New Delhi, Sept 02
With 47,092 people testing positive for COVID-19, India's total tally of cases rose to 3,28,57,937, while active cases have increased to 3,89,583, according to Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.
Densely populated Kerala, on India's southern tip, accounted for nearly 70% of the 47,092 new infections and a third of deaths, a week after it celebrated its biggest festival during which family and social gatherings were common.
The death toll has climbed to 4,39,529 with 509 more fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.The number of active cases has increased to 3,89,583 and comprise 1.19 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.48 per cent, ministry said.
The 509 new fatalities include 173 from Kerala and 183 from Maharashtra, the ministry said.
"With cases rising in Kerala, adequate steps should be taken to contain the inter-state spread of COVID-19," Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a statement after speaking with his state counterparts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which border Kerala.
He asked them to increase vaccination in the districts close to Kerala. India has so far administered 662 million doses, with at least one dose in 54% of its 944 million adults and the required two doses in 16%.
Vaccinations have soared in recent days as supplies have improved. And as more than two-thirds of Indians already have COVID-fighting antibodies, mainly through natural infection, experts think another national surge in cases will be less deadly than the last one in April and May when tens of thousands of people died and hospitals ran out of beds and oxygen.
Also offering hope is a recent non-peer-reviewed study done in Kerala that showed that one dose of the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) shot, the mainstay of India's immunisation drive, generates 30 times more antibodies in previously infected people than fully inoculated ones who never contracted the virus.
"A decently managed vaccination programme, along with the hybrid immunity we're seeing now, makes a massive third wave unlikely," said clinical immunologist and rheumatologist Padmanabha Shenoy, who led the study and was referring to the immunity from natural infection and one vaccine dose.
The federal government, nevertheless, has warned that like in Kerala, the rest of India could also see a rise in infections around the festival season starting this month and ending in early November.
Some parents are also worried about the reopening of physical classes – voluntary and mainly for middle school and above – in the capital Delhi and states like Gujarat.
India has so far reported about 32.9 million infections, the most in the world after the United States. Deaths went up by 509 on Thursday to a total of 439,529, which experts say is a massive undercount.
It said that 4,39,529 deaths have been reported so far in the country, including 1,37,496 from Maharashtra, 37,339 from Karnataka, 34,941 from Tamil Nadu, 25,082 from Delhi, 22,825 from Uttar Pradesh, 20,961 from Kerala and 18,459 from West Bengal.The health ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
The number of active cases has increased to 3,89,583 and comprise 1.19 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 97.48 per cent, ministry said.
It said that active cases increased by 11,402 in a span of 24 hours.
The weekly positivity rate has been recorded at 2.62 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 69 days, it said.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has increased to 3,20,28,825, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.
With 81.09 lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses being administered on Wednesday, the cumulative doses given in the country under the vaccination drive has reached 66.30 crore, according to the ministry.
India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 last year, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.
It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19 last year.India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23.