J&K govt to allow maximum of 5,000 pilgrims daily to visit Vishno Devi shrine

Even as India recorded 53,601 new infections and 871 deaths in the last 24 hours, the health ministry in its latest briefing on Tuesday said that India’s recovery rate rose to 69.8 per cent due to effective and prompt clinical management of COVID-19 cases. It also said that the deaths as a proportion of known infected cases has been falling consistently, and has dropped below 2 per cent for the first time now. It is is currently at 1.99 per cent, said Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

The country’s coronavirus tally rose to 22,68,676. Of the 22,68,676 cases, 15,83,490 recovered, while 28.21 per cent (6,39,929) were still being treated. The fatalities stood at 45,257.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a virtual interaction with chief ministers of 10 states to take stock of the Covid-19 situation. These states, which have 80 per cent of India’s Covid-19 cases, were Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. During the meeting, PM Modi said India was heading in the right direction, and that the states could defeat the virus by working together. Some chief ministers, meanwhile, sought bigger financial packages from the Centre to tackle the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday said his country had registered the first vaccine for Covid-19. The vaccine, developed by Gamaleya Institute, has received approval after less than two months of human testing. Putin said his daughter had been inoculated, and hoped the country would soon start mass producing the vaccine.

Global cases rose 20,011,186 on Tuesday, according to a tally by John Hopkins. The virus has spread to over 210 countries and territories since it first originated in China’s Wuhan in December 2019. The global death toll due to the disease stands at nearly 732,000. The United States has reported the highest number of cases (5,088,516), followed by Brazil (3,057,470) and India.