India’s recovery rate nears 30% even as cases touch 57,000-mark

Union Health ministry says ‘learn to live with virus’

NEW DELHI: As many as 216 districts in the country have not reported any COVID-19 cases till now, 42 have not registered any infection in the last 28 days and 29 districts have not recorded any case in the last 21 days. Also, there are 36 districts with no fresh cases in the last 14 days and 46 districts with no new cases in the last seven days.

The Union Health ministry asserted that if dos and don’ts are followed, the peak in the number of COVID-19 cases can be avoided.

A total of 3,390 COVID19 cases and 103 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours taking the total tally of confirmed cases to 56,342 and death toll to 1,886.

The good news is that recovery has jumped to 29.35 per cent with 1,273 persons recovering in the last 24 hours, taking the total figure to 16,540 so far.

Meanwhile, the ICMR is all set to cross 15 lakh testing mark with 80,375 tests in a day, taking the total tally to 14,34,788 RT-PCT tests till now. The testing facilities have increased to 453 labs out of which 332 are in the government system and 121 private labs.

While addressing a press conference, Joint Secretary (Health) Lav Agarwal said: “The ICMR will conduct a clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in 21 hospitals. The hospitals where the trials will be conducted comprise five from Maharashtra, four from Gujarat, two each from Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, UP and one each from Karnataka, Chandigarh, Punjab, Telangana.”

Amid a continuing rise in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19, the Union Health Ministry on Friday said people should “learn to live with the virus” while the nationwide death toll neared 1,900.

The ministry also reeled off various datasets, including ways to suggest success of the government’s strategy in the COVID-19 fight, even as it sought “a behavioural change” and everyone’s support in this massive challenge.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, however, admitted there has been no success yet in breaking the virus chain and said his government may seek deployment of Central forces, if needed, to allow police personnel to take rest in phases. The state tops the nationwide tally for confirmed cases as well as deaths.