India has been registering more new cases of Covid-19 infection than any other country for the past seven days, yet its rigorous push on testing and thus on early identification is bearing fruits, with the case fatality rate (CFR) going further down to 2.1.

In a new high, India has scaled the peak of testing more than 7 lakh people in a single day. As many as 7,19,364 tests were done in the 24 hours to Sunday evening, continuing the streak of more than 6 lakh tests in a single day.

A high level of testing also leads to a high number of positive cases (on Sunday India added 64,300 cases), but states have been advised to firmly focus on comprehensive tracking, prompt isolation and effective treatment, following the strategy of Test, Track, Treat. Several meetings have been taken in the past week between the centre and the states that are showing higher fatality rate.

With the highest ever single day recoveries of 54,859 in the 24 hours to Monday morning, India’s Covid-19 recoveries crossed the historic peak of 1.5 million on Sunday. (The number of recoveries, however, has remained below the number of new infections, leading to more active cases.) Recovery of 15,35,743 patients has been made possible because of the policy of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently.

The Recovery Rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has scaled another high of almost 70%.

The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country: the number of active cases has reduced and currently comprises only 28.66% of the total positive cases. India has posted more than 9 lakh recoveries than the active cases (6,34,945).

The widening difference between recovered and active cases, indicative of the higher number of recoveries as compared to those either in hospitals or in home isolation, is 8,52,137 as on Sunday.

The coordinated efforts of centre and state/UT governments on early detection through aggressive testing and efficient clinical management of hospitalized cases have shown results with continuously regressing Case Fatality Rate. It is 2%, as on date, and steadily declining. Early identification of cases has also led to steeply falling percentage active cases.

With 861 deaths on Sunday, India’s total Covid-19 fatalities so far stand at 43,379. There have been a total of 21,53,010 infection since the start of the pandemic, and 14,80,884 of them have recovered. There are  6,28,747 active cases as of Sunday evening.

Early identification helps to ensure timely and prompt isolation of the mild and moderate cases and hospitalisation of the severe and critical cases thereby leading to effective management of cases.

It is important to note that the Covid-19 infection still remains concentrated in 10 states that contribute more than 80% of the new cases. The aggressive testing and tracking through house-to-house surveys and well implemented containment strategies and surveillance in these areas may lead to an initial increase in positive cases. However, well implemented strategies will ensure it reduces over time.