New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) Daily recoveries from Covid-19 infection in the country has exceeded new infections, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday as India recorded the highest number of Covid-19 recoveries in the world.
He told reporters here that India has the highest number of recovered cases in the world at 44,97,867 and its share of cases stood at 17.7 per cent of global infections, while those who have been cured totalled 19.5 per cent of total recoveries in the world. The daily recoveries from Covid-19 was more than the number of new infections reported daily for the past four consecutive days, he pointed out.
"This is a matter of satisfaction and shows that the country's standard treatment protocol formulated on the basis
of inputs by scientists and treating doctors and discussions held with different stakeholders and the its
implementation by various State and UT Governments is yielding results. It is also the outcome of the responsibility, hard work and sacrifice of the health-care workers in the country," the Health Secretary said.
While one crore tests were done by 1,100 labs in the country on July 7, it increased to three crore tests by 1,600 labs on August 3 and six crore tests were done on September 17 by 1,776 government and private labs taken together.
The Health Secretary allayed apprehensions that there was less testing in some states and informed that more than 8 lakh tests were done every day between September 19 to 22. Mr Bhushan also said that India still figures among the countries having lowest cases and also deaths per million population. This apart, less than one-fifth of total cases are active in the country.
In the presentation given by the Health Secretary, Maharashtra had the maximum number of daily cases which has been around 21,000 in the week between September 16-22. The top seven states in terms of daily cases are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and West Bengal.
Addressing the briefing, Covid-19 task force member V K Paul (NITI Aayog member) urged people to wear masks and follow all the social distancing norms, especially as the festive season begins next month.
Mr Paul stated that 36-50 per cent of the Covid-19 cases can be reduced by wearing masks.
Mr Bhushan said the number of active Covid-19 cases were less than one-fifth of the total 55,62,663 infections in India.
"We get swayed by the narrative that India has over 50 lakh cases, but we forget that nearly 45 lakh people have
already recovered," he added.
Pointing out that India's Covid-19 deaths per million population is also among the lowest in the world, he said India has 64 deaths per million population, whereas the world's average stood at 123.
Early detection, isolation and seamless hospitalisation of Covid-19 patients has been made possible due to an exponential increase in testing infrastructure in the country, he said.
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