Coronavirus update: India records lowest deaths in over 2 months

India’s novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) tally climbed to 7,306,674 with 67,735 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, according to covid19india.org. At least 6,382,758 people have recovered from the disease so far.

• India reported 67,791 new COVID-19 cases and 690 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to covid19india.org. A total of 111,266 people have died so far.      
• The 690 casualties recorded were the lowest since July 27, when 642 deaths were recorded in 24 hours, according to the crowdsourcing initiative. 
• Fresh infections, as on October 14, stayed below the 70,000-mark for the fourth consecutive day. The country had recorded 74,418 cases on October 10, according to covid19india.org. 
• The world had 38,747,126 total cases of COVID-19 as on October 14, according to worldometer. At least 1,096,888 people have died of the virus.
• Cinema halls and theatres in the national capital opened October 15 — after being shut for nearly eight months. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority last month gave nod to start operations with 50 per cent seat occupancy.
• The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan October 14 raised concern that the recent global increase in new COVID-19 infections will be followed by rising deaths that currently number around 5,000 every day, according to Reuters.
• “Mortality increases always lag behind increasing cases by a couple of weeks. We are still losing approximately 5,000 people a day...so we shouldn’t be complacent that death rates are coming down,” Swaminathan said during a WHO social media event.
• The Group of 20 nations (G-20) on October 14 agreed to extend the suspension of debt payments by an additional six months to support the most vulnerable countries in their fight against the pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
• The suspension of $14 billion in debt payment would give developing nations until the end of June 2021 to focus spending on health care and emergency stimulus programmes, it added.
• The WHO on October 14 said most transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is still happening inside households.  Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO infectious disease epidemiologist said: “Most transmission is actually still happening in households. This we knew from the beginning, from the outbreaks that were detected in China. And one of the most important things that they did in China was recognising this, and then isolating individuals who were infected outside of the home.”

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