More than 3.04 crore masks of N95 variety and more than 1.28 crore personal protection equipment (PPE) kits have been distributed by the centre to states and union territories (UTs) as part of their joint fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since 11th March 2020, more than 10.83 crore HCQ tablets too have been distributed to them, a health ministry release said on Thursday.

“Along with augmenting Covid-19 facilities, the union government has been providing medical supplies free of cost to the state/UT governments to supplement their efforts,” the release said. “Most of the products supplied by the government of India were not being manufactured in the country in the beginning. The rising global demand due to the pandemic resulted in their scarce availability in the foreign markets.”
 
With the combined efforts of the ministries of health, textiles and pharmaceuticals, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other agencies, the domestic industry has been encouraged and facilitated to manufacture and supply essential medical equipment like PPEs, N95 masks and ventilators during this period. As a result, resolve for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’ has been strengthened and most of the supplies made by the Union Government are domestically manufactured.

Record highest single-day recoveries: Highest single-day tests
With focus on increasing testing, India continues to add 50,000-plus cases of Covid-19 infections every day, but it is also registering higher and higher recoveries, leading to a fall in fatality rates.

The record highest single day recoveries at 56,110 registered in the 24 hours to Wednesday evening are the result of the successful implementation of effective containment strategy, aggressive and comprehensive testing coupled with standardized clinical management of the critical patients based on holistic Standard of Care approach, an official release said.

Wednesday registered 60,963 fresh cases, even as 56,110 patients recovered. There were 834 deaths in the 24-hour period, taking the total fatalities to 46,091.

The coordinated efforts of the centre and state/UT governments have resulted in continuously increasing average daily recoveries. In the first week of July the daily average recovered cases were at 15,000 which jumped to more than 50,000 in the first week of August.

With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 16 lakh mark to 16,39,599. The Recovery Rate has reached another high of 70.38%.

The actual case load of the country is the active cases (6,43,948) which is only 27.64% of the total positive cases. They are under active medical supervision. With a consistent and sustained increase in recoveries, the gap between recovered patients and active Covid-19 cases has reached nearly 10 lakh.

Focus on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, use of non-invasive, improved and coordinated services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment have resulted in seamless efficient patient management of Covid-19 patients. As a result, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) has been low when compared to the global average. It is currently standing at 1.98%.

India's ‘Test, Track, Treat’ strategy has achieved another peak with 7,33,449 tests done in the last 24 hours. This has taken the cumulative tests to more than 2.6 crore. The TPM has jumped to 18,852.