New Delhi: A total of 7,633 new Covid-19 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours in the country, marking a significant dip from Monday when 9,111 cases were reported, as per the daily health bulletin released on Tuesday (April 18) by the Union Health Ministry. It said that the active caseload currently stands at 61,233. Active cases are 0.14 per cent of the total cases reported in the country. As per the health bulletin, the daily positivity rate currently stands at 3.63 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stands at 5. 04 per cent.
With 6,702 recoveries in the last 24 hours, the total number of recoveries stands at 4,42,42,474 with a recovery rate standing at 98.68 per cent.
The total Covid vaccine doses administered in the country under the nationwide vaccination drive are 220.66 crores with 749 doses administered in the last 24 hours.
The total number of tests conducted so far currently stands at 92.43 crores with 2,11, 029 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh reported 57 fresh cases of Covid-19 infection in the last 24 hours, according to a daily bulletin released by the state health depart on Tuesday. With this, the number of active cases in the state have gone up to 322, it said. 57 new patients of COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours and the total number of active cases in the state stands at 322.
Speaking to ANI, Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said,
We are keeping a check on each and every patient. We are providing them better treatment.
“We have also conducted mock drills in the past to look after the arrangement and facilities to deal with any surge in Covid-19 cases. We have all possible arrangements in place for the same,” Minister Sarang added.
Bhopal district hospital superintendent Dr Rakesh Shrivastava said,
The COVID-19 cases are continuously increasing in the state capital.
“40 new cases were reported in the past 48 hours here,” he added.
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Puducherry
A 73-year-old man died of COVID-19 in Puducherry and 84 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, a senior health official said on Tuesday. The patient hailing from neighbouring Nellithope was admitted to the government hospital on April 4 and died on April 13 due to COVID pneumonia pushing up the overall Coronavirus deaths to 1,979, Director of Health G Sriramulu said in a release today.
The active cases were 503. Of them, 12 were in hospitals (one in Government General hospital, three in Government Hospital for Chest diseases and eight in COVID care centres) and the remaining 491 patients were in home quarantine, he said.
The Union Territory tested 1,073 samples in the last 24 hours and 84 new cases were reported. Puducherry region alone accounted for 64 cases while Karaikal registered 18 followed by Yanam two and Mahe region three cases.
G Sriramulu said that the Health Department had so far screened 25,00,633 samples and found 21,31,030 of them to be negative. A total of 93 patients recovered during the last 24 hours and the overall recoveries were 1,74,529, he said.
The test positivity rate was 7.83 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.12 per cent and 98.60 per cent, respectively.
COVID-19 In India
Amid the recent upsurge in Covid cases, medical experts have warned that the new XBB1.16 variant is able to evade the immune system of the people and the upcoming four weeks are very crucial.
Former director of AIIMS, Delhi, Dr Randeep Guleria, on Saturday, said while the country was seeing a fresh surge in Covid-19 infections, the situation isn’t one to induce panic.
Amidst a gradual spike in COVID-19 cases in several states, mock drills were undertaken on April 10 and 11 in a total of 33,685 health facilities, including 28,050 government facilities and 5,635 private health facilities.
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Earlier this month, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said lawyers are free to appear virtually in court in the wake of the rising number of Covid cases.
CJI Chandrachud said newspaper reports show that Covid cases are on the rise and if a lawyer wants to appear virtually before the court they can and the hybrid mode is also on.
“We saw newspaper reports on rising Covid cases. Lawyers can use hybrid mode. If you choose to appear online, we will hear you,” said the CJI earlier in the month
The Supreme Court had reverted to the physical hearing mode of adjudication of cases from April 4, 2022, after taking into account the low infection rate and the number of Covid cases in Delhi and across the country.
The apex court has been successfully experimenting with the hybrid method — a combination of physical and virtual hearing for quite some time.
The Supreme Court has also started live-streaming the Constitution bench proceedings through the Supreme Court app and YouTube even after the resumption of physical hearings.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
