India's COVID-19 case fatality rate drops to 2.38 pc
For the third day in a row, the number of COVID-19 recoveries in a 24-hour span saw another record high, with 34,602 patients having recuperated pushing the recovery rate to 63.45 per cent, the Union health ministry said on Friday. The case fatality rate has further declined to 2.38 per cent, it said. According to data updated at 8 am, the total recoveries have climbed to 8,17,208, while there are 4,40,135 active cases of coronavirus in the country at present, the ministry said as the COVID-19 tally surged to 12.87 lakh.
India also saw a record single-day spike of 49,310 COVID-19 cases while the death-toll mounted to 30,601 with 740 new fatalities, the data said.
The ministry said as a result of a constantly growing number of recoveries, the recovered patients outnumber the active cases of coronavirus infection by 3,77,073. "This difference is showing a progressively growing upward trend."
Further, a cumulative total of 1,54,28,170 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to July 23. On Thursday, 3,52,801 samples were tested.
"This translates to 1,1179.83 tests per million (TPM) for India, which has seen a steady increase since the adoption of the 'test, track and treat' strategy," the ministry said.
India had 6,396 tests per million on July 1, 7,989 TPM on July 10, 8,995 on July 15, and 10,180 on July 20.
The rise in TPM has been achieved with a steady increase in the number of laboratories -- 1,290 so far -- and efforts by the Centre and state governments and union territory administrations to facilitate widespread testing through an array of options, it noted.
From 1,056 labs on July 1, there are now 1,290 labs, out of which 897 are in the government sector and 393 are private.
As for the country registering an increasing number of recoveries, the ministry said that efforts of states and union territories are bolstered by the central teams of experts sent to high caseload areas and through strategic discussions held by the Central government through video conferencing with state and district officials.
"With the dedicated efforts of healthcare workers, the recoveries are improving and case fatality is continuously falling, which currently stands at 2.38 per cent," the ministry said.
The sustained rise in the number of recoveries is the result of a well-formulated and executed strategy of containment of COVID-19 by the state and union territory governments under the guidance of the Union government.
It primarily focuses on early detection through aggressive testing along with house-to-house surveys, contact tracing and surveillance of SARI/ILI cases to actively search for cases in the highly vulnerable categories.
This is followed by effective containment plans and efficient clinical management through the ramped up three-tier health infrastructure and well-executed standard of care protocol.
These have successfully aided ineffective treatment in the hospitals and through home isolation which in turn has ensured that the hospitals remain unburdened for critical patients, the ministry said.
