India has three times more recovered patients than active Covid-19 cases

On a steady march, country conducts record high of more than 9 lakh tests in a single day

GN Bureau | August 21, 2020


#Covid-19   #coronavirus   #healthcare   #health ministry   #states   #testing   #recovery rate   #fatality rate  
File photo of a KVIC campaign in Rajasthan to create awareness about Covid-19 precautions
File photo of a KVIC campaign in Rajasthan to create awareness about Covid-19 precautions

India has been for some time leading the world in terms of daily fresh Covid-19 cases, but the number of recoveries is also rising and so is the number of tests.

As on Thursday, the country recorded 69,652 new cases, while 58,794 people recovered. The fatalities in the 24-hour period were 977, taking the total so far to 53,866. The number of active cases rose by 9,881 to 6,86,393.

With more patients recovering and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), India's total Covid-19 recoveries have reached 20,96,664.

This has been made possible because of effective implementation of the policy of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively & treating efficiently, the health ministry said in a bulletin. Focus on Standard of Care protocol including use of non-invasive oxygen, better skilled doctors in the ICUs and hospitals, and improved ambulance services have culminated in yielding the desired results.

India's Recovery Rate has reached 73.91%, reflecting that the number of patients recovering is on a steady rise over the past several months. India has posted more than 14 lakh (14,10,269) recoveries than the active cases (6,86,395 which are under active medical care). The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country viz. the active cases, has reduced and currently comprises only 24.19% of the total positive cases.

Early identification through testing, surveillance & contact tracing along with focus on timely and appropriate clinical treatment of Covid-19 patients have ensured that not only is the Case Fatality Rate is lower than the global average and progressively declining (the current figure is 1.89%), but also a small proportion of the active cases are on ventilator support.

The recent weeks have seen the number of daily tests registering new highs every day, and during the 24 hours to Thursday morning, the figure crossed 9 lakh to reach 9,18,470 tests. India is poised to see an exponential increase towards its resolve of testing 10 lakh samples daily, the health ministry said in an update. The cumulative tests so far are 3,26,61,252.

An expanded diagnostic lab network across the country and effective measures to facilitate easy testing have given a substantial boost to the present numbers. As a result of these focused actions, the Tests Per Million (TPM) have seen a sharp increase to 23668. The TPM continues to maintain the constant upward trend.

With constantly increasing testing numbers, there has been a commensurate fall in the positivity rate. Although higher number of tests will push the positivity rate initially, but as the experience from several states/UTs has amply depicted, it will eventually lower when combined with other measures such as prompt isolation, effective tracking and timely clinical management.

As the national average falls below 8%, there are 26 states/UTs that are reporting lower rates than the national average.

There has been a steady rise in the national network of diagnostic labs too. With 977 labs in the government sector and 517 private labs, the lab infrastructure has been enhanced to 1494 labs today.
 

 

Comments

 

Other News

‘We were under an Emergency…’

The Undying Light: A Personal History of Independent India By Gopalkrishna Gandhi Aleph Books, 624 pages, Rs 999 Go

Recalling the day the Emergency ended

Saving India from Indira: The Untold Story of Emergency, Memoirs of J. P. Goyal  Edited by Rama Goyal Rupa Books, 284 pages, Rs 500  Since Independence, India has deviated from democratic life only once—during the twenty-one months of I

How health camps offer great learning opportunity for medical students

“They also serve who only stand and wait.” This phrase of poet John Milton sums up the essence of quiet service, those individuals, without any titles or acknowledgement, contributing to society. For medical students, serving in public health camps is just such a quiet and transformati

Is BharatNet digging too deep?

India’s ambition to become a digitally empowered society rests on the premise that every citizen, regardless of geography, should have access to reliable and affordable internet. At the heart of this mission is BharatNet, a flagship programme launched by the government of India to provide high-speed

WAVES Summit: A Global Media Powerhouse

In 2019, at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema, prime minister Narendra Modi had expressed his wish to have a forum of global repute similar to the World Economic Forum, Davos, for India’s media and entertainment (M&E) industry. That wish became reality with the WAVES Summit in

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now





Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter