COVID-19 recovery rate improves to 39.62 per cent: Health Ministry

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that with a recovery rate of 39.62 per cent, India is far better than many other countries. It further stated that if the total population of the world is taken into account then 62 people per lakh population have been affected due to COVID-19.

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday reiterated that India's COVID-19 recovery rate is far better than many other countries.

"It is satisfactory to note that 42,298 people have recovered with a recovery rate of 39.62 per cent," said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the Health Ministry.

"When the lockdown started in India, the recovery rate was around 7.1 per cent, the recovery rate during the second lockdown was 11.42 per cent then it went up to 26.59 per cent and today the recovery rate is 39.62 per cent, said Agrawal.

He further said that if the total population of the world is taken into account then 62 people per lakh population have been affected due to COVID-19.

"There are 7.9 COVID-19 cases per lakh population in India and the fatality rate is 0.2 per cent. India has 0.2 mortality par lakh population as against the Global figure of 4.2. While our deaths are a matter of concern, we find that 6 countries have reported more than 10,000 coronavirus deaths," he said.

Read:COVID-19 doubling time in India improved to 13.6 days in last 3 days: Vardhan

Considering 15 countries most impacted by COVID-19, with the almost same total population as India's, it is found that these countries have together reported 34-time cases and 83-time deaths as reported in India. "Comparing with 10 most affected countries we find that 6 countries have reported more than 2 lakh COVID-19 cases (while India has 1.06 lakh cases) with as high as 14 lakh cases in an individual country," said Agrawal.

India as on Wednesday has a total active case of 61,149. As many as 42,298 people have been recovered. As per health ministry records, 25,12,388 samples have been tested so far out of which 1,06,750 confirmed COVID-19 cases were registered. Death in India as on Wednesday is 3303.

"Our graded, pro-active and pre-emptive approach with a focus on prevention, containment and management of cases has yielded relatively positive results," Agrawal said.

Cases in Maharastra (37136), Tamil Nadu(12448), Gujarat (12140) and Delhi (10554) is still a matter of serious concern for the central government.

Read:COVID-19 doubling time in India improved to 13.6 days in last 3 days: Vardhan

All these four states have witnessed a spike of 2078, 688, 395 and 500 cases in the last 24 hours. In a related development, India's apex medical research institute (ICMR) said that it will do a review to ascertain whether Hydroxy-chloroquine (HCQ) will be dropped as prophylaxis.

"We are doing a review before taking any decision regarding the efficacy of HCQ," said Dr Ratan R Gangakhedkar, head, communicable disease, ICMR.

The development took place after researches indicate that HCQ which is widely used to treat lupus and other autoimmune diseases, has shown no real benefit for hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, Puniya Salila Srivastava, joint secretary in the Union Home Ministry said that MHA is coordinating between centre and states to fight COVID-19.

"After issuing the lockdown guidelines, states have been asked to ensure national lockdown guidelines," said Srivastava. Meanwhile, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan participated in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) health ministers meeting through video conferencing.

"The present pandemic crisis reminds us that the global institutions of governance need to become more democratic, transparent and representative to be credible and effective, and a reformed multilateralism is the need of the hour, " said Dr Vardhan.