National Coronavirus recovery rate crosses 61%
New Delhi: As the COVID-19 tally crosses 7 lakh-mark, the Union Health ministry on Tuesday claimed that India has one of lowest COVID-19 cases per million in the world and recovered cases nearly 4.4 lakh which exceed active cases by more than 1.8 lakh as the national recovery rate crosses 61 per cent. However, fatalities in India have crossed 20,000-mark and currently, it stands at 20,160 after 467 new deaths being reported in the last 24 hours.
With 22,252 fresh infections reported by the states on Tuesday, the total tally climbed to 7,19,665 while total recovery count stands at 4,39,948 after 15,515 new patients were cured in the last 24 hours.
Notably, the country has recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the fifth day in a row and the recovery rate has improved to 61.13 per cent while a mortality rate of as low as 2.78 per cent has been reported.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has tested a total of 1,02,11,092 samples, including 2,40,430 being tested in the last 24 hours. The testing facilities have been ramped up to 1,115.
Of the 467 deaths, 204 are from Maharashtra, 61 from Tamil Nadu, 48 from Delhi, 29 from Karnataka, 24 from Uttar Pradesh among others.
Maharashtra reported the highest number of cases at 2,11,987, followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,14,978, Delhi at 1,00,823, Gujarat at 36,772, Uttar Pradesh at 28,636.
India's total number of Coronavirus cases and fatalities per million population are one of the lowest in the world, the Union Health ministry added on Tuesday.
Referring to the WHO Situation Report-168 dated July 6, the ministry said India's COVID-19 cases per million population is 505.37 as against the global average of 1,453.25.
Chile has witnessed 15,459.8 COVID-19 cases per million population, while Peru has 9,070.8 cases per million people.
The US, Brazil, Spain, Russia, the UK, Italy and Mexico have 8,560.5, 7,419.1, 5,358.7, 4,713.5, 4,204.4, 3,996.1 and 1,955.8 cases per million, respectively, according to the WHO report. India has ramped up its hospital infrastructure to adequately and effectively manage Coronavirus cases, the ministry maintained.
The preparedness includes arrangement of oxygen support, ICU and ventilator facilities. As on July 7, there are 1,201 dedicated COVID hospitals, 2,611 COVID healthcare centres and 9,909 COVID care centres to look after patients with 'very severe' to 'very mild' Coronavirus symptoms, it said.
"Such level of preparedness has shown results in continuously improving the recovery rate and resulting in low case fatality rate," the ministry added.
"Early detection and timely effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases have resulted in increasing daily recoveries," it said.
In an inspiring success story, a 96-year-old woman in Karnataka has recovered from Covid and was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.
The elderly woman from Hiriyur, some 160 km from Bengaluru, was admitted on June 27. She contracted the highly infectious disease from a 65-year-old man — her primary contact.
State capital Bengaluru saw a 15.7 per cent increase in COVID-19 cases over the past weekend, data showed on Monday.