Eighteen States/Union Territories are currently clocking a recovery rate more than the national average of 62.42 %, the Health Ministry said on Friday. Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Tripura, Rajasthan, Delhi and Ladakh, among others have a recovery rate of over 70 %.
“States/UTs have also taken many steps to keep the fatality rate low with mapping of the communities to focus on the high risk group like the elderly/aged and population with co-morbidities, and providing special care to them,’’ said the Health Ministry.
There was a focus on improving the quality of the medical care for COVID patients. A strong network of ASHAs and ANMs, along with Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres, have helped in effective surveillance and contact tracing of the cases, including lakhs of migrants and returnees, the Ministry said.
Presently, India has 1,218 Dedicated COVID-19 Hospitals, 2,705 Dedicated COVID Healthcare Centres and 10,301 COVID Care Centres.
“The Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs) across India recorded 8.8 crore footfall in the five months since 1st February despite restrictions on movement of people during the intervening lockdown periods this year,’’ noted the Ministry.
Apart from this, in the last five months, 1.41 crore individuals were screened at the HWCs for hypertension, 1.13 crore for diabetes and 1.34 crore for oral, breast or cervical cancer. Medicines were dispensed at the HWCs to about 5.62 lakh patients of hypertension and 3.77 lakh diabetes patients in June alone despite the challenges posed by COVID-19. As many as 6.53 lakh yoga and wellness sessions have also been organised at the HWCs in the period since the COVID-19 outbreak. Between January to June, additional 12,425 HWCs were operationalised, increasing their number from 29,365 to 41,790.
Resilience of health systems
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilience of health systems was reflected through continued operationalisation of HWCs and continued delivery of non-COVID-19 essential health services while also meeting the urgent tasks of prevention and management of COVID-19,’’ said Ministry in a release.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that the country currently had 1,169 labs, with 835 in the government sector and 334 in the private. “Focus on ensuring the nationwide implementation of Test/Track/Treat strategy has led to 1,10,24,491 samples tested for COVID-19 identification.
The tests/day also continue to depict an upward trend- during the last 24 hours 2,83,659 samples have been tested,’’ it added.