Is India finally gaining an upper hand over the Covid-19 pandemic? After weeks of new cases hitting 90,000-plus every day, the tide seems to be turning, as the number came down to 75,083 on Tuesday, and the recoveries were not only higher than that but crossed the 1 lakh mark too.

The country has thus 55,62,663 confirmed cases so far, whereas 44,97,867 people have recovered including 1,01,468 who recovered during the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, according to the health ministry bulletin. The trend of a high number of single-day recoveries has sustained for the past four consecutive days.

The number of active cases have gone down by 27,438 to 9,75,861. Officials attributed the improvement to the stress on more testing. “There has been an early detection, early isolation, seamless hospitalization – all this has been made possible because of an exponential increase in #COVID19 testing infrastructure in the country,” an official said in the daily media briefing.

On Monday, close to a million (9,33,185) samples were tested, taking the total so far to 6,53,25,779.
Maharashta (15,738) leads the states when it comes to daily new cases, whereas Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu complete the top five most affected states.

As many as 79% of the new recovered cases are being reported from ten states/UTs. They are: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Delhi, Kerala, West Bengal and Punjab.

Maharashtra continues to lead with more than 32,000 (31.5%) new recovered patients. Andhra Pradesh contributed more than 10,000 to the single day recoveries.

India’s landmark achievement of recording the maximum number of recoveries has positioned it as the top country globally.

The continuous streak of very high level of recoveries in the country is a testimony of the proactive and graded strategy of ‘Test, Track, Treat’, an official release said. The effective clinical management and treatment protocols issued by the union government have been updated from time to time with the emergence of new medical and scientific evidence.

The union government has also allowed for rational use of ‘Investigational Therapies’ like Remdesevir, convalescent plasma and Tocilizumab. Adoption of measures such as proning, use of high flow oxygen, non-invasive ventilation, and use of steroids and anti-coagulants have resulted in a high recovery rate in Covid patients. Other measures have supplemented the effective Covid management through supervised home/facility isolation for mild/moderate cases, improved ambulance services of for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment.

The health ministry in active collaboration with AIIMS, New Delhi has been conducting the 'National e-ICU on Covid-19 Management' exercise which handholds ICU doctors of state/UT hospitals through the Centres of Excellence. Held twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, these tele-consultation sessions have played a crucial role in India's high recoveries and steadily declining case fertility rate. So far, 20 such National e-ICUs have been held covering 278 hospitals of 28 States/UTs across the country.

The centre has been deputing multi-disciplinary teams to support and assist efforts of the state/UT Governments. Regular high level review has ensured adequate availability of medical oxygen in hospitals and health facilities across the country. These have together have played a critical intervention role in India’s high recoveries and maintained low Case Fatality Rate (CFR), which currently stands at 1.59%.

PM to Review status and preparedness of 7 states/UT

On Wednesday, Prime minister Narendra Modi will chair a virtual meeting with the chief ministers and health ministers of seven Covid high burden states/UT to review the status and preparedness of Covid response and management. These states/UT are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Punjab.

More than 63% of the active cases of the country are concentrated in these seven states/UT. They also account for 65.5% of the total confirmed cases and 77% of the total deaths. Along with the other five states, Punjab and Delhi have reported an increase in the number of cases being reported recently. Maharashtra, Punjab and Delhi are reporting high mortality with more than 2.0% Case Fatality Rate (CFR). Other than Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, their positivity rate is observed to be above the national average of 8.52%.