From Our Bureau
20TH JULY 2020
India witnessed a big surge with 40,425 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported on Monday, the highest for a single day, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 11,18,043. The death toll mounted to 27,497, with 681 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.
At 2.46 percent, India has one of the lowest Case Fatality rates in the World
The Case Fatality Rate in the country continues to register a steady downfall. It has dropped to 2.46 percent today. India has one of the lowest Case Fatality Rates in the world.
Effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well-executed Standard of Care protocol has ensured high rate of recovery among the COVID patients.
More than 7 lakh persons have been cured of COVID-19 and discharged till now. This has further expanded the difference between those who are active COVID patients and the recovered persons (7,00,087) by 3,09,628. As many as 22,664 COVID patients have recovered from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate as of now is 62.62 percent.
Medical attention is being provided to all the 3,90,459 active cases, in hospitals and home isolation.
The Central Government is handholding and supporting the State/Union Territory governments in collectively combating COVID-19. One such initiative is e-ICU program of AIIMS, New Delhi. Aimed at reducing mortality, AIIMS has mentored and supported 43 big hospitals in 11 States through shared experiences and technical advice from domain experts in clinical management of ICU patients. This has substantially boosted their capacity in treatment of critical care patients.
Meanwhile, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, launched Punjab National Bank’s (PNB) nation-wide campaign to distribute face masks and sanitizers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in all the 662 districts in the country.
Recalling the collective fight against COVID under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he pointed out that “right after China informed about the virus to the world community, the first meeting of the Committee of Experts was held within 24 hours in the Health Ministry in India. The country has substantially progressed from just one lab equipped to test for the novel virus in National Institute of Virology, Pune in January 2020 to about 1,268 labs, as of now. Earlier years, all samples of respiratory viruses had to be sent to USA for testing.”
He also added that the country would have the capacity to test one million people within the next 10 to 12 weeks.
Elaborating on the increased domestic capacity to manufacture masks, PPEs etc, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said: “We imported PPEs, N95 masks and ventilators earlier. However, with the initiatives taken by the Government, our entrepreneurs have been successful in turning the situation around and matching the internal demand of these items.”
He also expressed his confidence that the country would tide over the crisis. “We have effectively handled many diseases in the country. We have eradicated Poliomyelitis and Smallpox, addressed the challenge of AIDS, Nipah virus, Swine Flu and Zika. We have been able to prevent Ebola from entering the country. I am confident that with the collective efforts of all, we shall be able to meet this challenge too.”
He added that India has one of the lowest Case Fatality Rate in the world today due to the effective clinical management protocols of the government. (eom)
