India records highest 1-day spike in recoveries at 63,631
TOTAL RECOVERIES CROSSED 2.2 MILLION, WITH RECOVERIES EXCEEDING THE ACTIVE CASES BY AT LEAST 1.5 MILLION, ACCORDING TO GOVERNMENT DATA
NEWDELHI:THE country on Saturday recorded the highest ever single day spike in recoveries with 63,631 coronavirus disease patients recovering from the viral infection.
This has to led a further decline in the case fatality rate, or deaths among people diagnosed with Covid-19, which stands at a new low of 1.87%.
The development came on a day the total Covid-19 cases in India crossed the 3 million mark.
On Saturday, the total recoveries crossed 2.2 million, with recoveries exceeding the active cases by at least 1.5 million cases, according to ministry of health data. Active cases comprise 23.43% of the Covid-19 cases in the country.
The recovery rate is 74.69%, with a high number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients being discharged from the hospitals and those with mild and moderate disease under home isolation being declared free from Covid-19.
An improved understanding of the disease and evolved treatment protocols have helped to reduce the number of critical patients in need of ventilator support, said clinicians.
“At the start of the pandemic in March and April, ventilation was the global standard of care given to Covid-19 patients, but over the months, we learned we could delay intubation by using new drugs and other treatment methods, such as awake-proning, where a patient is asked to lie on the stomach without ventilation. The fatality rate of Covid-19 patients on ventilation globally is 40%-70%, so treating them without ventilation helped recovery,” said Dr Yatin Mehta, chairman of anaesthesiology and critical care, Medanta-the Medicity, who has been treating Covid-19 patients since the first week of March.
Under the health ministry’s standardised clinical management protocol, mild and moderate cases are treated under supervised home isolation, while critical and severe patients are hospitalized in isolation wards and ICUS, depending on severity of disease.
“Non-invasive oxygen, better skilled doctors in the ICUS and hospitals, improved ambulance services and streamlining of treatment protocols have led to deaths rates falling. As more new drugs and treatments get approved, we aim to bring the case fatality rate to under 1%,” said a health ministry official, requesting anonymity.
The ramping up of health infrastructure across states has also helped in better management of Covid-19 cases, doctors on the frontline said.
“In the first two months of the pandemic, treatment was available only in a few tertiary care hospitals, but now standardised treatment is available in isolation at secondary hospitals that now have the required infrastructure, including isolation wards ICU beds, oxygen supply, ventilators, medicines, and ambulances, among other essentials needed in every hospital,” said Dr Mehta.
“States have been asked to address the issues of low lab utilization of less than 100 tests per day for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 10 for others; low tests per million population; decrease in absolute tests from last week; delay in test results; availability of ambulances; high infection among healthcare workers; and timely referral and hospitalization to prevent deaths,” said the ministry official.
“There is need to closely monitor asymptomatic cases under home isolation through physical visits/phone consultation as some states reported high death rates within 48 hours of hospital admission because people were beginning treatment when the disease has progressed and the patient is already critical,” said the ministry official.
The Centre is continuing to handhold states and districts that need support. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, holds virtual sessions on Tuesdays and Fridays, where a team of specialists provides guidance on effective clinical management of Covid-19 patients in ICUS through tele-consultation.
“Clinicians do the best they can and science can only do so much, and we have to make protective behavior a part of our everyday lives as mild and asymptomatic people can also spread infection...,” said Dr Mehta.