Women line up to receive Rs 500 in their Jan Dhan accounts Assam’s Baksa district on Thursday. (Express photo by Dasarath Deka)
REITERATING the country’s good record in both case fatality rates and recovery rates of Covid-19, the government on Thursday said the number of novel coronavirus cases had gone up by 3,561 in the last 24 hours, with 111 more dying. This takes the total number of cases to 52,952 and deaths to 1,783. So far, 15,266 people have recovered.
Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said: “India is in a better condition than many other countries as the fatality rate is 3.3% and recovery rate is 28.83%. There are 4.8% patients in ICU, 1.1% on ventilators and 3.3% on oxygen support, among the active cases. The testing capacity has increased and it is 95,000 tests per day, with 327 government laboratories and 118 private laboratories. Cumulatively, 13,57,442 tests have been done so far.”
He added that there are currently 180 districts with no new cases in the past week, 180 districts with no new cases in seven-13 days, 164 districts which have not had any new case in 14-20 days, and 136 districts with no new cases since the last 21-28 days. He also reviewed the situation in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
Besides, 13 states/Union territories, including Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Odisha, have not reported any case in the past 24 hrs. Daman & Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported a single case till date.
“States need to focus on more effective surveillance, contact tracing and early diagnosis to keep the fatality rate low. Surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections /Influenza Like Illnesses should be intensified in unaffected districts and districts which have not reported cases for the last 14 days and more, through the IDSP network in collaboration with medical college hospitals. Such measures will help indicate the presence of any possible hidden infection at an early stage,” Vardhan said.