India has been recording new highs in daily Covid-19 cases almost every day. Over the last week, it has added more than 53,000 cases and nearly 800 deaths every day on an average. With close to 1.8 million cases and 39,000 deaths as of August 4, India ranks third globally in terms of cumulative cases and fifth in terms of fatalities.

However, there’s also a silver lining to India’s bulging numbers. It has the lowest case fatality ratio (CFR), i.e. cases resulting in deaths, among countries worst affected by the pandemic. Not only that, India’s CFR has been declining since last month.

On Tuesday, the health ministry said India’s CFR has reached 2.1 per cent, the lowest since the country relaxed the nationwide lockdown on June 1. Addressing the press, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said “the decline (in CFR) is continuing, which is a good sign”.

At the beginning of June, India’s CFR was 2.83 per cent. It went up till 3.36 per cent on June 17, but since then, has been on a downhill journey. The last time India registered a CFR of 2.1 per cent was on March 28, in the first week of lockdown, when the country had 918 cases and 19 deaths.

India Today Data Intelligence Unit (DIU) analyzed CFRs of countries with over 20,000 Covid-19 deaths and found that India has the lowest CFR among worst-affected countries.

Though India’s situation is still not under control in the sense that its daily cases and deaths are rising, but in certain parameters, it is performing better than France, United Kingdom, Italy and Mexico.

Maharashtra: In a major relaxation in the lockdown norms, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai - MCGM said all shops in the city are allowed to remain open all days from Wednesday irrespective of the odd-even rule. Malls and market places will be allowed to work from 9 am to 7 pm. However, theatres, food courts/restaurants will continue to remain shut. The rate of COVID infection in Mumbai has since slowed down and the city is reporting under 1,000 cases on many days. Maharashtra, although has 1.47 lakh active cases.
Gujarat: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) has added four more areas in the Micro Containment Zone. Door to door surveillance and testing drive will be launched in these areas from Tuesday (today). AMC has also sealed city's Alfa mall for violating the norms of social distancing. Gujarat reported 1,009 new cases as well as 974 recoveries on Monday, leaving the active caseload at 14,614.
Rajasthan: 1,145 new COVID cases have been reported in Rajasthan taking the state tally to 45,555. However, the number of active cases is 12,785. The state government is planning to impose lockdown in Alwar, Barmer and Bikaner districts to contain the spread of infection.
Madhya Pradesh: In Madhya Pradesh, 588 police personnel, including officials, have tested positive and around 2,000 have been quarantined so far. The state reported 750 new cases on Monday
Chhattisgarh – RT-PCR based COVID tests have been started at the Ambikapur Medical College today. ICMR has recently allowed RTPCR test in the newly constructed high-level BSL-2 Lab of three medical colleges in the state, Bilaspur, Ambikapur and Rajnandgaon. Chhattisgarh has 2,503 active COVID cases.
Kerala: Three COVID deaths were reported in the state taking the death toll to 87. Various organizations in the health sector have come up against the govt.’s decision to hand over the responsibilities of COVID resistance to the police force. IMA, Kerala Government Medical Officers' Association, Health inspectors' Union, etc have opposed the decision. Meanwhile, State level nodal officer of COVID resistance activities, Vijay Sakhare IPS said that police will concentrate on stopping the disease transmission with a strategy including compulsory quarantine, tracing the source and marking containment zones with the accurate target. Kerala had confirmed 962 new positive cases yesterday. Currently, 11,484 patients are undergoing treatment and 1.45 lakh people under observation across the state.
Tamil Nadu: IIT-M and a healthcare start-up develop a device to monitor patients; the low-cost equipment has already been deployed to monitor 2,000 patients in hospitals in the city. Manpower shortage and virus fear to keep people away from dining-in; only a meager 20 per cent of the city’s hotels preferred to let customers in. COVID positivity rate increases to 8.39% in Coimbatore; according to health officials, the sudden surge in the positivity rate is attributed to the rise in fresh cases from hotspots.5609 new cases, 5800 recoveries & 109 deaths reported yesterday in TN. Total cases reported: 2,63,222 ; Active cases: 56,698; Deaths: 4241.
Karnataka: Former Karnataka CM Siddaramiah tests positive for Covid-19 after incumbent BS Yediyurappa. Difficult to restore normal functioning of courts soon, says Karnataka HC. Karnataka HC on Monday asked the Centre and State to make it clear whether or not services will be denied to people who have not downloaded the ArogyaSetu app. Karnataka drops to the third spot in top active COVID cases; the state’s recovery rate, too, has improved to 44.78 per cent from 42.81 per cent. 4752 new cases, 4776 discharges & 98 deaths reported yesterday. Total cases: 1,39,571; Active cases: 74,469; Deaths: 2594.
Andhra Pradesh: State has issued a GO on providing assistance to the families of corona victims in Andhra Pradesh. Collectors were instructed to give Rs 15,000 towards funeral expenses to the families of the deceased coronavirus patients and Rs 5,000 to those who donate plasma after getting well. The Centre lauds Anantapur District Collector for taking measures to contain coronavirus. 7822 new cases, 5786 discharges and 63 deaths reported yesterday in the State. Total cases: 1,66,586; Active cases: 76,377; Deaths: 1537.
Telangana: Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad has decoded 400 whole-genome sequences and submitted them to a global database of SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus). Of the 2,000 genome sequences submitted to the GISAID database from India, the majority are from CCMB. 1286 new cases, 1066 recoveries & 12 deaths reported in the last 24 hours; out of 1286 cases, 391 cases reported from GHMC. Total cases: 68,946; Active cases: 18,708; Deaths: 563; Discharges :49,765.
Manipur: Social Welfare Minister of Manipur, Shri KipgenNemcha inaugurated District COVID Care Centre at DIET Centre, Leikop, Kangpokpi.JNIMS hospital authority in Manipur said that all the health care workers including doctors and nurses and other support staff have been provided with adequate PPE, N-95 masks, face shields, gloves and hand sanitizers, etc. to avoid accidental infection to corona warriors.
Mizoram: In Mizoram, the much-awaited inauguration of the 'Thenzawl Golf Resort' was conducted virtually by Hon’ble Minister of Tourism (IC) Shri Prahlad Singh Patel today. The project is implemented under SwadeshDarshan Scheme.
Nagaland: In Nagaland 276 new COVID 19 positive cases have been confirmed today. Out of them 187 from Dimapur& 89 from Mon.
Sikkim: 95 new cases of Covid-19 patients reported in Sikkim today. Total active cases in the State stands at 473. Cumulative cases so far 761 with 1 casualty. So far, 28089 tests were carried in Sikkim