Record spike in cases, 34,956 in 24 hrs
■ 687 new Covid deaths recorded ■ ‘Cases expected to cross 2m-3m in Aug.’
India for the sixth consecutive day registered a record spike in daily cases with 34,956 fresh infections and 687 deaths in one day. The total cases in India till Friday morning were 10,003,832 and the deaths reached 25, 602.
Union health ministry said the actual case load of COVID-19 cases in the country is only 3,42,756 as on date and more than 6.35 lakh (63.33%) of the total cases have recovered. A total of 22,942 people recovered in the past 24 hours which was the highest number of recoveries in one day.
Officials of the ministry said that due to effective disease management strategy the demand for hospital beds has reduced and now very few need ventilator or oxygen support compared to May and June.
“India, being the second most populous country in the world with 1.35 billion people, has 727.4 cases per million. On the global scale, cases/million population in India are 4 to 8 times less than some European countries and
Officials underlined the case fatality rate at 18.6 deaths/million of the country is one of the lowest in the world.
“Timely detection of the infected persons has helped in early treatment too. The effective clinical management strategies have shown to yield positive results. Almost 80% of the asymptomatic and mild cases have been advised home isolation under medical supervision. The strategy of home isolation for the mild and asymptomatic patients has ensured to keep the hospitals unburdened, where the focus has been on treatment of the severe cases and reduction of fatality. It is also notable that less than 1.94% of the cases are in ICUs, 0.35% cases are on ventilators and 2.81% cases are on Oxygen beds,” said the officials.
According to health economist Rijo M. John, total Covid-19 cases in India is projected to cross 2 million around August 10-11 and 3 million by 2829. He said about 3.2 million cases are expected by August 31. He said the projection is conservative and based on trends in growth.