Coronavirus | Single-day spike continues its trend for the seventh day on Monday

6,977 new infections reported along with 154 deaths. Recovery rate also up, says Health Ministry

India’s single-day spike continued its trend for the seventh day on Monday with over 6,900 new COVID-19 cases being reported along with more than 150 deaths.

While this is the highest 24-hour spike so far, the tally now stands at 1,44,659 cases, 79,959 active cases, 60, 530 cured and 4,170 deaths.

COVID-19 | Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India

The Union Health Ministry said that in the last 24 hours, 3,280 patients were found cured which takes the recovery rate to 41.57%.

Talking about the status of containment, the Ministry said prior to lockdown on March 25 , the doubling rate was 3.2 measured over 3 days, 3.0 measured over seven days and 4.1 measured over 14 days.

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“Now it stands at 13.0 over a three-day window, 13.1 over a seven-day window and 12.7 over a 14-day window. Similarly, the fatality rate stands at 2.9% while the recovery rate has improved to 41.57%. Clearly, the situation has improved due to the lockdown. This also reflects the quality of the healthcare being provided to the patients,” it said.

Complaints of hoarding, higher pricing of N-95 masks

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) on Monday said it has received complaints of hoarding, black-marketing and differential higher pricing of N-95 masks.

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“The NPPA has directed authorities concerned to take appropriate action while striving to ensure uninterrupted supply of the masks in adequate quantity. The government is procuring the largest chunk of the masks directly from the manufacturers/importers/suppliers at bulk rates. To address the issue of higher prices, the NPPA intervened to bring them down,’’ it said.

It said to ensure the availability of the masks at affordable prices, it issued an advisory to manufacturers to maintain parity in prices for non-government procurement and to make available at reasonable prices.

“Major manufacturers/importers of the masks have now reduced their prices significantly — up to 47% — leading to the availability at affordable prices,” it said.