Amid spiralling coronavirus cases in the national capital, a banquet hall in central Delhi's Daryaganj has become the first such facility to be turned into a COVID-19 care centre. The facility has been linked with Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, the biggest COVID-dedicated hospital in Delhi. Shehnai banquet hall, the 100-bed facility, will have more than 50 healthcare workers and all services at the centre will be free of cost for the patients.
Irfan and Yusuf have been providing COVID-related help.
The active cases have further reduced to 31,29,878, comprising 12.14 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 86.74 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The highest single-day spike in Delhi till the third wave of the pandemic -- 8,593 cases -- was reported on November 11 in 2020, while on November 18, the city had recorded 131 COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day fatality count till date.
With as many as 2,30,599 COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,26,581) and Delhi (1,07,051).
A total of 1,96,427 new coronavirus infections were reported in a day, the lowest in around 41 days, while the death toll climbed to 3,07,231 with 3,511 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 21 days, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Delhi's previous biggest daily jump of 28,395 cases was recorded on April 20 last year.
Registering a steady increase for the 34th day in a row, the number of active cases rose to 12,64,698, or 9.24 per cent of the total infections.
This is the second day in a row that the case positivity rate has remained below 10 per cent, the ministry said. The weekly positivity rate has also declined to 11.45 per cent.
Chairperson of the COVID Task Force for All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Naveet Wig on Thursday said that the COVID-19 crisis is 'a dynamic situation' and to prevent a third wave of the pandemic, there is a need to keep changing strategies.
He further said that only a marginally high proportion of COVID-19 patients are of younger age and that the average of patients in the first wave was 50 years and in this wave, it is 49 years. He also said that the older population continues to be more vulnerable to be admitted in the hospital in the current wave.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up state governments for failing to disburse claims to the next of kin of COVID-19 victims, and issued a show cause notice to the Andhra Pradesh chief secretary as to why contempt action be not initiated against him.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total of 92,97,749 samples were tested for COVID-19 up to July 2, with 2,41,576 of those tested on Thursday.
The country has recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the fourth consecutive day. India went past Russia on Sunday to become the third worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.
'A good 30 per cent of people will still get infected after getting the Covishield vaccine.'
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the bank will start working in the next two days, adding that the Aam Aadmi Party government will encourage those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma.
'And they are going to be milder because we are dealing with the vaccinated and are much richer in terms of the immune response in the population.'
'If we again become complacent at the end of the second wave, we are going to suffer more as it will be even more intense.'
As the death toll in the country from coronavirus jumped by a record 445 to 13,699, the Centre maintained that the number of infections per lakh population was among the lowest in the world. The new cases surged by over 10,000 for the 11th day in a row and rose by 14,821 to take the total to 4,25,282, according to health ministry data.
'If you don't have a strong political leadership, however much expertise a country may have, in pandemic preparedness or infectious disease, will not matter.' 'It's really about having strong political leadership, that is proactive, that prioritises taking the right action.' 'And if you don't have that, then you will have a much worse pandemic experience.'
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
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