India’s COVID-19 recovery rate nears 70 pc, case fatality rate falls below 2 pc: Health Ministry

New Delhi, August 11

Effective clinical management of coronavirus cases has resulted in the rise of recovery rate to nearly 70 per cent while the case fatality rate has fallen below 2 per cent for the first time since the lockdown was imposed on March 25 and currently stands at 1.99 per cent, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press briefing, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the active COVID-19 cases, which comprised 88.83 per cent of the total caseload on March 31, have reduced to 28.21 per cent as on date.

The national recovery rate had risen to 69.80 per cent due to effective and prompt clinical management of COVID-19 cases, he said.

“The case fatality rate has fallen below 2 per cent for the first time since the first lockdown. It presently stands at 1.99 per cent. It is continuously declining,” Bhushan said.

From 7.35 per cent on April 7, the recovery rate increased to 27.41 per cent on May 5. It further rose to 48.47 per cent on June 9 and stands at 69.80 per cent as on date, the official said.

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“The case fatality rate, which was 3.33 per cent on June 18 and 2.72 per cent on July 10, has declined to 1.99 per cent as on date,” Bhusan said.

Bhushan added that over 2.5 crore COVID-19 tests had been conducted in the country so far and India is currently conducting 18,320 tests per million population.

“There are 24 states and Union territories which have better tests per million than the national average. Goa is conducting 94,773 tests per million population, while Delhi is performing 65,397 tests, Tamil Nadu 41,178, Andhra Pradesh 39,224, Karnataka 26,201, Maharashtra 21,968 and Rajasthan is conducting 19,327 tests per million population,” he said.

The country also touched a new peak in testing by conducting 7,19, 364 tests on August 9, he said.

The health secretary said according to the WHO guidelines, 140 COVID-19 tests per million population must be carried out in a day.

“We are doing more than four times the ideal set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). India’s tests per day per million population stands at 506 and there are also states which are carrying more than the country's average. First three among them are Goa, Delhi and Tamil Nadu,” Bhushan said.

“One important thing here is when you are conducting 140 tests per day per million, you also have to target that the positivity rate comes down to 10 per cent and then further to 5 per cent or less than that. In states where despite high testing, the positivity level remains high, we advise them that they should increase the number of tests and for a longer period continue to do so,” he said.

The level of testing has to be seen in conjunction with the rate of positivity prevailing in a particular area, he said.

With more patients recuperating and being discharged from hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have jumped to 15,83,489 with 47,746 patients getting discharged in a span of 24 hours, the Ministry said.

“With a consistent and sustained increase in recoveries, the gap between recovered patients and active COVID-19 cases has reached nearly 9.5 lakh. India’s ‘test, track and treat’ strategy is showing the desired result — the gap between the percentage of recoveries and percentage of active cases of COVID-19 is growing every day,” the ministry said.

Focus on improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, use of non-invasive, improved and coordinated services of ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment, had resulted in the seamless efficient management of COVID-19 patients, it said.

“As a result, the case fatality rate (CFR) has been low when compared to the global average,” the ministry said.

India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 22,68,675 with 53,601 fresh cases being reported in a day while the death toll climbed to 45,257 with 871 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the Health Ministry data updated at 8 am on Tuesday showed. PTI

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