New Delhi, Sep 19 (UNI) As the Novel Coronavirus caseload increased to 53,08,015 across the country, the Rajya Sabha on Saturday passed a law, providing up to five years in jail for those attacking the doctors and healthcare workers engaged in duties during epidemics, such as COVID-19.
The Union Cabinet had promulgated the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020, to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, to protect the healthcare service personnel and property, including their living or working premises, against violence during the epidemics.
As per the Union Health Ministry, the country detected a spike of 93,337 new cases in the past 24 hours, while as many as 1,247 Coronavirus patients succumbed to the infection in the same period, pushing the country's death toll due to COVID-19 to 85,619.
The fresh cases included Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan and five MLAs of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly. The country currently houses 10,13,964 active cases.
However, as many as 95,880 patients have recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the number of cured to 42,08,432, the government data stated.
The recovered include Kerala Minister Jayarajan and his wife, who were discharged from KGMCH, after recovering from the contagion.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a cumulative 6,24,54,254 Covid-19 samples have been tested till date with 8,81,911 of them on Friday.
Maharashtra continued to remain the worst-hit state, with 3,01,273 active cases, followed by Karnataka with 1,01,148, Andhra Pradesh 84,423, Uttar Pradesh 67,825 and Tamil Nadu registering 46,506 patients.
Globally, India ranked a close second in terms of positive cases, with the US continuing to top the COVID charts, with 6,727,889 cases.
UNI team JTS RJ 2008