From Our Bureau
26th AUGUST 2020
India witnessed a big surge with 67,151 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported on Wednesday, taking the country’s cumulative tally to 32,34,474. The death toll rose to 59,449, with 1,059 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours.
The single day recovery figure has been over 60,000 since many days. Recovery of 63,173 COVID-19 patients in the last 24 hours has resulted in the cumulative recoveries of 24,67,758 people. This has contributed to the rapidly widening chasm between the number of recovered and active cases further.
The number of recoveries in India today exceeds the active cases by 3.5 times. 17,60,489 people have recovered more than the active cases, numbering 7,07,267. With this, India’s Recovery Rate amongst the COVID-19 patients has crossed 76.30 percent today.
The record high recoveries have ensured that the actual caseload of the country, viz. the active cases, has further lowered. It currently comprises only 21.86 percent of the total positive cases.
The coordinated efforts of Central Government and State/ Union Territory governments of early detection through aggressive testing and efficient clinical management of hospitalized cases have shown results with continuously regressing Case Fatality Rate. It is 1.84 percent as on date, and steadily declining.
Early identification of the COVID-19 infections through timely and aggressive TESTING has played a pivotal role in India’s strategy to fight the pandemic. Following the Central Government-led policy of ‘TEST-TRACK-TREAT,” collaborative efforts of the State/UT governments have led to India consistently ramping up its testing infrastructure to touch a capacity of 10 lakh tests a day.
The 7-day average rolling numbers of tests/day indicate the determined, focussed, consistent and coordinated efforts of the Central Government and the State/UT governments in this direction. The cumulative testing as on date has reached 3,76,51,512. As many as 8,23,992 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.
Such high level of testing on a sustained basis leads to early diagnosis. Early diagnosis provides opportunities to isolate or hospitalise the positive cases adequately in advance. This in turn facilitates lower mortality rates.
Expanded diagnostic lab network and facilitation for easy testing across the country have given a substantial boost. Building on this achievement, the Tests Per Million (TPM) Population have seen a sharp increase to 27,284. It continues to maintain the constant upward trend.
The growing network of testing labs offer expanded opportunities to strengthen the testing facilities across the country. The total of 1,540 labs today, including 992 labs in the government sector and 548 private labs, include: Real-Time RT PCR based testing labs: 790 (Govt: 460 + Private: 330), TrueNat based testing labs: 632 (Govt: 498 + Private: 134) and CBNAAT based testing labs: 118 (Govt: 34 + Private: 84). (eom)
