India reported the biggest single-day jump in the number of COVID-19 patients on Wednesday with 5,611 new cases in the last 24 hours taking the country’s tally to 106,750, union health ministry said, reports the Hindustan Times.
The number of deaths had also gone up after 140 COVID-19 patients succumbed to the respiratory disease between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to the health ministry’s dashboard at 800am. So far, 3,303 people have died.
The recovery rate now stands at 39.62 per cent as 42,297 people recovered from COVID-19, data showed.
The number of coronavirus disease cases had doubled in nearly two weeks — up from 49,391 on May 6 to 106,139 on Wednesday as the country entered the third day of the fourth phase of the lockdown. The lockdown is scheduled to end on May 31.
A new study had found that higher temperature and humidity might do little to arrest the spread of the coronavirus pandemic adding to a growing body of literature that indicated the correlation between local climate conditions and virus transmission was weak.
The study by scientists at Princeton University and the US National Institutes of Health also suggested the lack of sizeable immunity to the Sars-Cov-2 virus and the speed of the pathogen ensured that climate and humidity had limited impact on transmission. It was published in the journal Science on Monday.
A batch of studies during the initial surge of the pandemic had held out hope that drier and colder climates were more suited to the virus, and that the weather in tropical countries might hobble the spread to the disease.
Previous research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the US National Academies of Sciences also said that while there was some evidence that Sars-CoV-2 transmitted less efficiently in higher ambient temperature and humidity, this did not lead to a significant decrease in disease spread without major interventions, such as personal protection and social distancing.
