Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : November 22, 2020 11:41 AM IST
Not wearing of masks in Delhi would attract a fine of Rs 2,000.
It has been almost a year now when the coronavirus outbreak begun in China's Wuhan city, but the world is still struggling to find its cure. So far, the novel coronavirus has infected over 57 million people and caused death of more than 1 million lives worldwide, as per the World Health Organization (WHO) data. In India, COVID-19 cases have crossed 9 million-mark and as many as thousands of people have lost their lives to this condition. According to data on the Union Health Ministry website, as of November 22, total cases in the country now stands at 90,50,597, including 1,32,726 deaths. Maharashtra has 79,268 active coronavirus cases, the highest in the country, followed by Kerala with 67,954and Delhi with 40936.
Maharashtra remains India's worst Covid-19 hotspot, but the state witnessed a drop in deaths on Saturday. Maharashtra's Covid deaths dropped to 62 on Saturday after staying in three-digit figures for three days this week. Overall death toll now stands at 46,573.
However, the state continued to cross the 5,000-mark for the fourth day, with 5,760 new infections recorded on Saturday. With this Maharashtra's total Covid tally has reached 17,74,455 cases as of Saturday.
The good news is that 28 of the state's 36 districts recorded zero fatalities, including hotspots like Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Latur, Nanded, Kolhapur, Sangli and Ratnagiri, among others.
While the mortality rate improved slightly to 2.62 per cent, the state's recovery rate dropped marginally, from 92.89 per cent to 92.82 per cent. Still the total number of recoveries is much higher than the active cases currently present in the state.
Meanwhile, the number of recovered patients outnumbered new cases in Delhi for the second day in a row on Saturday. The national capital reported 5,879 new infections against 6,963 recoveries in the last 24 hours. On Friday too, recoveries had outnumbered new cases by 2,167.
However, fatalities remain a worry. Delhi recorded 111 deaths on Saturday and 118 deaths the day before, according to the official data from the Health Ministry.
In view of the alarming death rate, the Kejriwal government has directed health teams to visit Covid-19 patients who are in home isolation and ensure they follow all norms. The state government has also ramped up the capacity of RT-PCR testing capacity to 37,000 tests per day. In addition, 411 ICU beds have been added in hospitals run by the Delhi government and the Centre in the last five days. The Delhi government had already announced reservation of 80% of ICU beds in private hospitals for Covid-19 patients.
On Friday, the Delhi government issued a warning that spitting and consumption of tobacco in public places, violation of Covid-19 quarantine rules, not wearing of masks and not maintaining social distancing would attract a fine of Rs 2,000.
In Karnataka as well, Covid recoveries exceeded new cases. On Saturday, as many as 1,799 Covid patients got discharged taking the total number of discharges in the state to 8,34,968. On the same day, 1,781 more people tested Covid-19 positive and 20 persons succumbed to the virus. With this, Karnataka's tally of total number of infections rose to 8,71,342 and the death toll to 11,641.
On Saturday, Andhra Pradesh witnessed 1,765 recoveries, increasing the total recoveries to 8.39 lakh. Meanwhile, 1,160 fresh coronavirus cases were reported in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of Covid cases to 8.61 lakh.
Gujarat on the other hand reported the highest coronavirus cases in a day so far on Saturday. Out of the 70,388 samples tested on Saturday, 1,515 turned out to be positive, taking the state's coronavirus tally to 1,95,917. The state also recorded nine deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing total toll to 3,846.
With inputs from agencies
