New Delhi: The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said as many as 682 patients were cured of the highly contagious novel coronavirus disease in the last 24 hours. This has taken the recovery rate in the country up to 26.59 per cent.
Till date, 10,632 people have been cured of this infectious disease.
"The total number of confirmed cases is now 39,980. In the last 24 hours as many as 2644 positive cases have been reported from across India," Health Ministry said.
During the day, Indian health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan visited Lady Hardinge Medical College to review the status of Covid-19 management.
ALSO READ: Modi hails mega exercise of saluting corona warriors
Dr Vardhan asked the people of India to observe the extended period of lockdown 3.0 17 in letter and spirit and treat it as an effective intervention to cut down the chain of transmission of Covid-19.
"In the last few days I have been visiting various hospitals in AIIMS, LNJP, RML, Safdarjung, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality and now LHMC to review the preparedness of Covid-19 and I am satisfied with the arrangements made by these hospitals to deal effectively with the outbreak," said Dr Vardhan.
Dr Vardhan said that the rate of growth of new cases has also been steadying for a while.
"As per the data received today, for the past 3 days the doubling rate is 12.0, for 7 days 11.7 and for 14 days it is 10.4...we need to adhere to strict physical distancing and basic hand hygiene etiquettes to take lockdown 3.0 to a logical end," said Dr Vardhan.
He said that there are 130 hotspots districts, 284 non-hotspot districts, and 319 infected districts. "We are aware of the numbers of our foe and we know its location and it will be systematically dealt with iron hands, " added Dr Vardhan.
He stated that India has crossed over 10 lakh tests to date and performing over 74,000 tests in a day presently.
"Government has distributed around 20 lakh PPE kits all over India and supplied medicines (both hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to more than 100 countries world over. India is on a better footing as compared to other countries of the world and is capable to pull off any eventuality with more than 2.5 lakh beds in dedicated Covid hospitals and dedicated Covid healthcare centres," said the Health Minister.
He said that slowly and gradually India's economic activities would be opened up one by one.
"There is detailed planning according to which various industries like drugs, pharmaceuticals, etc are being assisted to return back to normalcy," said Dr Harsh Vardhan.
Dr Vardhan also appealed to people to support the doctors treating Covid 19 patients.
"Today the Indian Air Force is acknowledging these warriors throughout the country by sprinkling them with flower petals through helicopters. The fight of India with Covid-19 is lauded not only by WHO but by the whole world in unison," said Dr Vardhan.
ALSO READ: 92 new COVID-19 cases detected in UP; total count 2,579
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also launched the multimedia guide titled Covid Katha while observing the 49th foundation day of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). He also interacted with directors of all autonomous institutions under DST through video conferencing.
