COVID-19 recovery rate at 49.21%, recoveries higher than active cases: Health Ministry

Union Health Ministry on Thursday said coronavirus recovery rate among patients in India has risen to 49.21% and ted that  number of patients recovered presently exceeds number of active patients.

"We are witnessing a rise in recovery rate in country. Today, our recovery rate is 49.21%. number of patients recovered presently exceeds number of active patients," Joint Secretary in Health Ministry, Lav Aggarwal said.

India's total COVID-19 tally on Thursday stood at 2,86,579 of which 1,37,448 are active. 8,102 people have died thus far while 1,41,029 have recovered.

RE | COVID-19: Telangana BJP Holds TRS Govt Responsible For 'triggering' Community Transmission 

RE | Coronavirus Live Updates: India's Recovery Rate At 49.21%; Active Cases At 1,37,448

Comparison misleing, misconstrued

Touching upon subject of India overtaking or countries like Italy and Spain in COVID-19 tally, official said comparison of India with countries having lesser population "becomes misleing and misconstrued".

"Many times we compare absolute numbers (of COVID-19 cases) with or countries and say that number re is high or low. I would like to point out that sometimes this becomes misleing and misconstrued. When we compare, we should compare with countries having a population equivalent of ours. We cant compare with countries having less population than ours," Lav Aggarwal said.

Although it is worth ting that only country that comes close to India's population figure (130 crores) is China, with at least 140 crore citizens, and third most populous nation on planet is United States with around 32 crore people. Health Ministry didn't specify which country with a "population equivalent of ours" is well suited to be compared with India.

According to Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tally, India has fifth highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in world. list is topped by US, followed by Brazil, Russia, and Great Britain.

RE | US May See 200,000 Coronavirus Deaths In September, Says Expert

RE | Delhi Civic-bodies Claim '2000 COVID Deaths Till Date', While State Govt Reports 984 De