States must not get overawed by rise in daily COVID cases: Health Min

The Health Ministry on Tuesday (August 11) said states should not get overawed by a “mere increase” in daily positive cases of COVID-19 and should keep pursuing the policy of aggressive testing, comprehensive tracing and tracking and efficient treatment of cases.

Addressing a press briefing, Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the active cases of COVID-19, which comprised 88.83 per cent of the total caseload on March 31, have reduced to 28.21 per cent as on date.

“Of the total active cases of COVID-19, less than 1 per cent of patients are on ventilator, less than 3 per cent of the people are on oxygen support and less than 4 per cent of the people are in ICU,” he said.

“We should not lose sight of the bigger picture that is why we say that mere increase in daily positive cases must not overawe the states. They must keep on pursuing the policy of aggressive testing, comprehensive tracing and tracking and efficient treatment,” he added.

He said the COVID-19 case fatality rate fell below 2 per cent and presently stands at 1.99 per cent, the lowest since the first lockdown, and is declining. The national recovery rate has risen to 69.80 per cent due to effective and prompt clinical management of COVID-19 cases.

“A total of 2.5 crore tests have been conducted and the number of recovered patients has crossed the 15 lakh mark,” he said. Giving figures on tests being conducted, Bhushan said India’s tests per day per million population stands at 506.

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