COVID-19 case tally rises over 26.47 lakh in India, death toll crosses 50,000

With 57,981 new cases, India's COVID-19 tally rose to 26,47,663 on Monday, while the death toll due to the disease crossed the 50,000-mark with 941 fresh fatalities, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from COVID-19 in India also went past 19 lakh on Monday with a record 57,584 patients recovering within a span of 24 hours. The recovery rate has rise to over 72 per cent, the data showed.

India's COVID-19 recoveries have reached 19,19,842, while the actual caseload, that is the number of active cases, stands at 6,76,900 as on date and comprises only 25.57 per cent of the total positive cases.

The total number of tests for detection of COVID-19 has crossed the three crore-mark in India, with the health ministry asserting that the "new landmark" has been achieved due to expanded network of diagnostic labs and facilitation of easy testing across the country.

A total of 3,00,41,400 samples have been tested until August 16 with 7,31,697 being examined on Sunday, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 50,921 with 941 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours. The case fatality rate has declined to 1.92 per cent.

According to a PTI tally, compiled with the data provided by various state governments, the country's tally of cases stood at 26,95,230, while the death toll was at 51,840.

The ministry in a statement said the high recovery rate is the result of successful and coordinated implementation of an effective containment strategy, aggressive and comprehensive testing coupled with standardized clinical management of critical patients.

India has followed a standard of care protocol for the differentiated categorisation of COVID-19 patients -- mild, moderate and severe as clearly formulated in the Clinical Management Protocol of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), it said.

Effective clinical management strategies have yielded positive results, the ministry said, adding that India has been marching firmly on the road to enhanced recoveries every day.

In a testament to the focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories, India has set a new landmark of conducting three crore tests, the ministry said in a separate statement on the number of tests crossing the three-crore mark.

Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a substantial boost to the testing capacity, it said.

"With 7,31,697 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, India is on its resolved drive to increase its testing capacity to 10 lakh tests daily. Building on this achievement, the Tests Per Million (TPM) have seen a sharp increase to 21,769," the ministry said.

While cumulative testing rose from 1.2 crore on July 14 to three crore on August 16, the positivity rate has seen a rise from 7.5 per cent to 8.81 per cent in the same period, the statement said.

"Although higher number of tests will push the positivity rate initially, but as the Delhi experience has amply shown, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, tracking and timely clinical management," the ministry said.

Noting that aggressive testing leads to early identification and isolation of COVID-19 positive cases, the ministry said this coupled with efficient clinical treatment brings the fatality rate down.

"Thus, enhanced and timely testing is not only keeping the positivity rate low but also the fatality rate low," it said.