COVID-19 recoveries outnumber active cases by over 3 lakh

PTI, Jul 20, 2020, 9:15 AM IST

New Delhi: The number of recovered COVID-19 patients exceeds India’s active caseload by 3,04,043 as on Sunday, July 30 with 6.77 lakh people having recuperated from the disease so far, the Union Health Ministry said.

There has been a “sharp increase” of 23,672 COVID-19 patients recovering in the last 24 hours, the highest in a day, according to the ministry’s updated data updated at 8 AM.

“The total number of recovered cases is 6,77,422. The recovery rate as of now is at 62.86 percent,” the ministry said.

India’s COVID-19 case fatality rate is “progressively falling” and is currently at 2.49 percent, which is one of the lowest in the world, the ministry said on Sunday, crediting efficient clinical management of hospitalized cases for it.

Proactive measures like aggressive testing and timely diagnosis of the central, state, and union territory governments have helped in detecting cases early.

“Effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well-executed standard of care protocol has ensured a high rate of recovery among the COVID patients,” the ministry said.

Medical attention is being provided to all the 3,73,379 active cases, in hospitals and home isolation.

The country’s testing infrastructure has been substantially ramped up. The testing strategy prescribed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) allows all registered medical practitioners to recommend testing.

The Rapid Antigen Point of Care (POC) Test, coupled with the facilitation of widespread gold-standard RT-PCR based testing by states and UTs, has resulted in a surge in the number of samples tested. A total of 3,58,127 samples were tested on Saturday.

“With a total of 1,37,91,869 samples tested so far, the testing per million (TPM) for India has reached 9994.1,” the ministry said.

Consistently expanding diagnostic lab network now comprises 1,262 labs — 889 labs in the government sector and 373 private labs.

India saw a record single-day jump of 38,902 COVID-19 cases pushing its tally to 10,77,618 on Sunday, while the death count due to the disease rose to 26,816 with 543 fatalities being reported in a day, according to the data updated at 8 am.