While India has crossed the one million mark in Covid-19 infections, remaining among the top three affected countries (along with the US and Brazil), its actual load of active cases is only a third of the total, with the number of recovered people above 6.1 lakh.

The actual caseload of Covid-19 patients in the country stood at 3,31,146 on Thursday when the country crossed the million mark.

The targeted measures have contributed to a steady decline in the number of active cases, the health ministry said in a release. “These contribute to a little more than a third (34.18%) of total cases detected so far. The actual case load of Covid-19 has remained limited and manageable in the country due to proactive measures of containment including house-to-house survey, perimeter control activities, timely contact tracing and surveillance of containment zones, aggressive testing and timely diagnosis, and effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well implemented standard of care protocol substantially increasing their chances of recovery.”

The ministry also underlined “a graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach under the ‘whole of government’ strategy adopted by the centre along with the states/UTs for prevention, containment and management of Covid-19. “The collective efforts are regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.”

The joint efforts by the centre and the state/UT governments of increasing the testing capacity, ramping up the health infrastructure, prioritizing surveillance in the SARI/ILI cases, and ensuring mapping of the aged population and people with co-morbidities have led to a continuous improvement in the recovery rates seen across India.

From mid-June, after crossing the 50% mark in Recovery Rate, there is a steady increase in the recovered patients and decline in the number of active cases. As many as 63.25% of the Covid-19 patients have recovered so far. Simultaneously, there has been a steady dip in the active cases, from around 45% in mid-June 2020 to around 34.18%, as of now.

A total of 20,783 people recovered during the last 24 to Thursday evening. The gap between recovered patients and active Covid-19 cases has further increased to 2,81,668.

The hospital infrastructure to treat Covid-19 consists of 1,381 Dedicated Covid Hospitals in Category I, 3,100 Dedicated Covid Healthcare Centres in Category II, 10,367 Covid Care Centres in Category III. They together have a capacity of 46,666 ICU beds.

The collaborative strategy among the centre and the states has also ensured that the growth of COVID cases in restricted to pockets in the country. Only two states, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, constitute 48.15% of the country’s total active case load. Of the total 36 states and UTs, only 10 States constitute 84.62% of the total active case load. The Centre continues to handhold these states in matters of containment and effective clinical management of the affected persons.