Covid cases in India past 7,000-mark, 6 more deaths
New Delhi: With six more deaths on Wednesday, the Covid toll in the country has gone up to 74. The total number of active cases in India has crossed the 7,000 mark.
Of the latest fatalities, three were from Kerala, two from Karnataka and one from Maharashtra.
Official sources maintained that most cases are mild and being managed under home care. At the same time, Centre has directed all states to check facility-level preparedness and ensure availability of oxygen, isolation beds, ventilators, and essential medicines as a precautionary measure.
The sources had said on June 4 that state and district surveillance units under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) are closely monitoring Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases. "Testing is recommended for all admitted SARI cases and 5 per cent of ILI cases as per guidelines and positive SARI samples are being sent for Whole Genome Sequencing through the ICMR VRDL network," they added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
37,00,000 a year, 10,000 per day: The startling scale of dog bites in India
India's dog bite crisis is spiralling into a serious public health challenge, with numbers that experts describe as deeply alarming. In 2024 alone, the country recorded 37.17 lakh dog bite cases — averaging more than 10,000 incidents every single day. These figures reveal a widening gap between the Centre's goal of eliminating rabies by 2030 and the realities on the ground. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Rabies deaths: A stark data gap Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads A post-covid rise in cases Dog bite surge & death toll Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Grim situation in NCR Rabies is preventable, but… India's dog bite crisis is escalating at a pace that public health experts find deeply alarming. In 2024 alone, the country recorded 37.17 lakh cases, an average of over 10,000 dog bites every single day. This surge points to a growing gap between disease prevention goals and on-ground one looks at official rabies death figures, the contrast is startling. Government data for 2022 recorded just 21 rabies WHO, using Indian government and other domestic sources, reported 305 deaths for the same year, as per The Times of WHO's modelling estimates 18,000–20,000 deaths annually in India -- more than 36% of global rabies fatalities. Most of these victims are children under 15, a group especially vulnerable to stray dog per ToI analysis, dog bite cases dipped during the Covid years -- from 75.7 lakh in 2018 to just 17 lakh in 2021 -- but have surged again since, touching 37.2 lakh in leads the tally with 13.5 lakh cases between 2022 and 2024, followed by Tamil Nadu (12.9 lakh) and Gujarat (8.4 lakh).As per the latest available census data from 2019, Uttar Pradesh had the highest stray dog population in India at 20.6 lakh, followed by Odisha with 17.3 and Rajasthan each reported 12.8 lakh strays, while Karnataka had 11.4 lakh.A total of 26,334 dog bite cases have been reported in Delhi so far this year, official data accessed by PTI shown. Of these, 9,920 cases were recorded at Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) hospitals, while 15,010 cases were reported at its anti-rabies vaccination (ARV) data indicates that 68,090 dog bite cases were recorded in the city in 2024. As of July 31 this year, Delhi has reported 49 cases of rabies, according to the data. Between January 25 and June 25, more than 65,000 stray dogs have been sterilised and vaccinated. During the same January–June period, the capital saw 35,198 animal bite incidents in civic body has earlier announced plans to sterilise and vaccinate 97,994 dogs between April 2024 and December 2025. In comparison, 79,959 dogs were sterilised in 2023–24 and 59,076 in the preceding has emerged as one of the most worrying hotspots, logging 3.6 lakh dog bites and 42 rabies deaths in 2024 alone. In just the past six months, the state recorded 2.3 lakh incidents and 19 deaths. Kerala too has seen a sharp spike in to ToI, Gurgaon has an estimated 50,000 stray dogs but only two operational shelters, each with a capacity of 50 animals, and two more under Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023, which require sterilised dogs to be returned to their original locations, have meant that large-scale shelter infrastructure was never Ghaziabad, the last census counted 48,000 stray dogs. Noida's situation is more severe -- with no official census, estimates put the stray population as high as 1.5 lakh, but the city has only four private shelters. In the past seven months alone, Noida has reported 73,754 street dog bite is 100% preventable if victims receive prompt and complete post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). Yet, India's combination of a vast stray population, patchy vaccination coverage, and poor public awareness continues to keep death rates Centre has pledged to eliminate rabies by 2030, aligning with global health goals. But with millions of dog bites annually and a fatality burden vastly underreported, experts warn that bridging the gap between policy and practice will require sustained vaccination campaigns, strict stray control measures, and public education inputs from ToI
