(Contains Press releases concerning Covid-19, issued in last 24 hours, inputs from PIB Field Offices and Fact checks undertaken by PIB)

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India reports landmark achievement: Active Caseload drops to 3.63 Lakh after 146 days; Less than 30,000 Daily New Cases recorded

India’s total Active Caseload has significantly dropped to 3.63 lakh (3,63,749) today. This is the lowest after 146 days. The total active cases were 3,58,692 on 18^th July, 2020.The country has reported a trend of sustained decrease in the number of active cases. India’s present active caseload consists of just 3.71% of India’s Total Positive Cases.37,528 cases recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours. This has led to a net decline of 8,544 from the total active caseload.India has registered less than 30,000 daily new cases in the last 24 hours. The number of daily new cases in the last 24 hours is 29,398.The total recovered cases are nearing 93 lakh (92,90,834). The gap between Recovered Cases and Active Cases, that is steadily increasing, has crossed 89L today and presently stands at 89,27,085.The difference in the New Recoveries outnumbering New Cases has also improved the Recovery Rate to 94.84% today.79.90% of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States/UTs.Karnataka has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 5,076 newly recovered cases. 5,068 people recovered in Maharashtra followed by 4,847 in Kerala.Maharashtra recorded maximum average daily recovered cases with 6,703 persons followed by Kerala and Delhi with 5,173 and 4,362 recovered cases, respectively.72.39% of the new cases are concentrated in 10 States and UTs.Kerala reported the highest daily new cases at 4,470. It is followed by Maharashtra with 3,824 new cases.414 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.Ten States/UTs account for 79.95% of new deaths.Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (70). Delhi and West Bengal follow with 61 and 49 daily deaths, respectively.

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Dr. Harsh Vardhan addresses World Bank Inter Ministerial Meet on Vaccinating South Asia

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the Inter-Ministerial meeting on Vaccination of South Asia against COVID-19 by the World Bank, yesterday through Video Conference. Presenting a detailed summary of the proactive, preemptive, graded, whole of government and society approach to the COVID-19 pandemic undertaken by India, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “Effective planning and strategic management has enabled India to keep its cases per million at 7,078against the global average of 8,883. The fatality rate is 1.45%, well below the global average of 2.29%.” He then proceeded to inform the audience of the vaccine distribution expertise, production and storage capacity of India along with the presence of an experienced and vast network of professionals to streamline COVID vaccination. He stated, “India’s world-class research institutes have spearheaded the campaign against COVID-19 and are currently working towards facilitating capacity building for producing, distributing & administering the vaccine. 260 vaccine candidates are in different stages of development globally. Out of these, 8 are scheduled to be manufactured in India, including 3 indigenous ones. We have enthusiastically leveraged the support of international partners like Oxford University, UK, and Thomas Jefferson University, USA, for vaccine research with Indian entities, both public and private.”

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PM's opening remarks in the India-Uzbekistan virtual summit

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MOHUA launches Socio-Economic Profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries

Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched a programme of Socio-Economic Profiling of PM SVANidhi beneficiaries and their families today, as an additional component of PM SVANidhi Scheme, in the presence of representatives of various Central Ministries and State officials. Under this, a complete profile of each PM SVANidhi beneficiary and their family members will be prepared. Based on the profiled data, benefits of the various eligible Central Schemes would be extended to them for their holistic socio-economic upliftment.The launch has been in the context of the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister that PM SVANidhi scheme should not be seen merely from the perspective of extending loans to street vendors but should also be seen as an instrument for outreach to street vendors and their families for their holistic development and socio-economic upliftment.

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Indian Railways Launches Hospital Management Information System Trial Project

Indian Railways has launched another major IT initiative towards according priority for the well-being of its work force. The HMIS in Railways has been developed by Indian Railways in coordination with RailTel Corporation Limited. The objective of the HMIS is to provide a single window of clearance of hospital administration activity such as clinical, diagnostics, pharmacy, examinations, industrial health etc.

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2927 Court complexes across country have been connected by a high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN) as against target of 2992 under e-Courts Project

As many as 2927 Court complexes across India have been connected so far by a high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN) under e-Courts Project. It has led to completion of 97.86 % sites out of 2992 sites conceived to be connected with high speed WAN under the project. Department of Justice (DoJ) along with BSNL is working relentlessly on connecting the remaining sites. Under e-Courts Project, one of the largest digital networks of the world was conceived by Department of Justice along with the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India to connect the 2992 court complexes located all over India by a high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN) via different modes of connectivity such as Optical Fiber Cable (OFC), Radio Frequency (RF), Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) etc.

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Several measures taken by DoCA to provide simple and speedy redressal for consumer disputes

It has been reported to the Department of Consumer Affairs that most of the honey brands sold in the market are adulterated with sugar syrup. This is a serious matter as it will compromise our health in the troubled times of COVID 19 and add to the risk of Covid-19. The Department has asked the Central Consumer Protection Authority(CCPA) to look in to matter. The CCPA, in accordance with section 19(2) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, after preliminary examination, has referred the matter to the FSSAI, the food regulator, to take appropriate action in the matter and has offered to extend cooperation in investigation of the matter for taking class action as envisaged in section 10 of the Act. The Department takes the consumer issues seriously. Recently, taking note of an incident where a 40-year – old man set himself on fire in a Rohini mall and got burn injuries after mobile phone service centre allegedly refused to replace a phone he had bought for his niece, a 12^th class school student for her online classes, the Department took up the matter with the mobile phone company concerned. The mobile company has informed that they have decided to compensate the consumer with Rs. 1,00,000/- and a new Mobile handset. Use of proper accurate and standards weights and measures are very important for effective functioning of any economy, as it plays an indispensable role in consumer protection as protection from malpractices of under weights or under-measure is an important function of the Government.

