200,000 recuperate, rate of recovery stands at 54%
NEWDELHI:The number of patients who recovered from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in India crossed 200,000 on Thursday but the country’s recovery rate still trailed the global average.
Of the 381,010 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in India, 205,092 recovered as of Thursday, according to data collated by HT.
The global recovery rate stood at around 55% while that in India was around 53.8%.
Maharashtra, which has roughly a third of all infections in India, logged the highest number of absolute recoveries at 60,838. It was followed by Tamil Nadu at 28,641 and Delhi at 21,341.
In terms of recovery rate — which is the ratio of the number of patients recovered to the number of patients infected — among major states, Rajasthan topped the list with 77.5%, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 75.5%.
“India’s recovery rate has been steadily going up, which is a good news. More than 50% of those having tested positive have recovered and taken out of active medical supervision,” said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, last week.
A section of experts said the increasing number of recoveries was a good sign.
“When the number of those infected in a day is the same as number of people recovering then it usually highlights the fact that the disease outbreak is going to stabilize and start declining in some time, unless some other variables come in such as floating population, new births etc. that change the entire dynamics,” said Dr Jugal Kishore, professor and head, community medicine department, Safdarjung Hospital.
But other experts said it was important to find out how many of the severely ill patients had recovered.
“Earlier all positive patients, even those with mild symptoms, were being treated in a hospital, so 50% recovery right now wouldn’t mean much. Now that hospital admissions are being restricted and largely serious patients are being kept in a hospital it remains to be seen what is the recovery rate based on that the real picture will emerge,” said Dr Charu Hans, former head, microbiology department, New Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital.
THE GLOBAL RECOVERY
RATE STOOD AT AROUND 55%, WHILE INDIA’S WAS AROUND 53.8%. IN INDIA, 205,092 HAVE RECOVERED SO FAR