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

India’s total recovered cases are now double the active cases; Total recoveries cross 12.3 lakh; Recovery Rate jumps to 66.31%; Case Fatality Rate further reduces to 2.1%

With 12,30,509 total recoveries, India’s recovered cases are twice the active cases, as of today. 44,306 patients discharged in the last 24 hours. This has taken the recovery rate among COVID-19 patients to 66.31%. The active cases (5,86,298) account for 31.59% of total positive cases and all are under medical supervision. India has registered the lowest CFR since the first lockdown at 2.10% as compared to the global average. The mortality analysis of the present data shows that 50% of deaths have happened in the age group of 60 years and above; 37% deaths belong to 45 to 60 years age group; while 11% deaths belong to 26-44 years age group. In the gender wise distribution, 68% of people who died were men and 32% were women.

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India tests more than 6.6 lakh samples in last 24 hours; 28 States/UTs conducting more than 140 tests/day/million;28 States/UTs with positivity rate less than 10%

A record 6,61,892 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. This takes the cumulative testing to 2,08,64,750 samples and the Tests per Million (TPM) to 15,119.While India conducts 479 tests/day/million on an average, there are 28 States/UTs in India which are conducting more than 140 tests/day/million, prescribed by WHO. India’s average positivity rate stands at 8.89%, as on date. There are 28 States/UTs which have positivity less than 10% which indicates that the testing strategy is on the right track. The effort of Centre and State/UT governments is to further improve the Positivity Rate to 5%.With the aim to conduct 10 lakh tests daily, the testing capacity is being continuously ramped up. The testing lab network in the country currently stands at a total of 1356 labs in the country; 917 labs in the government sector and 439 private labs.

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Assam gets own 24/7 Doordarshan Channel

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri PrakashJavadekar launched Doordarshan Assam, a 24-hour dedicated channel for the State, via video conferencing from New Delhi today. Speaking on the occasion the Minister said “the channel is a gift to people of Assam and this channel will cater to all sections of the population of Assam and will be immensely popular.”Secretary, Min. Of I&B, Shri AmitKhare said that that Assam is the gateway to north-east and north-east is the gateway to ASEAN countries added that the State can be a great link between India and ASEAN. During the current Covid-19 crisis, as an interim measures, the uplinking is being done on the channels originated from North Eastern states round-the-clock. From the month of April 2020, DD Nagaland, DD Tripura, DD Manipur, DD Meghalaya, DD Mizoram have been converted provisionally into 27x7 channels from limited hours channels by  utilizing the DD News/DD India streams given the limited resources available at the respective originating Kendras.

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GRANT OF PERMANENT COMMISSION TO WOMEN OFFICERS IN INDIAN ARMY: ARMY HQ ISSUES DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

Consequent to the receipt of formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to Women Officers in Indian Army, the Army HQ is in the process of convening a Special Number 5 Selection Board for screening women officers for grant of PC. Towards this end, detailed administrative instructions have been issued to all affected women officers giving out guidelines for submission of applications for consideration by the Board.Due to the prevailing restrictions imposed by the COVID situation, multiple means of dissemination of instructions have been adopted to ensure that these documents reach all affected women officers on priority. The Selection Board will be scheduled immediately after receipt and verification of applications.

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Union HRD Minister releases the NCERT eight-week alternative academic calendar for upper primary stage developed under guidance of MHRD

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released the Alternative Academic Calendar at upper primary stage virtually yesterday. In order to engage students meaningfully during their stay at home due to COVID-19 through educational activities, with the help of their parents and teachers, the alternative academic calendars for students, parents and teachers at primary and upper primary stage have been developed by the NCERT.Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that the calendar will empower our students, teachers, school principals and parents to find out positive ways to deal with Covid-19 using on-line teaching-learning resources and also improving their learning outcomes. He further said that the Calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learner, parents and teachers even while at home.

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ER Performs Record Sale of Scrap Worth Rs. 29 Cr. during Lockdown through E-auctions

While the deadly Coronavirus Pandemic lockdown brought everything to a halt and adversely affected the earnings of the railways due to the non-operations of the trains in full capacity, the wheels of striving for the best at Eastern Railway (ER) are kept on. The Materials Management department of ER initiated new ways to enhance the earnings through sale of unserviceable materials (Scrap) released from various activities of the railways during this period. ER has sold scrap materials worth Rs. 29 Crore in the lockdown. The Dept. identified all the scrap lying along the track lines and workshops in the months of April to July 2020.

