From Our Bureau
23RD JUNE 2020
India witnessed a big surge in COVID-19 positive cases, with 14,933 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 4,40,215. The death toll rose to 14,011, with 312 fatalities in the last 24 hours.
So far, a total of 2,48,190 patients have been cured of COVID-19. During the last 24 hours, 10,994 COVID-19 patients have been cured. The recovery rate is 56.38 percent amongst COVID-19 patients.
Presently, there are 1,78,014 active cases and all are under medical supervision. The difference between the recovered patients and the active COVID-19 cases continues to widen. Today the number of recovered patients has crossed the number of active patients by 70,176.
India has one of the lowest deaths per lakh population in the world
The WHO Situation Report 154 dated 22ndJune, 2020 shows that India has one of the lowest deaths per lakh population. India’s cases of death per lakh population is 1.00 while the global average is more than its six times, at 6.04. The UK has witnessed 63.13 cases of COVID-19 related deaths per lakh population, while the metric for Spain, Italy and US is 60.60, 57.19 and 36.30 respectively.
In India, early detection of cases, timely testing and surveillance, extensive contact tracing coupled with effective clinical management have helped to check the case mortality. This is also a testimony to the graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach the Government of India along with the States/Union Territories for the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19.
The testing capacity for detecting the novel Corona virus in infected persons in the country is continuously being ramped up. The country now has the capacity to test 3 lakh samples per day. The number of samples being tested per day is also steadily rising as is the number of total samples tested. The total number of samples tested thus far is 71,37,716 with 1,87,223 samples tested in the last 24 hours.
A network of 992 labs has been created in the country as on date. This includes 726 labs in the government sector and 266 in the private sector. The tally comprises Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 553 (Govt: 357 + Private: 196); TrueNat based testing labs : 361 (Govt: 341 + Private: 20) and CBNAAT based testing labs : 78 (Govt: 28 + Private: 49).
PM CARES Fund Trust has allocated Rs. 2,000 crore for supply of 50,000 ‘Made-in-India’ ventilators to government-run COVID hospitals in all States/UTs. Further, a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore has been allocated for the welfare of migrant labourers.
Out of the 50,000 ventilators, 30,000 ventilators are being manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited, a Central Public Sector Undertaking. The remaining 20,000 ventilators are being manufactured by AgVa Healthcare (10,000), AMTZ Basic (5,650), AMTZ High End (4,000) and Allied Medical (350).
So far, 2,923 ventilators have been manufactured, out of which 1,340 ventilators have already been delivered to the States/UTs. The prominent recipients include Maharashtra (275), Delhi (275), Gujarat (175), Bihar (100), Karnataka (90), Rajasthan (75). By the end of June 2020, additional 14,000 ventilators will be delivered to all States/UTs.
Further, a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore has already been released to States/UTs for welfare of the migrant labourers. The distribution of the fund is based on the formula of 50 percent weightage for the population as per 2011 Census, 40 percent weightage for number of positive COVID-19 cases and 10 percent for equal distribution among all the States/UTs.
This assistance is to be used for arranging accommodation, food, medical treatment and transportation of the migrants. The main recipients of the grant are Maharashtra (Rs 181 crore), Uttar Pradesh (103 crore), Tamil Nadu (83 crore), Gujarat (66 crore), Delhi (55 crore), West Bengal (53 crore), Bihar (51 crore), Madhya Pradesh (50 crore), Rajasthan (50 crore) and Karnataka (34 crore). (eom)
