Covid case doubling rate has risen to 73 days: Health min

The doubling time of the coronavirus infection has sharply improved from 25.5 days in mid-August to nearly 73 days now, the Health ministry said on Thursday. Doubling time is the number of days it takes for the count of cases to double.

In a statement, the Health ministry said 81,514 new recoveries were added in the last 24 hour. With this, the total number of recoveries are 6,383,441. “India has come a long way from registering a doubling rate of 25.5 days in mid August to now registering a doubling rate of nearly 73 days (72.8 days),” it said. The ministry said this is the result of collaborative action by states/UTs under the Centre’s strategy of comprehensive and high countrywide testing, prompt and effective surveillance and tracking, quick hospitalization and effective adherence of the standard treatment protocol of the Union government. This is also the combined outcome of the service of doctors, paramedics, frontline workers and Covid-19 warriors, it said.

“Higher number of single-day recoveries is also reflected in the continuous increase in the national recovery rate, which has crossed 87 per cent,” it said.

Ten states and UTs account for 79 per cent of the new recovered cases. Maharashtra has contributed more than 19,000 to the single-day recoveries followed by Karnataka with more than 8,000 recoveries, the ministry said. The total Covid-19 cases mounted to 7,307,097 and the death toll climbed to 111,266 with the coronavirus disease claiming 680 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.