New Delhi: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that India's COVID-19 mortality rate is the lowest in the world.
"Today the mortality rate is around 3.2 percent, in several states it is even less than this. The global fatality rate is around 7-7.5 percent," said Dr Vardhan while interacting with Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand Jai Ram Thakur and Trivendra Singh Rawat and Lt Governors of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh Girish Chandra Murmu and RK Marhur through video conferencing.
As on Tuesday, India has 70,756 COVID-19 positive cases from across the country in which 22455 persons have been cured and 2293 deaths had occurred.
In the ash 24 hours, 3604 positive cases were reported.
Dr Vardhan said that the COVID-19 doubling time in the past 14 days was 10.9, it has improved to 12.2 in last three days.
"As we are seeing continuously, our recovery rate is also getting better every day. Today our recovery rate is at 31.74 percent," said Dr Vardhan.
He said that till yesterday, 0.41 percent of COVID-19 patient were on ventilator.
He informed that 347 government labs and 137 private labs are available for testing in India today.
"As on today our testing capacity is 1,00,000 tests per day. And 17,62,840 tests have been done so far," said Dr Vardhan.
He said that over 3 lakh PPE kits get delivered every day in different states across the country.
Dr Harsh Vardhan said that in view of the surge of returning migrant labourers, States and UTs need to focus on more effective surveillance, contact tracing, adequate testing and timely treatment of all the returnees.
The Health Minister also stressed upon ramping up the surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) in the affected and non-affected districts.
During the interaction, Dr Vardhan also hailed the states and UTs for an adopted good strategy to contain COVID-19.
During the day Dr Harsh Vardhan also appreciated the work and selfless dedications of the nursing professionals and called them as the pivotal pillars of healthcare delivery.
Dr Vardhan was addressing to the nurses across India through video conferencing commemorating International Nurses Day.
"Without nurses and other health care workers, we will not win the battle against epidemic outbreaks," said Dr Vardhan.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO's) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that India need a tailored strategy for urban areas, especially slums and overcrowded places to fight against COVID-19.
"Participatory and community-driven solution is needed. That's how India controlled HIV/AIDS. In fact, state AIDS control machinery could be utilised in this purpose," said Swaminathan in New Delhi.
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