Coronavirus: Latest Updates

Date 20th October 2020 COVID Live updates

Wednesday, 21st October 2020

The past one month has shown new developments in India in terms of the coronavirus cases. Since the daily spike peaked in mid-September, the growth rate of infections has more than halved. It has come down from 92% prior to September to 18-42% now.

There are several treatment options for Covid-19 now, most of which depend on the severity of illness that varies from patient to patient. For instance, dexamethasone can reduce the risk of dying in patients who are taken seriously ill by the virus, but may work on the contrary for those who are only mildly ill.

In America, the National Institutes of Health regulates guidelines as new studies are released. However, there are no treatments that have been officially authorized for Covid-19 except for a few that can be used on an emergency basis alone while several others are under consideration. Drugs like the hydroxychloroquine is completely discouraged as they affect the immune system and various studies have proven them to be ineffective against this virus.

The UK is on its way to begin a controversial experiment that entails the infecting of healthy volunteers with coronavirus in order to hasten up the study and in turn the development of a vaccine. Although it sounds perilous, champions of this method say it will act as a much needed catalyst and have better chances of producing faster results, than the standard procedures.

In India, as per reports from the Union Health Ministry, the total number of active Covid-19 cases now stands at 7,48,538, while 67,33,328 people have recovered from it. In the last 24 hours, the country has recorded 46,791 new Covid-19 cases & 587 deaths.

The states of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala have contributed more than 5,000 to the new confirmed cases. Moreover, it has been seen that 78% of the new recovered cases are from 10 particular states and UTs while 75% of the new confirmed cases are also concentrated in 10 particular states and UTs.

Source: Times of India