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INPUTS FROM PIB FIELD OFFICES

• Maharashtra: Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally on Thursday reached 18,68,172 with the addition of 3,824 cases. Mumbai in the last 24 hours has registered 798 new cases of Covid 19, taking the total tally of infected people to 2,88,696. The city has also witnessed 13 deaths which take the total death toll to nearly 11,000. There are currently 11943 active patients undergoing treatment at various hospitals.
• Gujarat: Gujarat recorded 1270 new Corona cases during the last 24 hours. Maximum 278 new cases reported from Ahmedabad, while Surat recorded 196 new cases. At present total active cases in the state are 13820, out of which 72 patients are on ventilator. 12 patients died yesterday taking the total deaths due to Covid19 up to 4135. Meanwhile, Ahmedabad Municipal corporation has added two new areas in the micro containment zone including one old age home following detection of new cases.
• Rajasthan: In Rajasthan, new COVID cases are declining. The number of active cases has come down to 19 thousand. The number of new cases has come down in Jaipur and Jodhpur cities too. In the first ten days of this month, around 19,000 new cases of infection have been reported in the state, while the number of people recovered was close to 28,500. During this period, there were on average 500 new cases reported daily in the capital Jaipur, while the number of new infections in Jodhpur was average 225. The number of new infections is decreasing rapidly in other districts also. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has instructed officials to increase the scope of investigation for effective prevention of infection in the state
• Madhya Pradesh: Madhya Pradesh on Thursday recorded 1,319 new COVID-19 cases, taking the count of infections in the state to 2,19,893. With seven more people succumbing to the viral infection, the death toll reached 3,373. A total of 1,307 patients were discharged from hospitals, taking the overall recovery count to 2,03,294. Of 1,319 new cases, Indore accounted for 456 and Bhopal 296. The number of cases in Indore district rose to 47,427 including 799 deaths, while Bhopal's case tally stood at 35,137 with 537 fatalities. Indore now has 5,175 active cases, while this figure for Bhopal is 3,143.
• Chhattisgarh: Chhattisgarh on Thursday reported 1,518 new COVID-19 cases and 16 fatalities, taking the caseload to 2,52,638 and death toll to 3,054. The number of recoveries reached 2,30,238 as 177 people were discharged from hospitals while 1,682 others completed their home isolation period during the day.There are 19,346 active cases in the state. Raipur district reported 210 new cases on Thursday, taking its total count to 48,457, including 682 deaths. Korba district recorded 137 new cases, Bilaspur 127, Rajnandgaon 102 and Durg 101, among other districts.
• Goa: No casualties were reported in Goa on Thursday. As many as 95 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while 159 recovered from the infection in Goa on Thursday. With the addition of the latest cases, the coastal state's COVID-19 tally rose to 49,131. The toll in the state stood at 703, as no casualties were reported during the day. 47,215 patients have recovered from the infection so far. The state is now left with 1,213 active cases.
• Assam: In Assam, 140 more people tested positive for COVID-19 and 165 patients discharged yesterday. Total cases rise to 214305, total discharged patients 209787, active 3516 and 999 total death.
• Kerala: State Health Minister KK Shailaja has informed that a soldier, who had returned after serving in Sudan, has been detected with 'plasmodium oval, a new genus of malaria'.The person is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kannur, she said. The minister added that the spread of the disease can be controlled by timely preventive measures. Meanwhile, 4470 new Covid - 19 cases were reported in Kerala yesterday. Covid death toll has reached 2533.
• Tamil Nadu:  Five lakh people to get CoVid vaccine first in Tamil Nadu, 2,800 vaccine centres are being set up. Tamil Nadu is getting ready with an anticipatory vaccination plan by identifying 51 warehouses that will have the capacity to store 2.5 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine at any given time. The state discharged 1,302 patients from the Covid-19 registry, and added 1,220 fresh cases on Thursday, which pushed the cumulative case tally to 7,95,240. The active cases dropped to 10,392 from 10,491 on Wednesday
• Karnataka: Third phase of covid 19 vaccine trials began at Belagavi.  Health department asked OPDs to  function normally. Health minister K Sudhakar held a meeting of COVID taskforce to take stock of covid situation in the state.
• Andhra Pradesh: The overall number of Covid tests conducted in the state so far has crossed the 1.06 crore mark taking the tests conducted per million population to nearly two lakh. All districts reported fewer than 100 new infections with the highest of 95 in Chittoor followed by 86 in Krishna. The lowest of seven cases were reported in Vizianagaram while 13 cases emerged in Kadapa.  Only two Covid-19 deaths each were reported on Thursday and Friday as well which is the lowest number of casualties reported in a day in about six months after the pandemic saw its peak.  The state Covid-19 chart now showed 8,74,515 total positive cases; 8,62,230 recoveries and 7,049 deaths. The active caseload dipped to 5,236. 
• Telangana: 643 new cases, 805 recoveries & 2 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in Telangana. Total cases 2,75,904 Active cases: 7,497, Deaths: 1482 Discharges :2,66,925 with a recovery rate of 96.74 per cent.

FACT CHECK

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