India's Covid Tally Breaches 59-Lakh Mark With 85K New Cases, 1,089 Deaths Recorded In 24 Hrs

India's COVID-19 case tally crosses the 59-lakh mark with a spike of 85,362 new coronavirus cases and 1,089 deaths in the last 24 hours.

A health official takes a swab sample from a woman to test for the Covid-19 Coronavirus at a testing point in Allahabad on September 21, 2020. (Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA / AFP)

Coronavirus in India: India’s coronavirus tally crossed 59 lakh-mark on Saturday after a spike of 85,362 fresh cases were reported, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday. The country has 9,60,969 active cases. Also Read|Global Covid-19 Fatalities May Reach 2 Million-Mark Before Vaccine Is Available For Wide Use: WHO 1,089 fresh deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking India’s Covid-19 toll to 93,379 on Saturday. The total coronavirus cases in the country stand at 59,03,933 with 85,362 new cases as per the Ministry of Health data. The total cases include 9,60,969 active cases, 48,49,585 cured/discharged/migrated. The recovery rate stands at 82.14 percent.

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????#COVID19 India Tracker (As on 26 September, 2020, 08:00 AM) ➡️Confirmed cases: 59,03,932 ➡️Recovered: 48,49,584 (82.1%)???? ➡️Active cases: 9,60,969 (16.3%) ➡️Deaths: 93,379 (1.6%)#IndiaFightsCorona#IndiaWillWin#StaySafe Via @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/Uniuu89jXT — #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) September 26, 2020

ICMR: 7.02 crore samples tested so far

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said, “7,02,69,975 samples have been tested up to 25th September for COVID-19. Of these, 13,41,535 samples were tested yesterday.” With 59 lakh cases, India is second in the world with the most number of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has over 70 lakh confirmed cases so far. Among the states, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected in India with over 12 lakh coronavirus cases and nearly 35,000 deaths. Maharashtra is followed by Andhra Pradesh, which has over 6.5 lakh coronavirus cases and over 5,500 deaths. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that more than 5 million people have been infected with coronavirus in India but the healthcare system has shown great efficiency in providing diagnostic and management facilities as well as keeping the mortality at ‘minimum’ and recovery at ‘maximum’.

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✅India's #COVID19 recovery rate improves to 82.14% as on September 26, 2020 ????Steady improvement in India's COVID-19 recovery rate since #lockdown initiation on March 25, 2020#IndiaFightsCorona@ICMRDELHI Via @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/t8eHW9RXJr — #IndiaFightsCorona (@COVIDNewsByMIB) September 26, 2020

Harsh Vardhan was speaking at an event to mark the 65th Foundation Day of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on Friday when he made the observations. He said the country’s continuously rising Covid-19 recovery rate and progressively falling case fatality rate have proven the success of the containment strategy followed by all states/UTs. Harsh Vardhan also said, “We have successfully ramped up our testing capacity which has touched nearly 15 lakh milestone today with more than 1,800 testing labs spread across the country.”

Johnson & Johnson vaccine boosts immunity against Covid-19 in trials

A single dose of Johnson & Johnson's experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response against the novel coronavirus in an early-to-mid stage clinical trial, according to interim results published on Friday. The vaccine, called Ad26.COV2.S, was equally well-tolerated at two different doses, the results showed. A single shot, versus a rival two-dose approach being tested by Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc, could simplify the distribution of the vaccine. However, it is unclear whether elderly people, one of the populations most at risk from the virus, will be protected to the same degree as younger people with the J&J vaccine. The trial in close to 1,000 healthy adults, which is backed by the U.S. government, began after the J&J vaccine was found in July to offer strong protection in a single dose to monkeys.