COVID-19 deaths per million in India among lowest in world: Health Ministry

According to the union health ministry, COVID-19 deaths per million population in India is amongst the lowest in the world. Around 30 states and several union territories have a positivity rate lower than India average.

New Delhi: The number of COVID-19 deaths per million population in India continues to be among the lowest in the world, Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"COVID-19 cases per million population in India is 837 which is the lowest in the world. Some countries are reporting 12-13 times cases per million population as compared to India. If we see death rate according to per million population, it is 20.4 which is among the lowest in the world. Some countries are recording 21-33 times of deaths per million," Bhushan said at a press conference here.

He said that 30 states and union territories have a positivity rate lower than India average.

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"The positivity rate in 30 states and union territories of India is lower than the national positivity rate. The positivity rate in the country is 8.07 per cent," Bhushan said.

Bhushan said that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), adequate testing requires conducting 140 tests per million population per day and maintaining it for a long period of time.

"Aggressive testing is necessary to bring down COVID-19 positivity rate. The aim is to maintain this level of testing so as to bring down the positivity rate below 5 per cent. We are performing 180 tests per day per million population," he said.

After an alarming rise over 40,000 cases in a day, India on Tuesday heaved a sigh of relief as the spike in fresh cases showed a dip of around 3,000 with Health Ministry data showing 37,148 new cases being reported in past 24 hours.

India's COVID tally reached 11,55,191 on Tuesday and with 587 fresh deaths, the toll touched 27,497.

As many as 7,24,577 have been cured, which is almost twice the number of active patients at 4,02,529 as the recovery rate stood at 62.7 per cent.

On Monday, the country had crossed the 11-lakh mark, adding over one lakh cases within three days. The highest spike in cases were reported from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

(With inputs from ANI)