India gets $3 million booster from Asian Development Bank to ramp up combat against deadly coronavirus

Under its Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund (APDRF) the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $3 million grant to India to support the government’s emergency response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

“The new grant complements ADB’s ongoing support to the Government of India in strengthening its COVID-19 response,” said ADB Director for Human and Social Development for South Asia Sungsup Ra. “This support will enhance disease surveillance and help in early detection, contact tracing, and treatment. This will be further supplemented by other public health measures.”

The grant, which is financed by the Government of Japan, will be used to procure thermal scanners and essential commodities to strengthen the Government of India’s COVID-19 response.

Meanwhile, India recorded 48,513 fresh coronavirus infections and 768 deaths linked to the highly contagious illness in the last 24 hours, which takes the country's tally to 15, 31,669 cases, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. 

A total of 9, 88,029 patients in the country have recovered so far and 34,193 have died since the beginning of the pandemic, government data shows. Today's spike in cases comes a day after India crossed 15 lakh cases.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat have reported the highest number of cases. However, infections are rising rapidly in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. Only 700 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Mumbai, while Pune recorded a spike of 2,618 cases.

Worldometer has recorded 247,233 new cases worldwide in the past 24 hours. 

As many as 16,883,445 people around the world have been diagnosed with Covid-19. While more than 10,445,764 have recovered 662,470 have died so far.

(With inputs from agencies)