Coronavirus update: 25 of 36 states / UTs record daily increase in cases

Russian President Vladimir Putin August 11, 2020 said his country had registered the first vaccine for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The vaccine, developed by Gamaleya Institute, has received approval after less than two months of human testing, according to news website Reuters.

Putin said: “I know that it works quite effectively, forms strong immunity, and I repeat, it has passed all the needed checks.” He added his daughter had been inoculated.

• COVID-19 cases crossed the 20-million mark globally August 11, 2020. At least 738,937 people have died in the pandemic. 
• The United States reported the highest number of cases (5,088,516), followed by Brazil (3,057,470) and India (2,223,418) as on August 11.
• India added 871 additional deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of fatalities rose to 45,257. The country accounts for 10 per cent of the global cases currently.
• Out of 36 states / Union territories, 25 are reporting a daily increase in new cases.
• The five states with the maximum number of active cases are: Maharashtra (145,865 active cases on August 10), Andhra Pradesh (87,112), Karnataka (80,981), Tamil Nadu (53,336) and Uttar Pradesh (47,890). Barring Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which have reported slight dips in number of news cases since August 9, the other three are reporting constantly higher number of new cases daily. All the top five states have been recording the highest number of new cases in the country, thereby adding exponentially to new cases every day.
• States such as Odisha, Bihar and West Bengal have been reporting hundreds of new cases every day for the last one month. Between August 9 and 10, these three states had 2,300 new cases — higher than 11 states / UTs including Delhi.
• Between August 9 and 10, at least 1,007 deaths were reported due to COVID-19 in the country. At least 44,386 have died in India due to the infection so far. Only eight states / UTs didn’t report any casualties due to COVID-19 in the 24 hours after August 10. These include Mizoram, Manipur and Sikkim.
• Maharashtra reported the highest number of deaths in a day in the country, despite reporting a slight dip in new cases. Close to 80 per cent of the deaths between August 9 and 10 were reported from the top five states with COVID-19 cases — Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
• Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video interaction with chief ministers of 10 states. He said there would be a new beginning and that India would win the COVID-19 battle. He said India was heading in the right direction, and that states could defeat the virus by working together.