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Health

India Now Has More Than One Lakh Coronavirus Cases

A total of 134 deaths and 4,970 COVID-19 cases were reported in the country in the past 24 hours.

New Delhi: The number of coronavirus cases crossed the one lakh mark in the country on Tuesday, while the death toll due to the infection touched 3,163, according to the Union health ministry.

A total of 134 deaths and 4,970 COVID-19 cases were reported in the country in the past 24 hours since 8 pm on Monday, it said. The total number of coronavirus cases has risen to 1,01,139, the ministry said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 58,802 while 39,173 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

“Thus, around 38.73% patients have recovered so far,” a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

Of the 134 deaths reported since Monday morning, 51 were in Maharashtra, 35 in Gujarat, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Delhi, seven in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, four in Madhya Pradesh, three in Tamil Nadu, two each in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and one each in Bihar and Telangana.

Of the 3,163 fatalities, Maharashtra tops tally with 1,249 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 694 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 252, West Bengal at 244, Delhi at 168, Rajasthan at 138, Uttar Pradesh at 118, Tamil Nadu at 81 and Andhra Pradesh at 50.

The death toll reached 37 each in Karnataka and Punjab and 35 in Telangana.

Jammu and Kashmir has reported 15 fatalities due to the disease, Haryana has 14 deaths while Bihar has registered nine and Kerala and Odisha each have reported four deaths.

Jharkhand, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh each have recorded three COVID-19 fatalities, while Assam has reported two deaths.

Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Puducherry have reported one fatality each, according to the data provided by the ministry.

According to the ministry’s website, more than 70% of the deaths are “due to co-morbidities”, the existence of multiple disorders in the same person.

According to the health ministry’s data updated in the morning, the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 35,058, followed by Tamil Nadu at 11,760, Gujarat at 11,745, Delhi at 10,054, Rajasthan at 5,507, Madhya Pradesh at 5,236 and Uttar Pradesh at 4,605.

Also read: COVID-19 in South Asia: India Lags Behind Pak on Stimulus, Lanka on Overall Performance

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 2,825 in West Bengal, 2,474 in Andhra Pradesh and 1,980 in Punjab.

It has risen to 1,597 in Telangana, 1,391 in Bihar, 1,289 in Jammu and Kashmir, 1,246 in Karnataka and 928 in Haryana.

Odisha has reported 876 coronavirus infection cases so far, while Kerala has 630 cases. A total of 223 people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 196 in Chandigarh.

Tripura has reported 167 cases, Assam has 107, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh have 93 cases each, Himachal Pradesh has 90 and Ladakh has registered 43 cases so far.

Goa has reported 38 COVID-19 cases, while the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has registered 33 infections.

Puducherry has registered 18 cases, Meghalaya has 13 and Manipur has seven cases. Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli have reported a case each till how.

“814 cases are being reassigned to states,” the ministry said on its website, adding “our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR”.

State-wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

Global numbers

Across the world, there have now been 4,805,430 confirmed cases around the world as of Tuesday morning.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 318,554.

In many countries, official data includes only deaths reported in hospitals, not those in homes or nursing homes.

The US has recorded 1,508,867 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus. Russia is in second place with 290,678 cases, followed by Spain (278,188) and Brail (255,368).

Deaths in the US climbed to 90,367, the highest in any country, followed by the UK (34,876), Italy (32,007), France (28,242) and Spain (27,709). The death toll has also been high in Brazil (16,853), Belgium (9,080), Germany (8,003), Iran (7,057). In China, 4,638 people have died due to COVID-19.

Nearly 13% museums around the world may never reopen

Nearly 13% of the museums around the world may never reopen, the UN’s cultural agency has warned, as about 90% of them globally have had to close their doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the occasion of International Museum Day Monday, two studies by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the International Council of Museums (ICOM) said that museums have been especially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 90% of them, or more than 85,000 institutions, having closed their doors for varying lengths of time during the crisis.

Furthermore, in Africa and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS), only 5% of museums were able to offer online content to their audiences.

Nearly 13% of museums around the world may never reopen, the agencies said in a statement.

The two studies, involving member states and museum professionals, were aimed at assessing the impact of COVID-19 on museums and museum institutions.

They also aimed to find out how the sector had adapted to the pandemic and explore ways to support institutions in its aftermath.

Glimmer of hope

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine made by Moderna Inc, the first to be tested in the United States, produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, according to very early data released by the biotech company on Monday.

The vaccine has gotten the green light to start the second stage of human testing. In this Phase II, or midstage, trial designed to further test effectiveness and find the optimal dose, Moderna said it will drop plans to test a 250 mcg dose and test a 50 mcg dose instead.

Reducing the dose required to produce immunity could help spare the amount of vaccine required in each shot, meaning the company could ultimately produce more of the vaccine.

(With agency inputs)