India’s COVID-19 tally reached 3,805,32 on Friday according to ministry of health data. Out of this 1,63,248 cases are active and 2,04,710 cases have been recovered. The death toll due to the virus has reached 12,573, reports The Statesman.
India has reported 13,586 cases and 336 deaths in the last 24 hours.
With the number of patients requiring hospitalisation for COVID-19 rising in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government will have to increase the number of ICUs and ventilators to cater to them.
A day after the World Health Organization (WHO) halted trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients, finding it did not reduce the mortality rate India has decided to discontinue the HCQ arm of the Solidarity Trial at 22 trial sites.
Globally, 8,464,739 people have been infected with the virus and 4,53,290 people have died due to it, according to Johns Hopkins University tracker.
As pharmaceutical firms rush to find a vaccine for the virus, the WHO on Thursday said that a few hundred million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be produced by the end of the year, and be targeted at those most vulnerable to the virus. The UN health agency said it was working on that assumption, with a view to two billion doses by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, with resurge of coronavirus cases in China, the United States on Thursday questioned its credibility on reporting fresh coronavirus cases in Beijing and called for neutral observers to assess the extent of the outbreak.
China has locked down the capital as it seeks to prevent a second wave of the virus, reporting 158 cases since a fresh cluster was detected last week. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged for greater transparency during talks on Wednesday in Hawaii with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi.