Over 10 lakh recovered COVID patients, 1.9 times of active cases: Health Ministry

The number of recovered coronavirus patients crossed the 10-lakh mark on Thursday and is now 1.9 times the total active cases while the fatality rate has dropped to 2.21 percent, the Union Health Ministry said.

Addressing a press briefing, Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said 21 states and Union Territories have case positivity rate less than 10 percent, while in four it is less than five percent.  The COVID-19 positivity rate in Rajasthan is 3.5 percent, Punjab 3.9 percent, Madhya Pradesh 4 percent, and Jammu and Kashmir 4.7 percent, he said.  

While 32,553 patients have been discharged in a span of 24 hours across the country, the total recoveries have jumped to 10,20,582 and stand at 64.44 percent amongst COVID-19 patients, he said.  There are 5,28,242 active cases of coronavirus infection at present in the country and all are under medical supervision, the official said.

"India has achieved the landmark of more than 10 lakh recoveries from COVID-19. This is a testament to the sheer dedication to duty and selfless sacrifice of doctors, nurses and all frontline healthcare workers which has made such a tremendous recovery of COVID-19 patients a reality. This is an occasion when we must stand up and applaud their contribution," Bhushan said as he rose from his chair and clapped for them.

Coordinated implementation of COVID-19 management strategy by the Union, state and UT governments has ensured that the recoveries are continuously on the rise with 1 lakh recoveries at the start of June to more than 10 lakh as on Thursday, he said.

"The successful implementation of effective containment strategy, aggressive testing and standardized clinical management protocols based on a holistic standard of care approach have in a seamless manner resulted in a consistent trend of more than 30,000 recoveries/day for the seventh day in a row," the ministry said in a statement.  "There has been a continued increase in the average daily recoveries from around 15,000 in the first week of July to around 35,000 in the last week," it said.

Bhushan said 16 states and UTs including Delhi (88.99 pc), Assam (76.68 pc), Telangana (74.27 pc), Tamil Nadu (73.85 pc), Gujarat (73.06 pc), Rajasthan (70.76 pc) and Madhya Pradesh (69.47 pc) have recovery rates better than the national average.   The OSD also stressed that effective clinical management has led to a decline in COVID-19 case fatality rate from 3.33 percent on June 18 to 2.21 percent on July 30.  "India's case fatality rate is 2.21 pc, as against 4 pc globally, and is amongst the lowest in the world. Case Fatality Rate in Mexico and the UK are five and seven times higher, respectively, as compared to India," Bhushan said.

Also, 24 states and UTs including Assam (0.25 pc), Bihar (0.60 pc), Andhra Pradesh (1.01 pc), Tamil Nadu (1.60 pc), Rajasthan (1.67 pc), Karnataka (1.91 pc), Uttar Pradesh (1.98 pc) have lower case fatality rate than national average, he said.

Bhushan said the 'test, track and treat' strategy has shown good results in terms of managing the situation by curbing the spread of infections and keeping the mortality low.

Guidelines on effective surveillance and tracking of close contacts of positive cases are available.

"We have repeatedly told state governments that in 80 pc of the new positive cases it is possible to track their close contacts within the first 72 hours. Delhi government has shown that it can be done and other states should emulate that," he said.

The combined and focused efforts of Union and state and UT governments have resulted in ramped up testing across the country to ensure early detection and isolation of COVID-19 positive cases, the ministry said in the statement as the number of tests for detection of coronavirus infection in India crossed 18 million.The average daily tests (on a rolling week on week basis) have increased from 2.4 lakh in the first week of July to more than 4.68 lakh in the last week of July.

The enhanced testing infrastructure has led to a sharp increase in the cumulative testing from 88 lakh total tests till July 1 to nearly 1.82 crore till July 30, he said, adding that the Tests Per Million (TPM) rate has subsequently increased to 13,181.

The testing lab network in the country has been strengthened with 1,321 labs in the country as on date with 907 labs in the government sector and 414 private labs, the official said. As many as 31 states and UTs are performing more than 140 tests per day per million population.   

India saw a record single-day increase of 52,123 infections pushing India's COVID-19 tally to 15,83,792, while the death-toll climbed to 34,968 with 775 people succumbing to the disease in a day, the health ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.