States told to focus on recoveries
As the fatality rate has declined to 2.04 per cent, the Union Government on Saturday directed state governments to focus on efforts to further reduce the Covid-19 mortality due. The Union Health ministry, meanwhile, pointed that focused efforts have resulted in the recovery rate rising to 68.32 per cent.
With a single-day rise of 61,537 cases, the country's coronavirus tally has reached 20,88,611 while the death toll rose to 42,518 with 933 fresh fatalities being reported in a day.
According to the Health ministry, India has one of the lowest cases per million at 1,469 as against the global average of 2,425.
“With focused efforts to reduce mortalities, India has registered one of the lowest deaths per million at 30 as compared to the global average of 91 deaths per million,” said the health ministry.
There has been a sharp increase in Covid-19 recoveries. With 48,900 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, the country’s total recoveries has reached 14,27,005. The recovery rate, on a steady upward rise, stands at 68.32 per cent. The active cases, which are the actual case load for India at 6,19,088 account for 29.64 per cent of the total positive cases.
Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan chaired two high-level virtual meetings on Friday and Saturday to engage with the states reporting with high case load and higher Case Fatality Rate (CFR) than the national average.
Saturday’s meeting focused on 13 districts concentrated in eight States or Union Territories.
“These districts account for nearly 9 per cent of India’s active cases and about 14 per cent of deaths.
They also report low tests per million and high confirmation percentage,” it said.
The Centre advised those states to address the issues of low lab utilisation, less than 100 tests per day for RT-PCR and 10 for others; low tests per million population; decrease in absolute tests from last week; delay in test results; and high confirmation percentage among the health care workers.
They were advised to ensure timely referral and hospitalization in view of reports from some districts of patients dying within 48 hours of admission.