COVID-19: India reports highest recoveries in a day, tally crosses 64,000

As many as 1,511 COVID-19 patients in India recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, the highest so far in a single day, according to the Union health ministry data that was last updated on Sunday (May 10) morning.

The COVID-19 death toll in India rose to 2,109 on Sunday and the number of cases climbed to 62,939, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered, the ministry said.

According to a PTI tally based on data from inputs from states, the number of cases jumped to 64,244, while 19,342 patients had recovered and the death toll rose to 2,043.

The health ministry data showed the highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra at 20,228, followed by Gujarat at 7,796, Delhi at 6,542, Tamil Nadu at 6,535, Rajasthan at 3,708, Madhya Pradesh at 3,614 and Uttar Pradesh at 3,373.

Good news first…

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said no COVID-19 case has been reported in 10 states and union territories in the last 24 hours and the recovery rate has increased to over 30 per cent, asserting India was “moving fast on the path of success” in the fight against the pandemic.

In some good news in efforts to ramp up testing, he said the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous test kit that will play a critical role in surveillance of the proportion of population exposed to coronavirus infection.

The test kit has the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours, so that healthcare professionals can proceed quickly with necessary next steps on their patients’ triage paths, Vardhan said. He said India has carried out 86,000 tests on Saturday and its testing capacity now stands at 95,000 samples per day.

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India had started from one laboratory and now there are 472 laboratories testing for COVID-19, he said after inspecting a COVID-19 care centre in the Mandoli area in the national capital. There are 4,362 COVID-19 care centres across India where 3,46,856 patients with mild or very mild symptoms can be kept, he said.

“We are moving fast on path of success in the fight against COVID-19. The doubling rate for the last three days is 12 (days). The recovery rate has crossed 30 per cent. Out of around 60,000 COVID-19 patients, about 20,000 have recovered and gone home,” the Union health minister said.

“Our mortality rate is still at 3.3 per cent… In the last 24 hours, there has been no case in 10 states and Union territories. There are four states or Union territories where there has not been a single case till now,” Vardhan noted. India has a total of 36 states and union territories.

Increasing cases

As many as 334 coronavirus ‘super-spreaders’ have been found in Ahmedabad so far, and it is the main reason for the order to keep grocery and vegetable shops closed till May 15, an official said. ‘Super-spreaders’ are the infectious disease carriers who could transmit the pathogen to a large number of people.

The official said they believe there are around 14,000 high-risk potential super-spreaders in the city, and they have decided to screen all of them in the next three days. A similar exercise has also been undertaken in the suburbs and rural areas of Ahmedabad district, he said.

Karnataka witnessed the biggest spike in COVID-19 cases in a single day with 53 people testing positive on Sunday, taking the tally to 847 and reporting one more death, increasing the number of fatalities to 31. This was the biggest spike in a single day in the state, said a senior government officer in Bengaluru.

Infrastructure available

A total of 7,740 dedicated COVID-19 facilities in 483 districts have been identified, the health ministry said in a statement, noting that adequate health infrastructure is in place to fight the pandemic.

The public health facilities dedicated to COVID-19 management are categorised into three categories — Dedicated COVID Hospital (DCH), Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) and Dedicated COVID Care Centre (DCCC). There are 6,56,769 isolation beds, 3,05,567 beds for confirmed cases, 3,51,204 for suspected cases, 99,492 oxygen-supported beds, 1,696 facilities with oxygen manifold and 34,076 ICU beds, the ministry said.

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In view of the need for further increasing the testing capacity for COVID-19 at National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the procurement of a high-throughput machine as per the recommendations of an Empowered Group was approved.

The Cobas 6800 testing machine has been successfully installed at NCDC in Delhi, the statement said. Presently the testing capacity at NCDC is about 300-350 tests per day and with Cobas 6800, which has a capacity to test around 1,200 samples in 24 hours, the capacity at NCDC will be significantly enhanced.

PM’s video conference with CMs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a video conference with the chief ministers at 3 PM on Monday, which will be his fifth interaction with the CMs since the coronavirus outbreak in the country. The meeting is expected to be focussed on reviving the economy and scaling up all efforts to bring more ‘red’ zones with high COVID-19 case load into ‘orange’ or ‘green’ zones.

The chief ministers of the states and union territories are expected to push for stepping up economic activities in a calibrated manner, as the Centre weighed the pros and cons of further easing of restrictions for a graded exit from the twice extended 54-day coronavirus lockdown due to end on May 17. Sources said the restrictions still in place are unlikely to be withdrawn in one go.

(With inputs from agencies)