New Delhi/Mumbai, June 2, 2020

Recovery rate of the nation is continuously improving. A total of 95,527 patients have been cured of COVID-19 in the country till date, with 3,708 patients reported to have recovered in the last 24 hours. As on date, the recovery rate has now gone up to 48.07%, from 11.42% on April 15. The COVID-19 fatality rate is also continuously declining and now it stands at 2.82%. This has been stated by Shri Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in a press briefing on the actions taken, preparedness and updates of COVID-19, held at National Media Centre in New Delhi today. The presentation given by the Joint Secretary can be accessed here.

Shri Agarwal also said, our COVID-19 fatality rate of 2.82% is amongst the lowest in the world, compared to a global fatality rate of 6.13%. Our case fatality rate per lakh population (of 0.41) is also amongst the lowest in the world, while there are countries with a figure as high as 62 and 82. This has been possible because due to timely identification of cases and proper clinical management, further stated the Joint Secretary. He further explained that it is a wrong comparison to look at total number of COVID-19 cases only and mention that India has 7th highest cases as it is being done, without considering the country’s population. Shri Agarwal informed that, 14 countries with a total population which is similar to that of India, have reported 22.5 times more cases  and 55.2 times deaths.

“Our analysis shows that people at high risk from COVID-19 are elderly people and those with co-morbidities”, stated the Joint Secretary. He informed, 73% of these deaths in the nation have been of people with co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, heart and respiratory diseases. He further informed, one in every two COVID-19 deaths in India has been from the senior citizen population, who constitute 10% of our total population.

Stating these facts and figures, Shri Agarwal cautioned, high-risk people should take required preventive action and also take timely action based on medical advice in case they experience COVID-19 symptoms. “We request our high-risk population to Stay At Home, they may adopt various activities to utilize their time productively at home and stay fit”, he added. He also urged every citizen to support high risk group population and to help control the spread of COVID-19 infection. Appealing citizens to not do anything which places us or our family at risk, he further said, we need to be aware, we should not panic upon development of COVID-19 symptoms, we need to take prompt medical advice and follow the advice given by doctors.

The Joint Secretary urged that, as India fights Corona, it is necessary to keep up the momentum in the fight against COVID-19. He called upon everyone to take a pledge and declare it on social media as well, using #IndiaWillWin hashtag to create awareness.

Addressing a media query, the Joint Secretary stated, Remdesivir has been approved for emergency in COVID-19 cases. 

In response to a media query on containment strategy, Shri Agarwal informed, our primary focus remains on COVID-19 containment zones and identifying cases through active search. He also said, size of zones may need to increase and active search may need to be strengthened depending on number of cases in a particular area. 

The ICMR representative stated that ICMR is conducting a serological survey to assess the extent of spread of COVID19. The results of the study will be published in a week, she said.

The representative of ICMR stated: “During the last few months, ICMR has been focusing on ramping up the COVID-19 testing capacity. Presently there are testing facilities exist in every state & UT. There are 681 labs out of which 476 are in government sector and 205 in private sector. Around 1.2 lakh samples are being tested every day. We have been using indigenous platforms too for ramping up COVID-19 testing capacity. Truenat screening and confirmatory tests have now been validated. Outreach of testing has hence been increased since this is available in primary health centres and districts as well. Further, Indian RNA extraction kits are now available in good number and RT-PCR kits by 11 - 12 indigenous vendors are now being used. The country is now in a comfortable position with regards to testing, due to identification and hand-holding of domestic players.”

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DJM/SC

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