Indian Express
10 hours ago
- Indian Express
Lumpy skin disease: 339 cattle dead in 5 districts of Maharashtra, 93% vaccination completed
As many as 9,8230 cattle have been affected by the latest outbreak of the lumpy skin disease in Maharashtra, resulting in the death of 339 of them, according to the Animal Husbandry department, which has claimed vaccination of 93 per cent of the state's cattle population against the disease. The viral disease is characterised by the development of skin nodules on various parts of the animal's body, including the head, neck, limbs, udder, and genitals, along with discharge from the eyes and nose. The disease also causes mobility issues in animals and a drastic reduction in milk production among the cattle. While those that survive develop lifelong immunity, vaccination is the only effective way to protect the cattle population from the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV). Pravinkumar Deore, Commissioner of Animal Husbandry, said they have begun vaccinating calves as well. 'The animals in Maharashtra have almost achieved herd immunity. We are now focusing on the few strays that may have missed vaccination,' he said. The present outbreak is now centred around Pune, Satara, Solapur, Ahilyanagar and Jalgaon districts of Maharashtra. The Animal Husbandry department has stated that, unlike previous outbreaks, this one is much milder and is restricted to only certain pockets. Previously, it was believed that maternal immunity was transmitted during pregnancy in animals, but the department has now begun mass immunisation of calves as well. Lumpy Skin Disease was almost alien to India until 2019, when outbreaks occurred in several districts of Odisha. In 2023, lumpy skin disease led to the death of over 8,000 cattle in India. Rajasthan and Gujarat were epicentres of the disease back then. The Centre then directed state governments to undertake mass-scale immunisation of animals using the vaccines available in the market. Meanwhile, Maharashtra is set to become the first state in the country to develop its own vaccine for the disease, named Lumpi-ProVac. This vaccine is currently being developed at the Animal Husbandry department's institute in Aundh. 'The vaccine is in its trial stage, and we expect commercial rollout to begin in December,' said Deore. —-
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Time of India
CDSCO notifies draft standard evaluation protocols for issuing IVD licenses
New Delhi: India's medical device regulator, CDSCO in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued draft standard protocols for evaluating In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) devices quality and performance, to be used for issuing licenses. The protocols are meant to be followed by the country's IVD manufacturers testing labs and the regulator has sought stakeholders' comments over the notified draft by August 25. 'These protocols are now being placed in the public domain for comments from relevant stakeholders. This window of opportunity will close on 25th August 2025, and, once finalized, there will be minimal scope for change in these documents,' the notice reads. The 180-page document details the standard performance evaluation and field evaluation protocol for 15 types of IVDs including Dengue, Malaria, Influenza virus, Nipah virus, Chandipura virus, SARS-CoV-2 molecular detection differentiation assay, among several others. In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) are medical devices used to test samples such as blood, urine, or tissue outside the human body, to diagnose diseases, conditions, or infections, and to monitor a person's health based on predefined bio markers. Under the Medical Device Rules of 2017, 'Licensure of In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) requires a detailed evaluation protocol for the performance evaluation of IVDs to evaluate their quality and performance.' The evaluation protocol helps to test the device safety, sensitivity, and accuracy, to validate the device clinical and analytical performance, required for issuing the product license, thereby allowing its usage in the country. In India the ICMR develops evaluation protocols to standardize the process of assessing the performance of diagnostic kits, particularly In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) and the CDSCO oversees the evaluation and enforcement of the protocols.