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INPUTS FROM FIELD OFFICES

• Maharashtra: In a major relaxation in the lockdown norms, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai - MCGM said all shops in the city are allowed to remain open all days from Wednesday irrespective of the odd-even rule. Malls and market places will be allowed to work from 9 am to 7 pm from. However, theatres, food courts/restaurants will continue to remain shut. The rate of Covid infection in Mumbai has since slowed down and the city is reporting under 1,000 cases on many days. Maharashtra, although has 1.47 lakh active cases.
• Gujarat: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) has added four more areas in the Micro Containment Zone. Door to door surveillance and testing drive will be launched in these areas from Tuesday (today). AMC has also sealed citi’s Alfa mall for violating the norms of social distancing. Gujarat reported 1,009 new cases as well as 974 recoveries on Monday, leaving the active case load at 14,614.
• Rajasthan: 1,145 new Covid cases have been reported in Rajasthan taking the state tally to 45,555. However, the number of active cases is 12,785. The state government is planning to impose lockdown in Alwar, Barmer and Bikaner districts to contain the spread of infection.
• Madhya Pradesh: In Madhya Pradesh 588 police personnel, including officials, have tested positive and around 2,000 have been quarantined so far. The state reported 750 new cases on Monday
• Chhattisgarh – RT-PCR based Covid tests have been started at the Ambikapur Medical College today. ICMR has recently allowed RTPCR test in the newly constructed high level BSL-2 Lab of three medical colleges in the state, Bilaspur, Ambikapur and Rajnandgaon. Chhattisgarh has 2,503 active Covid cases.
• Kerala:Three Covid deaths were reported in the state taking the death toll to 87. Various organisations in the health sector have come up against the govt.’s decision to hand over the responsibilities of Covid resistance to the police force. IMA, Kerala Government Medical Officers' Association, Health inspectors' Union etc have opposed the decision. Meanwhile, State level nodal officer of COVID resistance activities, Vijay Sakhare IPS said that police will concentrate on stopping the disease transmission with a strategy including compulsory quarantine, tracing source and marking containment zones with accurate target. Kerala had confirmed 962 new positive cases yesterday. Currently 11,484 patients are undergoing treatment and 1.45 lakh people under observation across the state.
• Tamil Nadu: IIT-M and a healthcare start-up develop device to monitor patients; the low-cost equipment has already been deployed to monitor 2,000 patients in hospitals in the city. Manpower shortage and virus fear keep people away from dining-in; only a meagre 20 per cent of the city’s hotels preferred to let customers in. Covid positivity rate increases to 8.39% in Coimbatore; according to health officials, the sudden surge in the positivity rate is attributed to the rise in fresh cases from hotspots.5609 new cases, 5800 recoveries & 109 deaths reported yesterday in TN. Total cases reported: 2,63,222 ; Active cases: 56,698; Deaths: 4241.
• Karnataka: Former Karnataka CM Siddaramiah tests positive for Covid-19 after incumbent BS Yediyurappa. Difficult to restore normal functioning of courts soon, says Karnataka HC. Karnataka HC on Monday asked the Centre and State to make it clear whether or not services will be denied to people who have not downloaded the ArogyaSetu app. Karnataka drops to third spot in top active Covid cases; the state’s recovery rate, too, has improved to 44.78 per cent from 42.81 per cent. 4752 new cases, 4776 discharges & 98 deaths reported yesterday. Total cases: 1,39,571;  Active cases: 74,469; Deaths: 2594.
• Andhra Pradesh:State has issued a GO on providing assistance to the families of corona victims in Andhra Pradesh. Collectors were instructed to give Rs 15,000 towards funeral expenses to the families of the deceased coronavirus patients and Rs 5,000 to those who donate plasma after getting well. The Centre lauds Anantapur District Collector for taking measures to contain coronavirus. 7822 new cases, 5786 discharges and 63 deaths reported yesterday in the State. Total cases: 1,66,586; Active cases: 76,377;  Deaths: 1537.
• Telangana:Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad has decoded 400 whole-genome sequences and submitted them to global database of SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus). Of the 2,000 genome sequences submitted to GISAID database from India, majority are from CCMB. 1286 new cases, 1066 recoveries & 12 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 1286 cases,  391 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 68,946; Active cases: 18,708; Deaths: 563; Discharges :49,765.
• Manipur:  Social Welfare Minister of Manipur, Shri KipgenNemcha inaugurated District COVID Care Centre at DIET Centre, Leikop, Kangpokpi.JNIMS hospital authority in Manipur said that all the health care workers including doctors and nurses and other support staff have been provided with adequate PPE, N-95 masks, face shield, gloves and hand sanitizers etc. to avoid accidental infection to corona warriors.
• Mizoram: In Mizoram the much-awaited inauguration of the 'Thenzawl Golf Resort' was conducted virtually by Hon’ble Minister of Tourism (IC) Shri Prahlad Singh Patel today. The project is implemented under SwadeshDarshan Scheme.
• Nagaland: In Nagaland 276 new Covid 19 positive  cases have been confirmed today. Out of them 187 from Dimapur& 89 from Mon.
• Sikkim: 95 new cases of Covid-19 patients reported  in Sikkim today. Total active cases in the State  stands at 473. Cumulative cases so far 761 with 1 casualty. So far, 28089 tests were carried in Sikkim.

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