Coronavirus update: India tally crosses 8 million mark

India’s tally of those infected by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crossed the 8 million mark October 29, 2020. The country has 8,039,434 total cases, of which 603,269 are active, according to covid19india.org.

The country recorded 50,225 COVID-19 between October 28 and 29 (1,075,760 tests conducted).

• The number has been steadily on the rise after recording a decline in the last few days: At least 43,036 more cases were recorded on October 27 (1,066,786 tests conducted); 36,104 on October 26 (958,116 tests conducted) and 45,922 (939,309 tests) on October 25, according to covid19india.org.
• A total of 120,570 people have died due to the virus in the country, with 514 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours.
• The fresh surge in cases has come as national capital Delhi recorded the highest single-day spike of 5,673 infections (60,571 tests conducted), taking the total tally to 370,014 of which 29,378 are active cases. The city had logged 4,853 cases a day before (57,210 tests conducted).
• The active-case ratio in the city is at 7.9 per cent. That is, for every 100 infected people, eight are currently infected. The fatality ratio is 1.7 per cent.
• The case fatality ratio was the highest in Maharashtra at 2.6 per cent, followed by Gujarat at 2.2 per cent. A total of 1,660,766 people have been infected in Maharashtra so far, of whom 43,554 have died. Gujarat has recorded 170,053 cases so far; 3,704 have died of the virus.
• As many as 71 seats went to polls in the first phase in Bihar, the first Indian state to hold elections amid the pandemic. As the turnout clocked 54 per cent, voters and polling officers defied COVID-19 norms by not adhering to social distancing and abandoning masks.    
• The global tally crossed the 44 million-mark, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. The World Health Organization said that two million COVID-19 cases were reported globally in the last one week.
• The United States continues to add more daily cases than India. As of October 28, it had 8,858,024 total cases. Brazil, which is the third-most affected country after US and India, has recorded 5,468,270 cases.
•  A COVID-19 vaccine may be available for some people before Christmas, Kate Bingham, chair of the United Kingdom government’s vaccine taskforce, said in an interview to BBC. She, however, added that early 2021 launch was more likely. Two phase III efficacy clinical trials are now underway in the UK — the Oxford AstraZeneca Plc vaccine and Novavax vaccine.
• The Serum Institute of India (SII), which has an agreement with AstraZeneca to manufacture the Oxford University vaccine, said on October 28 the vaccine candidate could be ready as early as December.
• Earlier, AstraZeneca said the vaccine candidate “produced a robust immune response in older adults and the elderly, those at highest risk of severe illness”.