India’s Covid-19 tally crossed the 29-lakh mark on Friday, up by nine lakh cases in just two weeks. Friday saw a single-day spike of 68,898 infections, while the recoveries increased to 21,58,946 taking its rate to over 74 per cent.
The Union Health Ministry said in a statement that in a single day 62,282 patients recovered and went home in the past 24 hours.
“With more patients recovering and being discharged from the hospitals and home isolation (in case of mild and moderate cases), the total recoveries have crossed the 21.5 lakh-mark till Friday (21,58,946).
“The gap between recovered patients and active Covid-19 cases has increased and reached 1,466,918 so far. As a higher number of patient recover, their percentage rate continues to steeply rise along with the steady decline in percentage active coronavirus cases,” said the Ministry in a statement.
With such high level of recoveries, India’s Recovery Rate has soared past 74 per cent (74.28 per cent as on August 21) ensuring more and more patients are recovering. This is bolstered by 33 states and Union Territories reporting recovery rate more than 50 per cent, it said.
The current active cases (692,028) compose the actual caseload of the country. “It is 23.82 per cent of the total positive cases today, registering a further drop in the last 24 hours. They are under active medical supervision,” said the health ministry adding that India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is at 1.89 per cent much below the global average.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),” the ministry said, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation. According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 3,34,67,237 samples have been tested up to August 20 with 8,05,985 samples being tested on Thursday.