(TibetanReview.net, Apr20’21) – India now has more than 2 million (20 lakh) officially recorded active cases of Covid-19, currently the second-highest number in the world after the US. The count crossed the grim milestone on Apr 19, having nearly doubled in just the last 10 days, reported the timesofindia.com Apr 20. The country is already reporting the world’s highest daily new cases. Also, a major outbreak has been reported at a Tibetan settlement in India.
The report said active cases had seen nearly a 3.5-fold increase in April, rising from around 5.8 lakh on Mar 31 to 20.3 lakh on Apr 19.
After having previously ruled out carrying out universal vaccination, India has now decided to open it for everyone above the age of 18 from May 1. States, companies, and private hospitals will get 50% of supplies, said another timesofindia.com report Apr 20.
States will be free to decide the age bar for any category of people above 18 (for example a particular state may adopt the 18-plus norm or set an age bar of its choosing). Meanwhile, the central programme of vaccinating all above 45 will continue with the shots given for free in government hospitals, the report noted.
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The latest data from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare show that there were 259,170 new Covid-19 cases and 1,761 new deaths in the country in the past 24 hours recorded on Apr 20 at 8 AM, taking their cumulative totals to 15,321,089 cases and 180,530 deaths respectively.
A total of 13,108,582, or 85.56%, had recovered while the number of active cases was 2,031,977, or 13.26% of the total. However, the case fatality has further fallen to 1.18%.
The active caseload was at its lowest at 1,35,926 on Feb 12 comprising 1.25% of the total infections.
The latest daily number of new cases, at 259,170, was substantially higher than the daily number of those who had recovered, at 154,761, leading to a big jump in the number of active cases by 102,648.
Twenty-two states/Union Territories have reported more than 1,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (58,924), Uttar Pradesh (28,211), Delhi (23,686), Karnataka (15,785), Chattisgarh (13,834), Kerala (13,644), Madhya Pradesh (12,897), Rajasthan (11,967), Gujarat (11,403), Tamil Nadu (10,941), West Bengal (8,426), Bihar (7,487), Haryana (6,842), Andhra Pradesh (5,963), Telangana (5,926), Punjab (4,622), Odisha (4,445), Jharkhand (4,290), Uttarakhand (2,160), Himachal Pradesh (1,695), Assam (1,367), and Jammu and Kashmir (1,516).
Seven other states/Union Territories have reported more than 100 new cases in the last 24 hours, namely Goa (940), Chandigarh (612), Puducherry (565), Dadra And Nagar Haveli And Daman And Diu (299), Ladakh (175), Lakshadweep (117), Meghalaya (108).
Twenty-five states/Union Territories have reported 4 or more Covid-19 deaths each in the last 24 hours, namely Maharashtra (351), Delhi (240), Chattisgarh (175), Uttar Pradesh (167), Gujarat (117), Karnataka (146), Punjab (83), Madhya Pradesh (79), Rajasthan (53), Jharkhand (46), Tamil Nadu (44), Bihar (41), West Bengal (38), Haryana (33), Andhra Pradesh (27), Uttarakhand (24), Kerala (21), Telangana (18), Goa (17), Himachal Pradesh (13), Assam (7), Jammu and Kashmir (6), Puducherry (5), Odisha (4), and Chandigarh (4). The rest of the states/Union Territories have reported 1 or less deaths.
India is currently the country with the world’s second highest number of Covid-19 cases and the fourth highest number of deaths in cumulative numbers.
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The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases among Tibetans in India, Nepal and Bhutan has remained unchanged at 2,011, according to the tally of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on its Tibet.net website Apr 20. Of them, 1,660 had recovered, 303 were active and 48 had died.
Menawhile reports sugest that 138 Covid-19 infections had been detected at Dekyiling Tibetan Settlement in Dehradun after Apr 11. Settlement head Norbu has dismissed suggestions that the infections may have been spread during a Sikyong candidate election campaign meeting on Mar 31. The settlement with some 1,500 Tibetan residents remains under indefinite lockdown Since Apr 16.
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Across the world the number of Covid-19 cases totaled 142,142,960 and the deaths 3,031,236, according to the tally of Johns Hopkins University as of Apr 20, 2021 at 3:50 PM.
