MoHFW website, India has a total of 14,291,917 positive cases, of which active cases tally reached to 15,697,43, recovered/discharged cases are at 1,25,47,866 and fatalities stand at 173,123. The data was updated based on 14,73,210 tests conducted for COVID-19. According to the Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR,) a total of 26,34,76,625 samples have been tested up to the 15th of April 15.
India’s infection is rising on a regular basis, making the second wave of COVID-18 dangerous than the first one in 2020. According to sources, India on the 16th of April, registered a steady increase in the number of active cases of the disease for the 37th day in a row. With this, India overtook Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of cases worldwide, after the United States of America (U.S.A.)
According to the MoHFW, 10 states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat and Telangana showed an upward trajectory of daily new cases, accounting for 79.10% of the new cases registered in the last 24 hours (2,17,353.) In total, these 10 states account for 85.40 % of the total active cases.
With this, the active case rate of COVID-19 in India is at 10.46 %, fatality rate is at 1.50 % and recovery rate at 88.31 %.
To boost treatment and curb the spread of the virus, the Government of India (GoI) said 100 new hospitals would have their own oxygen plant under the PM-CARES Fund and another 50,000 metric tonnes of medical oxygen would be imported. This comes at a time hospitals in several states reported shortage of oxygen supply.
Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry also highlighted COVID-19 vaccination doses figures. According to the Ministry, the Country administered over 117 million (117,096,037) Coronavirus vaccine doses till date. In order to boost the COVID-19 vaccination drive further, the national drug controller assured that it will take just three days to process applications of foreign made vaccines once they’ve been approved for emergency use in the country. With this, India would have three vaccines for people. The other two vaccines are the Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactured Covisheild and the Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Private Limited manufactured COVAXIN.
