From Our Bureau
17TH JULY 2020
India witnessed a big surge with 34,956 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported on Friday, the highest for a single day, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 10,03,832. The death toll mounted to 25,602, with 687 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.
The “Test, Track and Treat” strategy of the Central Government being implemented by the States/Union Territories is proving to be an appropriate strategy to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recoveries increase to 6.35 lakh, Recovery Rate reaches 63.33 percent
India has seen a steady increase in the number of patients recovering from COVID. In the last 24 hours, 22,942 were cured and discharged. 6,35,757 patients have recovered, till date. This has resulted in pushing the recovery rate to 63.33 percent of total positive cases.
The actual case load of COVID-19 cases in the country is only 3,42,756, as on date.
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 per million population in India are 4 to 8 times less than some European countries.
The case fatality rate at 18.6 deaths per million of population in India is one of the lowest in the world.
The collaborative efforts of all States/UTs for house-to-house surveys, contact tracing, surveillance of containment and buffer zones, perimeter control activities, aggressive testing and timely diagnosis has resulted in early identification of the infected persons. This has helped in early treatment too.
India has followed a standard of care protocol for the differentiated categorisation of COVID-19 patients- mild, moderate and severe as clearly formulated in the Clinical Management Protocol of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW). The effective clinical management strategies have shown to yield positive results. Almost 80 percent of the asymptomatic and mild cases have been advised home isolation under medical supervision.
Less than 1 percent cases on Ventilators, 2 percent cases in ICUs & 3 percent cases on Oxygen Beds
The moderate and severe patients are being treated in either the Dedicated COVID Hospitals or Dedicated COVID Health Centres. 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 percent of the cases are in ICUs, 0.35 percent cases are on ventilators and 2.81 percent cases are on Oxygen beds.
Medical infrastructure to ensure quality treatment of the admitted patients is being continuously augmented across the country. As a result of concerted efforts, the COVID-19 Hospital Infrastructure to treat COVID-19 is stronger today. It has 1,383 Dedicated COVID Hospitals, 3,107 Dedicated COVID Healthcare Centres, and 10,382 COVID Care Centres. Together, they have a capacity of 46,673 ICU beds. 21,848 ventilators are deployed in the hospitals in all States/UTs.
There is no shortage of N95 masks and PPE kits. The Centre has supplied 235.58 lakh N95 masks and 124.26 lakh PPE kits to State/UTs/Central institutions.
While the strategy to deal with the spread of infection remains focused on early detection with wide-spread and easily accessible testing, the intensive contact tracing is aimed at restricting the spread. The Containment Strategy implemented across the Containment and Buffer Zones stresses on house-to-house survey and surveillance of SARI/ILI patients with focus on the elderly and people with co-morbid conditions. This has ensured that the COVID cases are identified in a timely manner and treated as per the severity of the symptoms either at home or in hospitals.
Ramping up of testing capacity has resulted in more than 3 lakh tests being conducted per day. 3,33,228 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours. The cumulative number of 1,30,72,718 samples tested has resulted in 9,473 testing per million population for the country.
Starting from one diagnostic lab in Jan 2020, the country has 1,244 labs today, with 880 labs in the government sector and 364 in the private sector. These facilities include Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 638 (Govt: 392 + Private: 246), TrueNat based testing labs: 504 (Govt: 452 + Private: 52) and CBNAAT based testing labs: 102 (Govt: 36 + Private: 66). (eom)
